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Ira Steven Behr

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Ira Steven Behr (born 23 October 1953; age 70) was executive producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as a writer of several episodes. He was also a producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1989 to 1990. With writing partners Robert Hewitt Wolfe and, later, Hans Beimler, he possibly deserves the most credit for the Deep Space Nine Dominion War story arc and the series' approach to characterization and story.

Biography

Ira Steven Behr was born in New York City, and graduated Lehman College there. Subsequently, he studied Mass Communications and Theater at Brandeis University where he was offered a playwriting scholarship. However, he moved to Los Angeles instead to pursue a career in writing comedies for television and film. But instead of comedy, Behr became known for his television dramas. His first breakthrough was on the James Garner television series Bret Maverick. He later served as story editor for the series Jessica Novack. Behr was also writer/producer of the series Fame, Once a Hero, and Bronx Zoo.

He currently lives in the Hollywood Hills, California. He and his wife Laura Behr have two children, Roxanne and Jesse.

Star Trek

Behr first joined the Star Trek franchise early in the production of Season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, after Michael Piller asked him to come on-board and help supervise the writing staff, with his first job being to perform a major rewrite on "The Hunted". Behr recalled that the atmosphere in the writing room was frequently very tense, as the existing writers (including Hans Beimler, Richard Manning and Melinda M. Snodgrass) were still mostly loyal to former showrunner Maurice Hurley and did not particularly like working under Piller, with interference from Gene Roddenberry also exacerbating the situation. Matters nearly came to a head midway through the season after Piller circulated a note about basic writing practices, which outraged Beimler, Manning and Snodgrass, with Behr's intervention being the only thing that prevented the trio from immediately quitting the show. From then until the end of the season Behr had to act as a go-between to Piller and the rest of the writing staff, and while Piller had actually suggested that Behr replace him as showrunner for the following season, he turned the offer down and left the show altogether, though did return to write the episode "Qpid" in a freelance capacity. (TNG Season 3 Blu-ray special features)

A few years later, Behr was once again approached by Piller and Rick Berman to be a writer and producer on a new show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Intrigued by the opportunity to work on a new type of Star Trek show with a fixed setting, Behr accepted the offer. He would subsequently play an important part in developing the show's main recurring adversary, the Dominion, and with Piller moving over to another new show, Star Trek: Voyager, Behr was agreed to be the obvious choice to succeed him. Behr therefore became co-showrunner with Piller at the start of the third season, before taking over as the sole showrunner as of "The Die is Cast", a position he would hold until the end of the show's run.

Behr can be seen sitting at a table in Vic Fontaine's lounge in DS9's finale, "What You Leave Behind", along with other series writers and producers, presumably as part of the holographic audience.

In pieces of background signage (such as the USS Defiant (NX-74205) dedication plaque), there is a listing of Behr's name, meaning that in a literal interpretation, there is a Starfleet officer named Ira Steven Behr.

Among the episodes he has a "special fondness for" are "The Nagus", "Past Tense, Part I"/"Past Tense, Part II", "Call to Arms", and "Duet". (AOL chat, 1997)

In 1995, Rick Berman praised Behr's work on the fourth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, saying "I cannot begin to relate the importance of the work that Ira Behr has put into all of this. The quality of the shows is a tribute to Ira. He is truly pushing his writers to produce above and beyond their already high quality work. He is getting a certain creative element out of his writers. He has become a real inspiration to them and they are all writing beautiful stuff. He's doing a great job". ("Star Trek Update with Rick Berman", Star Trek Communicator issue 105 p. 12)

In 1998, Behr was asked by Michael Piller for his opinion on an early draft of Star Trek: Insurrection. Piller agreed with many of the suggestions Behr made about the weaknesses in the draft. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

Around 2003, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga asked Behr for his opinion on Star Trek: Enterprise and to offer suggestions on how to improve that series. Behr commented "Rick called me up, it was his initiative. He asked me had I seen Enterprise, I told him no. He asked if I could look at it - they were thinking maybe of stepping back and that "this be another DS9 experience," whatever that meant. I didn't really think it over in terms of what were the chances of that reality happening again. They sent me the three shows, I went in, had a two hour meeting with Rick and Brannon. It was a very cordial meeting, but everything I said I am sure they did not like hearing. I would not liked to have heard it if someone came into my office and talked as bluntly as I was talking to them. Though again, it was done all cordially. After it was over I am sure they were uncomfortable, I was very uncomfortable, we shook hands, Rick said, "well, all interesting stuff, we'll think it over," and I never heard from him again. That's the whole story and it's barely a blip in anyone's lives, it has no impact whatsoever on the franchise. It's just something that happened". [1] Ten years later, in 2013, Brannon Braga bluntly recalled that he thought Behr "shit all over the show" during the meeting and that Behr "hated the concept, hated the characters." (ENT Season 2 Blu-ray "Course Correction" special feature)

In 2009, Behr participated in an audio commentary on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with Larry Nemecek.

After Deep Space Nine

After Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended its run, he has been involved in many other successful television shows. He was a consulting producer on Dark Angel and was an executive producer on The Twilight Zone (2002-2003). After that, he was the executive producer and writer on René Echevarria's The 4400.

In December 2010, it was announced that Behr would be the showrunner of a new Syfy series, Alphas. [2] In 2014, Behr joined the staff of Outlander with Ronald D. Moore. Behr was also an associate producer on the documentary That Guy Dick Miller.

Writing credits

Books Written

Producing credits

Star Trek interviews

See also

Archive of Ira Steven Behr's AOL chats

External links

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