David Gerrold

David Gerrold (born 1944) is an American science fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. He worked on each television version of Land of the Lost, creating the Sleestak race in the process. Gerrold's novelette "The Martian Child" won both Hugo and Nebula awards, and was adapted into a film starring John Cusack. He coined the term "Computer Virus" in a 1969 short story, popularizing it further in his 1972 novel When HARLIE Was One.