Trailblazing Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana passes away

Dorothy Catherine “D.C.” Fontana (1939-2019), who overcame the ’60s-era Hollywood boys’ club to work as a writer on the original Star Trek TV series, has passed away at the age of 80 after a short illness, according to StarTrek.com. She is considered a pioneering writer who helped pave the way for other women in the realm of TV science fiction.

Fontana shortened her name to the initials “D.C.” to avoid sexist rejections torpedoing her submissions. Once in the door, her storytelling abilities let to her forging a friendship with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. She started out as a secretary, but soon proved herself and became the story editor for the series.

Fans of the original Star Trek series are very familiar with Fontana’s work. She produced many beloved episodes, including “Yesteryear,” “Friday’s Child,” “The Enterprise Incident” and “Journey to Babel,” where viewers first met Spock’s Vulcan father Sarek and his human mother Amanda. Vulcan culture was Fontana’s speciality.

And Fontana’s contribution to the Star Trek universe didn’t end with the last season of the original series. She also penned scripts for the Star Trek Animated Series, and both she and Roddenberry were nominated for a Hugo Award for the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint.” She continued stacking up writing and co-writing credits in the Star Trek universe with TNG and Deep Space Nine. Her final credit came on the web series Star Trek New Voyages (starring Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov on the original series and beyond).

The New Jersey-born Fontana’s writing talents extended beyond Star Trek. During her long career, she also wrote episodes for TV shows like The Waltons, Bonanza, Babylon 5, Dallas, The Six Million Dollar Man, Logan’s Run and The Streets of San Francisco.

Fontana also penned the Star Trek novel Vulcan’s Glory, about Spock’s first mission aboard the Enterprise. The Writer’s Guild of America nominated her for an award for co-writing the episode “Two Percent of Nothing” for Then Came Bronson. In her later years she was a senior lecturer at the American Film Institute.

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