Gene L. Coon

Gene L. Coon (7 January 1924-8 July 1973) was an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on Star Trek: The Original Series.

Gene Coon wrote mainly for television. His writing credits included Dragnet, Bonanza, Zorro and The Wild Wild West. He also became a producer for The Wild Wild West and later became a producer and writer for Star Trek. He joined Star Trek in the middle of the first season, and left before it was cancelled (he continued to contribute scripts for the third season (under the pseudonym Lee Cronin, as he was under contract to Universal Studios at the time and was not, technically, supposed to be working for Paramount as well).

His credited creations for Star Trek include the Klingons (in "Errand of Mercy"), Khan Noonian Singh (in "Space Seed") and the Prime Directive. He also had the position of doing rewrites for scripts so his work touches many more episodes.

Following Star Trek he went on to write for Kung Fu and The Streets of San Francisco.