All of his films place an enormous emphasis on character, regardless of plot or genre, and contain witty, "earthbound" dialogue. Strong female characters are frequently present, whether they are good or evil, main or supporting:
- Lola Deveraux (Vanessa Redgrave) in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
- Amy (Mary Steenburgen) in Time After Time
- Lt. Savvik (Kirstie Alley) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Gillian (Catherine Hicks) and Amanda (Jane Wyatt) in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
- Beth Gallager (Anne Archer) and Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction
- Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall), Martia (Iman) and Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
- Consuela Castillo (Penélope Cruz) and Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson) in Elegy
- He wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which gained him an Oscar™ nod
- Time After Time was based on a then-incomplete novel by Karl Alexander, Meyer's friend from University of Iowa
- Merchant/Ivory's The Deceivers
- Philip Roth's The Human Stain
- Elegy from Roth's The Dying Animal
Outside of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Sherlock Holmes is frequently referenced (Star Trek II, IV and VI) as is Shakespeare:
- The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Holmes deduces that Freud is a great admirer of Shakespeare and at the end Freud quotes Shakespeare after discovering Holmes secret: "We are such stuff as dreams are made of".
- Star Trek II: The film was originally to be subtitled The Undiscovered Country before executives changed to it to Wrath of Khan due to George Lucas's then-titling of the third Star Wars film Revenge of the Jedi; Khan himself was played in the film in a manner similar to King Lear;
- Star Trek IV: When Kirk and McCoy are concerned about Spock's mental facilities, McCoy quotes Shakespeare, "Angels and Ministers of grace/Defend us," to which Spock immediately cites, "Hamlet Act I, Scene 4".
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Meyer recycles the subtitle The Undiscovered Country from Star Trek II, this time not referring to death, which was Shakespeare original meaning, but the optimistic future that Gorkon proposes for the Klingons and the Federation; The villain General Chang constantly quotes Shakespeare, even quoting him in Klingon-ese!
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The costumes and sets, especially the torpedo deck, are intentionally nautical in nature. In particular, the Battle in the Mutura Nebula is made to feel like a submarine battle. Hornblower, Meyer has said, was the inspiration for getting involved with the Star Trek series.
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Meyer continues the nautically themed sets, costumes and music, although the tone of the piece is less swashbuckling then Star Trek II and more elegiac.
- The Deceivers: The focus is on an English officer of the East India Company infiltrating the notorious gang of cult murders called "thugs".
- Time After Time: Jack the Ripper is positively excited by the mankind's contemporary capacity for violence and addresses it visually as he flips through the channels on a motel TV.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Genesis device has a destructive power analogous to the hydrogen bomb developed after WWII.
- The Day After: The film addressed the possibility of nuclear winter, intentionally de-emphasizing which country used first strike to accentuate the global consequences.
- Volunteers: As a comedy, the film was meant to poke fun at 1960s political icons like JFK and Albert Speer.
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Contemporary 1980s American culture is gently teased throughout, from the use of swearing ("Colorful metaphors") to its paranoia regarding Communist Russia.
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: The basic plot is based on the fallout of the Chernobyl disaster in the USSR and the end of the Cold War between the USA and USSR.
- Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution to deal with Holmes' cocaine habit.
- H.G. Wells is friends (unknowingly) with Jack the Ripper in Time After Time.
- Star Trek VI reveals that one of Spock's earth ancestor is actually
- In his screenplay adaptation of his novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Meyer rewrote the ending to prevent audiences who had already read the book from finding the film predictable.
- Star Trek II, IV, and VI: Meyer has often said he worked in blissful ignorance of the series and its mythology. In fact on VI, Meyer came to blows with Gene Roddenberry over the notion of human prejudice existing in the future in the Starfleet.
- Elegy: Meyer casually changed the title out of dissastifaction with the original title of The Dying Animal and was surprised when no one complained about it.
Two of his films have the distinction of advancing the use of computer generated imagery in films: the Genesis effect in Star Trek II as well as the floating Klingon blood in zero-gravity and the Praxis explosion in Star Trek VI.
Frequent collaborators include:
- Actor David Warner (Time After Time, Star Trek VI).
- Producer Steven-Charles Jaffe (Time After Time, The Day After, Star Trek VI)
- Producer Harve Bennett (Star Trek II and IV)
- Writer Denny Martin Flinn (The Deceivers, Star Trek VI)
- Cinematographer Gayne Rescher (Star Trek II, The Day After)
- Editor William Paul Dornisch (Star Trek II, The Day After)
- Composer James Horner (Star Trek II, Volunteers)
Meyer's films have launched or given a substantial boost to the careers of the following actors/collaborators:
- Mary Steenburgen (Time After Time)
- William Shatner and the rest of the cast of original series of Star Trek (Star Trek II)
- Kirstie Alley (Star Trek II)
- James Horner (Star Trek II)
- JoBeth Williams (The Day After)
- John Lithgow (The Day After)
- Amy Madigan (The Day After)
- Steve Guttenberg (The Day After)
- Pierce Brosnan (The Deceivers)
- Kim Cattrall (Star Trek VI)
- The only two films of Nicholas Meyer that grossed over $100 million are Fatal Attraction, which he made uncredited rewrites to (including the filmed alternate ending), and Star Trek IV, where he was credited as a co-screenwriter.
