Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron086.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 98-02-05 18:29:49 EST From: RonDMoore

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Those are good questions and we've talked about exploring some of this ground next year.

<< any chance that DS9 will ever get its own monologue at the beginning of the show like TNG or TOS?>>

This was something I wish they'd established in the pilot episode. I don't think we'll introduce one at this point.

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All I meant is that we've shown different sides of Dukat over the years and that you get the feeling from the cumulative episodes (see, I do watch the show) is that he might evolve into one of the good guys given the right circumstances. And there's a strong temptation to do just that -- to turn him into a likable rogue who helps out our characters and redeems himself in the eyes of the audience. That's the traditional TV approach -- any bad guy on screen long enough will become a good guy if you start showing "humanizing" aspects of his character. the character that we've established. He oversaw a brutal and murderous occupation. He sold his people to the Dominion. He waged a war of conquest against the Federation. He was willing to kill his own daughter if she went against him. He's a bad guy. A fascinating bad guy, but a bad guy.
 * However*... doing that in this case would be to deny the backstory and

I'm not a fan of the school of thought which turned Darth Vader into Uncle Fester and then let him join Yoda and Obi-Wan in the celestial blue screen just because he tossed the Emperor down an airshaft. Vader killed, oh... say... a few BILLION people in "Star Wars" alone, and then you tell the audience that he's really just a good guy at heart? Uh-huh. Dukat is Dukat. He may help us on occasion, he may save a puppy from being hit by a truck, he may even make us laugh and feel good about him in an unguarded moment, but those things only round out his character, they do not *salvage* him as a character.

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Green rocks? Sounds like us. We began shooting "In the Pale Moonlight" on January 27.

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I assume this gag was thrown in by our ever-devious art department.

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Coincidence.

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We haven't had a viewscreen-type scene that would be more effective if we used the holo-communicator recently, and that's the criteria for using the device in the show.

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We've talked about doing these kinds of scenes and we might still do them at some point.

Subj: Answers Date: 98-02-05 18:42:23 EST From: RonDMoore

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This just made my day. (I knew I should've taped the show last night!!) My son, who's a huge "South Park" fan will love this almost as much as I do. I think it's a hysterical show, by the way, although it's obviously not for everyone.

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Boy, would you love the underground Christmas episode they did which launched the whole series. In that one, Jesus and Santa duked it out.

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I've never been asked.

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As I understand it, Hans and his partner at the time, Richard Manning, brought the tradition of "breaking" a story to TNG during the 2nd season. Michael was a strong believer in the same process and he continued the practice when he came aboard in the 3rd season.

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I've had very little actual interaction with him and I find him as mysterious as the rest of you.

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Possibly.

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They are and there are always several other authors floating around with book projects in the works.

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I haven't read it.

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I'd say "Tapestry."

<<And one last item. The German-dubbed version of T+T recently aired, and for the TOS scenes they obviously had to use the old (1973) mono soundtrack. However, unlike you they didn't manage to filter out the original music when there is dialogue. (It's only a minor distraction, though.) Did you let computers solve this problem, or did the original dialogue-only soundtracks still exist?>>

I believe we had the original tracks.

<<Do you think that Tasha's role on TNG would have progressed to the definition and quantity that Worf's did by series end. Also, do you think Worf would have been much more than that Klingon in the background if she had stayed?>>

This is really hard to say. You have to remember that Denise Crosby was a regular character right from the beginning and Michael Dorn was signed for only a limited number of episodes. I assume they would've continued to explore Tasha's character, but I don't know how much screen time they would've given to Worf.