The Star Trek franchise has lost a legend today.
D.C. Fontana, the legendary writer who helped shape Star Trek into what it is today, has passed away at age 80. According to a report by NBC News, the writer who helped shape Spock and his home planet Vulcan passed away Monday night after battling with a brief illness. The announcement was first made by the American Film Institute, an organization where Fontana served as a senior lecturer. Later on, CBS Studios and its Star Trek production company came up with their confirmation.
Details about Fontana's death hasn't been made public, however, we mourn the loss of the franchise. The writer was only second to Gene Roddenberry when it came to building the Star Trek universe. Dorothy Catherin Fontana (she used her initials D.C. so that producers in the 1960s would suspect that she was a woman and hinder her work) was the first female writer on Roddenberry's series.
Fontana was Roddenberry's friend before he began Star Trek. She used to work as his secretary on the NBC series The Lieutenant, however, the series was axed by the network. When it was canceled, Roddenberry encouraged the secretary to follow her passion as a writer. Fontana then became involved with the earliest stages of development for Roddenberry's science fiction series, Star Trek.
The writer was important in the development of Spock, the half-Vulcan, half-human science officer that's become one of the most prominent members of the Star Trek franchise.
Together with the Star Trek creator, Fontana also co-wrote the pilot for the original series revival with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Aside from that, the writer's credits also include other series like The High Chaparral, Kung Fu, Bonanza, The Waltons, and Dallas.
We are heartbroken over Fontana's passing. Fontana is survived by her husband, the Academy Award-winning cinematographer Dennis Skotak.
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