Ron Moore Talks 'Roswell'

As reported several months ago, former TNG and DS9 writer Ronald D. Moore joined the writing staff of the WB series 'Roswell' for its second season, in the capacity of co-executive producer. Over the past week, two new interviews with Moore appeared online, featuring his thoughts on both Roswell and Trek.

• In the first place, Anna L. Kaplan at Fandom.com has put up an extensive interview with Moore, in which he talks about how he got involved with the show:

  "My agents called me. [...] I knew that Jonathan Frakes was working on it, but I had never actually seen the show. So I said, 'Why don't you send me some episodes?' They sent over about a half dozen from the first year. I watched, and I started to really like it. I found it to be endearing and smart. Then I met with [executive producer] Jason Katims. He asked what I wanted to do and what was important to me on a show. It was very important to me that I worked on something that I could be proud of, and that I felt that I could do good work on, and that was what I really liked about working at STAR TREK. I wanted a close writing staff. Those were my two primary objectives. That dovetailed pretty nicely into what he was looking for. At that point I hadn't seen the last couple of episodes of the season, and he said, 'You should definitely watch them, because the show changed in tone and direction towards the end of the year.' They sent those to me. I saw where they were going, and I liked the direction. Then it was just a matter of making the deal."

  In the full interview, Moore talks about how he will be approaching the show, and also provides some information on upcoming episodes. Interestingly, he also mentions that in the events of the original crash in Roswell will be revisited for the first time in the 4th episode, guest-starring Charles Napier. Napier also played the General on DS9's 'Little Green Men', also dealing with the Roswell crash.

• Also new is Crashdown's interview with Moore, for which readers could recenty submit their own questions. Here's an interesting snippet from the interview, in which Moore also talks about Star Trek fandom:

  Question: I'm sure by now you've heard about the Roswell fans, about the campaigns and about how much we love and support Roswell. So what is your perception of the Roswell fans?

  Answer: Very positive. I had a chance to see a group of fans firsthand during the Crashdown party at the Key Club and I was very happy to see the enthusiasm and genuine affection they seemed to have for the show. As you probably know, I worked for Star Trek for a very long time and while I certainly found Trek fans to be a loyal and passionate group of people, there was also a sense of warring camps within Trek fandom - you know, TNG vs. DS9, Data vs. Spock, VOY vs. everyone, that sort of thing. Part of it is a natural result of Trek's longevity and its devoted following, but there's also a sense of factionalism that's a bit wearying. With the Roswell, there's still that sense of innocence and discovery among the fans. It's still their own precious show that they've found and that the world at large hasn't elevated to iconic status. It's more personal, more intimate.

  The actual interview, also featuring two recent photos of Moore in the 'Roswell' production offices, can be found here.

• Meanwhile, 'Roswell' is performing pretty well in its new Monday night timeslot, no longer facing competition from 'Star Trek: Voyager'. According to a new Variety report, last Monday's episode, which was actually written by Ron Moore, posted its best adults 18-49 ratings in nearly a year. For other demographics, the show also managed to improve over last season's ratings in the Monday timeslot, according to this WB release.

• 'Roswell' airs every Monday at 9:00pm on the WB. For more information on the show, check out the excellent Crashdown.

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