This week marks the release of the newest entry in the Star Trek character autobiography series — following books ‘written by’ James T. Kirk, Spock, Jean-Luc Picard, and Kathryn Janeway — as author Derek Tyler Attico brings to life the story of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine hero Benjamin Sisko.
WeeklyTrek had the opportunity to chat with Attico ahead of the debut of Titan Books’ The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko, and here are the highlights of our discussion. You can also listen to the full, extended conversation in the WeeklyTrek podcast feed wherever you subscribe, or through the audio player below.
TREKCORE: What’s your history with Star Trek? How did you come to be a Star Trek fan and how did you end up being the guy to write the Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko?
DEREK TYLER ATTICO: I’ve been a professional science fiction, and prose writer, since 2005. My first, I wrote a short story in 2005 for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VIII fan-fiction anthology project; the story was “Alpha and Omega” and that also took first place in that anthology and that was my first professional story.
Which is nuts, right? That’s crazy. A friend told me that there was this anthology for Star Trek, happening and I was like, “Well, let’s write a story.” I wrote what I thought was everything that I wanted to see in the story and it took first place. I was very fortunate.
I’ve always wanted to write, but I never really saw a path towards writing. When I was 16, I won an award for screenwriting. I knew I had an ability and potential, when I was going to go to college, I was accepted to NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, for, creative writing, but I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t go. I was like, “Well, it’s just one of those things wasn’t going to happen.” Writing came back around to me. It wouldn’t let go of me.
I submitted this story and that took first place. I was very thankful and honored that happened, but it also told me, it was like, “Well, hey, you still got something. You better do something with this thing.” I started a professional career, writing, and then after a series of short stories my second Star Trek work was published in the 50th anniversary Strange New Worlds anthology contest.
I wrote a Benny Russell story, “The Dream in a Dream.” Titan Publishing looked at that story and thought, “Oh, this guy might be a good fit for the autobiography. That’s how I got that.
TREKCORE: Do you think, given that this is the fifth book in the series, that Titan Publishing were looking for the right writer to take on this topic and take on this character?
ATTICO: Absolutely. Titan always had a plan to do a Sisko autobiography. But the thing they took the time on was deciding how to do it and when to do it. Because of the way the character’s story resolved in Deep Space Nine, they asked me in my first meeting for my take on how to tell the Sisko story.
Originally, the way Titan wanted to go was to tell the story through Sisko’s son, Jake. Because in canon on DS9, Jake is a writer, as we know. He writes this book and we found out in the future, he writes this book on Anslem, which was autobiographical of his life. The idea was we could also put in Ben’s life – and that’s a great idea! I think that book should be done.
But I thought that since Titan has done so well with the autobiographies of the captains, this should be Ben Sisko in his own words. Then I told them my idea of how we could accomplish that, and they liked the idea. We had a great conversation and I got the project and was off to the races, framing it in a way that allows Ben to speak, and to continue in many ways, the storyline of Deep Space Nine.
TREKCORE: An autobiography about Ben Sisko is in a slightly different situation than the others in the series in terms of his story in canon is one that has not been resolved on screen yet. How did you address that challenge in putting this book together?
ATTICO: Absolutely. Deep Space Nine and Sisko’s story has an ending, but not a resolution. I spent a lot of time, even before I knew I was going to get the autobiography, I was just like, “Well, how would I do it if I ever had the opportunity?” And I had a pretty good grasp of how I wanted to do it.
Without too many spoilers, in Greek mythology, there are many tales where the gods speak to humans on earth. The ideas I had weren’t much different from that. I realized that through the classics there was definitely a mechanism and a way to frame it where I can still keep the Ben Sisko storyline as it is, but still move it forward at the same time. Because there are things that I would like to see on screen, and I know in the comics they’ve brought him back and that’s great.
None of us know really, what’s actually going to happen on screen yet. I felt that my job was to take that ball, move it down the field a little bit further. If someone wanted to pick up a lot of the things that I’ve written in the book and put those things on screen, I would give them the materials to do that. The framing device allows for that.
TREKCORE: Did the fact that Star Trek is back on TV and we are seeing characters return influence the way that you went about writing this book, given some of the other books in the series have endings that have subsequently been contradicted by canon?
ATTICO: You’re exactly right. Before I started this project, I read all the other autobiographies because I didn’t want to copy any of the mechanisms used by David A. Goodman or Una McCormack. I was like, “Oh,” so I now have to not only think about Ben’s life and all of that, I also have to now familiarize myself with the other four because then somebody that is well-versed in those other four would be like, “Oh, well, that’s the same thing that was done in Kirk or Spock.”
In doing that, I realized that nothing that I had planned was done in those, which was great, but also just that you’re absolutely right. Because some of those were done before Star Trek returned to TV, they were ultimately impacted by those later creative choices. So as I was creating the outline, what I wanted was a book that could stand the test of time today and hopefully, another 30 years from now, in the 60th anniversary of Deep Space Nine, and if they ever do anything on screen. The book would still hold its own.
