Commentary: Trek Stars 35: Ham and Cheese

Matheson, Part 1: Trek. Richard Matheson is one of the most influential genre writers of our time. He has written countless novels and short stories, including I Am Legend. He is responsible for numerous movies and TV shows, including sixteen episodes of The Twilight Zone. And he also wrote the sixth episode of Star Trek, “The Enemy Within.”  This week, we begin a new series looking at a cross section of Matheson’s career. Specifically, we will examine his novels that were adapted into movies, comparing those films to their source material.  In Part 1, Mike is joined by Trek.fm’s very own Christopher Jones and Drew Stewart to look at Matheson’s work on “The Enemy Within.” We discuss how Matheson’s style translates to episodic television, how the episode stacks up against Voyager’s “Faces,” whether or not the B-plot works, and how Matheson may be the perfect writer for William Shatner.