Dorothy Catherine Fontana, an American science fiction author and story editor, began her writing career as a junior secretary to Screen Gems president Ralph Cohn after graduating with an associate arts degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. She relocated to California, working in a typing pool at Revue Studios and later becoming a script reader and editor for producer Samuel A. Peeples, who specialized in writing and creating TV westerns.
As a script contributor, Fontana worked on several shows, including The Tall Man and The Wild Wild West, under the pseudonym Michael Edwards. She then joined Gene Roddenberry's production team as a production secretary for the military-themed drama series The Lieutenant, which was cancelled after a single season due to public apathy towards the Vietnam War.
Roddenberry later introduced Fontana to the science fiction genre, and she became a key writer and story editor for Star Trek, one of the pioneering female authors associated with the genre. Fontana wrote several key episodes, including The Enterprise Incident, Tomorrow is Yesterday, Catspaw, The Ultimate Computer, and Journey to Babel, which introduced Spock's parents.
In addition to her work on Star Trek, Fontana co-wrote the two-part pilot episode Encounter at Farpoint for Star Trek: The Next Generation and served as associate producer during the first season. She also wrote for other science fiction shows, including Logan's Run and Babylon 5.
Fontana believed that the best shows are always about people, and she focused on creating characters with strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. She said that every hero should have flaws and that perfect people may exist, but she never met any.
In addition to her TV work, Fontana wrote several novels, including Vulcan's Glory and The Questor Tapes, based on a screenplay by Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon. She also held a position as a lecturer in the screenwriting department of the American Film Institute Conservatory.
Fontana was a member of the Writers Guild of America and was twice inducted into the American Screenwriters Association Hall of Fame, in 1997 and 2002.
