D. C. Fontana

Dorothy Catherine "D. C." Fontana (born March 25, 1939) is an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original Star Trek series.

Work with Gene Roddenberry

Originally Gene Roddenberry's secretary,^[1] she wrote for Star Trek from the outset, starting with the original TV series from 1966 to the end of its production run. During that time she wrote such episodes as "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "Friday's Child", "Journey to Babel", "This Side of Paradise", and "The Enterprise Incident".

Under the pen name Michael Richards, Fontana wrote "That Which Survives" and "The Way to Eden", both from the show's third season. In the Season 2 DVD featurette "Writer's Notebook: D.C. Fontana" she stated that her use of the "Michael Richards" pseudonym (a combination of her two brothers' names, Michael and Richard) was "an indication of a script (where) I didn't particularly care for what had been done to it, so I took my name off it."

Fontana also wrote under the name J. Michael Bingham. This pseudonym was used for the story and teleplay credits for "The Naked Now", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The story credit was shared by John D. F. Black, who had written "The Naked Time", the original series episode to which "Naked Now" was an homage.

She also wrote the episode "Yesteryear" for the Emmy Award winning Star Trek: The Animated Series.

She wrote several episodes in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation starting with the 1987 pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", and the episode "Dax" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1993.

Between Star Trek assignments, she wrote the novelization of another Roddenberry project, The Questor Tapes. In 1989, Pocket Books published her novel, Vulcan's Glory, which concerns Spock's struggle to reconcile his Vulcan heritage with his obligations to Starfleet and his duties to family — and his own heart's desires.

Other screenwriting work

Fontana has written scripts for other science fiction shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man (episode "Straight on 'till Morning" and episode "Rescue of Athena One" starring Farrah Fawcett-Majors) in 1974, Logan's Run in 1977 (not to be confused with the 1976 movie), Babylon 5 in 1994 (episodes "The War Prayer" and "Legacies" in season one, and "A Distant Star" in season two), and Earth: Final Conflict in 1997.

Her writing credits include children's shows such as the 1970s series Land of the Lost—which also featured other Star Trek veterans—He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in 1983 (episode "Battle Cat"), and the Beast Wars episode "Crossing the Rubicon". She co-wrote "Where No Sprite Has Gone Before", a 1997 episode of the CGI television series ReBoot.

An episode of the Internet-based fan-made Star Trek series Star Trek: New Voyages, "To Serve All My Days", was also written by Fontana and features a guest appearance by Walter Koenig reprising his role of Pavel Chekov in TOS.

Bethesda Softworks reports that Fontana, along with her partner Derek Chester, wrote the storylines for the video games Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek: Tactical Assault.^[2]

Fontana and Chester also wrote for IDW Publishing's comic line Star Trek – Year Four. They were involved with the second miniseries titled The Enterprise Experiment.^[3]

In addition to her science-fiction scripts, Fontana has written episodes of such television series as Bonanza, The High Chaparral, The Big Valley, Dallas, The Waltons and The Streets of San Francisco.

References

1. ↑ "Database - Fontana, Dorothy (D.C.)". CBS Studios Inc. Retrieved 9 March 2012. 
2. ↑ "Bethesda Softworks Announces Involvement of Famed STAR TREK® Writer D.C. Fontana for Upcoming Games". GamesIndustry.biz. 7 August 2006. Retrieved 2 May 2015. 
3. ↑ "Star Trek: Year Four mini-series from IDW 2008". startrekcomics.info. 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015. 

External links

• D. C. Fontana at the Internet Movie Database
• D.C. Fontana interview video at the Archive of American Television