Ronald Dowl Moore (b. 5 July 1964) is an award-winning American screenwriter and TV producer, best known for his work in Speculative Fiction, especially on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Born and raised in Chowchilla, California, Moore majored in political science, initially on a Navy ROTC scholarship at Cornell, but dropped out due to losing interest in his studies. While working odd jobs in the late '80s, he toured the Star Trek: The Next Generation set during the filming of "Time Squared", and got the chance to pitch a script to one of Gene Roddenberry's assistants. Executive producer Michael Piller bought the script and hired him; the script ultimately became season three's "The Bonding".
Ron Moore's profile in Star Trek grew over time and he eventually became a co-executive producer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. After the wrap, however, he moved over to Star Trek: Voyager, helmed by his friend from TNG Brannon Braga, only to quit three weeks later, penning just two scripts. He later said that the inciting incident was him asking for advice writing B'Elanna Torres and getting a response along the lines of "We don't care, do what you want," confirming his suspicion that the creative team had stopped caring about the show and were just there to draw a paycheck.
After leaving Voyager, Moore set out to create a Military Science Fiction show very much in opposition to what VOY portrayed, which became Battlestar Galactica (2003). Due to a combination of Executive Meddling in the later seasons and admitted Writing by the Seat of Your Pants by Moore, results were somewhat mixed.
Ron Moore and fellow DS9 alum Ira Steven Behr later co-headed production of Outlander for Starz from 2014-2023. He also has an original science fiction streaming series, For All Mankind.
Shows and films written by Ron Moore:
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989–1994) – 27 episodes
- Star Trek: Generations (1994)
- Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) – 30 episodes
- Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) – 2 episodes
- G Vs E (1999–2000) – 2 episodes
- Mission: Impossible II (2000)
- Roswell (1999–2002) – 10 episodes
- Carnivàle (2003–2005) – 3 episodes
- Battlestar Galactica (2003) (2003-2009) – miniseries and 73 episodes
- Outlander (2014–2023) – co-creator, 40 episodes to date
- Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (2017) - TV series, 1 episode
- For All Mankind (2019-present) – 10 episodes
Tropes in Ron Moore's work:
- Self-Deprecation: He cameoed in an episode of Portlandia as an actor who had never seen Battlestar Galactica (2003).
