Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron045.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 8/1/97 6:35:36 PM From:  RonDMoore

I see that my responses on "The First Duty" and the roles of Kira & Dax have produced quite a bit of commentary. Let's take them one at a time:

First, I think I should have made clear in my posting about Wesley in "First Duty" that my argument with Michael was based on changing several aspects of the show, not just the ending. The aired episode that you've all seen is deliberately constructed to make the question of coming forth and telling the truth the paramount (no pun intended) decision to be made in the story. However, that's just a writer's choice. Remember that there are no "objective facts" or circumstances in this work of fiction, only the narrative that I choose to present to you, the audience. Changing certain key aspects of the narrative could've completely changed the story.

In the aired version of events, Wesley steps forward even though the court of inquiry is about to let them all off the hook. In so doing, Wes commits an act of moral courage by standing up for the truth and being punished when to remain silent would've allowed him to go scot free. Now, let's assume the circumstances had been constructed so that the Nova Squadron was going to be kicked out of the Academy by the court if they kept silent about what really happened. Say that the team had made a decision not to finger the one among them who came up with the idea on the "we all hang together" philosophy. In that scenario, Wesley coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly an act of moral cowardice because it appears that he's only trying to save his own skin at the expense of one of his teammates.

If that had been the story (which is more or less what Naren and I were advocating) then Picard's impassioned speech to Wesley about the morality of coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly a scene where the Captain tries to convince a young man not to throw away his own career in order to protect one of his friends. In the end, Locarno (the true culprit) comes forward on his own in order to save the rest of the team. As you can see, it's a very different kind of tale even though the essential "plot" is relatively unchanged.

As I said before, both stories are valid and interesting, but I prefered the story about a young man willing to stand with his friends rather than a morality tale about telling the truth. Don't get me wrong -- I like "The First Duty," and I think it works pretty well just as it is, I just wanted to tell a different story.

Subj: Answers Date: 8/1/97 7:13:27 PM From:  RonDMoore

Now onto Kira & Dax:

<<No woman in Kira's position with her background would have turned into the passive flounce she was the fourth season. Yes, aside from all of that offensiveness, Kira has changed in many ways, and I like those changes. I still cannot abide what she turned into; it made no sense given who she was before. What is worse, she was completely un-credible as a first officer of a doghouse, much less a military space station. The sex kitten routine, the inappropriate smiles, the wretched sexist holosuite routines, were a slap in the face of female viewers. >>

Okay, I've looked back at the "infamous" fourth season and without making a complete, episode by episode analysis, I found the following:

"Way of the Warrior" -- Kira gives into Dax wanting her to loosen up and enjoy herself and plays in holosuite. Wears silly costume in Quark's. Dialog makes it clear that Kira hit holocharacter because she thought he was acting in an inappropriate way. Kira in command of DS9 during Sisko's absence. Kira kicks Klingon butt during attack on the station and is wounded.

"Indescretion" -- Kira goes off on dangerous mission with man she distrusts (Dukat) because there's a chance of finding a missing friend of hers. She comes to new appreciation of old enemy (Dukat). She participates in military assault against heavily defended target.

"Starship Down" -- Kira has to keep Sisko conscious to keep him alive. She reveals to him that she wishes they were closer as friends. Show ends with Sisko responding positively to her and inviting her to baseball game.

"Crossfire" -- Kira grapples with feelings she has for old friend from her Resistance days (Shakaar) and struggles to deal with budding romance.

"Return to Grace" -- Kira can't resist impulse to get involved in fighting aboard Dukat's ship as they engage the Klingons, even though she has no personal stake in the Klingon/Cardassian conflict. Kira agrees to take care of Ziyal.

"Sons of Mogh" -- Kira commands the Defiant and faces down the Klingons when they attempt to mine the Bajoran system.

"Ascession" -- Kira struggles with her faith when "true" Emissary shows up and tries to return Bajoran society to a caste system. Kira willing to give up her job because of her devotion to her religious beliefs.

