If you know me at all, you know that I love "Star Trek." I've done the convention thing, gone to multiple large screen showings of the films, and followed each spin-off, some more ardently than others. But it's the 79 episodes of the original series that keeps me coming back time and time again, and that's largely due to the efforts of Dorothy Fontana.
My first "Star Trek" exposure was in 1973, at the ripe old age of 8, when a syndicated rerun caught my eye. Since then, I've rabidly absorbed every piece of Trek arcana that I could get my hands on. So when Marc Cushman's recently released series of "These Are the Voyages" came out, each one focusing on one of the show's three seasons, I little expected to find out too much that I didn't already know. How wrong I was!
As I plunged through Cushman's extensive production notes and backstage tales, told with an objectivity missing from many of the autobiographies of Trek actors, producers and writers, it became clear that, while Gene Roddenberry was unquestionably the creator of "Star Trek," he was NOT the best writer for the series. And much of what has made the series immortal was the input of Fontana and producer Gene L. Coon.
Fontana began as Roddenberry's secretary. As she received drafts from pre-eminent science fiction writers, such as Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison and Paul Schneider, she began scribbling little suggestions in the margins that caught Gene's eye. Before long, he was asking her for ideas, and the eighth episode produced for the series was completely written by Fontana, who hid behind her initials to disguise her sex. "Charlie X" was a tale of the loneliness of adolescence, told inside a science fiction shell. The ending was atypically downbeat and sad ... not the type of trope that would be found in "Lost in Space" or "Captain Video."
Fontana then turned her attention to Leonard Nimoy and the character of Mr. Spock, who was already beginning to get mountains of fan mail. Her next story, "This Side of Paradise," freed Spock from his logical prison and allowed him to fall in love with an old flame. It would prove to be one of Nimoy's favorite episodes.
My favorite of her efforts was "Journey to Babel," in the second season. Here is a nifty, fast-paced tale, which not only featured a murder mystery, espionage amongst a group of colorfully designed aliens, but also laid out the strained relationship between Spock and his Vulcan father Sarek. Spock is torn between his duty to the ship and his responsibility to his father, and the scene between him and his human mother Amanda (Jane Wyatt, of "Father Knows Best" fame) still brings a tear to my eye upon my 212th viewing.
This is what Fontana did in all of her scripts. Dorothy never chose between action/adventure and human drama. She would brilliantly blend the two. The story draws the viewer in so completely that it isn't until the closing credits that he realizes how it has affected him.
Along with Coon, Fontana never shyed away from implanting humor into her scripts, particularly among the Kirk/Spock/Dr. McCoy trio, which infuriated Roddenberry. After screening two largely comedic efforts and realizing that a third had already gotten the green light, Roddenberry put his foot down and told them to focus on story, and not character. As a result, both writers left the series midway through the second season. With few exceptions, "Star Trek" slid into mediocrity in its third, shortened season. Thanks, Mr. Roddenberry.
Dorothy Fontana left us this week at the age of 80. She was a pioneer as a female television writer. By the seventies, she was able to leave D.C. behind and become Dorothy Fontana. She leaves behind a marvelous legacy of work from three different "Trek" series, a few nifty tales from the original "Land of the Lost," and a scattered number of episodes of other popular series from the 70s, such as "The Waltons," "The Streets of San Francisco," and "Dallas." She remains a huge reason why I'll continue to stow away aboard the starship Enterprise for the forseeable future.
