Brennert, Alan
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Comics, TV.
(1954- ) US television producer and scriptwriter, and also author, essentially of fantasy and horror. His first genre publication was "Nostalgia Tripping" for Infinity Five (anth 1973) edited by Robert Hoskins. In his first novel, City of Masques (1978), actors scientifically programmed to become their roles run amok. Time and Chance (1990) is a kind of sf/horror tale in which two Parallel Worlds intersect, allowing two versions of the same person to switch roles: the consequences of the switch are depicted with acumen and passion. The title story of Her Pilgrim Soul and Other Stories (coll 1990) is also sf, and "Ma Qui" (February 1991 F&SF) – which is the title story of Ma Qui and Other Phantoms (coll 1991) – won a 1992 Nebula award for Best Short Story; but much of Brennert's genre work lies in media other than the written word.
He is very active in television, his sf/fantasy scripts including six for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981), four for The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1978-1979) (see Wonder Woman Film/TV), at least three for Fantasy Island (1981-1983), fourteen for the second series of The Twilight Zone (1985-1987) – for which he was "executive story consultant" – and five for The Outer Limits (1995-1997). He is probably best known, however, for his non-genre work as a writer for, and producer of, the top-rating television series LA Law (1991-1992), with at least fifteen scripts to his credit.
Brennert has written occasionally for Comics, mostly Batman, writing six stories between 1981 and 2000; his small but impressive body of work in this medium also makes much use of the Parallel-Worlds concept. Some of these pieces appear in DC Comics's The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1989). [JC/PN]
Alan Michael Brennert
born Englewood, New Jersey: May 1954
works
non-visual work
- City of Masques (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1978) [pb/Dennis Luzak]
- Kindred Spirits (New York: Tor, 1984) [pb/]
- Time and Chance (New York: Tor, 1990) [hb/Lina Levy]
- Her Pilgrim Soul and Other Stories (New York: Tor, 1990) [coll: hb/Boris Vallejo]
- Ma Qui and Other Phantoms (Eugene, Oregon: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991) [coll: in the publisher's Author's Choice Monthly series: hb/George Barr]
- Weird Romance: Two One-Act Musicals of Speculative Fiction (New York: Samuel French, 1993) [coll of two plays: "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" from James Tiptree Jr and "Her Pilgrim Soul": pb/uncredited]
- Moloka'i (New York: St Martin's Press, 2003) [hb/]
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