How does writing science fiction compare to writing conventional drama?

It�s freeing. What I like about science fiction as a genre is that it allows me to paint on a larger canvas. There�s more possibilities, more things I can do to the characters to see how they�ll respond. Ultimately, it�s about how people react if something happens.

In science fiction that question of what is going to happen to them is much larger. They can travel through time, they can meet duplicates of themselves, they can have their personalities split into two people, they can meet aliens who read their minds. There�s just so many more possibilities that tell me about a person in science fiction. There�s more opportunity as a writer to explore the human condition because you have a lot more colours in your palette, if you will.

I liked time travel. I thought the possibilities were always endless and it�s a fascinating idea to the audience. It was intriguing to play with the possibilities of changing or not changing history, what the ramifications would be if you changed this one event in history, how different are the people as a result?

Yesterday�s Enterprise was one of my favourite episodes, and there you see that one event in the past changed the entire future. Our crew were still recognisable as Picard, Riker, etcetera, but they all had different life experiences and were in a war and a darker place. They were still on the Enterprise, but everything had changed.