Legendary sci-fi screenwriter Ronald D. Moore does not shy away from his reputation in the Star Trek fandom, even when he is credited with work he didn’t necessarily set out to do. Moore had all kinds of work to promote at San Diego Comic-Con last week, and he sat down with ComicBook for a look back at his career and from Star Trek: The Next Generation to For All Mankind. Moore’s early work fleshed out the culture and society of the Klingon race substantially, with ripple effects still impacting the franchise to this day. He told us he is grateful to be regarded as the “true father of Klingons,” and credited his colleagues at the time with setting him up for success.
“I own it with pride,” Moore said of the title. “It was happenstance, it wasn’t something I set out to do. It was an assignment to do one Klingon show with Michael Piller. The late Michael Piller asked me to do it, and then it became, ‘Well, Ron should do the next Klingon show.’ And I refer to myself as the Margaret Mead of the Klingon Empire.”
Klingons were first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series in 1967, towards the end of the show’s first season. They were first created by writer Gene L. Coon as an unflattering foil to humanity, with all the divisive social and political practices the show was trying to avoid in Starfleet. Early stories showed Klingons to be enemies of humanity as they fought to spread their authoritarian regime through war, but in Moore’s time, they became allies of humanity and learned to co-exist.
Moore wrote or co-wrote 27 episodes of The Next Generation, and went on to write more on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Klingon character Worf (Michael Dorn) followed Moore from TNG to DSN one season later, allowing him to continue his exploration of Klingons with a singular perspective.
Moore left Star Trek behind a few years later, though he continued to shape the sci-fi genre with shows like Battlestar Galactica. In the meantime, Klingons have continued to develop into one of the most rich fictional cultures in speculative fiction, while Moore’s ideas have permeated the franchise through prequels and alternate timelines.
Moore was at SDCC promoting For All Mankind, his sci-fi drama that is currently approaching its fifth season on Apple TV+, with the spinoff Star City moving along as well. Those that want to revisit Moore’s older work can find all of his Star Trek episodes on Paramount+.
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