Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron039.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 7/2/97 23:11:31 From: RonDMoore

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Our standing sets (the ones that are always there) are: The Promenade (2 levels) Quark's (2 levels) Infirmary Surgery (also redressed as Holding Cells) Security Office Replimat (really a part of the Promenade) -- all of the above sets are interconnected. Habitat Ring Corridor Airlock/Corridor Cargo Bay Sisko's Quarters (also redressed as Wardroom, and other quarters) Kira's Quarters (also Quark's quarters and other quarters) Ops Captain's Office Defiant Bridge Defiant Corridor Defiant Transporter Room Defiant Engine Room Defiant Mess Hall (also Defiant Sickbay) Runabout Cockpit Nondescript Caves

Sets that are in storage, like the Klingon Bridge, can be brought out and set up when needed, but there is still a substantial cost involved to break out the sets, assemble them, wire them, paint them, disassemble them and store them again.

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The plan is to put the holo-communicator in a different location, possibly the Captain's Ready Room (a new set that we may or may not establish this year).

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I'm not the only one who's done Klingon shows, but I do like writing for them and so many of the storylines have found their way to my desk either by direction or my own request.

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This always comes up in discussions and we have some stories planned for this season that might involve various psionic notions.

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The Dominion probably would've preferred to conquer the Federation by subversion and manipulation, but Sisko's mining of the wormhole forced their hand by cutting off both reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant and the lifeline of White needed by the Jem'Hadar.

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Definitely.

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A very strong possibility.

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This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but I don't have a good story yet that would justify spending the $$$ it will take to truly realize the Tholians onscreen (CGI). -- Subj: Answers Date: 7/2/97 23:45:33 From: RonDMoore

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These are good questions, but the truth is that Robert came up with the notion and I'm not sure what the technical answers are. Presumably there are technical limitations in the design that prevent the scenarios you're suggesti ng, but it wasn't necessary to explain them in the episode.

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That's a fun idea, but not one that's being considered at the moment.

<<Does DS9 (the show, not the station) have a fixed annual budget, and does that budget vary from year to year based upon ratings and potential ad revenue? Also, when you produce an episode substantially more expensive than the average episode (such as "Trials and Tribble-ations" ep.), do you have to skimp on the budgets of subsequent episodes throughout the season in order to meet the bottom line? Or does Paramount authorize an extra increase in funds for "event" episodes hoping that increased ratings and revenue will make up for spending the additional money? Finally, if the ratings are down during a particular season, does Paramount allocate less money the show for the next season?>>

The ratings are unrelated to the budget. We have both a per episode budget and a budget for the entire year. We often go "over pattern" on an episode and then have to go "under pattern" on subsequent shows with the understanding that at the end of the year we will still meet our overall budget. Paramount is very flexible in these matters and they will on occasion authorize additional monies for "event" shows like "Trials & Tribble-ations."

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I haven't yet, because I have a decent amount of military reference material of my own, but I am aware of the various websites and might go there in the future.

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While Odo can have intercourse with a solid by assuming the proper.... forms, it would not be possible to conceive offspring since that would require him to actually fertilize an egg and he clearly doesn't have the authentic... gear to make that possible.

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While anything is possible, none of this is under consideration at this time.

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My favorites were "Trials & Tribble-ations" "The Assignment" "The Darkness and the Light" and "A Call to Arms". I wish we could've taken another crack at "Let He Who is..."

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I think that Season 4 had a higher batting average overall in that there were no real dogs among that group -- a first in all my years at Trek -- but that Season 5 had "higher highs" along with "lower lows". Personally, I felt that "Our Man Bashir" from Season 4 and "Darkness and the Light" were my two best efforts.

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Ira and Hans are writing the premiere, I'm writing the second episode, the new team of Bradley Thompson & David Weddle will write the third, Rene will do the fourth and then Ira & Hans will do the fifth. - Subj: Answers Date: 7/3/97 00:03:45 From: RonDMoore

<<With the time costraints of producing a weekly hour-long series - do you get much time to strive for that kind of layering and "art" - or do you have to fight to meet the deadlines and hope that the muse step in at the right time?>>

It's a delicate balance, but we always strive to deliver the very best quality show we can, every single week and fight like mad to keep the budgetary and time considerations from interfering with the creative process any more than absolutely necessary.

