Few names are as synonymous with the success of Star Trek as Ronald D. Moore. His writing across the science fiction genre is legendary, going from the space travel series to his acclaimed remake of Battlestar Galactica, to the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. His name will forever be etched in sci-fi history, but that doesn't mean he isn't haunted by the occasional bad line from his days as a writer on The Next Generation.
As we await upcoming Star Trek shows and Moore's For All Mankind spinoff Star City, the icon recently talked about one of the more embarrassing lines he ever wrote for Trek. Speaking on The Sackhoff Show with his BSG collaborator Katee Sackhoff, he admitted the embarrassing moment came from a popular --and one of my favorite episodes-- of The Next Generation:
That first season on Trek, 'Sins of the Father' was the episode. It was a Worf story. Worf goes back to his homeworld for the first time and has this whole thing about his honor. I was down on the set and I'm digging it: 'It was a big Klingon show, this is kind of cool.' There's Michael Dorn and he has this line in a scene where he discovers one of the other Klingons has betrayed them. The line is, 'Someone should feed this Ha'dibah to the dogs!'... and Michael immediately goes, 'You know what? It's a great script but then somebody writes you a line of dialogue like that and the whole thing is just so stupid.'
Michael Dorn obviously wasn't a fan of the line, but he's stated many times over the years he is a big lover of Worf. Fortunately, he remained (mostly) professional during the filming of the episode. Ronald D. Moore didn't even scare him away from playing a Klingon, even if the line was terrible.
Dorn went on to reprise his role as the Klingon in Deep Space Nine, which Moore played a heavy hand in helping develop. Given that, it's safe to say the actor didn't have a longstanding problem with the writer's work, and went on to be the most prolific actor in Star Trek.
To be clear, it seems that Ronald D. Moore agreed with Michael Dorn's analysis of the line. While the actor has struggled to get his own Klingon-centric show he wrote a green light, Moore said that in the moment he knew that it was indeed a cheesy line:
He didn't see me. I was like off camera. I was like, 'Oh, that is a really bad line.' And I slunk off the stage. And I was like, 'Oh man, that was bad.'
Not every line is a winner, even for someone as beloved in the science fiction world as Moore. Still, sometimes the shortcomings lead to better things, like when his ideas were shutdown for Star Trek: Voyager. Had that not happened, he wouldn't have gone on to make Battlestar Galactica, in which he utilized a number of those ideas that Trek didn't embrace.
While he has shown interest in returning to Star Trek, fans of Moore's work have found a way to enjoy his stories in the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. The writer even hinted to CinemaBlend there's a chance future seasons of the series will embrace hyperspace travel in the same way that Trek has, which would be trippy considering the series exists in the FAM universe. It's a great series to check out for readers who still have yet to do so, at least until Moore is back to working on Trek once more.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+. Tune in to see that cheesy line in "Sins of the Father," and some other wtf moments from TNG that even diehard fans might've forgotten.
