Ronald D. Moore is one of the most legendary writers in sci-fi due to his contributions to Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. The writer reportedly ventured into the franchise by just going on a tour of the TNG set and submitting a script to Gene Roddenberry’s assistant. Since then, he has been promoted to story editor, writer, and producer.
Moore contributed his storytelling skills to many incredible episodes of TNG and also went on to work on Deep Space Nine. However, he only served a few weeks on Voyager before leaving the franchise due to creative differences. Still, the story pitches he made at the time reportedly formed the basis of his work on Battlestar Galactica.
Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore pitched a story to Voyager that sounded very similar to Battlestar Galactica
Ronald D. Moore is best known for reviving Battlestar Galactica back in 2004 for the Sci-Fi channel. The show was based on the 1978 series of the same name and followed the titular ship and its crew, who are the only military remnants of a war against the Cylons and have to guide the rest of the civilian ships to safety.
While Moore re-introduced the classic show to a whole new generation (which became immortalized due to Dwight Schrute from The Office), he started off his journey as a screenwriter on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Moore worked on several episodes as a story editor and later a co-producer. He also worked on Deep Space Nine.
However, he reportedly faced many creative differences when he joined Voyager, and many of his story pitches were rejected. The show saw Captain Janeway’s Voyager ship being sent to another dimension several light years away and their journey back.
While it was ultimately rejected, Moore reportedly pitched a familiar story for an episode (via Cinema Blend),
There was a storyline being developed that was the Voyager for a time starts shepherding some other ships, some alien ships, through some region. I don’t remember if it was a war-torn region or if it was some kind of spatial phenomenon or something. And I remember bringing up explicitly, ‘Oh, you could do a ragtag fleet here,’ sort of like [Battlestar] Galactica did, ‘And maybe that becomes something you do in multiple episodes. There’s a whole community here.’
The aspect of community, a ragtag fleet of crew members guiding other ships, and the political tensions between the crew was something that was straight out of Battlestar Galactica, though he would develop it several years later.
Ronald D. Moore left Star Trek: Voyager due to creative differences with Brannon Braga
For years, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga were a dream team in screenwriting. The duo wrote several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including its finale, and even worked on the scripts for the films Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact. They also reportedly co-wrote a draft of Mission Impossible 2.
However, despite a successful working relationship, Moore exited the franchise after a few weeks on Voyager and blamed Braga for not respecting his ideas at the time. He made several disparaging statements against his former creative partner (via Cinescape),
I have very hurt feelings about Brannon. What happened between he and I is just between he and I. It was a breakdown of trust. I would have quit any show where I was not allowed to participate in the process like that. I wasn’t allowed to participate in the process, and I wasn’t part of the show. I felt like I was freelancing my own show. That was the feeling I had.
The writer also put rumors about his departure being related to negative reactions toward his writing in the episode Survival Instinct to rest. He mentioned that he did not want to air out the dirty laundry about what went down between him and Braga.
Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.
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