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Harlan Ellison sues Star Trek (1 Viewer)

Mark Zimmer

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Ellison was here at an auction for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund some years ago (at least 10+ now) and they were auctioning off a videotape of City on the Edge of Forever. In a weak moment, he declared that he'd autograph it for the winner, something he'd never done and that he'd never do again. I won it, and he was very nice about the whole thing, considering all the grief this program has brought him over the years (as well as celebrity). It's signed "Just This Once! Harlan Ellison" on the label of the tape. One of my most prized possessions! Just too bad it was pre-DVD....
 

michael_ks

Screenwriter
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You have in your possession quite the rarity, Mark! Congratulations.

Poor Harlan, he can be his own worst enemy at times. No matter how you slice it, COTEOF brought him notariety and publicity which I'm sure boosted book sales for 40 years now. Well, if it had been a copy of a script from "The Price of Doom" from "Voyage" you can bet your bottom dollar that he and his pen would not have gone ANYWHERE NEAR the item.
 

Jack P

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Considering how Ellison wouldn't be anywhere near as well-known a figure outside the narrow realm of sci-fi writers if he hadn't written City, I think the only grief he's received from the show has been entirely of his own making.
 

TheGreatOz

Second Unit
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Rod
Ok, bottom line:

Is City going to be missing from the upcoming Blu-ray Star Trek release in two weeks?

:frowning:
 

Kevin EK

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Harlan Ellison's Script for CITY is a great one, and it's one of the most resonant stories ever contributed to Star Trek, but I have to agree that it works more as a separate anthology story than as a part of a running television series. I agree with the earlier criticism of it in this thread, in that key plot points don't get introduced until we're almost halfway the story, and that Kirk's final choice in the story, while a great moment, doesn't fit with the established character or the lead of the series.

For references to this whole situation, I would recommend looking at the following books:

The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison. This one gives you his original script and treatment, as well as a long essay by Ellison giving his take on everything that happened during and since the making of the episode. Among other things, he makes clear that he does not drink, as alcohol makes him sick. There are several afterwords contributed by various Star Trek personalities and writers, the most significant of which is contributed by D.C. Fontana. She makes clear that the script was initially rewritten by Gene Coon (who routinely did rewrites on most of their scripts while he was a producer there), then Fontana herself did a pass on it (adding in Spock's growing primitive computer and more sensitivity to the love scenes), and then Roddenberry did the final pass (conforming the characters more to the series standards and adding Edith Keeler's sermon in the soup kitchen, among other things).

Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Bob Justman and Herb Solow. This one is the only reliable account of the actual making of the original series. It has an extensive chapter of what they went through to make Harlan's script into a shootable episode, and it admits that his original pass had a lot of beauty and mystery that wound up not making it into what eventually got on the air.

It's necessary to put the various accounts of what happened together to get a decent picture here. Ellison doesn't admit how much he procrastinated in getting this script in, but everyone else says it took him quite a long time. Bob Justman says he literallly had to lock him in an office on the lot to get it out of him. Fontana says that some concepts in the script came from Gene Coon's rewrite (like substituting McCoy as the catalyst), but Ellison's 2nd Revised Final Draft actually has McCoy in this position. (It's possible that this came from a suggestion from Coon to Ellison, but Ellison wrote it first.)

David Alexander's "approved" biography of Roddenberry, Creator includes an interesting note from Roddenberry on the subject of Ellison and the script. Roddenberry comments that it was easy for Ellison to take an absolute moral position and refuse to compromise in many areas, but that he didn't have that luxury as a producer trying to get a TV show on the air. As Roddenberry put it, if he threatened to quit every time things didn't go his way, the show wouldn't get done. Of course, the irony is that Roddenberry pretty much did exactly that when the series didn't get the timeslot he wanted for the third season.

As for Ellison, he had some interesting times on the 1985 Twilight Zone revival, but even this ended in Ellison walking away from the project. To get a better picture of this, you can read Ellison's essay on the subject in his book SLIP PAGE, or, better yet, you can listen to Ellison's commentaries on the first season DVD set for the 1985 series. His commentary for "Gramma" covers the awful events around his exit, while his commentary for "Paladin of the Lost Hour" contains some scathing remarks about director Gil Cates and actor Danny Kaye.

I personally find Ellison to be a refreshing and brilliant voice, but for me, he is best taken in small doses.
 

Kevin EK

Reviewer
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CITY is absolutely in the Blu-ray set. Ellison's legal matter only means that if he prevails, the studio sends him more money for it than they already do now.

I regret that it did not receive a special commentary in the Blu-ray or HD-DVD sets. I would have enjoyed seeing everyone's comments about it now, or to have a scene-specific audio commentary with, say, Ellison and Fontana.

Of course, I would have also liked to see video or audio commentaries on several other first season eps, like "Corbomite Manuever" or "Arena"...
 

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