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Why does Admiral Paris have a picture of Nick Locarno instead of his own son? Is he stupid?
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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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I find that absolutely fascinating if it's somehow true - I would assume that anything written for Trek, like any other major franchise, is strictly "work for hire" and the individual authors have no rights to their work. It's hard to imagine it any other way.
Not disputing that she said it, I just truly don't understand it.
I suspect that it had to do with the WGA contract at the time that TNG was in production.
Writers with a script credit got specific residuals for characters they created in a script according to what Beyer wrote. So, taking a one-off character and putting them in a main cast role in a new show would be providing creator credits for the entire show.
Chief Miles O’Brien is a different story altogether. Colm Meany was originally contracted as a background regular as the transporter chief but without a name. These kind of roles are reliable and keep actors eating while allowing them to audition for other roles.
According to what I heard at a Creation Con panel back in the early 90s, the showrunners eventually decided to give the character a name. Colm Meany wasn’t advised, nor was his agent — so Meany actually was raising a complaint that he was being replaced without notice, only to find out he’d been upgraded to a named part.