UPDATING
Dorothy Fontana, the first female Star Trek writer and a stalwart presence in television science fiction for four decades, died on Monday. She was 80.
The screen credit “D.C. Fontana” is a familiar one to several generations of sci-fi television viewers and Star Trek fans in particular but most didn’t know that the pen name belonged to a woman. Fontana’s considerable contributions to the Starfleet universe include the classic episode “Journey to Babel” from the original Star Trek series (1966-1969), Yesteryear from the well-regarded Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973), and “Encounter at Farpoint”, the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).
The New Jersey native’s television writing career began in 1960 with The Tall Man and her eclectic credits included episodes of of signature shows such as Dallas, The Waltons, Bonanza, Kung Fu, The Streets of San Francisco, The Big Valley and Ben Casey. It was in science fiction, however, where the script writer made her biggest mark. In addition to multiple Star Trek franchises, she also wrote episodes of Babylon 5, The Six Million Dollar Man, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Logan’s Run, War of the Worlds, Land of the Lost, and The Fantastic Voyage.