A legendary figure behind Star Trek: The Original Series picked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine over Gene Roddenberry’s The Next Generation as their preferred spinoff show for several reasons. DS9 was the last Star Trek series that Gene Roddenberry was involved in before his death in 1991. However, given the writer’s ailing health, he only had an awareness of the project and its frontier town-style setting. DS9 hit screens two years after Roddenberry passed away, and the show’s stationary location and moral gray areas led fans to criticize Deep Space Nine for not embodying the Star Trek ethos.
This was completely untrue, as Star Trek: DS9 challenged Gene Roddenberry’s vision to make it more pertinent for a modern audience. As if to emphasize this, one of the key figures from Star Trek‘s inception picked DS9 as their favorite spinoff show. Dorothy Catherine Fontana, better known by her initials D.C. Fontana was a key part of Star Trek: The Original Series‘ creative team. She wrote such classic episodes as “Charlie X” and “Journey to Babel”. When Gene Roddenberry brought Star Trek back to TV in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation, Fontana also returned, but sadly she didn’t enjoy the experience as much as she enjoyed writing her one and only DS9 episode.
Why TOS’ D.C. Fontana Preferred Star Trek DS9 Over TNG
D.C. Fontana co-wrote the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1 episode “Dax”, which expanded on Trill culture. Working alongside Peter Allan Fields was a pleasant experience for Fontana, who was returning to the franchise after she departed Star Trek: The Next Generation under a cloud. After years of respectful silence, Fontana finally explained her reasons for leaving TNG until the 2014 documentary William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge. Fontana identified Gene Roddenberry’s lawyer Leonard Maizlish as an antagonistic figure whose behavior made her leave the show. Research consultant Richard Arnold verified Fontana’s recollection by telling the documentary that “Leonard was horrible to Dorothy.“
Fontana also said that she was irritated by the way that Gene Roddenberry would rewrite their scripts on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So annoyed was Fontana by Roddenberry’s rewrites that she adopted the pseudonym J. Michael Bingham on the script for Star Trek: TNG‘s early misfire “The Naked Now”. Reflecting on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine many years later, D.C. Fontana told Trek Movie that she felt the darker themes of DS9 would appeal to Roddenberry, despite fan’s reservations. She also felt that the show had much stronger characters than TNG, but “Dax” was her last ever Star Trek script, meaning viewers never got to see how she would approach the other DS9 characters.
What Did Star Trek’s D.C. Fontana Do After Her DS9 Episode?
D.C. Fontana went on to write three episodes for the other big space station series of the 1990s – Babylon 5 – after her one and only Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode. Fontana maintained her connection to the Star Trek franchise by writing the stories for the videogames Bridge Commander, Tactical Assault, and Star Trek: Legacy. When Majel Barrett unlocked the Roddenberry archive, D.C. Fontana was hired to write an episode of Earth: Final Conflict, but didn’t return for Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.
One of the best tributes to D.C. Fontana’s long list of credits was in the classic Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Far Beyond The Stars”. Set during the 1950s, it depicted the lives of a group of sci-fi writers including Benny Russell (Avery Brooks) and Kay Eaton (Nana Visitor). Kay was based on Dorothy Fontana, as she too used her initials when submitting stories to the magazine so that editors would believe they were written by a man. It was a sweet nod to one of Star Trek‘s most iconic writers from her favorite Trek show.
