User blog:ARTaylor/RIP D. C. Fontana

Writer Dorothy Catherine Fontana, best known under her credited name D. C. Fontana, passed away on December 2nd following a short illness. She is survived by her husband Dennis Skotak, an Oscar-winning cinematographer.

Dorothy began her career working as a secretary for a producer on the series The Lieutenant. During this time, she was encouraged by series creator Gene Roddenberry to write. She adopted the pen name D. C. in order to avoid prejudice for being a woman. At the time, she was one of the few female writers working for NBC. When the series was cancelled, Roddenberry got her to work on his next series, a space-based western he titled Star Trek.

Fontana's biggest contributions were to the Star Trek universe. She wrote many of the most notable episodes, including rewriting Harlan Ellison's famed "The City on the Edge of Forever". Most of her episodes were focused on the Vulcan alien race and character of Spock, developing much of the mythology around them. She also went on to write numerous episodes for The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and a series of web shorts called New Voyages. She also worked on several Star Trek novels, video games, and comic books. The Star Trek website stated, "Fontana's credits to Star Trek cannot be understated, both as a writer of great stories and as a trailblazer for other women."

She worked on a number of other notable series such as Bonanza, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, Kung Fu, Logan's Run, The Waltons, Babylon 5, ReBoot, and Beast Wars: Transformers. Marvel fans would know her as the writer of the Silver Surfer episode "The Forever War". In recent years she was a senior lecturer at the American Film Institute where she mentored aspiring screenwriters, producers, and directors.