I had the pleasure of meeting Ronald D. Moore (Star Trek: TNG, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica) at I-Con 29 this weekend. We were both guests on Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction, a radio show out of WUSB in Stony Brook. (Click on the show title for an archive of the episode.)

Okay, some background. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when we were doing The Chronic Rift as a public access TV show in New York, we also had the Roundtable Awards, and Ron won one for his work on Star Trek: The Next Generation, for which he had only recently joined the staff (this was 1991).

Fast forward to this past Friday night. Ron, myself, and a bunch of other people (including Sarah Douglas and Glenn Hauman, among others) were sitting in the WUSB studio, and I mention the Rift. "Oh my God," Ron says, "you're from The Chronic Rift?" Not only did he remember getting the award, but he still has it. He remembers getting the phone call from either me or John (John, do you remember which of us called?) saying he won the award, and that we'd be sending it to him, and he remembered being excited about getting it.

Then it showed up in the mail. Keep in mind that we were a public access show, so we had no budget. The awards were a round styrofoam base, painted black, and a gold-painted plastic round table (actually the things used to hold up the center of a pizza). Ron was at once flattered and slightly disappointed...

He still has the award. He's had it with him at every office he's worked in since then, including in his current office for Caprica. It was the first award he ever won.

(PS: the last time Sarah Douglas was at I-Con was in 1992, and I interviewed her for the Rift. She of course didn't remember -- it was 18 years ago -- but I reminded her that she ran rings around me during the interview. She really did, too, it was hilarious.)