toobfreak
Tungsten/Glass Member
Whither Star Trek? No, not quite, but short of Gene Roddenberry himself, probably the second person most responsible for the world of Star Trek has just died: Dorothy Fontana.
Commonly known as DC Fontana, because back in the 60s, she used her initials to hide that she was a woman because she was breaking into TV writing which was a male-only universe, DC began her life as a secretary for Sam Peeples (best known as the writer for the 2nd pilot for Star Trek where they ventured beyond the edge of the galaxy and crew members took on ESP powers and became god-like, the script which SOLD the series to NBC), she then began working on a TV series called The Lieutenant, a TV show created and produced by Gene Roddenberry which when cancelled, moved over to Star Trek with Gene to become his story editor there.
While there, despite not initially having an interest in sci-fi, she was encouraged by Bob Justman (The Outer Limits) and she began also writing teleplays and story treatments for many of Star Trek's best episodes which included:
Charlie X
Tomorrow Is Yesterday
This Side of Paradise
Journey to Babel
Friday’s Child
The Enterprise Incident,
That Which Survives &
The Way To Eden, among others.
Spock was featured in many of these.
Dorothy more than anyone else was the person who introduced and fleshed out many of Mr. Spock’s most notable, popular and relatable characteristics, including his inner conflicts, struggles between emotion and logic, his love interests and his relationships with his family. From there, she became a producer, worked on The Questar Tapes, Genesis II, & ST The Animated Series. Other work included:
The Fantastic Journey
Logan’s Run
Six Million Dollar Man
Buck Rogers
The Waltons
The Streets of San Francisco
Battlestar Galactica
and Star Trek The Next Generation, where during the first season, she worked to help develop the series and write the pilot.
Other work involved Star Trek books, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. Along the way she won many awards.
Filmography included work on:
The Tall Man
Ben Casey
The Big Valley
Bonanza
Land of the Lost
Kung Fu
Dallas
War of the Worlds
among many others..
She passed away December 2 at the age of 80 after a short illness.
Commonly known as DC Fontana, because back in the 60s, she used her initials to hide that she was a woman because she was breaking into TV writing which was a male-only universe, DC began her life as a secretary for Sam Peeples (best known as the writer for the 2nd pilot for Star Trek where they ventured beyond the edge of the galaxy and crew members took on ESP powers and became god-like, the script which SOLD the series to NBC), she then began working on a TV series called The Lieutenant, a TV show created and produced by Gene Roddenberry which when cancelled, moved over to Star Trek with Gene to become his story editor there.
While there, despite not initially having an interest in sci-fi, she was encouraged by Bob Justman (The Outer Limits) and she began also writing teleplays and story treatments for many of Star Trek's best episodes which included:
Charlie X
Tomorrow Is Yesterday
This Side of Paradise
Journey to Babel
Friday’s Child
The Enterprise Incident,
That Which Survives &
The Way To Eden, among others.
Spock was featured in many of these.
Dorothy more than anyone else was the person who introduced and fleshed out many of Mr. Spock’s most notable, popular and relatable characteristics, including his inner conflicts, struggles between emotion and logic, his love interests and his relationships with his family. From there, she became a producer, worked on The Questar Tapes, Genesis II, & ST The Animated Series. Other work included:
The Fantastic Journey
Logan’s Run
Six Million Dollar Man
Buck Rogers
The Waltons
The Streets of San Francisco
Battlestar Galactica
and Star Trek The Next Generation, where during the first season, she worked to help develop the series and write the pilot.
Other work involved Star Trek books, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. Along the way she won many awards.
Filmography included work on:
The Tall Man
Ben Casey
The Big Valley
Bonanza
Land of the Lost
Kung Fu
Dallas
War of the Worlds
among many others..
She passed away December 2 at the age of 80 after a short illness.
