Sistas doing it for themselves - part 2

Continued...

D.C  FONTANA

Ahhhhh, the 60’s. Free Love, Woodstock, Kennedy, Lennon, Civil Rights, funky tie-dyed T-shirts… even for those of us who were not there, the decade holds a special place in our hearts – a time when it was possible to believe in a better tomorrow, to fight for the right, and to wear crazy-ass clothes.

So ‘freedom’ was the buzzword of the decade……  but, of course, this freedom did not extend to those ‘super creative’ corporate suits working in the entertainment industry.

And despite the optimistic future seen on screen, the realities of the entertainment industry were, and are, different.  Star Trek was not immune to the creeping vines of corporate America.

As Trek buffs will tell you, Kirk and ‘Bones’ McCoy were not even in the first iteration of Star Trek;  NBC were unhappy with the initial pilot –  featuring Jeffery Hunter as cerebral proto-Picard Captain Pike, a smiling Leonard Nemoy as Spock, and Majel Barret as Pike’s first officer ‘Number One’ (a title that would later be taken up by Commander Riker in TNG).

Creator Gene Roddenberry was handed a phone-book’s worth of notes by the network; more action, less philosophy – Rodenberry kept the big ideas, but just added more punch-ups; recast the captain – thankfully Roddenberry saw that a little known Canadian actor called Bill Shatner had the requisite moxy to embody the newly christened James T. Kirk; and – the suits pleaded – get rid of that scary alien with the weird ears and the chick in the Commander’s chair.

A man equally as pragmatic as he was creative, Gene Roddenberry had acquiesced to many of the networks demands to get his baby into full-time production, but this last request was one step too far, gutting the creative heart of what Roddenberry was trying to achieve.

There was an impasse, but the network kept passing their notes; that pointy-eared alien fellow had a little of the devil about him – and that was going to upset those God-fearing advertisers in the southern states; and a woman as the second in command of a space-ship? – well…… who in there right mind is going to believe that ?

That’s right.  Yep.  In a world where tossing a bit of glitter into a beam of light denotes a human society technologically advanced enough to transport people instantaneously from one place to another; or where a white dog spray painted orange with slinky stuck to its tail, passes for independently evolved alien life, a woman on the command crew, the suits stated, really was pushing it.

It seems hard to grasp now, but that really was the state of play back in the day – a creative environment in which women in power were considered to be of a similar level of attractiveness to audiences and corporate American sponsors as a alien with supposed satanic associations.

So perhaps it is of no surprise to know that, after weeks of stalemate, when Roddenberry was given the ultimatum ‘you can only keep one – lose the alien, or lose the broad, if you want to get on the air’, it was the implausibly powerful Number One who was jettisoned out of the air-lock.

Of course, none of this would have come as a surprise to Dorothy Fontana, Gene Roddenberry’s long time, and long-suffering, secretary.  A creative dynamo herself, she developed a professional relationship with her boss that rapidly became a cornerstone on which the show would be built.

Offering constructive notes on scripts, being a sounding board for Roddenberry and the other producers, and eventually writing stories of her own, Dorothy Fontana was a vital cog in the Star Trek machine, her creative input becoming part of the DNA of arguably the biggest entertainment franchise on the face of the planet.

And yet……  well, there was that whole ‘being female’ thing.  But Roddenberry knew, and had real respect for, Fontana, and – while their working relationship wasn’t always plain-sailing, recognised that she was not a fictional character that could be sidelined: Fontana should get her dues.

But the times were what they were, and there were only so many battles with the network that one man can fight at any one time – so a compromise was reached, and Dorothy Catherine Fontana became credited in Star Trek productions seen around the world as the curiously-asexually titled ‘D.C. Fontana’.

‘D.C.’ didn’t let this slight deter her, though, going on to write some classic episodes of what would later be referred to by fans as ‘The Original Series’ – episodes such as “Tomorrow is Yesterday”, “Friday’s Child”, and the surprising-that-its-still-exciting “The Enterprise Incident.”

All this was, of course, in addition to acting as a story consultant on other scripts, and working full-time (and then some) as Roddenberry’s secretary.  However, it turns out that women – unlike their male peers – are actually capable of doing two or more things at once, so Fontana just quietly went about blazin’ her trail for girl writers, caring more that the quality of her work spoke for itself than credit.

As the years ticked by, however, the situation changed.  After the show’s cancellation / re-commissioning / second cancellation and subsequent success on numerous cable reruns, Star Trek fans grew hungry to know more about their favourite program, and as a result of their searching, scavenging and publication of whatever they found, Fontana’s place in Star Trek’s history was cemented.

Fontana went on to become associate producer and story editor for the Technicolour-tastic Star Trek: The Animated Series, writing most fans favourite episode “Yesteryear”, before further carving her name in Trek lore by assisting with the writing and production of the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation – “Encounter At Farpoint.”

At this stage of her career Fontana was – finally – getting the credit she so richly deserved, but she found herself growing dissatisfied with the amount of changes that were being made to her scripts, and, after asking for her second pseudonym –  ‘J. Michael Bingham’ – to be credited with the script for “The Naked Now”, Fontana’s involvement with Trek diminished.

The Star Trek show-runners still valued Fontana’s creative voice, however, and she was invited to write a script for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Her task: help to clarify and further define a character that the producers were struggling to completely nail – the titular character of “Dax”.

Whilst DS9 would eventually evolve into the cerebral, provocative space opera that would in some ways divide Trek fandom, it’s first couple of seasons were –  in large part – desperately mediocre, and “Dax” stood out as a shining example of how to write for a show which initially struggled with its own ‘boldly going nowhere’ premise.

“Dax” was to be Fontana’s last full-time writing gig for Star Trek television; DS9 paid her a tribute with the character of ‘K.C. Hunter in fan-favourite episode “Far Beyond The Stars”.  Dorothy Fontana would move on, happy in the knowledge that her work would continue to be watched, discussed and enjoyed around the world.

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