It is true that, with TV, a writer gets a great deal more respect.

Space and spacecraft and zero gravity and so forth are very difficult to render.

Directing offers you the hope that your vision will reach the screen, unmolested and intact. Therefore, it's tantalizing to all writers.

I would say that working with Ridley Scott makes the process of directing much more terrifying.

It is true that, with TV, a writer gets a great deal more respect.

I studied physics at Princeton when I was a college student, and my initial intention was to major in it but to also be a writer. What I discovered, because it was a very high-powered physics program with its own fusion reactor, was that to keep up with my fellow students in that program I would need to dedicate myself to math and physics all the time and let writing go. And I couldn't let writing go, so I let physics go and became a science fan and a storyteller.

Real space movies have to involve zero gravity and a world without up or down.