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Samuel Anthony Peeples (1917-1997) was an American writer and television screenplay author. He primarily published novels in the Western genre, often under the pen name Brad Ward. His screenplays were also primarily Westerns; however, he was a Science Fiction enthusiast and occasionally wrote television scripts for that genre. Peeples began writing for television in 1958. Most notably, Peeples was one of three writers selected to write a proposed second pilot for the Star Trek series and his script “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (1965) was filmed and sold the series. He worked closely with his friend and colleague Gene Roddenberry on both the Star Trek series and the 1977 TV Movie Spectre. Peeples also wrote several episodes for Filmation's Jason of Star Command series including the script for their animated TV movie and seven first-season episodes of the Flash Gordon series that resulted from it. In the Westerns genre his most notable credits include Overland Trail and The Tall Man. He died from cancer in 1997 at age seventy-nine.