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Subj:  Answers
Date:  7/22/97 23:47:16
From:  RonDMoore       

<<Did you ever get my question posted to Mr. Moore about the Save Star Trek
site?>>

I've seen the site.  There's something faintly amusing about reading how
Rick, Brannon, Jeri, and I are destroying the continuity of the show on a
website that can't get any of our titles or credits correct.  It may also be
the first time I've ever been referred to as a "Bureaucrat."

<<I have a question about the home video library.  Do you have episodes of
DS9 and the Star Trek movies on Video, or LD, or do you try and stay away
from those??  I you don't have the movies, have you seen the transfer on
First Contact?? >>

I have all of the TOS, TNG, and DS9 episodes on laserdisc (at least the ones
that have been released).  I also have VHS copies of all the TNG & DS9
episodes since I joined the show(s).  I haven't watched any of my old stuff
in quite a while, actually.  I still haven't sat down and watch FC on laser
-- it's too soon.  It'll be a year or so before I'll want to watch it again.

<< I know that this is asking a lot, but for all of us Defiant freaks out
here, is there anyway that we can get that scematic that is hanging on your
wall?>>

I don't know of anything out there with the cutaway schematic at the moment,
but merchandising is always issuing new stuff, so I'd keep watching for it.

<<remember Tom Riker? Just wondering...he's still in some Cardassian prison
camp isn't he?
Is ANYONE ever going to get him out of there?>>

It's always possible, but we have no plans for a Tom Riker show at the
moment.

<<What ever happenned to the Holo-Communicator? It was used in "For The
Uniform" and "Dr. Bashir, I Presume" but we haven't seen it since. Has thiing
to Dax (on the Defiant), they could've been using it.>>

We're still playing around with how and when to use the Holo-Communicator.
 For quick conversations like the one between Dax & Sisko in "Call to Arms"
it seemed unnecessary and intrusive.  We've moved it off the Defiant bridge
for now and put it in the Defiant Ready Room (which we may or may not see
this season).  I'm sure it'll pop up again this year.

<<First, just wondering if there's any chance at all of getting on the Star
Trek sets. I know celebrities have, what about friends of celebrities? How
about if I offer you oodles of money? :)>>

How many oodles in a million?
------------
Subj:  Answers
Date:  7/23/97 00:13:36
From:  RonDMoore       


<<my collaborator is a published, agented writer, so I will ask you again
(short version):  She insists that deadlines don't matter.  She was late with
her work, but everyone else was even later, so it was ok.  People called her
agent to tell the agent how great my friend is. She says this extends to
Hollywood as well; that people can be sloppy, careless and not get their work
in one time, and it's just fine.  To me, this all sounds like incredible BS,
as well as rationalization on the part of someone who can't meet deadlines.
 Yes/no?>>

There are deadlines and then there are deadlines.  There are certainly
situations where being late with a script is met with a great big yawn
because it's a low priority item for the studio or the producers or whoever,
but it's dangerous and stupid to take the attitude that "it doesn't matter."
 Of course it matters.  Are you a professional or not?  Can you be relied on
to turn it in when it I need it?  Sloppy?  Careless?  Do you have pride in
your craft?  Do you want me to hire you again?  This is a demanding and
highly competitive business, and while the stories of how bad work and bad
habits led to riches in Hollywood are legion, I wouldn't count on being
rewarded for lazy or blase'.  Find another collaborator.

<< Is Nog a Federation citizen?>>

Probably.

<<Is Rom a Federation citizen?  If so, why would Sisko leave him on DS9 to
spy?>>

I don't think Rom is a Fed citizen.  Also, I don't think Sisko actually hired
him as a spy -- that was probably Rom's own interpretation.

<<If, 15-20 years ago, you had had the opportunity to talk to Dorothy Fontana
or Gene Coon in a forum like this, what kind of questions would have asked?>>

I would've asked D.C. how she developed the Vulcan backstory and how she saw
the character of Spock.  I would've asked Gene Coon how he saw the series
overall, how he selected the mix of missions for the Enterprise, what he
thought was the backstory between Kirk & McCoy, and finally how he actually
approached his scripts.  Gene Coon is the one man I really wish I could've
met and talked to about the original series.  In many ways I've always wanted
to be a later-day Gene Coon -- maybe he didn't invent the old show and maybe
he didn't get all the credit, but he was the heart and soul of that
Enterprise, and his words are still with us.

