Nicholas Meyer has done a lot of awesome things besides Star Trek, including writing "The Seven-Percent Solution" which is still my favorite Sherlock Holmes derivative story. He basically wrote Star Trek II in a couple of weeks without knowing much about the show before he began, having been hired by Paramount which was up against hard deadlines and hadn't been able to get a usable story or script. He also wrote ST IV and ST VI, and is basically responsible for the rule that only the even-numbered Trek movies were good. His memoir, "The View from the Bridge" (if I recall the title correctly) is a really fun read.