Do you think Klingons still hold the same place in Star Trek?

Deep Space Nine still had some of the great influence of Gene Roddenberry, and had one of the great writers, especially Klingon writers, Ron Moore.

The story of Ron Moore is fascinating - as a fan he submitted a script, got brought in, and the rest is history. He's a genius. He has a couple of other series in development right now, Carnivàle [and] Battlestar Galactica, which he wrote the pilot of.

Ron and Brannon Braga had a separation of the ways, and when Ron left the show I think the writing for Klingons left with him. I don't think Brannon and Rick [Berman] are that captivated by the Klingon empire, whereas Ron, I think, really lived there. He added a poet's soul to the Klingon empire in terms of presenting everything about the culture.

So when Ron left it began to cut the Klingons out, and I think that was a mistake for the show. I think everybody needs Klingons. Almost every show on television, I don't care if it's Seinfeld or Everybody Loves Raymond [if] you put a Klingon on that show suddenly you have a little bit more action, passion, insanity, fanaticism, and people want to see that.