David F. Bischoff (December 15, 1951 – March 19, 2018) was an American science fiction and television writer.

General background

Born in Washington, D.C., Bischoff wrote science fiction books, short stories, and scripts for television. He began writing during the early 1970s and had more than 80 books published. Bischoff was known best for novelizations of popular movies and television series including Aliens, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and WarGames.

Early career

Bischoff began writing science fiction and reviews of the genre while studying at the University of Maryland. His first publications were for Thrust, a fanzine offering science fiction commentary and criticism. The editor, Doug Fratz, later converted Thrust to a trade magazine, for which Bischoff was a regular contributor. His first novel, The Seeker (with Christopher Lampton) was published in 1976, and in 1978 Bischoff coauthored "Tin Woodman", a short story nominated for a Nebula Award in that year, and later adapted into both a novel and television episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Movies and television

Bischoff worked on various television series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he coauthored the episodes "Tin Man" (with Dennis Putman Bailey) and "First Contact" (with Dennis Russell Bailey and Joe Menosky & Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller) (not to be confused with the movie Star Trek: First Contact). He also wrote the Star Trek novel Grounded, which was a bestseller. Other TV work included Dinosaucers (with Ted Pedersen) produced by DIC Entertainment. He also wrote the second of 24 books in the Time Machine series, Search for Dinosaurs, which is actually about finding Archaeopteryx, the first bird. In addition to some seventy-five original novels, Bischoff wrote tie-in novels for well-known movies and TV series such as Aliens, Alien Versus Predator, Farscape, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Space Precinct, SeaQuest DSV, and Jonny Quest. He also wrote show-business related nonfiction using a variety of pseudonyms. In 2000, The Washington Post termed him the "greatest living wrestling writer" for his work as "Winchell Dredge" for Wild Rampage Wrestling magazine.

Teaching

Bischoff taught creative writing at Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania.

Selected bibliography

Novels

Fiction series

Short story collections

Anthologies edited by David Bischoff

Short fiction

Death

Bischoff died on March 19, 2018. The cause was complications from liver disease, according to his former wife, Martha Bayless.