Celebrity Death: D.C Fontana Star Trek writer

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,857
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
She was a behind the scenes legend to star trek fans.

She us the pen name DC Fontana to hide the fact she a woman writing sci fi because at the time writers were all Male.

DS9 had a strange time travel episode which she was one of the writers for where the prejudice was addressed.

She was also a legend for being approachable and friendly at conventions

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oQyM8BCCgwAA&usg=AOvVaw0SX32D9iiO1ZygcEupNLNN

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oQyM8BCDcwAw&usg=AOvVaw1IpcY3iqXef2H16_Lfo6iM
 

The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
87,977
31,207
Langley, BC
She was a huge influence on the original series. More than I think a lot of people realize (thanks in no small part to Gene Roddenberry's tendency to never publicly discourage the fandom from heaping all the praise for the show onto him) as she served as not just a writer, but also a story editor and script supervisor, responsible for taking incoming scripts and making sure they were consistent with the series in terms of tone and characterization. She was also one of the few people who worked on each of the first 4 Star Trek series (TOS, the animated TOS sequel, TNG, DS9) in some capacity as a writer
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,092
9,353
I was a little surprised that she was still alive. Apparently, she was only in her late 20s when she was working on the original series.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,857
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
Such a important person for the Star Trek franchise she will be missed R.I.P.


Also for female writers. On youtube there are several videos of how when she first started she was either send Male friends or in one case she hired an actor to pretend to be D.C. Fontana at meetings with the "suits" cause she knew that if they realized they had hired a woman they would fire her. Roddenbury was the one who told her to use her initials to throw the suits off her scent. She also had a reputation as being a bulldog when dealing with Rodenbury and how did certain things
 

NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
95,348
59,256
Ottawa, ON
Wow, seminal contributor to Trek.

What will be amazing is how many people worldwide know who she is. Trek fans are a very dedicated and close community.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,857
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
She is also responsible for what everyone calls The Star Trek bible. Until JJ took over and tossed it away, she was the one who laid out the rules that all shows in the original universe followed
 

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