D.C. Fontana, who helped craft the lore of “Star Trek” and developed one of its signature characters, Spock, as the first female writer for the 1960s television series, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. She was 80 and lived in Los Angeles. Ms. Fontana was part of the “Star Trek" universe from its early days, working alongside its creator, Gene Roddenberry , on the series as a story editor and writer. The original series, which premiered in 1966, introduced audiences to Captain Kirk, the United Federation of Planets and the Starship Enterprise. But Ms. Fontana was best known among fans for her work on Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan Starfleet officer portrayed by Leonard Nimoy. The character was torn between the emotionality of his human side and a Vulcan’s zealous commitment to logic, a narrative tension that powered much of the television series and several of the 13 feature films that followed it.

Source: New York Times December 04, 2019 00:33 UTC