Sam Segal
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Sam Segal |
| Alias(es): | |
| Type: | fan writer |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
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Sam Segal is a Star Trek fan writer.
His first two-page fan story "Beyond Antares" appeared in Fuhura #3 in 1985 when he was just 14. By age 22, he had written a Star Trek screenplay, "Star Trek IV: Inside the Klingon Empire", which he submitted to Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was returned to him.
In 1992, he unsuccessfully sued Paramount claiming they had used his screenplay and its earlier inspiration, a short story, "The Brutal Klingon Empire," which appeared in The Enterprise Collection in 1975, in the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Although the script and the story collection had been registered with the copyright office in 1983, the case was dismissed upon motion for summary judgment, with the court noting the lack of similarity between the two works:
"In its expression of glasnost and peace, it may be said that The Undiscovered Country boldly went where Segal's screenplay had not gone before."[1]
The case was affirmed on appeal.[2]
Additional documents surrounding the litigation can be found in the Papers of Nicholas Myers collected at University of Iowa.[3]