Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron081.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 98-01-28 18:55:12 EST From: RonDMoore

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That interview took place well before we on staff had even talked about what eventually became "Waltz." I'm not sure if the Dukat fans will ever be able to look at him quite the same, frankly. I know that I don't. Once you've ripped away the mask and discovered the gruesome interior, it's a little hard to go back to pretending that there's a good guy hiding in there somewhere. I know that we'll continue to show him as a three-dimensional character with different layers of motivation and feeling, but I'm not sure that we can go back to the "is he a good guy or isn't he?" mode. We've crossed a bridge with the Gul and while there can be interesting paths ahead of us, I don't think they're the same paths that got us to this point.

<<Ron, [Dukat] has been written and played with a "silver lining". And your "Waltz" didn't destroy it, no matter how much you may think it did. You can't hold a madman to anything, let alone his evil thoughts or deeds. If you wanted to emphasize all the bad things about Dukat, you should have left him sane. Methinks you are tweaking the public again. You can chat away on AOL about how evil Dukat is all you want to, but when it comes down to writing the script, somehow all that ambiguity gets in there...>>

I think you're getting lost in semantics. What you call "ambiguity", I call "character." As I said before, no one is 100% evil in every way. Any villain that is written that way is a cardboard character and a cartoon. We look at Dukat as a fully fleshed out character with sometimes conflicting motives and emotions. But -- and it's a big BUT -- there is something dark and ugly in this guy's soul. Explain that away with his poor childhood or his life experiences all you want, it's still there and the result of it has been pain and suffering for literally millions of people. And I don't buy the argument that just because Dukat's grip on reality was a bit shaky in "Waltz" that we can't hold him responsible for his actions in the past. The hell we can't. He wasn't crazy when he ordered those reprisals against the Bajorans or ordered them into labor camps or burned their villages or commanded an army of occupation that terrorized an entire planet. Yes, he's interesting. Yes, he's charming. Yes, he can even be funny and likeable on occasion. But those are the reasons he's been such an interesting villain, they are not reasons to excuse his behavior or try to wash away the blood on his hands.

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While theorectically possible, I don't foresee us going in this direction.

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Dukat going mad at the end of the six-part arc was something we planned from the beginning. We didn't know what we wanted to do with him after that until the arc was over and we started talking about doing a follow-up episode with Dukat.

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April 5, is my son's birthday.

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Jadzia presumably had a last name before being joined, but we haven't established one yet.

Subj: Answers Date: 98-01-28 19:34:52 EST From: RonDMoore

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Rick is very involved in the process. There have certainly been times over the years when Rick didn't want us to go in a certain direction, but we usually have found a way to both address his concerns and still tell the story we wanted to tell.

<< In Trials and Tribbulations, Julien asked Miles that he must remember his temporal mechanics course in the academy??? So whats the deal?>>

This is a mistake, plain and simple. If you want to rationalize it, I suppose we could say that the enlisted training program also takes place at the Academy.

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As long as we're making a catalog of right and wrong, I'd like to point out that there is only one undisputed action so far which I think is reprehensible: taping a series of intimate conversations with your "friend" as she spills out her guts to you and then turning them over to someone else. It's a profound betrayal which has now splashed her "friend's" name across the world and quite probably wrecked her life. What a pal. My loathing for this woman and her behavior knows no bounds.

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It's something we've talked about and it's a definite possibility.

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No one's talking about a year 8. The studio had always talked about 7 as being the ideal number of seasons and I tend to agree. TNG went out on top, with people wanting more and we'd like to do the same. There is such a thing as overstaying your welcome and I think that creatively, we have one good solid season left in the show and I would really hesitate to push beyond that.

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Sometimes this board frightens me.

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She was charmed by him and found herself actually lulled into the first steps of some sort of relationship with him. In that sense, she's a stand-in for the audience: "Hey, he's not so bad.  He's even kinda cute.  Maybe, it would be okay if he and I.... YIKES!"

Subj: Answers Date: 98-01-28 20:39:41 EST From: RonDMoore

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I haven't given this much thought, but my initial reaction is that I'd rather see a Klingon series featuring all new characters. (And there's nothing like this in the works, so don't ask.)

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I don't find it that hard to believe that someone with Dukat's enormous ego would want to be seen as the "savior" of the down-trodden Bajorans while at the same time never believing that they were his equals. He failed to understand that trying to make the Occupation a little more palatable wasn't going to address the fundamental problem:  The -- Cardassians --  Did --  Not -- Belong -- There. The Bajorans wanted them to LEAVE, not increase the rations in the labor camps. Dukat DID believe them to be inferior and he said so in "Waltz."

<< But [Dukat] having a shaky grip on reality in waltz does affect the believability of his words during that episode. In other words, the his motives and his hatred of Bajorans revealed during Waltz are what I would treat with caution, because theywere spoken by a madman.>>

Crazy or not, the things Dukat espoused in the climax of "Waltz" were his true feelings. Trust me on this one, I know the guy who wrote the scene pretty well.

