Dan Koeppel

Dan Koeppel wrote the story, and co-wrote the teleplay, for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, his sole contribution to the Star Trek franchise. His only other film credit is as co-writer for the 1994 movie The Lost Words.

Koeppel began his career as a columnist for mountain bike journalism in 1988. He left his job, bureau chief for MediaWeek in Los Angeles, and took the position as an editor of the magazine "Mountain Bike". In 1996 he left the magazine, but still contributes a column, titled "Hug the Bunny". Today he still contributes articles for magazines such as "Elle", "Martha Stewart Living", and "New York Times".

Beside his mountain bike related publications (books such as "Extreme Sports Almanac" in 2000 and "Tour de France Companion" in 2005) he is also the author of novels such as "To See Every Bird on Earth:A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession" (2006) and "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World" (2007).

Juliana Tainer, the character played by actress Fionnula Flanagan in the TNG episode Inheritance, was named by him after mountain bike racer Juli Furtado.