Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron084.txt

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Subj:  Answers
Date:  98-01-30 18:42:08 EST
From:  RonDMoore

<<I have a question about the Dominion justice (if there is such a thing) 
system: What's the point of executing someone who didn't follow traditions 
or rules (like Keevan) if they're going to clone him again? I assume they 
somehow retain the memories of the previous incarnations?>>

I think that the Dominion would've "corrected" the flaws as they saw them in
Keevan's genetic profile before cloning him.

<<As an astute political observer, do you think the public's insatiable 
demand for news has lowered journalistic standards over the last five years?
It is no longer uncommon for the line between journalism and rumor-mongering
to be smudged among many outlets, it seems to me.>>

While I tend to agree, I hesitate to say that today's media is really that 
different than their now revered predecessors.  The journalists of the day 
certainly published vile and outrageous claims about Thomas Jefferson and 
Andrew Jackson during their campaigns and that pattern seems to have held 
true throughout the 19th century.  I'm not sure if today's journalistic 
standards are really worse than those during the heyday of "Yellow 
Journalism" when the Hearst papers were in full cry and led the nation into 
war with Spain.  I think the big difference today is the *speed* at which 
scandal and rumor can be conveyed to the public.  Journalists have always 
yearned to be the first to break a big story.   That used to mean beating 
your competitor by a day with the news, but now media outlets are driven to
be first by *minutes*.  Networks and local affiliates pride themselves as 
being the "first to reveal shocking revelations" when they've only been two
or three minutes faster than their competitors.  I think that's what drives 
the current rumor-mongering -- the need to just get it on the air or on-line
*now* regardless of the source. 

<<...I'm also thinking "out loud" and arriving at some fairly nasty 
conclusions, given the fact that you have now skipped over my questions 
about Gul Dukat--the ones where I quoted your words in the interview--three 
times.  I figure that means you can no longer say that Dukat fans are going 
to like this season.>>

I think I did answer your question about what I said in the interview and 
how I squared it with "Waltz".  It's somewhere in the last folder, but in 
essence I said that my comments about how the Dukat fans would react when I 
did your interview took place before "Waltz" and they they reflected my 
thinking *at that time*.  At this point, I don't think we can keep playing 
the game of "is he a good guy or isn't he?"  like we did before.  "Waltz" 
showed us something dark and ugly in Dukat's soul.  That's not to say he's 
100% evil -- no one is.  I've said over and over again that we see him as a 
villain, but that he's a complex character with many different facets to his
personality.  I continue to see him that way.  He's capable of good, but 
something deep down keeps him from ever truly turning the corner.

<<Is this a guy thing?  Do you and the rest of the all-male writing staff 
still not understand, after a solid year of correspondence, that a lot of 
women find this man very attractive?  Do you somehow feel it's your duty to 
"save" us (your mother, sister, aunt, niece, other female relative) from the
clutches of the glamorous, but nasty, biker?>>

I don't think this is a guy thing.  Dukat was and is a bad guy.  We made him
a charming, multi-layered bad guy, but he's still a bad guy.

Subj:  Answers
Date:  98-01-30 18:50:46 EST
From:  RonDMoore

<<Someone asked if you actually watch the show, and I think that's a valid
question.  You are a very intelligent man, obviously, but perhaps the forest
is in the way of the trees here.  What you put on the page and what goes out
over the air are two very different things. >>

Well, obviously I watch the show.  But there's very little I can do to watch
it as a truly disinterested, objective viewer.  I'm always going to see it 
through a different prism than the audience.  But to be fair, your view on 
Dukat is not a universal one and many people have written on these very 
boards that they've never seen him as anything but an evil man.

<<This business of Dukat hating the Bajorans and finally admitting it 
doesn't square with anything that's gone before>>

That's where we disagree.  Dukat has never made any pretense of liking the 
Bajorans or feeling guilty about the Occupation.  Remember that when he 
first learned that Ziyal might still be alive, he was willing to kill her 
because of her Bajoran blood.  He's always said that one day the Cardassians
would reclaim Bajor as their own and always had a bitter anger against 
people like Kira who fought to free their world.  He's made many, many 
statements about the superiority of the Cardassians to the Bajorans and 
never once questioned his right to dominate them or kill them if
they got in his way.

<<With what you said "You will definitely see a Romulan or two this year." 
Is there a chance we can also see a particular vulcan? (Didn't want to start
that Rumor again, but I had to ask)>>

Spocko will not be making a DS9 appearance.  Neither will Sela.