John Meredyth Lucas (May 1, 1919 – October 19, 2002) was an American writer, primarily for television.

He was the son of screenwriter Bess Meredyth and writer/director Wilfred Lucas, and the adopted son of director Michael Curtiz.

Career

He grew up in Southern California, where he attended a number of schools, including Urban Military Academy, Southwestern Military Academy, Pacific Military Academy, and Beverly Hills High School. After a failed attempt at college, he began his Hollywood career with a job as an apprentice script clerk at Warner Brothers.

He is best remembered for the work he did on Star Trek as a writer, producer and director. He wrote four episodes for the Star Trek series broadcast from 1967 to 1969, "The Changeling", "Patterns of Force", "Elaan of Troyius", and "That Which Survives". He also directed the 1968 Star Trek episodes "The Ultimate Computer", "The Enterprise Incident" and "Elaan of Troyius". The last episode was the only one in the original series to be directed by its writer. Lucas was also credited as producer for the latter part of the second season (1967–1968).

He also wrote for Mannix, The Fugitive, The Silent Force, Harry O (David Janssen's 1970s series),The Six Million Dollar Man, and the television adaptations of Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run. Dark City (1950) and Peking Express (1951) were among his feature film writing credits. During 1959–1960 he worked in Australia on the TV series Whiplash.

In 1951 he married Australian born actress Joan Winfield. Together they raised three children. After her death in 1978, he remarried. After his death in 2002, he was cremated and his ashes were later launched into space on a suborbital flight in 2007. They were subsequently launched on an orbital flight on August 2, 2008, however the rocket failed two minutes after launch.

Star Trek episode credits

• 1967 – "The Changeling" – (writer)
• 1968 – "Patterns of Force" – (writer)
• 1968 – "The Ultimate Computer" – (director)
• 1968 – "The Enterprise Incident" – (director)
• 1968 – "Elaan of Troyius" – (writer and director)
• 1969 – "That Which Survives" – (teleplay)