Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron019.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 4/11/97 6:26:26 PM From:  RonDMoore

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If you want to write to someone, write to BOTH your local affiliate and to Gary Hart, President Network Television, Paramount Pictures, 5555 Melrose Ave, LA CA 90038. Now if you're going to go to the trouble of actually doing this, I strongly suggest you observe the following guidelines:

1. TYPE your letter neatly and make it look professional. This is to insure that your letter will actually be opened and keep it out of the "wacko" file once it is. 2. Be polite and to the point. NO profanity, threats to boycott Paramount products, comments on the plot of Mission Impossible, or quoting your personal "animal spirit guide". Just tell them that you're a supporter of the show, you really want it kept around for seven years, and then tell them why. 3. Avoid petitions or "form letters." 4. Be polite.

Will this work? Who knows? The question of whether or not to continue production is ultimately a business decision -- creatively, the studio already likes the show and so do the writers, so it's not a question of whether we have more stories to tell. It all becomes an involved calculation that takes into consideration things like: the cost per episode of doing a 7th season (all the actors and all the writers will have to have new contracts negotiated); the number of shows that make the ideal strip syndication package (will having 26 more shows increase the value of the overall package enough to justify the expense of doing a 7th year?); the ratings; and the desire of the individual affiliates to have a 7th year of first-run Trek since Voyager is UPN.

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Yes. At that time, you had to have an agent on TNG in order to be considered. I found my first agent through the production member who I had conned into reading my spec in the first place. He liked the script, knew an agent and recommended me to her (Sherri Robb -- I think she's in the phone book and the Guild list) and she then submitted the script through the proper channels.

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I'm looking forward to a promising career in writing for Psychic Hotlines and doing the occasional phone sex teleplay under the name of Luwanda Picard.

Seriously, I don't know what the future will bring. Trek X is a looong ways away and I have no idea if that will even be offered, much less whether or not I'd do it. I hope to keep writing for both film and television -- that's what I do, I'm a writer.

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The Romulan angle will be present in the season finale, but not as a major element.

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It's not that simple. You can't "just insert" the Enterprise into a shot, it has to be "composited" into the shot and that means taking into consideration things like the angle of lighting, the background, the motion of the Enterprise versus the motion of other elements -- trust me, it can get complicated. We still might use this class of ship, though, and I will look into it.

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The only one I've seen in a while is the one I've got one chained here in my office and she's busy.