Ronald D. Moore Appreciation Thread

[Too Much Fun]

I've been thinking about what a great writer Ronald D. Moore is as I've been reading up on the histories of TNG and DS9 while going through all the episodes of each series. What inspired me to start this thread, however, was a post in the DS9 forum by "GodBen":

Since I'm a Ron Moorephile

I didn't know such a thing existed, but I guess I'm one too. If you look over this man's writing credits, you'll see that he was extremely consistent during his tenure on Star Trek, and was responsible for some of the best stories and episodes to ever come out of the franchise.

On top of that, he deserves much respect for being one of the most productive and successful members of the TNG and DS9 staff post-Star Trek, due to his significant role in Battlestar Gallactica's resurgence. His record isn't spotless (i.e. "Star Trek: Generations"), but nobody's perfect, and after all the amazing TNG and DS9 stuff he's given us, I can forgive him for a few transgressions.

What are everyone else's favourites of the work he's done solo or with a single co-writer? Mine would have to be...

TNG

"Family"
"Relics"
"Tapestry"
"All Good Things..."
"Star Trek: First Contact"

DS9

"Trials and Tribble-Ations"
"Re-Joined"
"You are Cordially Invited"


Looking over these choices, I can see that he was particularly adept at telling romantic and family-orientated stories on Star Trek. His flair for telling stories about family could be seen both when he was illustrating how much of a family the crew members are to each other, and when he was showing their dealings with biological family members. I should also mention what a huge contribution Moore made to Star Trek's rich Klingon history with episodes like "Redemption", "Sons of Mogh", and "Soldiers of the Empire". I think Moore is definitely one of the unsung heroes of Star Trek.

[M]

We're called RDM Bootlickers, too. But we're proud of it.

[Astraea]

Not to mention nu-BSG, which is frackin' awesome (well, at least thus far...I'm a latecomer who's only at the beginning of S2.)

[BillJ]

Astraea wrote:

---

Not to mention nu-BSG, which is frackin' awesome (well, at least thus far...I'm a latecomer who's only at the beginning of S2.)

I was a fan for a while... then it becomes a massive circle-jerk. Mid-way through season 3 I had finally had enough. Tricia Helfer is still a babe though.

[MyCylon]

I certainly liked his work on Trek a lot. I felt he particularly came through on DS9. Yes, he messed up every now and then. But overall, I think he was one of the best writers if not THE best writer on the DS9 staff. He always seemed have a great grasp of the characters, I felt.
I remember always looking forward to his episodes the most even though I loved each and every bit of DS9.

And my admiration for his work has continued and even been raised up until this very day by nuBSG. Amazing show. It actually managed to take over from DS9 as my favorite tv show.

[Astraea]

BillJ wrote:

---

I was a fan for a while... then it becomes a massive circle-jerk. Mid-way through season 3 I had finally had enough. Tricia Helfer is still a babe though.

Yeah, and BSG is the first SF show to offer eye candy for girls! I was pleasantly surprised by Captain Lee Adama [And His Towel].

And I'm still enjoying...

Cally just shot Sharon today! Completely didn't see that coming, although, in retrospect, I had no idea of what they were going to do with the version of Sharon that was on the Battlestar.

OT: Random BSG question: Are the credits going to change every season now?

[MyCylon]

^
I think they change just about every season.

[Phily B]

My favourite TNG episodes are his, I wish he was given control of Trek rather than tweedle dum and tweedle dee.

[RandyS]

Phily B wrote:

---

My favourite TNG episodes are his, I wish he was given control of Trek rather than tweedle dum and tweedle dee.

I wished that too, but then watched New Galactica. After the way he destroyed THAT universe, I'm glad we got the Trek that we did.

[Temis the Vorta]

RandyS wrote:

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I wished that too, but then watched New Galactica. After the way he destroyed THAT universe, I'm glad we got the Trek that we did.

If RDM had been in control of ENT, we would have had a whole round of complaints for that, too. Different and far more interesting complaints, perhaps. The real trouble with the Beebs was that their deficiencies were so pedestrian.

[TheGodBen]

I stop coming to GenTrek for a couple of weeks and I come back to see that I've inspired new topics. Neat.

It goes without saying that I love Ron Moore's work both on Trek and nuBSG. He did have a very consistent track record of great or good episodes, and after skimming the complete list of episodes he wrote the worst I can see is The Bonding (his first episode) and Aquiel (yes, I think Generations was good for all its faults). Considering the fact that he is only beaten by Braga for the number of episodes written, that's not bad.

On the flip side you have The Defector (his second episode and my personal favourite TNG episode), Tapestry, The Pegasus, The Die is Cast, Rocks and Shoals, Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges and many more. He also did an uncredited rewrite of In the Pale Moonlight which is my all-time favourite Trek episode

I didn't like nuBSG at first, but over the last few years I rewatched TNG and DS9 while paying attention to the writing credits, and that is how I realised he is my favourite Trek writer. When I realised it was him who was heading up BSG I decided to give it another shot last year and it has since managed to become my favourite show on TV. My favourite episodes are Occupation and Precipice at the start of season three, both of which were written by Moore.