TREKCORE: How do you craft an authentic first-person narrative that keeps the character’s voice throughout the whole book? Is that difficult?
ATTICO: I’ve always been a very detailed writer. When it came to creating the voice of Ben Sisko, he’s a little tricky. I wrote him in my Strange New Worlds 2016 story, but I had to re-familiarize myself with him. The only episode I could really watch was “In the Pale Moonlight,” because that’s almost like a play. It’s a narration with Sisko’s authentic voice. That’s great to just hear his voice. It’s highly stylized.
Benjamin Sisko is very much the everyman. He’s not as eloquent as Picard, but he’s to the point. I am more eloquent when I write, so I had to pull back on that — because I’m not giving Derek, I’m giving Ben Sisko.
TREKCORE: As you built the character’s backstory, how did you deal with the challenge that Star Trek has never shown us much about what life on Earth is like?
ATTICO: That was always something that bothered me, and I’m sure bothered fans. When we watched the show, we would see the front of Sisko’s restaurant, but that was it. We wouldn’t know what’s on either side. It was great in giving a setting, but not enough. I think everyone wanted more. I wanted more. I presumed the readers would want more.
Then I thought a lot about Gene Roddenberry. I thought about a lot of the things that he set up, because what he says and what happens in the beginnings right before the Federation, World War III has to happen for us to get our act together, and then the Vulcan show up. These are all things that he says in the Original Series.
I thought a lot about that because if I’m going to figure out New Orleans, I have to figure out New Orleans in the 24th century. My job, again, is to bridge that gap from now to the 24th century and figure out how it happened, what happened. The Deep Space Nine writers, of course gave me a lot of material to work on the characters. I could reverse engineer a lot of what we knew about the characters and write that into the book and explain that in a meaningful way, so that characters like Joseph Sisko becomes a full character for the book, because he’s a full character in the show.
Also, before I wrote a word, I did a lot of research on New Orleans. I wanted it to be a character as well in the book. I wanted jazz to be a character in the book. It was a lot of work, even before writing, so that it feels completely authentic to the reader.
TREKCORE: Is it easier to write about the character’s early life, where you have more free rein to create the narrative, or describing and adding to the events of the television series?
ATTICO: It’s a challenge to make everything line up! It’s a lot of fun to create an origin story for a character like Benjamin Sisko, and of course, it’s an honor. In doing that, you have to create something that feels organic, and that when people read it, they think it makes sense.
That weighed heavily on me because I wanted to make decisions that when they were read, you could look at the show, and then you could see the direct lines from the book to the show. That wasn’t easy to figure out at first, but once I got into it, it just started to fly, because I had made my decisions, I knew my characters, and it just started to just come out of me onto the page.
TREKCORE: How do you choose which episodes of the show to focus on in telling a narrative like this?
ATTICO: I think some of that is definitely personal choice. And some of them are there because the story needs it. I think there’s a quote from Orson Welles. He says, “Give the fans or give the public what they want, but not necessarily the way they want it.” That’s always stuck with me, even as a kid when I first heard that. I’m a big fan of that, where I may deliver what you’re asking for, but not in the way you may think you’re going to get it.
I think this book definitely personifies that mindset, where you get what you’re asking for, and what you want, but maybe not in the way you expect.
TREKCORE: There are a set of images in the book that show moments we’ve never seen before in Ben Sisko’s life. How much input did you have in the creation of those?
ATTICO: That was great. Now I can’t speak to the other writers in the other biographies, but Russell Walks is the artist that has done some phenomenal work for these. I didn’t even know Russell until he tweeted out, “Oh, I just finished reading Attico’s manuscript for the autobiography. It’s really great.”
We connected and he was like, “Here’s a list of what I want to do. Give me a list of what you want to do.” Then we just started collaborating. His work is just phenomenal. We just started bouncing off of each other. He brought my words to life, literally.
TREKCORE: What are you hoping that readers will take away from this book?
ATTICO: I think first and foremost, as a writer, I feel that I make a contract with every reader. When they start the first page of something I’ve written, I’m telling them that they’re going to be entertained, they’re going to enjoy what they’re reading. Maybe along the way, they’ll learn something or find out something that they didn’t know. I’m hoping for those things.
I’ve had some people tell me that they’ve already read it, and they’ve come away with certain things from it. That is very personal to me, I put some parts of things that have happened to me in the book. The only reason I did that was because I realized it was timely for Ben’s life. It made sense that some of the events that have happened to me, I was like, “Oh, this will be great for Ben’s life.”
Maybe those things will speak to other people, because ultimately, regardless of where we come from, we’re all human beings. I think there are things in this book that everyone can identify with and relate to.
Derek Tyler Attico can be reached through hiswebsite, on Twitter, and through most other social media platforms with the same handle.
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We’ve also got an exclusive excerpt from The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko, thanks to the fine folks at Titan Books.
In the pages below, learn how Ben Sisko is able to tell such a self-reflective tale after the events of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series finale, and read the first full chapter of the book — focused on Sisko’s early life on Earth.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko is in stores November 21.