Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana, one of the best writers for the original Star Trek series, has died at the age of 80. Here is one of several obituaries I found, from Variety.
She was the first woman to write for Trek, and, as I said, one of the best they had. She wrote “Journey to Babel,” which introduced Spock’s parents, as well as several more episodes, and also served as story editor for a time. Outside of Trek, she also wrote for Bonanza, The Streets of San Francisco, and The Six Million Dollar Man, among many others.
She also wrote the animated episode Yesteryear, which saw the return of the Guardian of Forever and Mark Lenard as Sarek and which also established Spock’s home city as Shi’Kahr and showed Spock’s pet sehlat.
Other Trek episodes that she wrote or helped write, that I enjoyed:
She did the teleplay for “The Ultimate Computer” from TOS, and helped Gene Roddenberry write the TNG premiere episode, “Encounter at Farpoint”. She also did “Heart of Glory”, a good early Worf episode, with two other people, and co-wrote the teleplay for DS9’s “Dax”, which laid the groundwork for a lot of important questions about the character.
Interesting fact: some of her last non-Trek screenwriting credits include episodes of “Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys,” “Beast Wars: Transformers,” and something called “Make Way for Noddy”.
I at least can personally confirm that the Transformers credit was indeed one of the best episodes.
RIP, indeed. She wrote some wonderful TOS scripts.
I am just at this very moment about to watch ‘This Side of Paradise’, one of my favorite Star Trek original series episodes. Where Mr. Spock ‘falls in love’ with Jill Ireland. <3
I remember watching reruns of Star Trek in the late 70’s. It came on after the news at 10:30. I saw DC Fontana in the credits and never knew it was a female writer.
IIRC she started as Gene’s secretary/assistant? Then started contributing to scripts. She eventually began writing new scripts. DC had quite a remarkable career.
Not precisely. She started out working as a secretary at a couple of studios, and also sold a few scripts, as early as 1960. She eventually wound up working as Roddenberry’s assistant when he was doing the series The Lieutenant, in 1963-64, but by that point, she already had a handful of script credits to her name.
When Roddenberry learned of her interest in writing, he encouraged her to pursue it. By the time Star Trek premiered in ‘66, Roddenberry named Fontana the series’ story editor, as well as one of its writers.
I wonder if she ever penned that line? In any case, one of the best writers Star Trek was ever blessed with. I hope they send her remains to the Genesis planet. They can’t afford to lose someone of her caliber.
Some reports are saying she wrote “The Way to Eden,” which she most emphatically did not. The original story was called “Joanna,” and was supposed to be about Dr McCoy’s grown daughter coming aboard the Enterprise and (of course) getting involved with Captain Kirk. However, the third season producer didn’t think McCoy was old enough to have a grown daughter. When the story was rewritten beyond recognition, Joanna’s part was given to Chekov’s Russian girlfriend and Dorothy washed her hands of the whole matter.
She also wrote the first drafts of “The *Enterprise *Incident,” which was supposed to be a retelling of the *USS Pueblo *story but was again mangled in rewrites. She went to Leonard Nimoy and apologized when she saw what had been done to the seduction scene with Spock and the Romulan Commander, making it clear that it was not her work.
This attribute of hers became a plot point in Deep Space Nine. The episode “Far Beyond the Stars” is set in New York in the 1950s, and features a science fiction writer who uses the pen name “K. C. Hunter” in order to hide her gender.
