The Legacy of DC Fontana?
- Thread starter TiberiusK
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Fontana became the custodian of Vulcan (and Romulan) culture on TOS. A lot of her script notes about Spock kept the reigns on the other writers (who otherwise wanted to introduce long lost Vulcan siblings from the get-go). DC forced them to be more innovative when exploring Spock. She worked with Roddenberry's earlier notes about Spock's uniqueness. He wasn't just unique among humans, he was also unique among Vulcans.
She also made TAS as good as it was. Although her title on that said "Story Editor", she was more like Executive Producer and Line Producer, IIRC, but the budget wouldn't allow a higher grade of credit.
Interestingly, with no Fontana (or a Roddenberry with the power of veto) on the horizon, ST II introduced a new half-Vulcan, then ST V introduced a Spock sibling, and ST VI a Spock daughter-analogue who turned traitor.
Too bad DC didn't get a chance to see "Joanna", about McCoy's daughter filmed as written. (Or the second attempt, "The Stars of Sargasso".)
DC's scene for De Kelley, Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn in the TNG premiere episode was gold.
She also made TAS as good as it was. Although her title on that said "Story Editor", she was more like Executive Producer and Line Producer, IIRC, but the budget wouldn't allow a higher grade of credit.
Interestingly, with no Fontana (or a Roddenberry with the power of veto) on the horizon, ST II introduced a new half-Vulcan, then ST V introduced a Spock sibling, and ST VI a Spock daughter-analogue who turned traitor.
Too bad DC didn't get a chance to see "Joanna", about McCoy's daughter filmed as written. (Or the second attempt, "The Stars of Sargasso".)
DC's scene for De Kelley, Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn in the TNG premiere episode was gold.
She brought to TOS an anthropological sensibility that really helped make aliens truly alien. Sadly, it disappeared from Trek when she did.
"To Serve All My Days".
The freedom of not having to follow canon, which delighted both DC Fontana and Walter Koenig for such a rare opportunity.
A "What if...?" story. DC Comics and Marvel Comics do those stories all the time. Why not "New Voyages"?
Stag said:
Don't leave me hanging...
Tell me more
You've never seen "Encounter at Farpoint"?
A brief, beautiful, poignant scene, delivered with aplomb by all three actors, backed by great music. I didn't mean to infer there was some "missing scene" that didn't get used.
Okay, the five morst important contributions of D.C. Fontana:
(1) The classic TAS episode »Yesteryear«, which not only gives a fascinating (no pun intended) look into vulcan society and Spock's backstory, but reminds us that great storytelling is not restricted to a live action format.
(2) I think she is (at least in the TOS decade) the most emotional voice amongst the authors of STAR TREK – maybe being a female accounts for that.
(3) Therin of Andor is absolutely right: Breaking the rules of STAR TREK must be a good contribution. Without question: »To Serve All My Days« is the strongest of the NV episodes to date.
(4) »Journey To Babel« is a wonderful, exceptionally fast paced episode, that introduced many things to STAR TREK.
(5) Showing (via a script for Babylon 5) that STAR TREK sees no enemy in other sci-fi shows.
(1) The classic TAS episode »Yesteryear«, which not only gives a fascinating (no pun intended) look into vulcan society and Spock's backstory, but reminds us that great storytelling is not restricted to a live action format.
(2) I think she is (at least in the TOS decade) the most emotional voice amongst the authors of STAR TREK – maybe being a female accounts for that.
(3) Therin of Andor is absolutely right: Breaking the rules of STAR TREK must be a good contribution. Without question: »To Serve All My Days« is the strongest of the NV episodes to date.
(4) »Journey To Babel« is a wonderful, exceptionally fast paced episode, that introduced many things to STAR TREK.
(5) Showing (via a script for Babylon 5) that STAR TREK sees no enemy in other sci-fi shows.
Everyone's pretty much nailed her 5 most important contributions already.
What's Dorothy Fontana's legacy in ST??
Looking at the broad picture of TOS...
Gene Roddenberry was the idea man for coming up with a great concept for the series. A positive future where humanity unites and overcomes their problems to go out into space and meet the diversity that's out there. "Hornblower in Space" or "Wagon Train to the Stars"
Gene Coon took Roddenberry's series concept and started finetuning it by coming up with such ideas as the Klingons, the Prime Directive, Starfleet, adding humor to the stories and came up with some great episodes like Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, Metamorphosis. Coon knew how to write good stories.
Fontana's legacy (to me) was being able to write realistic dialogue for the characters. She knew all the characters inside and out and was awesome in rewriting and polishing other people's scripts. Ordinary scripts came to live with polishing the dialogue and the characters so they came to life and sometimes carried the story in spite of itself.
In a nutshell, Rodenberry came up with a great series idea. Coon wrote great stories ideas for the series. Fontana was the expert on the characters and ideas for showcasing them in the stories.
What's Dorothy Fontana's legacy in ST??
Looking at the broad picture of TOS...
Gene Roddenberry was the idea man for coming up with a great concept for the series. A positive future where humanity unites and overcomes their problems to go out into space and meet the diversity that's out there. "Hornblower in Space" or "Wagon Train to the Stars"
Gene Coon took Roddenberry's series concept and started finetuning it by coming up with such ideas as the Klingons, the Prime Directive, Starfleet, adding humor to the stories and came up with some great episodes like Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, Metamorphosis. Coon knew how to write good stories.
Fontana's legacy (to me) was being able to write realistic dialogue for the characters. She knew all the characters inside and out and was awesome in rewriting and polishing other people's scripts. Ordinary scripts came to live with polishing the dialogue and the characters so they came to life and sometimes carried the story in spite of itself.
In a nutshell, Rodenberry came up with a great series idea. Coon wrote great stories ideas for the series. Fontana was the expert on the characters and ideas for showcasing them in the stories.
Let's not forget just how early she made her bones (so to speak): Charlie X, which I still think was a lovely, sensitive screenplay. Roddenberry got credit for the story (which was little more than an outline) but she fleshed it out.
Then she gave us This Side of Paradise, which allegedly got her the job as Story Editor. Is there a better ending line?
All this from Gene R.'s secretary. Even though she had written for TV before, she was doing Gene's gruntwork. I think she had fire, saw opportunity, and went for it--to the show's enormous benefit.
With Bobby Justman and Gene Coon, she will remain in my eyes an ST god.
Then she gave us This Side of Paradise, which allegedly got her the job as Story Editor. Is there a better ending line?
All this from Gene R.'s secretary. Even though she had written for TV before, she was doing Gene's gruntwork. I think she had fire, saw opportunity, and went for it--to the show's enormous benefit.
With Bobby Justman and Gene Coon, she will remain in my eyes an ST god.
When she came out for a New Zealand convention in the 90s, we were surprised to find that she'd then-recently married a much younger man than herself: the extremely talented Dennis Skotak, a SPFX guy who worked on productions such as "Battle Beyond the Stars", "Aliens" and "Terminator 2". So he was an amazing bonus guest for the convention.
That's true. The Vulcans and Romulans are the only aliens that seem to have their own internal logic (no pun intended, really) and are not simply reflections of humanity. Klingons, Cardassians, Ferengi, etc are just representatives of a certain aspect of human personality - like taking humans and slicing up their characteristics and doling them out to the aliens.
But the Vulcans (and I would assume the Romulans as well) are definitively different from humans - they have the problem of having more violent emotions than humans do, yet having to shape a functional society regardless - their central idea was truly alien to the human experience. I don't know if DC Fontana intended this, it wasn't till ENT that I heard a character actually SAY this canon-wise, but maybe before that we were expected to be smart enough to figure it out on our own?
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