Fontana, Dorothy (D.C.)
A television writer since the early 1960's, Dorothy "D.C." Fontana was the personal assistant of Gene Roddenberry and became a prominent creative force behind Star Trek. As Roddenberry's secretary, she was among the first to see his original concept for the series in 1964. As story editor and a staff writer, Fontana penned about a dozen adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise — including "Charlie X", the second episode ever aired — and fine-tuned countless others. In particular she had a heavy hand in developing the character of Spock and his family in her script for "Journey to Babel." She continued her ties to Star Trek when she signed on to assist with the Animated Series in the 1970s, and further deepened Spock's backstory in her memorable script for "Yesteryear." And she helped launch Star Trek: The Next Generation by co-writing the series pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" with Roddenberry, along with several other first-season episodes. She also figured prominently in the Jadzia Dax character by co-writing the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine script "Dax."
Fontana has influenced other TV science fiction by writing for such shows as The Six Million Dollar Man, Babylon 5 and Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. She has also written episodes of The Waltons, Dallas, Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, Bonanza, High Chapparal, Here Come the Brides, The Big Valley and Ben Casey. She received a Writers Guild Award (WGA) nomination in 1969 for "Two Percent of Nothing," an episode of Then Came Bronson. In 2002 Fontana was furthered honored by the WGA with the Morgan Cox Award for her many years of service to the guild.
She is also the author of three books: "The Brazos River," "Vulcan's Glory" and "The Questor Tapes" (a novelization of Roddenberry's TV movie about an android who was the precursor to Data).
Fontana lives in Los Angeles with her husband, visual effects artist Dennis Skotak, and is currently teaching screenwriting at the American Film Institute.
