Interview with James Swallow

From Star Trek Game Information

This Interview with James Swallow took place on the 11th February 2006.

STGU: Can you tell us about yourself and your work.

James Swallow: I’m a scriptwriter, author and journalist from London, England. To date I’ve written fourteen books, mostly novels; these include my original Sundowners series of ‘steampunk’ Westerns, the Blood Angels duology (Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius), the 2000AD novels Eclipse, Whiteout and Blood Relative, along with the best-selling novelization of The Butterfly Effect. Coming up in the next year, I have Jade Dragon, Faith and Fire and Halcyon, a novel based on the Stargate Atlantis TV series.

I’ve also written short fiction for several magazines and anthologies, including the recent collection Star Trek Voyager – Distant Shores. My non-fiction includes Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher and work on Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames.

My script credits include writing for the television series Star Trek Voyager, radio drama for Doctor Who, Judge Dredd and Space 1889, and several high-profile videogame projects.

STGU: How did you first get involved with Star Trek?

James Swallow: I started writing for a few officially licensed Star Trek magazines in the UK and the USA a little over ten years ago. I’ve been a Star Trek fan since I was kid, and so it was great to get paid to write about something I liked!

In a lot of ways, that was the springboard that launched me on to a career as a full-time scriptwriter and novelist. Thanks to the exposure I got writing for magazines, I got the opportunity to pitch stories for Star Trek Voyager, and it was my work as a writer on The Official Star Trek Fact Files that got me recruited on to the videogame.

STGU: Star Trek or Star Wars?

James Swallow: If you’re asking me which I like best, that’s a question I can’t answer! I grew up with Star Trek on my TV and Star Wars in my cinema, and both of them were a big influence on me as a young science fiction fanboy. I have a fondness for both universes, and I’ve written about both of them extensively.

STGU: Do you have any interesting Star Trek stories or encouters?

James Swallow: Plenty! I guess my favourite story is about the time I got left alone on the Voyager Bridge set. Just me, no one else. So of course, I behaved in a totally responsible and professional manner. I did *not* sit in the chairs and pretend to be the captain or the helmsman. I didn’t do *any* of that. Heck, no.

As for “encounters”, along the way I’ve met quite a few of the Star Trek cast and crew, and they’ve all been very interesting people.

STGU: Did you get to meet the writers on Voyager?

James Swallow: I was lucky enough to work with a lot of the Voyager writer team, first as a journalist and later when I came in to pitch for the show. Guys like Joe Menofsky, Bryan Fuller, Andre Bormanis, Ron Moore and Brannon Braga were full of good advice and I learned a lot from them over the years.

STGU: Were you pleased with "One" and "Memorial"?

James Swallow: Very much so. “One” was the first TV sale I ever had, right at the start of my scriptwriting career, and it was like winning the lottery. The thrill of seeing it come together was incredible. I remember a few months later I was on the set of Voyager, and I had a moment when I found myself standing in the Engine Room. I looked around and the reality of it suddenly hit me… “Bloody hell, I really *did* this!”

“Memorial” was just as important to me as “One”, maybe even more so. After I sold the first story, I was concerned that I’d just be (if you pardon the pun) a ‘one-hit wonder’, someone who was just lucky enough to get a single story sale. If anything, I was more determined to sell a second story to prove that I wasn’t just a tourist, but a dedicated writer looking to make a career for himself. When “Memorial” made the cut, I felt like I had ‘graduated’.

I was a little unhappy that I didn’t get final credit for my work on the show, but I was paid well for the rights to the stories I created, and the writers who took my plotlines to the screen did a good job. They made me look great, and I still wear with pride the fact that I’m only British writer ever to have worked on a Star Trek television show.

STGU: You wrote the story for the PlayStation game Star Trek: Invasion. What do you think about the final version?

James Swallow: The reviews were very complimentary about the work I did on the script and back story, they pointed out that that I’d got the “feel” of the Trek universe right and I was pleased that came across. I’ve always felt that the most important thing to have when you play a game based on a franchise, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, or whatever, is that it *feels* right. You play a Star Trek game and you want to feel like you are part of the Star Trek universe while you’re playing it, you want to be in that world, interacting with it and the characters that populate it. I was happy to be involved with the Invasion project, but I think the final game gave a lot of people a hard time because the difficulty curve was quite high. I tried and I couldn’t finish it!

STGU: Star Trek games use the cannon universe and then work the story around that. What story points does Invasion use from the series?

James Swallow: There’s a lot! Originally, in the design stages, there hadn’t been much attention paid in the outline for the game to the continuity with the Trek universe, so I made sure that Invasion fitted into the mythos as closely as I could without changing the core themes the designers wanted. It was important to me to make the game have a Star Trek texture but still be open to casual players – if you’re a fan you’ll get the references, but you don’t need to be a hardcore Trekker to follow the storyline.

Elements of the Invasion plotline tie directly into episodes like “The Sword of Kahless”, “The Best of Both Worlds” and “Tin Man”, and there are also several small throwaway references to things from the Star Trek movies and other episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. There’s a complete set of annotations on my website (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/redwingproject/invgags.htm) along with a few other articles about the game.

Chronologically, Star Trek Invasion is set some time after the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Insurrection, but before the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

STGU: You have worked as scriptwrtier on other games. Would you like to work on another Star Trek game?

James Swallow: Yes, I’ve worked on a few titles, including the Battlestar Galactica videogame, the sequel to Killzone and a forthcoming RTS called Maelstrom. I did work on a Star Trek PC game after Invasion, but sadly that got cancelled before it was ever released. I’d certainly like to return to the Star Trek universe again, in gaming or elsewhere!

STGU: Have you played any Star Trek games, if so which one is your favourite?

James Swallow: I think it's fair to say I've played almost every Star Trek game that's come down the line in the last decade. It's tough to pick just one - I enjoy FPS games, so I like the Elite Force series, but I also got a kick out of the Armada games and earlier stuff like Starfleet Academy.

STGU: What advice can you give to writers who hope to establish themselves in the business?

James Swallow: Understand first off that this is a job you have to do because you love it, because the odds are you will never be hugely rich or famous, so don't write because you think it will make you a millionaire! Secondly, you have to develop a thick skin and the ability to accept criticism, and know when to listen to it (and when not to!). You must be determined; writing isn't an easy gig, and you will suffer setbacks. To succeed as a writer you need three things - talent, luck, and persistence. You can get some way with any two of those, but you won't be able to make a career without all of them. Don't look for short cuts to success, because there are none; write and keep writing.

STGU: Which current TV show, either side of the Atlantic, would you most like to write for?

James Swallow: Woo. Tough call. There's a lot of good TV out there right now, but I think if I could go for it, I'd like to write for Battlestar Galactica or 24 in the USA. Here in the UK, I'd love to have a crack at the new Doctor Who series or Life on Mars, which is an excellent new cop show.

STGU: Finally, what are you currently working on?

James Swallow: At this moment, I'm finishing up work on a tie-in novel called Halcyon, based on the television show Stargate Atlantis, and writing scripts for an RTS game called Maelstrom, along with some magazine articles and development work on some forthcoming projects.

[edit] Links

The Redwing Project: The Official James Swallow Website

Star Trek: Invasion - Behind the Scenes

Star Trek: Invasion Screenshots

Star Trek: Voyager - "One"

Star Trek: Voyager - "Memorial"