Biography

Is also a noted film historian who has written dozens of articles for "Famous Monsters", "Filmfax" and is the author of a biography of science fiction writer/director Ib Melchior.

Brother of Dennis Skotak

Frequent collaborator with directors James Cameron and Ron Underwood.

Brother-in-law of D.C. Fontana.

[Talking about developing illustrations of sets and creatures for "Galaxy of Terror"] The ideas in the script were very esoteric. The terrors were all psychological. We spent a lot of time getting the project shaped up so that Roger (Corman) would make it, including reworking the horrific and visual ideas in the script. Jim and I spent a couple of days more or less locked up in a room, brainstorming the kinds of things we found frightening.

[Relating differences between "Battle Beyond the Stars" and "Galaxy of Terror"] "Battle" was 15 months of work. We had a lot of that same equipment, but we were given about six months to "Galaxy", from rewriting the script to building the sets to doing all the effects. "Battle" started out pretty chaotically, but "Galaxy" was better organized, because Jim (Cameron) and I had worked on the script to try and create things we'd be able to achieve. We wanted to avoid the chaos of "Battle".

[His final words on filming "Galaxy of Terror"] Working for Roger (Corman) was insane and it was hard, but it was a good opportunity. It was fun. We all owe a big thank-you to Roger for letting us be as crazy and creative as we wanted to be.