When a friend first introduced Eric Stillwell, BA ‘85 (political science), to Star Trek in the fifth grade, he was hooked.
Star Trek, which first aired in 1966, was famously progressive for its time, featuring a diverse cast and exploring such themes as racism, sexism, class conflict, and war—the same issues that troubled cold war America.
The series had a profound impact on Stillwell’s convictions. When his local NBC affiliate replaced it in its afterschool timeslot with reruns of Perry Mason, he and a friend had more than 300 people sign a petition to keep it on air; the station promised the show would return, and sent Stillwell and his friend headshots of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.
In high school he helped revive Starfleet, a fan organization that had essentially been defunct for several years. He continued to expand the organization during his first years at the University of Oregon—where he majored in political science and joined the College Republicans—and he eventually became the president (or, “commanding admiral”). Today the organization is one of the largest fan clubs in the world.
But it takes more than being Starfleet’s commanding admiral to get into the Star Trek writers’ room—it takes a little bit of failure and a lot of perseverance.
Stillwell’s interest in the film industry was piqued by a different space opera altogether: in 1977, when he was 14 years old, he saw Star Wars at the Mayflower Theater near campus. The special effects and storytelling entranced Stillwell, and he and his friends spent hours making 8-millimeter films in his parents’ garage. The day after graduating from the UO, Stillwell packed his bags and drove to Hollywood to begin his new career.
“As it turns out, my first year in Hollywood was a disaster,” he recalled. “I couldn’t land a job in the biz for love nor money. The irony is, I didn’t get my first job in the industry until after I moved back to Eugene to live with my parents.”
After moving home, Stillwell learned that Warner Bros. was coming to Oregon to film Promise, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie starring James Garner and James Woods. Stillwell lobbied the production secretary until she promised to allow him to visit the production office, where he was hired as a production assistant.
On the final day of production, Stillwell was driving home when Paramount announced a new Star Trek series, The Next Generation, over the radio. Ecstatic, Stillwell quickly submitted his résumé.
While in Los Angeles for the wrap party for Promise, Stillwell interviewed for a position at Star Trek: The Next Generation. While he was unsuccessful, he was able to find employment at Paramount as a studio page and tour guide. A few months later, during a screening of The Next Generation’s pilot episode, he ran into the producer who had interviewed him. The producer remembered Stillwell from the interview, and called the next day to offer him the job, which had opened up again.
Stillwell was thrilled. His early duties included riding a bike around the studio to deliver memos or script revisions to members of the staff and crew. Later, he was promoted to script coordinator. He also tracked and logged scripts submitted to the show, which often numbered in the thousands.
Living in Hollywood meant proximity to the rich and famous. He recalls one memorable instance in which Whoopi Goldberg (who played Guinan in The Next Generation) convinced him and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) to visit a nearby soundstage where U2 was recording a music video; Goldberg introduced him to Bono. He also met General Colin Powell and President Ronald Reagan when they visited the set.
Another time, Stillwell was stopped at a red light in Hollywood when his car rolled forward and tamped the bumper of the Jaguar in front of him. He was horrified when Patrick Stewart, The Next Generation’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, stepped out and walked over to his window. “Eric,” Stewart shouted, “you are in big trouble!” The two laugh about the incident now.
“The biggest highlight of my career was selling the story for a third-season episode of The Next Generation called ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise,’” said Stillwell. “The episode scored huge ratings and became a fan favorite.”
“Yesterday’s Enterprise” dealt with a spacetime rift that saw an earlier version of the USS Enterprise appear in the same timeline as Picard’s Enterprise. The earlier Enterprise was on the verge of being destroyed in a battle when it jumped 22 years into the future; Picard wrestles with the ethical dilemma of whether or not to send it back to its original timeline, knowing that doing so could result in the crew being destroyed, but it could also result in the ensuing war being avoided altogether.
Entertainment Weekly named the episode the best from The Next Generation’s series. It was called the franchise’s seventh-best overall by TV Guide, and fans attending Star Trek’s 50th anniversary convention voted it the fifth-best.
“Now, nearly 30 years later . . . ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ is still considered one of the top five episodes of all time,” said Stillwell. “I’m very proud of that.”
Stillwell is also accredited as a cowriter on several other episodes, and appeared as an extra in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He has worked on the The Dead Zone and American Idol, and between 2007 and 2010 worked in the UO’s Government and Community Relations department. He currently works for Disney Consumer Products designing Disney Princess dolls, and plans to retire with his wife in Bordeaux, France, in the next few years.