Andy Weir’s Star Trek Comments Get Passionate Response From Crime 101 Writer Don Winslow: “You Owe An Apology”

Star Trek is facing major criticism from Andy Weir, with Crime 101 writer Don Winslow weighing in.

While on a podcast named Critical Drinker, author Weir shared that he is a Star Trek superfan, “I’m Gen X, so my sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns. And there wasn’t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi that was airing — where people are off in space doing cool things — until we got to [Star Trek: The Next Generation].“

Weir’s comments continued and ended with him stating he is not a fan of the newer Star Trek shows, and celebrated the ending of Starfleet Academy after season 2, stating, “It’s gone, baby! It’s all gone.” Crime 101 writer Winslow didn’t approve of the comments Weir made about the cancellation of the Star Trek series and suggested he make an “apology.” Winslow responded with posts on X, stating,

“Congrats on the success of Project Hail Mary+The Martian. I’m a real fan.

But when you have your moment don’t use it to crap on other writers work. For the record, @Alex_Kurtzman is a visionary writer+creator+producer&you owe him an apology…writer to writer.

Writers stand up for other writers. It’s how and why the Writers Guild was formed. And you don’t take your moment in the sun to attack another writer because they didn’t buy your pitch.”

Weir is facing the spotlight with the release of a movie adaptation of his popular sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling in the lead role. Project Hail Mary is continuing to be a sensation and a major box office success with incredible reviews and an impressive and almost perfect 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Weir is also known for his other novel, The Martian, which was also adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon, as well as his other novel, Artemis, being developed by Project Hail Mary directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Weir’s interview on the podcast has faced a lot of criticism as the author stated his opinion, which wasn’t well-received:

“I’ll give you my opinion, and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount, and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman].

I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are sh*t. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, f*** ’em.”

Winslow’s comments suggest perhaps a rejection of Weir’s pitch led to the author’s now sudden distaste of Star Trek‘s new generation of series on Paramount. The author clearly has some experience with science fiction as a genre due to his popular novels and equally popular movie adaptations, but Winslow clearly isn’t a fan of not supporting fellow creatives in their respective fields.