I also watched Star Trek TOS for the first time last year and my favourite episode is The Conscience of the King. I went to the Memory Alpha page for the episode to see that it is his favourite episode too. Our brains must be working on the same wavelength or something.

Right, I've reached my sycophancy limit for the day.

[Keith1701]

Astraea wrote:

---

Not to mention nu-BSG, which is frackin' awesome (well, at least thus far...I'm a latecomer who's only at the beginning of S2.)

Yes, I must say that I have really enjoyed the new Battlestar Galactica series thanks to Ronald D. Moore......I wish the series would still continue, it's sad that we only have two more new episodes left in the series.

[Myasishchev]

He's something of a visionary, and a great writer and a great boon to Trek, but BSG is kind of a really awesome-to-watch mess. I still enjoy the heck out of it, but the whole show is like an unplanned pregnancy.

Also, the Cylons = Changelings (infilitration) + Vorta (clones with memory downloads). I just realized that.

[Cronos6939]

GodBen wrote:

---

I rewatched TNG and DS9 while paying attention to the writing credits, and that is how I realised he is my favourite Trek writer.

I was the same way for the most part. I don't know that i have a favorite writer, but he's definitely one of my favorites. I really liked the reinvention (from TOS) of the Klingons in TNG, and he was pretty much the guru of all that. And I was one of those people who, when nuBSG came out, I wasn't at all interested. One day, I neglected to change the channel and caught a season one ep; I was hooked.

[DevilEyes]

Too Much Fun wrote:

---

I've been thinking about what a great writer Ronald D. Moore is as I've been reading up on the histories of TNG and DS9 while going through all the episodes of each series. What inspired me to start this thread, however, was a post in the DS9 forum by "GodBen":

I didn't know such a thing existed, but I guess I'm one too. If you look over this man's writing credits, you'll see that he was extremely consistent during his tenure on Star Trek, and was responsible for some of the best stories and episodes to ever come out of the franchise.

On top of that, he deserves much respect for being one of the most productive and successful members of the TNG and DS9 staff post-Star Trek, due to his significant role in Battlestar Gallactica's resurgence. His record isn't spotless (i.e. "Star Trek: Generations"), but nobody's perfect, and after all the amazing TNG and DS9 stuff he's given us, I can forgive him for a few transgressions.

What are everyone else's favourites of the work he's done solo or with a single co-writer? Mine would have to be...

TNG

"Family"
"Relics"
"Tapestry"
"All Good Things..."
"Star Trek: First Contact"

DS9

"Trials and Tribble-Ations"
"Re-Joined"
"You are Cordially Invited"


Looking over these choices, I can see that he was particularly adept at telling romantic and family-orientated stories on Star Trek. His flair for telling stories about family could be seen both when he was illustrating how much of a family the crew members are to each other, and when he was showing their dealings with biological family members. I should also mention what a huge contribution Moore made to Star Trek's rich Klingon history with episodes like "Redemption", "Sons of Mogh", and "Soldiers of the Empire". I think Moore is definitely one of the unsung heroes of Star Trek.

Ron Moore is an awesome writer without any doubt. He wrote many of the best TNG episodes, a lot of the great DS9 episodes, he's worked on another excellent show (Carnivale) and of course, he created one of my favourite Sf shows, Battlestar Galactica, and BSG the episodes he was credited as a writer on were always some of its best - not to mention the creative input he had in everything else on BSG.

However, there is one big negative about him - as a showrunner he is nowhere as good as a writer. He needs someone to reign him in and explain to him than you can't just throw ideas and plots in there because they are 'cool', 'shocking' or 'interesting', even if you don't know where they will lead you; at least not if you are working on a show with a very Mythology-based long storyarc full of mysteries to be revealed. RDM has always been open about this being his prefered way of working on a show. But, as season 4 of BSG showed, this is not a good approach, and that's what lead him and the other BSG writers into writing themselves into a corner and having to pull unconvincing retcons and lame resolutions to somehow salvage the story.

My favourite Trek episodes Ron Moore was credited as a writer on:

TNG:
"The Defector"
"Sins of the Father", "Reunion"... basically all his Klingon episodes of TNG
"Tapestry"
"All Good Things"
"The Pegasus"
"Yesterday's Enterprise"
"The First Duty"


DS9:
"For the Cause" (Eddington's speech is one of the best bits he's ever written)
"Inter Arma Enim Silent Legis"
"Rocks and Shoals"
"The House of Quark" (Quark's speech in his 'fight' with the Klingon is another one of the best things RDM has written - and best bits of dialogue on Trek ever)
"Trials and Tribble-ations"
"Waltz"
"The Die is Cast"

other favorite TV episodes that Ron was credited as writer on:

BSG:
"Occupation/Precipice" (season 3) (I like the second ep in a two-parter better)
"Resurrection Ship" pt 1 (season 2)
Miniseries (pilot episode/TV movie)
"Kobol's Last Gleaming" pt 1 and 2 (season 1)
"33" (season 1)

Caprica:
Pilot episode

Carnivale:
he wrote just 3, al in S1, but they're all great so I'll list them all - roughly in this order of preference:
"Pick a Number" (ep 6)
"After the Ball is Over" (ep 2) (the scene in which Brother Justin makes the paedophile confront his sins was just chilling)
"The Day that Was the Day" (S1 finale)