Subj: Answers Date: 98-01-29 13:50:46 EST From: RonDMoore

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He was supposed to be a Borgified Klingon. I think there might have been one or two other Borgified aliens in FC, but I don't think they were of any of the major Trek races.

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It was something we discussed at length among the staff. In the end, everyone agreed that this was the way to take the character.

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To be honest, I don't recall whether I got the word from Diane or vice versa. I was a fan of Diane's books before ever writing my first script and I might have borrowed it from her, but I don't recall if her Romulan novel came before or after "The Defector." I still think the world of Diane and her husband, Peter and I hear they're both doing well in beautiful Ireland.

<<Have you given thought of promoting Kira from Major to Lt. Colonel in the Bajoran Militia sometime before end of the series?>>

It comes up now and again, but we just can't get past the way "Colonel Kira" sounds when you say it out loud. (It's way too close to "Colonel Klink" for my taste.)

<<Despite not planning a follow-up episode to Voyager's "Message in a Bottle", what about a line somewhere in an upcoming episode?>>

It's always possible.

<<I was just wondering, since season 7 promises to be DS9's last, if there have been any idea's floated around for a new Trek series to fill that void? What are your feelings regarding an anthology type of Trek series? Also, in your opinion, would TPTB consider a Trek series with an anthological format rather than the traditional episodic? >>

As far as I know, there are no plans for another Trek series underway. I have no idea what kind of show they would contemplate when and if they decided to create a fifth series, and I really don't know if an anthology format would work or not.

Subj: Answers Date: 98-01-29 14:14:04 EST From: RonDMoore

<< Is the kind of optimism depicted in Star Trek justified? At the rate at which we are progressing in this society, I do not believe the universe depicted in Star Trek, insofar as it depicts a nearly perfect community within the Federation, can exist by the time imagined... I think it is far off the mark... What have we in the late 20th Century? Freedom? License? Scandal? We have material wealth, and yet we have never been more spiritually bereft.>>

I'm an optimist. I think we're far better off today as a society and as a culture than at any point in the past. It's easy to get caught up in the problems of the moment, but if you turn around and look back the way we've come without engaging in nostalgia, I think you'll find that we're making tremendous progress. In just my lifetime, we've made huge strides in civil rights, women's rights, the struggle against totalitarianism and communism, medical knowledge, technology, understanding the universe we live in, environmental issues, the nuclear arms race -- it's a fairly long list of progress. If you gave me a choice of living in 1964 or 1998, I'd choose the later, hands down. I'm not satisfied with everything, nor should I be. But look back over the last hundred years and tell me that we're not better off than the people in 1898. Or 1798. Or 1698. I have high hopes for the future and yes, I'd like to think that Trek's optimistic outlook on the road ahead is warranted.

<<I was wondering, if the Founders are like gods to the Vorta and the Jemh'dar, and most of them have never seen a god, then why did all of the Jemh'dar and Vorta react so casually to the arrival of Queen Goo, the leader of the founders on the station. >>

I don't think the Founders are interested in pomp and circumstance, therefore they get none.

<<Wait a minute, here. Linda Tripp was the subject of a supoena.She had been made aware of the alleged sexual escapades in the White House, placing her at risk. In addition, she was privy to the information that Lewinsky planned to LIE under oath. Tripp had already been skewered once by Clinton's henchmen. Is it really that loathsome to protect herself by taping Lewinsky?>>

Yes it's loathesome. She's little better than the informers who used to turn their neighbors in to the KGB. She taped Lewinsky without her knowledge over and over again as she discussed intimate details of her life (whether they were true or not). Do you really want to approve of people secretly taping private conversations with each other? She was defending herself? Against what? Who exactly was going to go after Linda Tripp? And for what? She didn't use these tapes in her defense against some charge of perjury or some civil suit, she took them on her own initiative to Ken Starr. If this was all a defensive action, why didn't she keep them to herself until she had no choice but to produce them? Why go to the guy who's itching for a chance to get something on the President? Tripp has somehow managed to be a witness in the Travel Office imbrolgio, the Vince Foster non-case, the Paula Jones lawsuit, and now the Intern Affair -- doesn't sound like a disinterested party just looking out for herself to me.

<<Got a cliffhanger for us this season?>>

Not a cliffhanger per se, but we always end the season with an episode that sets up events for the following year.

<<You said we probably won't be able to look at Elmo Dukat the same way again. Does this mean we probably won't see any of the "Good Side" at all...the moments of compassion, like when he sacrificed his future to bring Ziyal back from the Desolution Planet, or displays of love, like when he expressed regret at being forced to miss his son's birthday party (the Tom Riker episode)?>>

No, I'm sure we'll still play the many different aspects of his personality.