Spacewesterns.com interview with Jane Espenson

From Spacewesterns.com -

Spacewesterns.com interview with Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson is a Hugo Award‑winning screen‑writer who has worked on several science fiction television series including Star Trek : Deep Space 9, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica, among others. She has also edited two anthologies of essays — Finding Serenity and Serenity Found — about Joss Whedon’s ’verse as seen in the television series Firefly and the major motion picture Serenity.

You can discover even more about Jane Espenson and her work at www.janeespenson.com.

How did you get involved in writing for Television ?

The first step was just getting involved with television — I loved it so much that I knew I wanted to write for TV from when I was a small child. Every now and then, as a kid, and then as an undergraduate in college, I’d try to write a spec script — a writing sample in the form of a script for an established show. I was in grad school when I learned you could submit scripts to Star Trek : The Next Generation without having to have an agent as intermediary. I submitted three spec episodes of Star Trek : The Next Generation and was invited in to pitch episode ideas. It was after this modest start that I learned of the Disney Writing Fellowship, which really launched my career.

How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre ?

It might sound random, since, after all, Trek was the only show with an open door policy, so I’d’ve been steered in that direction anyway. But I was already a huge fan of the show and of the genre in general. I love metaphorical storytelling, which is at the heart of Sci Fi — this is our world, but looked at through a lens. Love that.

What was your first introduction to Space Westerns ?

Does that one ep of classic Trek count ? Actually, I didn’t even know it was a subgenre until after I’d written for Firefly. To me, it was just the lens that Joss was putting on the modern world in order to be able to talk about it.

How would you define “Space Western” ?

Hmm. I guess I’d say anything is a Space Western that maps space exploration as having parallels to the Western‑directed exploration of the U.S. Even just referring to space as a “frontier,” final or otherwise, is to see it with a Space Western POV.

What was your first introduction to Firefly ?

Joss took me along with him when he ran an errand during the run of Buffy, and on the way he laid out an idea he had for a new show. It told me forever to really grok what he was talking about — I was so absolutely certain that the heart of the show was going to be about interactions with aliens that I simply couldn’t absorb what he was seeing for the longest time.

What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns ?

Space is so unimaginable, so unfathomably large and mysterious that I think tying it down to a kind of real historical framework helps make it more understandable. It makes it seem individually attainable, too. We can “see” ourselves, our tiny selves, pointing a wagon westward and heading out across a plain more easily than we can imagine blasting into outer space.

Let me take you way back : In 1996 you wrote a Star Trek : Deep Space 9 episode entitled “Accession.” What inspired you to pitch to Star Trek ?

That DS9 episode was something I did in the middle of my sitcom career during a scary year in which I was not hired by a show. I had met with some success and a warm welcome from Star Trek : The Next Generation years before (1990, 1991‑ish), so when I was in need, they were the ones I called. Someone there remembered me and got me back onto the pitching roster at the then‑current Trek incarnation. I was very fortunate that they liked an idea I suggested in which someone else steps forward as the “Emissary” and Sisko steps down in relief. That notion developed into Accession. The whole Trek experience, at TNG and DS9, was incredibly positive. Thank you, Star Trek !

For the rest of the interview, which includes a discussion on BSG & future projects, go to: http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/37/