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Subj:  Answers
Date:  1/26/98 1:33:35 PM Mountain Standard Time
From:  RonDMoore

With this many questions, I've got to just move forward.  Repost anything I 
missed.

<<did Chief O'Brien attend Starfleet academy, some books say he graduated 
4th in his class and novels say he didn't attend, so which one is right???>>

O'Brien's backstory hasn't been very consistant over the years, but the idea
is that he is an enlisted man who did not attend the Academy.

<<So do you have to shoot around actors who get a movie or t.v. show while 
taping this series?>>

We make every effort to allow our actors to do other projects and this 
sometimes means a character's participation in an episode will be affected.
It's usually not a problem.

<<Do we get another O'Brien ep. even though we have to wait for "Honor Among
Thieves",  it seems like all the actors get at least 2 eps. in a season?>>

We don't have another O'Brien show in the works, but we would like to do one
before the year is out.

<<And Season 7 will we see it? and do we get all actors back to the 
series?>>

There will be a Season 7.  We hope to get everyone back.

<<Did you intend Waltz to show a change in Dukat (not just that he's 
dangerously psychotic)?>>

The intention was to dig down and reveal something in Dukat, both to the 
audience and to the character himself.  He really did hate the Bajorans and 
he really does wish he'd killed them all.  That's the dirty little secret
he's tried not to confront head-on all these years, and now finally, he's 
said it out loud and accepted it about himself.

<<So my quesiton (at last)... is how do you define "evil" when you say Dukat
is an "evil guy". Do you mean there is no good side? He is totally dark with
no glimmers of light?  Or do you have a less strict definiton than I do?>>

I don't think of him as being completely evil through and through to the 
point where every thought, every impulse is shaded by a nefarious agenda or 
horrid motive. We've seen other aspects to this guy over the years.  He 
*can* be charming.  He *can* be generous.  He *can* do the right thing.  
All of that somehow makes his "evil" actions all the more dispicable, 
because we know that there was the potential in there for him to be a better
person.  But sometimes the cliches are true:  Hitler loved his dog.  No 
human being (and by extension, no Cardassian) is one hundred percent pure 
evil.  But there is a "critical mass", if you will, where the dark deeds 
attributed to one person become so overwhelming that they swamp all the
redeeming characteristics.  Dukat is a bad guy.  A very bad guy.  He has a 
lot of blood on his hands and it's hard to see how his smile and innate 
charm can wipe that clean.  Dukat wouldn't be Dukat if we weren't fascinated
with him -- but then, we've always been fascinated with evil, haven't we?

<<Why must the Defiant's cloak be dropped for transport, when this doesn't 
appear to be the case for Klingon ships (see: Unification) or Romulan 
ships?>>

I believe that both Romulan and Klingon ships must drop their cloaks in 
order to use the transporter.

<<Terms like EVIL are meant to CONDEMN, period.  And that attitude DOES 
seem out of place in a StarFleet officer, or any Federation citizen.  The 
Feds know by now that hunger, poverty, insufficient shelter and medical 
care, and the inability to use one�s gifts to contribute to one�s culture 
due to poverty and other lacks of opportunity are the base-line evils.>>

Yes, hunger, poverty, insufficient shelter and medical care and the 
inability to use one's gifts to contribute are evils.  But so is murder and 
so is the forcible subjugation of an entire people.  Dukat committed both 
these acts and unleashed untold horrors on Bajor.  We may find a reason to 
explain why he did all this, but that is fundamentally different from 
*forgiving* him.


Subj:  Answers
Date:  1/26/98 1:49:40 PM Mountain Standard Time
From:  RonDMoore

<<So, "Waltz" started life as "Dukat's Head"....  with Elmo flashing back to
key point in his life, such as his affair with Ziyal's mother, his superiors
at Central Command, etc.  Eventually, this idea mutated into Elmo seeing 
projections of his mind in the form of Kira, Weyoun, and Damar.
Why these three?  More specifically, why did you decide not to use Ziyal as
a voice of conscious?>>

They were the most obvious choices to me because they did neatly represent 
different aspects of his inner turmoil.  We had lengthy discussions about 
using Ziyal as one of the phantoms, but it seemed like she would take Dukat
in another direction.  In his mind, Ziyal would've been the one phantom 
trying to rescue him, to make it all okay, and let him paper over his 
conflicts.  (Again, we're talking about the *phantom* Ziyal and what she 
would represent in Dukat's mind.)  That wasn't a note I wanted to sound in 
the drama.  I wasn't trying to have Dukat struggling with the phantoms so 
much as with Sisko.  Also, the whole issue of Ziyal would be a huge 
explosive trigger in his mind -- her death sent him over the edge -- and I
 didn't want to go there in this episode.

<<"If the events, that have transpired most recently, within the television 
series Voyager, the episode entitled "Message in the Bottle", will be 
carried over or elaborated on, in some fashion, within the Deep Space Nine 
program?>>

We have no plans to follow up "Message in a Bottle."

<<Over the years Garak has become my favorite charachter on DS9, are there 
any plans for him to have a really great story, and maybe become a regular 
cast member?>>

I'm working on a show right now that will prominently feature Garak, 
although it's really more of a Sisko show.   There are no plans for Garak to
become a regular cast member.

<<Do the actors change the written lines often?  Or does this happen only
occassionally?  It must be frustrating for a writer.>>

This is a collaborative process.  The actors have insights into the 
characters that the writer does not and vice versa.  We're very receptive to
input from the men and women who actually have to stand in front of a camera
and SAY THE LINES.  If they're not comfortable with something, we'll make 
every effort to accomodate them.  I have no problem with the line changes 
in "Waltz."

<<In First Contact, Will Riker, speaking to Worf about the Defiant, says: 
"Tough little ship." When you wrote that, were you referring to or thinking
of the episode of DS9 called "Defiant", in which Tom Riker says the exact 
same line?>>

This is the first I've heard of this.  Nothing like stealing from yourself.

<<Mr. Moore...will we being seeing more of Leeta this season?? (please)>>

Yes.

<<Is Bajor still neutral even tho' they are clearly allowing and opening 
their arms to the Federation on DS9?? Can they trade again with other 
planets now that the Dominion is back into Cardassian space??>>

We haven't directly answered these questions yet.

<<Have you or the writers considered the "demons" tromenting Dukat to be 
pah-wraiths attempting to seduce Dukat to their side in their war against 
the prophets?>>

We've considered a LOT of things.  However, the demons plaguing Dukat are 
entirely his own.

<<Will the Dominion be approaching Alpha quad shapeshifting races to form a
alliance?  (eg. the shapeshifting race whose princess Wesley fell in love 
with during the 1st or 2nd TNG season, the Chemelionoid (??) from ST:VI and
others) >>

We have no plans to deal with any other shapeshifting races.

<<I was listening to a radio broadcast of the music from the original 
Trouble With Tribbles episode and I wondered what you did about the music 
for the DS9 episode? Did you reuse music for the original scenes or rescore 
the whole thing based on themes from the original?>>

We rescored the entire piece.

<<What about Dax's promotion to Captain?>>

Dax was not promoted to Captain.  While in command of the Defiant, she was 
addressed as "Captain" but that is simply a courtesy.
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