<<Ron, this has been a great season, but one of the things that has disappointed me is the fact that several of the cast have had so little screen -time, and we seem to have lost many of the strong relationships which used to exist between the crew. Do you think that by concentrating so much on romance this year, you may have lost something in the mix?>>

I don't think the romantic threads got in the way per se, but I would say that our preferences for stories focusing on certain characters and certain plotlines did preclude us from exploring other, equally valid stories. We try very hard to do a mix of shows, both in tone (comedic and dramatic) and in which of our regular characters are featured. But each season there are usually one or two characters that get shortchanged and seem "lost" by the end of the year. This isn't something we like, but it is to a certain extent unavoidable. We, as writers, tend to write what we like and sometimes our preferences lead us away from some characters for a while and towards others. We *do* sit down and say "Hey, we really need a good Dax (or whoever) story, she hasn't been well serviced yet," but unless we come up with something we like or hear a pitch that we like and feel comfortable pursuing, we'll tend to go with the good stories in hand and keep hoping that a good (fill-in-the-blank-character) tale will come along. If possible, we'll even take a story away from one character and give it to another, but you can quickly see the limitations of that approach -- there aren't many Quark stories that can be easily changed into Sisko stories or vice-versa. In the end, balancing the needs of all the characters is an imperfect science and it's something we continue to struggle with.

<< the Treaty of Algernon seems to be eroding away to nothing. I thought "The Pegasus" was one of the best episodes of TNG's final season. When Ron wrote that, he had Picard's sense of honor triumph over Pressman's political pragmatism. Now, it turns out, Pressman as been vindicated. How do you feel about this turn of events, Ron? Is a sequel to "Pegasus," featuring Pressman's reinstatement and return to honor on the horizon?>>

I wouldn't look for any reinstatement of Pressmen in the future, but there has clearly been some kind of amendment made to the cloaking agreement that allowed the Defiant to have a cloak only in the Gamma Quadrant since she now clearly cloaks at will. I keep forgetting to put in a reference somewhere to this effect, but I'll try to remember this year.

<<You said you did not see the Federation/Klingon task force until the final product. Were you aware of the fact that there were three Defiant class ships?>>

Yes, and there are now officially other Defiant class ships in Starfleet.

<<During the evacuation of the drive section of the Enterprise-D there were many kids being herded into the saucer section. Aren't they suppose to be in the saucer section to begin with? >>

I believe the children were actually being rushed to their "crash stations" or "emergency stations" or something, not being brought up from the battle section. The same goes for the patients in Sickbay. - Subj: Answers Date: 7/3/97 00:31:21 From: RonDMoore

<<During the battle with the Bird of Prey, Riker tells Worf to fire a spread of torpedoes, yet only one torpedo is shown once the BOP begins to cloak. >>

This is just a trick of editing. We cut outside to see only one torpedo while presumable all three were fired. Why didn't we choose to show all three? Money. I know it's hard to believe on a $35 million + movie, but the VFX budget was so tight on Generations that we were literally counting every single torpedo and every single phaser shot and trying to wring every last cent we could to stay within the margins.

<<I have the  Star Trek: Day by Day Calendar. Recently it showed a picture of Picard, Worf, and Geordi in front of the shuttle craft Hawking. I was unaware that this scene existed. What other scenes were cut from Generations?>>

I'd forgotten about this brief scene when Worf and Geordi picked up Picard at the end of the picture. There was a scene featuring Chekov and Scotty awaiting Kirk's arrival after "orbital skydiving" that was cut at the beginning of the picture, also some reactions to Kirk's "death" on the Enterprise-B bridge, some dialog between Soren and Geordi during Geordi's torture scene, and some other nips and tucks in dialog that I can't recall.

<<In the D&L where Kira reminisced about her acceptance into the resistance cell, was that scene based on urban gang subculture? >>

That's an interesting analogy, but it wasn't something I was thinking about consciously when writing the scene. I just... I don't know... wrote it.

<<On the subject of Leeta and Rom, I would just like to say that I hate the way these two have been given so much attention when other more interesting characters like Bashir and Dax have hardly had anything to do. The Leeta & Rom sitcom just 'dumbs down' the show with weak comedy and bad acting.>>

Well, we of course, disagree. We like Rom & Leeta, think they're valuable members of the DS9 family and we'll continue to use them in the future. As I've said before, I think the true strength of this series is its variety, but by the same token we don't expect everyone to like everything.

<<I just noticed recently that there's a new line of books authorized by Paramount which serializes the adventures of an entirely new Federation crew aboard an Ambassador-class ship. If you have any information on this subject, can you fill us in on what Paramount plans to do with this new crew? Are there any plans to do a crossover of any kind with Paramount's Trek television productions and/or video games?>>

As far as I know, these characters are limited to the novels and there are no plans to expand them into any other areas, but you might want to ask John Ordover for more information.