Star Trek’s Most Influential Story Didn’t Come From A Writer
Many of Star Trek’s most influential stories come from big-name writers: for example, future Battlestar Galactica reboot showrunner Ronald D. Moore helped create much of the modern Klingon mythology through his iconic TNG episodes. However, in a fun franchise twist, the most influential story of all didn’t come from a big-name writer—in fact, it didn’t come from a writer at all. “Contagion” was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation co-written by one of the show’s computer workers, Beth Woods, and the episode went on to inspire a sequel DS9 episode, a crossover book series, and even a story beat in Discovery, and more.
Beth Woods & Steve Gerber
“Contagion,” like many episodes of Star Trek, had two different writers. One of them was Steve Gerber, and while this was his only Trek writing credit, he also wrote episodes for iconic ‘80s TV shows like Transformers and G.I. Joe.
Oh, and he is also the creator of Howard the Duck, so you can either credit or blame the late, great Gerber for the existence of that truly “fowl” ‘80s movie adaptation.
While Gerber only wrote “Contagion,” he was at least known for writing plenty of episodes outside of Gene Roddenberry’s amazing franchise. Arguably, the more interesting writer for this episode is Beth Woods, someone whose day job involved working on the office computers for TNG.
This wasn’t her big pivot into a screenwriting career or anything: to this day, her only writing credits are this 1989 episode and a 1996 episode of Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys.
A Lasting Impact
Outside of “Contagion,” Beth Woods didn’t contribute much to the Star Trek canon, though she later provided an original storyline for the Worf episode “Sins of the Father.”
Interestingly enough, her early Trek writing credit had a lasting effect on the entire franchise. That’s because it spawned a sequel episode on the spinoff TV show Deep Space Nine, some shout-outs in other Trek spinoffs, and an entire series of crossover novels from Pocket Books.
The Iconian Gateways
“Contagion” introduced a mysterious and seemingly extinct race to the Star Trek mythos known as the Iconians, who were famous for their Gateway technology that let them instantly transport themselves anywhere in the galaxy without using starships.
Long after “Contagion,” the Deep Space Nine episode “To the Death” featured Sisko reluctantly teaming up with Weyoun to stop some rogue Jem’hadar who were trying to restore an Iconian Gateway. This put to rest any doubts about how powerful the technology was because even the mighty Dominion knew that a relative handful of warriors with a Gateway could effectively threaten the entire galaxy.
Voyager & Discovery
While “Contagion” and “To the Death” were the only Star Trek episodes focused mostly on the Iconians, they got name-dropped in later series in some interesting ways. On Voyager, the puckish Tom Paris once pranked Harry Kim by claiming that he was contacted by an Iconian scientist who could transport Voyager anywhere the crew wanted to go (this was, of course, used to demonstrate Kim’s gullibility to B’Elanna Torres).
Decades later, a line of dialogue in Discovery casually verified that by the 32nd century, the Federation was aware of “surviving members of the Iconian Empire” who might have had the capacity to create the Dark Matter Anomaly.
Non-Canonical References
Those are the only canonical references to the Iconians after “Contagion,” but their technology served as the driving plot of the crossover Pocket Books series Star Trek: Gateways.
These books were non-canonical but great fun (at least, if you don’t mind cliffhanger endings). Speaking of fun and non-canonical, the Iconians are also the chief bad guys in a major story arc on Star Trek: Online.
Beth Woods (now Beth Slick) may not be a professional screenwriter, but she has some major geek cred: this computer tech co-wrote “Contagion,” which arguably became the most influential Star Trek episode in franchise history.
Its influence has extended into NuTrek, and after the Iconians were mentioned in Discovery, there is always a possibility that they will pop up on the upcoming spinoff series Starfleet Academy. Wherever she is now, we hope this influential writer is taking a bow for her awesome contributions to our favorite franchise.