"Body Parts" -- Kira agrees to carry the O'Brien baby when Keiko is severely injured.

Now, I find it hard to believe that any of those story arcs weakens, denigrates, or dilutes in any way Major Kira. Each one is a strong arc which added rather than subtracted to her character. Granted, this isn't a complete record of her activities in year four, but even if you could find me eight other stories that did portray her in a weak or soft light -- which I doubt -- at the *worst* you could say that we were contradictory with the character. But there's just no way that I can see where we turned her into a "passive flounce." All year? "Sex kitten?" You've got to be kidding. The sexiest thing she did that whole season was in "Our Man Bashir" and that WASN'T EVEN KIRA.

And if you're about to come at me with the "the sexist heels" argument, I put it to you that there's something even more sexiest about the idea that a woman is completely defined by her wardrobe to the exclusion of everything else.

Subj: Re:Answers Date: 8/1/97 7:13:41 PM From:  RonDMoore

As for Dax: << It IS possible for a woman to remain strong, interesting, independant and capable of performing her job even though she's in a relationship, but through most of the fifth season, one wouldn't know that with Dax. And the foulness that was the presentation of their sexual relationship I still hate (and yeah, I know all about how it's not about humans, yatta yatta yatta, so please don't dump that one on me, either; I'm sorta tired of that argument). >>

Well, we're so far apart on this one I'm not sure we can ever see eye to eye. Yes, the relationship with Worf dominates her storylines through the fifth season, but you can say the same thing about Worf's storylines and no one seems to complain. (And I'm sorta tired of the "it's abuse even though she may say not think so and it'll send a bad message to people that aren't smart enough to know the difference, yatta, yatta, yatta," argument myself, so we'll just avoid that one altogether.)

I'm not trying to say that you don't know what you're talking about when you say what you *like*, but I am saying that it's hard to see where comments like "...the women being turned into babes with no minds and no existence outside their sexual involvements... women turning into people they never were and never would be had they been born and walked the earth," have a relationship to something that actually happened in the aired episodes. If you can find those heinous examples, I'd be interested to hear them.

Subj: Answers Date: 8/1/97 7:35:39 PM From:  RonDMoore

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I've begun listening to music recently as I write, and find it an interesting change. The only real habit I've kept over the years is to always have a book on my desk when I'm writing. I find that I write in bursts and need to turn away and read something for a few minutes before turning back to the keyboard. At the moment, I'm reading "If They Move, Kill 'Em -- The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah" by David Weddle, who just happens to be one of our new writers this year. It's an excellent biography and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this talented and fascinating director ("The Wild Bunch" "Ride the High Country" "Straw Dogs", etc.)

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I don't think so.

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Probably, but nothing planned yet.

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I've never really looked at it that way. (I should point out that Sisko and Kasidy are both human blacks, and Kira and Shakaar were both Bajoran whites, as were Kira and Bareil.) I think we've always just looked for interesting pairings, and dramatically speaking, the inter-species relationships have always given us more things to play in an episode, so we've tended to go that way. But it's certainly not a conscious effort by any means.

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This was a passing notion that we're not going to do.

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Well, then it must've been in the first two seasons of TNG, but I'm pretty sure it never happened while I was aboard.

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I am happy to pass the buck on this one to Michael Piller. It was his idea to kill K'Ehleyr during the story break because it would be a great dramatic turn and would provide Worf with ample reason to go stick a bat'leth into Duras' guts.

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It's come up a number of times, but we have no current plans to do so.

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Yes, and we will this season.

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If you look back in the archives, you'll find an extensive answer I gave on this subject. Suffice it to say that I have plans to work on the role of Klingon women this season and will spell out their own special place in the Empire.

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I think I'd put together the first few shows of Season 6!! They're going to be telling a story unlike any other in Trek -- the War Against the Dominion.

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At the moment, we're not giving the Federation widespread cloaking abilities and we haven't decided how many (if any) Starfleet vessels do have this capability.