Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron048.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 8/6/97 9:04:06 PM From:  RonDMoore

<<"Call to Arms" ended with the crew scattered across the Alpha quadrant - some on the Defiant, some on the station, etc. Has that made life difficult for the writers in the opening episodes of season 6? In terms of juggling the characters, and so on? Or is it easy because the interaction is already dictated by the set-up? When did you decide that our heroes would lose the station - is it something you had planned for a while, or a late twist?>>

Splitting up the crew has both complicated and simplified matters. Usually, there's a fair amount of freedom given to the individual writer as s/he works on the teleplay with regard to the way the beat sheet (outline) is interpreted into actual scenes and dialog. Quite often I find myself venturing away from the outline as I write, changing the order of scenes, eliminating sequences that I feel don't work, altering character dynamics, etc. in order to make the finished draft work for me. Now that the first few episodes will be tied together more closely than anything we've attempted before, any changes made by one writer have unavoidable ripple effects through the other shows in the overall Dominion War arc and that has certainly complicated everyone's life tremendously. As a result, there's been a lot of rewriting and rewriting of rewriting, but it's also kept things fresh and made the sixth season a lot of fun so far.

On the positive side, splitting up the crew and the storylines has simplified the task of coming up with the basic stories. There's a clear goal that all the shows have to drive toward, namely getting the station back, and that makes it easier to keep ourselves focused on delivering the characters and the situation instead of getting stuck in the "What do we do next?" problem.

We had talked about losing the station to the Dominion for a long time. It was something that seemed like a great idea, and it was just a question of in what season we were going to go for it.

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We've always been attracted to doing comedic episodes. I think that some seasons we just have more of them sitting around than others. For me personally, I find the comedies particularly refreshing because it always drove me nuts the way TNG took itself soooooo seriously. I was forever sprinkling humor in my TNG episodes and would usually be forced to take 80% of the jokes out because of the "There's no humor in jeopardy situations," line of thinking.

Overall, I liked the comedies in year 5. I don't think "par'Mach" was as funny on screen as it was on the page and "For He Who is..." certainly fell short, but "In the Cards" & "Tribble-ations" seemed to play as did the humorous aspects of "Dr. Bashir, I Presume" and "Business as Usual."

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I think we all want there to be a seventh season, although there was a point when we all thought it would be better to go out strong at the end of six. But now we're sure that we could fill a seventh year with quality material and have fun doing it.

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Sorry, but I don't have any plans to come by.

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Definitely.

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I can tell you that the first six shows are called:

A Time to Stand Rocks and Shoals Sons and Daughters Behind the Lines Favor the Bold The Sacrifice of Angels

Is that enough for your tummy?