Star Trek: Voyager, Season 7, Episode 20, "Author, Author"
Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Roddenberry Entertainment
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 85 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Author, Author, The Doctor takes his first stab at fiction, but his holonovel hits a little too close to home. Captain Jenkins is a sadist, Tulak relishes punishment, and Lt. Marseilles just wants to get in your pants. The crew is shocked. The Doctor calls it "art," and a Federation publisher calls it "contractually locked." As Voyager debates creative expression vs. defamation, a deeper issue emerges: does the author have rights? "Photons Be Free"—but only if Starfleet says so, in Author, Author on this week's Mission Log.
Hosted by John Champion and Norman Lao
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Technical Director - Earl Green
Producer - John Champion
Associate Producer - Jessica Lynn Verdi
Executive Producer - Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a Roddenberry podcast. |
| 0:11.4 | Mission Log, a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast, episode 594, author, author. Welcome into another episode of mission log, a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast. I'm John |
| 0:36.3 | Champion. And I'm Norman Lau. Each week on |
| 0:39.1 | Mission Log, we take a look at an episode of Star Trek from the ground up, photon by photon, |
| 0:44.4 | searching for the morals, meanings, and messages contained therein, and seeing if the whole thing |
| 0:49.1 | stands the test of a final edit. This week, author, author, the one where... |
| 0:55.0 | I got rights. |
| 0:57.4 | You got nothing. |
| 0:59.0 | You mind your place, mister. |
| 1:00.7 | Or you'll be wearing concrete galoshes. |
| 1:05.3 | You mean cement overshoes? |
| 1:09.0 | Aye. |
| 1:10.7 | And seen. See, see, that's how we author that. Over shoes? Aye. |
| 1:12.2 | And seen. |
| 1:16.5 | See, see, that's how we authored that from a piece of the action. |
| 1:20.7 | And before we get any emails about how that choke landed or didn't land, |
| 1:24.1 | here's Norman to tell you how to reach all of us. |
| 1:26.8 | Don't blame, John. I did that. Don't blame him. Jimson. him. Gmills to me because we'd love to hear from you. Mission Log is a conversation |
| 1:31.2 | about Star Trek. Find us on Facebook at MissionLog Pod and on Instagram and threads at Roddenberry |
| 1:37.6 | podcasts. The conversation always continues in the MissionLog Discord with near daily live events |
| 1:42.8 | and 24-7 chat about the topics you love. |
| 1:45.8 | Get your invitation to our private server by joining patreon.com slash mission log. |
... |
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