American television writer who wrote For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky, the third-season original Star Trek episode about the asteroid ship Yonada.
Rik Vollaerts was a veteran television writer with credits on a great many American series of the 1950s and 1960s, including adventure and fantasy shows such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Batman.
His one Star Trek script is For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky. The Enterprise intercepts Yonada, a hollow asteroid built by the Fabrini as a generation ship and now on course to strike Daran V. Its people believe they live on a planet and are punished by the Oracle for questioning that belief. McCoy, newly diagnosed with a fatal illness, marries the priestess Natira and accepts the Oracle's instrument of obedience before Kirk and Spock reach the control room.
The episode gives McCoy a rare romantic storyline.