The Late Great D. C. Fontana

Gene Roddenberry is credited as the creator of Star Trek,but as Trekkies well known there were others who expanded the Star Trek universe beyond his initial concept. One of those people was writer D. C. Fontana, who gave us much of what we know about Mr. Spock and Vulcans in general. So great were her contributions to the show that Star Trek as we know it would not exist without D. C. Fontana. Sadly, she died yesterday, December 2 2019, at the age of 80 following a brief illness.

D. C. Fontana was born Dorothy Catherine Fontana on March 25 1939 in Sussex, New Jersey. She grew up in Totowa, New Jersey. She was only 11 years old when she decided she wanted to write novels. She attended Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, where she graduated in 1957 with with an Executive Secretarial Associate degree. She then moved to New York City where she got a job at Screen Gems as a junior secretary to the president of the studio. She later moved to Los Angeles where she became part of the typing pool at Revue Studios. She was the secretary for writer Samuel A. Peeples while he worked on the TV Weseterns Overland Trail, The Tall Man, and Frontier Circus. It was while she was still working for Mr. Peeples that she sold her first story idea for television, the Tall Man episode "A Bounty for Billy." She also wrote her first teleplay for The Tall Man, the episode "Tiger Eye." She also contributed a story to Frontier Circus.

After Samuel A. Peeples left, D. C. Fontana returned to the typing pool. She then went to work as the secretary for Del Reisman, a producer on the drama The Lieutenant, which had been created by Gene Roddenberry. It was while she was working on The Lieutenant that she adopted "D. C. Fontana" to use professionally in order to avoid discrimination. She wrote episodes of Ben Casey and The Wild Wild West.

She also worked with Gene Roddenberry while Star Trek was in development. She wrote the episode "Charlie X" based on a story by Mr. Roddenberry. She also wrote the episodes "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "This Side of Paradise." After the departure of Star Trek's first and second story editors (Steve Carabastos and John D. F. Black), D. C. Fontana became the show's story editor. She remained as the show's story editor until its third season. In all she wrote or co-wrote eleven episodes of Star Trek, continuing to contribute episodes even after she left as the show's story editor. Miss Fontana closed out the Sixties writing episodes of The Big Valley, Lancer, Then Came Bronson, The High Chaparral, Here Come the Brides, and Bonanza.

In the Seventies. D. C. Fontana served as the story editor on the science fiction series Logan's Run and contributed three episodes. She served as an associated producer on the animated version of Star Trek, contributing the episode "Yesteryear." She wrote episodes of the shows Assignment: Vienna, Ghost Story, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, The Streets of San Francisco, The Fantastic Journey, The Runaways, The Waltons, Dallas, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

In the Eighties Miss Fontana wrote several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also served as associate producer during the show's first season, but left due to clashes with Gene Roddenberry. She wrote episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and War of the Worlds.

In the Nineties D. C. Fontana wrote episodes of the shows The Legend of Prince Valiant, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, Hypernauts, Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys, Re-Boot, Earth: Final Conflict, Silver Surfer, and Beast Wars: Transformers. In the Naughts she wrote an episode of the fan created web series Star Trek: Phase II (later known as Star Trek: New Voyages). She served as a consulting producer on the show in the Teens.

D. C. Fontana also wrote several novels based on the original series of Star Trek, as well as the Western Brazos River, co-written with Harry Sanford.

The simple fact is that Star Trek as we know it would not exist without D. C. Fontana. She created much of what we associate with Vulcan culture, and was largely responsible for shaping Mr. Spock as the character we know. Of course, she also wrote episodes of many other shows and was even nominated for a WGA Award for the Then Came Bronson episode "Two Percent of Nothing." Miss Fontana was very versatile as a writer. While best known for her work in science fiction, she wrote episodes of everything from Westerns such as Bonanza to family dramas such as The Waltons to police dramas such as The Streets of San Francisco. It must also be pointed out that D. C. Fontana was also a pioneer with regards to women working in television. At the time that she started, there were very few female writers in the field. If D. C. Fontana is often counted as fans' favourite writer on the original series of Star Trek, it is with good reason.