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Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana Passes Away

The veteran writer Dorothy Catherine Fontana passed away at the age of 80.

By Three of Seven Wed 04 Dec, 2019 8:44 PM
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana, the writer who brought much the franchise of Star Trek. She passed away just a few days ago, on the 2nd of December, at the age of 80 following a short illness.

It is without a doubt that Fontana made a huge impact on the world of Star Trek, contributing to many episodes, 10 in the original Star Trek, "Yesteryear" for the Animated Star Trek, 5 for The Next Generation, and wrote the episode "Dax" for Deep Space Nine. For some of here work, she used pseudonyms, such as Michael Richards and J. Michael Bingham. She also wrote the episode "To Serve All My Days" in the fan creation, Star Trek: New Voyages.

Alongside her written works in Star Trek, she worked as a story editor, and a producer on the shows, which made her the youngest story editor in Hollywood at the time, aged just 27, she was also one of the few femaile staff writers, making her one of the pioneers of the time. Fontana did a lot more too, including writing for video games, a book, a comic, and a small number of non-fictional works.

Star Trek has been the series that she worked the most on, but she did do writing for other shows, such as Babylon 5, and Logan's Run, the latter she also worked on as a story editor. In her career, she won three awards, the Morgan Cox award twice, and in 2001, the Screenwriting Hall of Fame. She also had two nominations, one for the WGA Award (TV) and Hugo for the other.

The following is reported by StarTrek.com "Fontana’s credits to Star Trek cannot be understated, both as a writer of great stories and as a trailblazer for other women. She is survived by her husband, Oscar-winning visual effects cinematographer Dennis Skotak, and her family wishes for memorial donations to be made to the Humane Society, the Best Friends Animal Society, or to the American Film Institute."

At UFPlanets, we would like to thank Dorothy Catherine Fontana for all the hard work she did for Star Trek, and the stories she wrote. We also send our condolences to her family, and if there ever were any episodes we could recommend rewatching at this time, it would be those written by Fontana.

WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
2 Comments
Thu 05 Dec, 2019 2:02 AM
So very sad, I always enjoyed her stories, she will be missed.
Thu 05 Dec, 2019 6:57 PM
D.C. Fontana's name was the first writer that actually got stuck in my brain as a kid back in the 70s. Other writers never measured up to the level of remembering back then.