Jerome Bixby In his life, Jerome Bixby created some of the most memorable moments of contemporary science fiction… including “It’s a Good Life”, for The Twilight Zone; “Mirror, Mirror“, “Day of the Dove” and “Requiem for Methuselah” for the original series Star Trek; and the classic motion picture, “Fantastic Voyage”. Jerome first conceived the story for Man From Earth back in the early 1960’s. It would come to be his last great work, finally completing it on his deathbed, in April of 1998.

 

In his long career, Jerome Bixby authored numerous science fiction stories, including the novel DAY OF THE DOVE and episodes of the original Star Trek and Twilight Zone television series. Bixby’s stories appeared in the publications Galaxy, If, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Worlds of Tomorrow. Jerome Bixby is considered one of Star Trek’s “top drawer” writers. Among Bixby’s Star Trek episodes are “Mirror, Mirror” (consistently voted one of the 10 best) which first established the concept of the mirror-universe, and “Requiem for Methuselah”, a captivating story about Kirk, Spock and McCoy encountering a near-immortal who claims to have lived the lives of Brahms and Da Vinci, among others. This was the first time Bixby dealt with the themes he more fully explored in “The Man From Earth”.

Bixby’s work on the television series The Twilight Zone includes the fan-favorite classic episode “It’s a Good Life”, which was chosen as one of the “Greatest science fiction stories of all time” by the membership of The Science Fiction Writers of America. “It’s a Good Life” is one of 26 works that “represent the best, most important, and most influential stories and authors in the field”. “It’s a Good Life” was one of five stories chosen for inclusion in Twilight Zone: The Movie and was directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers).

Jerome Bixby is held in the same regard as other famous sci-fi writers as Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Robert A. Heinlein.

“Man from Earth” was Bixby’s last great work. In 2008 Richard Schenkman adapted it for theatrical productions. Since being translated into over fourteen languages there have been major productions mounted in Athens, Barcelona, Edinburg, Germany, Jerusalem and Saint Thomas,
with its largest production to date to be mounted this year in Seoul, Korea.