Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron043.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 7/22/97 23:47:16 From: RonDMoore

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I've seen the site. There's something faintly amusing about reading how Rick, Brannon, Jeri, and I are destroying the continuity of the show on a website that can't get any of our titles or credits correct. It may also be the first time I've ever been referred to as a "Bureaucrat."

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I have all of the TOS, TNG, and DS9 episodes on laserdisc (at least the ones that have been released). I also have VHS copies of all the TNG & DS9 episodes since I joined the show(s). I haven't watched any of my old stuff in quite a while, actually. I still haven't sat down and watch FC on laser -- it's too soon. It'll be a year or so before I'll want to watch it again.

<< I know that this is asking a lot, but for all of us Defiant freaks out here, is there anyway that we can get that scematic that is hanging on your wall?>>

I don't know of anything out there with the cutaway schematic at the moment, but merchandising is always issuing new stuff, so I'd keep watching for it.

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It's always possible, but we have no plans for a Tom Riker show at the moment.

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We're still playing around with how and when to use the Holo-Communicator. For quick conversations like the one between Dax & Sisko in "Call to Arms" it seemed unnecessary and intrusive. We've moved it off the Defiant bridge for now and put it in the Defiant Ready Room (which we may or may not see this season). I'm sure it'll pop up again this year.

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How many oodles in a million?

Subj: Answers Date: 7/23/97 00:13:36 From: RonDMoore

<<my collaborator is a published, agented writer, so I will ask you again (short version): She insists that deadlines don't matter. She was late with her work, but everyone else was even later, so it was ok. People called her agent to tell the agent how great my friend is. She says this extends to Hollywood as well; that people can be sloppy, careless and not get their work in one time, and it's just fine. To me, this all sounds like incredible BS, as well as rationalization on the part of someone who can't meet deadlines. Yes/no?>>

There are deadlines and then there are deadlines. There are certainly situations where being late with a script is met with a great big yawn because it's a low priority item for the studio or the producers or whoever, but it's dangerous and stupid to take the attitude that "it doesn't matter." Of course it matters. Are you a professional or not? Can you be relied on to turn it in when it I need it? Sloppy? Careless? Do you have pride in your craft? Do you want me to hire you again? This is a demanding and highly competitive business, and while the stories of how bad work and bad habits led to riches in Hollywood are legion, I wouldn't count on being rewarded for lazy or blase'. Find another collaborator.

<< Is Nog a Federation citizen?>>

Probably.

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I don't think Rom is a Fed citizen. Also, I don't think Sisko actually hired him as a spy -- that was probably Rom's own interpretation.

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I would've asked D.C. how she developed the Vulcan backstory and how she saw the character of Spock. I would've asked Gene Coon how he saw the series overall, how he selected the mix of missions for the Enterprise, what he thought was the backstory between Kirk & McCoy, and finally how he actually approached his scripts. Gene Coon is the one man I really wish I could've met and talked to about the original series. In many ways I've always wanted to be a later-day Gene Coon -- maybe he didn't invent the old show and maybe he didn't get all the credit, but he was the heart and soul of that Enterprise, and his words are still with us.

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Growing up in Chowchilla didn't offer a lot of opportunity for any type of organized fandom participation. I, like many others, assumed that I was the ONLY one still watching the show in the early seventies and I was quite shocked to learn about the Cons happening in New York and Chicago. I didn't go to my first convention until I was in college -- a Con in Stony Brook, NY, featuring Harlan Ellison and Walter Koenig that provided my first real taste of fandom in 1984. I did spend many evenings with the guys at KA watching the original series with a beer in one hand, but we were all fans and we had a ball.

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I don't think so.

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Oh, just dandy.

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Boxers. And thanks for caring.

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All deliveries should be made at the rear entrance, please.

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The glass is half-full and I'd like a refill anyway. -- Subj: Answers Date: 7/23/97 00:46:34 From: RonDMoore

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I'm interested in what people think of my work -- what writer isn't? Sometimes I agree with what people say and sometimes I don't. I try to approach the commentary with an open mind, but I don't look at this as "polling data" to be used as a method of shaping and influencing our work.

I don't even try to be objective about the franchise. How can I? It's a very personal thing for me and I've put a lot of myself and my personal creativity into these shows for eight years now. In fact, it's my subjective perspective -- opinions, ideas, emotions, likes, dislikes -- that provides the material for you to watch. I don't want to step back from the show, I want to throw myself into it.

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I believe it was the director and costumer who made the choices and it depended on the state of the individual costumes in question.

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I'm not sure. Changing the NX to NCC might mean having to redo any existing Defiant shots in our VFX "library" of stock shots and that could cost $$.

<<Is John Noah Hertzler (the Vulcan captain in "Emissary") and J.G. Hertzler (General Martok) the same man, or at least related?>>

They are not the same person and I have no idea if they're related.

<<What was it like when "The Bonding" first aired? Did you have party? Or did you see it before it aired? How did your family back home react to your new found fame and fortune? How did you react? >>

I watched the broadcast from my agent's office. She threw a small party in my honor since I was her first client to sell a TV script. It was a very satisfying moment, that's all I can recall. I believe I was working on "The Defector" by that point, so I knew there'd be at least one more episode with my name on it, but I was determined not to let that one be the last. My family was very proud and surprised when I sold the show and my mother quickly joined the Official Fan Club (she's still a member in good standing).

My strongest memory of this period in my life actually predates the sale of that script. It was the day I first set foot on the TNG sets. I was getting the set tour (with my as yet unsubmitted "Bonding" script tucked under my arm). We walked onto the Shuttle Bay set and there was Patrick Stewart, in uniform, doing a complicated split-screen shot for "Time Squared." I remember the shot to this day and can pick it out of the episode in a flash -- it's where Picard and his future self are walking to the tiny shuttlecraft in the bay. I remember standing there, drinking it in and feeling so at home... here I was, on the Enterprise at last, after all those years of imagining and pretending.

And the thing that I remember most as I stood there and ran my hands over the metallic bulkheads and tried to burn the memory into my brain? I said to myself, "I'll be back." It was a cocky, arrogant, and even corny thing to do, but I swear to you, on that day, in that place, I was never more sure of anything in my life. --- Subj: Answers Date: 7/23/97 00:48:45 From: RonDMoore

<<Does your middle initial stand for Darius? Donahue? Donegal? Delenore? Daltry? Deagan? Dalton? Dyson? Dunaway? Dennis?>>

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

<<Is Enabran Tain really Garak's father?? The dialogue in "In Purgatory's Shadow" was rather cryptic.>>

I think so, but we left it cryptic enough to go either way. ---