Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron078.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 1/23/98 5:00:52 PM Mountain Standard Time From: RonDMoore

Not much time, so let's get right to it:

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I'm not that surprised. I knew that there'd be a fair chunk of the audience that would be rooting for there to be a silver lining in Dukat's dark soul, but I thought it was important to lay out some kind of judgement on this guy. He's a Villain. He's charismatic and intriguing, but he's an evil guy who's done some exceptionally evil things. Be titillated by him, be amused by him, be fascinated with him, but don't forget who he is and what he's done. BTW, the scripted lines in Sisko's final scene were a little different than those that aired. The scripted line was, "Then you spend some time with a man like Dukat, and you begin to realize that there is such a thing as evil after all." As aired it was, "...and you begin to realize that there is such a thing as pure evil." Avery was more comfortable with this version and I supported him in changing the lines.

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The shrouding ability is biological in nature and seems to be linked to the amount of White in the body.

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There are no plans for any TNG guest stars to recur at the moment. However, all you fans of pointed-ears and padded-shoulders may be interested to know that some Romulans may be on the horizon after all...

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They were all representatives of Dukat's inner demons: Weyoun -- the demon that tells him the Dominion is smarter, tougher and better than him; Damar -- the loyal aide forever trying to prop him up and convince him that he himself is the greatest of them all; and Kira -- the nagging voice of self-loathing that condemns him for his crimes and tells him that he'll fail in the end.

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The 9th Fleet has its headquarters on DS9, but that doesn't mean that the ships of that fleet are there all the time, in fact they probably spend more time away from the station than actually docked there.

<< Landing Pad A is shown as an Upper Docking Pylon. Was this to delay Bareil or a mistake?>>

I'm not sure about this one.

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No. The talks failed and Cabral did not change hands.

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Weird, but coincidental.

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No, but we were very familiar with them.

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We've tweaked them a few times and the new versions were seen at the wedding of Worf & Dax.

Subj: Answers Date: 1/23/98 5:37:43 PM Mountain Standard Time From: RonDMoore

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I just noticed this myself. I believe it's a continuity error and that the pip should be solid (Ensign).

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No. I named the character, but I don't recall where I grabbed the name.

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Nice to see that the high level of discourse on this board has not suffered in my absence.

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"Waltz" began life as a story we called "Dukat's Head" around the office. The notion was for Sisko to go visit Dukat in the mental hospital and while Sisko was trying to engage the catatonic Cardassian in conversation (by speaking in alliterative sentences) we would push in on Dukat's face and then go inside his head and show us the fantasy life he was living. The story would've gone into the past, dealt with his Bajoran mistress (Ziyal's mother, whose name escapes me at the moment) his rise to power, his treatment of the Bajorans and even the fantasy life he was trying to construct for himself on Terok Nor with Kira as his wife and himself as beloved leader of Cardassia & Bajor. We struggled with the storyline for quite a while, but never found a way to make it compelling. Eventually, we noticed that the scenes we liked the best were the ones in the hospital room between Sisko and Dukat and we decided to toss out everything but that. However, some of the character dynamics we had envisioned for the fantasy sequences eventually were realized in the phantom images of Weyoun, Damar, and Kira as they appeared in Dukat's hallucinations.

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I doubt it.

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No.

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This is the first I've heard of it.

<<After finding out that Dukat hadn't fixed the rescue beacon and that the shuttle could fly, can we the viewers question just about everything else Dukat tried to give as fact about the accidental death of the guard, Sisko's supposed sickness, Dukat's inability to fix Sisko's arm,etc.? That he, being insane, planned the scenario after escaping to get Sisko alone?>>

Initially, I had included a scene where you actually saw Dukat drag Sisko out of the shuttle and then turned and discovered that the Lt. had died during the journey. I didn't want to imply that Dukat had killed him, because I thought that it would distract us from the drama, but the scene got cut for time and so the reference to the Lt. is a "widow" -- a term we use for a line that refers to something no longer in the script. All the other things you mention were true -- Sisko's arm was shattered, and he did get violently sick the night before.

<<Ron... did you have any particular inspiration for Keevan? How did you come up with the character? >>

No one in particular directly inspired the character. I just tried to make him as despicable as possible while making his motivations completely believable.

That's all the time I've got for now -- have a great weekend everyone!

Subj: Answers -- Sort of Date:  1/23/98 6:42:15 PM Mountain Standard Time From: RonDMoore

Just wanted to say that BirdofPrey's attempt to tighten up the board a bit has my endorsement. As much as I like the concept of "anything goes" in here, I think it's only fair to moderate that somewhat in consideration of all the fans who come here solely for a chance to ask Trek questions. As the Bird said in his below posting, it's still a free-for-all on topics, but let's try to keep the *length* of discussion to something reasonable and try to leave those dead equines alone.

STFC:BOP --

<<...Yes, Ron himself has said he does not mind the side threads. He supports "free expression" in message boards, as do I. His idea of free expression went a bit further than mine, though,and went so far as to endorse the theory of "off-topic doesn't exist" for his folder. I was more than willing to agree to this in exchange for his presence in our forum.

Lately, however, an alarming trend has developed. People take threads to the ends of the universe. Others use this folder for their own agendae. Still more try to save money on psycho-therapy by sharing their innermost souls and outermost feelings.

So what are we asking here? (Yes, we- this has been discussed with Ron.) Not much- just, let's try to get back to basics.

Why is this folder here? 1. To Ask RonDMoore. 2. To wait courteously for a reply 3. to comment on questions people ask Ron 4. To comment on Ron's gracious replies 5. And maybe take these comments off on a tangent. 6. To realize, once that tangent has been explored, to LET IT GO

Please note, # 3 4 5 and 6 above still allow the free-discussion Ron endorses. However, even he has shown concern at the total morass some of the more recent folders have become. Face it, would *you* want to try to sift through some of that to find where people asked you questions?

To summarize- let's remember that Ron's here for us- not vice versa Let's try to show him some appreciation by making his participation a bit easier! (Then maybe we'll see him more often!)

STFC B0P>>