<<Also, I'm curious to know, what kind of fan *were* you way back before TNG
and your current career?  Did you build starship models and attend
conventions wearing Spock ears?  Or did you sit in front of the frat house TV
late at night making fun of space Nazis and chugging a beer everytime Spock
said "logical"?>>

Growing up in Chowchilla didn't offer a lot of opportunity for any type of
organized fandom participation.  I, like many others, assumed that I was the
ONLY one still watching the show in the early seventies and I was quite
shocked to learn about the Cons happening in New York and Chicago.  I didn't
go to my first convention until I was in college -- a Con in Stony Brook, NY,
featuring Harlan Ellison and Walter Koenig that provided my first real taste
of fandom in 1984.  I did spend many evenings with the guys at KA watching
the original series with a beer in one hand, but we were all fans and we had
a ball.

<<Are Cirroc Lofton and Kenny Lofton the baseball player (I think he's on the
Braves) related?>>

I don't think so.

<<Question #1:  So, what's up, Ron Moore? How ya doing? >>

Oh, just dandy.

<<Question #2:  Briefs, Bikinis, or Boxers? or sans undergarmets?>>

Boxers.  And thanks for caring.

<<Question #3:  Blondes or Brunettes?>>

All deliveries should be made at the rear entrance, please.

<<Question #4:  Is the glass half-empty or half-full?>>

The glass is half-full and I'd like a refill anyway.
--------------
Subj:  Answers
Date:  7/23/97 00:46:34
From:  RonDMoore       

<<Besides the Female Klingon revelation, do you people really care what we
think of the work you do?  Do you ever read something here and say to
yourself, wow... I never thought of that.  Or rather, do you say to yourself,
screw you.  Is it hard to be objective about the franchise now that you are
apart of it?>>

I'm interested in what people think of my work -- what writer isn't?
 Sometimes I agree with what people say and sometimes I don't.  I try to
approach the commentary with an open mind, but I don't look at this as
"polling data" to be used as a method of shaping and influencing our work.  

I don't even try to be objective about the franchise.  How can I?  It's a
very personal thing for me and I've put a lot of myself and my personal
creativity into these shows for eight years now. In fact, it's my subjective
perspective -- opinions, ideas, emotions, likes, dislikes -- that provides
the material for you to watch.  I don't want to step back from the show, I
want to throw myself into it.

<<How did you decide which crew members wore which uniforms [in
Generations]?>>

I believe it was the director and costumer who made the choices and it
depended on the state of the individual costumes in question.

<<Will the Defiant's prefix number be changed to NCC from NX because there
are more Defiant class ships or will it stay NX becasuse the Defiant has a
cloaking device? >>

I'm not sure.  Changing the NX to NCC might mean having to redo any existing
Defiant shots in our VFX "library" of stock shots and that could cost $$.

<<Is John Noah Hertzler (the Vulcan captain in "Emissary") and J.G. Hertzler
(General Martok) the same man, or at least related?>>

They are not the same person and I have no idea if they're related.

<<What was it like when "The Bonding" first aired?  Did you have party?  Or
did you see it before it aired?  How did your family back home react to your
new found fame and fortune?  
How did you react?  >>

I watched the broadcast from my agent's office.  She threw a small party in
my honor since I was her first client to sell a TV script.  It was a very
satisfying moment, that's all I can recall.  I believe I was working on "The
Defector" by that point, so I knew there'd be at least one more episode with
my name on it, but I was determined not to let that one be the last.  My
family was very proud and surprised when I sold the show and my mother
quickly joined the Official Fan Club (she's still a member in good standing).
 

My strongest memory of this period in my life actually predates the sale of
that script.  It was the day I first set foot on the TNG sets.  I was getting
the set tour (with my as yet unsubmitted "Bonding" script tucked under my
arm).  We walked onto the Shuttle Bay set and there was Patrick Stewart, in
uniform, doing a complicated split-screen shot for "Time Squared." I remember
the shot to this day and can pick it out of the episode in a flash -- it's
where Picard and his future self are walking to the tiny shuttlecraft in the
bay.  I remember standing there, drinking it in and feeling so at home...
here I was, on the Enterprise at last, after all those years of imagining and
pretending.  

And the thing that I remember most as I stood there and ran my hands over the
metallic bulkheads and tried to burn the memory into my brain?  I said to
myself, "I'll be back."  It was a cocky, arrogant, and even corny thing to
do, but I swear to you, on that day, in that place, I was never more sure of
anything in my life.
---------------
Subj:  Answers
Date:  7/23/97 00:48:45
From:  RonDMoore       

<<Does your middle initial stand for Darius? Donahue? Donegal? Delenore?
Daltry? Deagan? Dalton? Dyson? Dunaway? Dennis?>>

No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.

<<Is Enabran Tain really Garak's father?? The dialogue in "In Purgatory's
Shadow" was rather cryptic.>>

I think so, but we left it cryptic enough to go either way.
---------------
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