'The City on the Edge of Forever'....51 years ago today
- Thread starter TrickyDickie
- Start date
It was the same set. It was the Enterprise in everything but name. Still a rubbish idea.
I spotted that Kid McCook poster in an episode of "The Lucy Show".
I love the version of COTEOF that we got, but Ellison's original vision is also great. There are things I miss about Ellison's version: Beckwith and the Jewels of Sound, The Guardians of Forever being an actual race, "like a city on the edge of forever" being an actual line of dialogue, Edith Keeler being the Key, Trooper and the poignancy of Kirk not knowing what Verdun was, Beckwith's ultimate punishment, and the beautiful line "No woman was ever loved more, because no woman was ever offered the universe for love."
They didn't have to change as much as they did, but I guess once they started rewriting it, no one wanted to go back and restore more of the original material that was cut out.
They didn't have to change as much as they did, but I guess once they started rewriting it, no one wanted to go back and restore more of the original material that was cut out.
On an emotional level, sure. Either regarding the huge irony of the storyline (leader of an anti-WW2 pacifist movement has to die or else her movement wins and as a result of that the Nazis - the ultimate fascists - actually win) or in Kirk's wanting to shag her nonstop and let the future be changed... oh, wait, the plot had actually read that it was due to her death that ensured the US would to not be delayed any more to get into the war, since the delay allowed enough time for Germany to develop the nuke instead - and with far worse results.
Makes for a great episode of "Sliders", at least in the days of seasons 1 or 2...
I've yet to find or read Ellison's original draft, but as it was Fontana whose rewrite got the most attention... am glad it was her who got the script to producible levels. The script could go in ANY number of directions; there's nowhere near enough time to cover one facet appropriately - Fontana's rewrite really was amazing. As is Harlan's original, I doubt I'd think anything less if I get a chance to read it.
I can't help thinking that sounds like the name of a band.
Ellison's version is less on-the-nose about what Edith's not dying causes, and Spock merely suggests that her pacifistic leanings could delay the US entry into the war as one way she could affect the future.
One thing I find hilarious is that Justman bitches about the cost, so Ellison changes the three humanoid Guardians to a disembodied voice, then Justman complains that so much dialog should come from a speaking character. And you wonder why writers get grumpy...
One thing I find hilarious is that Justman bitches about the cost, so Ellison changes the three humanoid Guardians to a disembodied voice, then Justman complains that so much dialog should come from a speaking character. And you wonder why writers get grumpy...
Maybe you shouldn't be saying that Ellison's script wasn't "producible" so casually if you've never actually read the thing. It was a great script, and it would've made a great episode of Star Trek in its own right.
Ellison's script was published in paperback about 20 years back, including an essay detailing the history of the episode from his perspective. It's also been adapted into a comic book version from IDW. I'm sure that both are readily available on Amazon or eBay.
Most of my issues with the various Ellison drafts (and Carbatsos's) are structural. He needed to move some things around and set some things up earlier to work in a series TV format, e.g. you do not introduce a major character (Edith) at the midpoint of the story, nor a character at the start of act 4 and have him die tragically a few pages later (Trooper)... you introduce both as early as possible. He also wasted a ton of page space on unnecessary camera direction and notes (every script I have seen of his suffers from this), and if you stripped that stuff out the script would have run short.
It would have been interesting to see say the "Star Trek Continues" cast do the Ellson version of COTEOF.
Shame that the amateur versions have been bought to an end in that respect.
Would never have happened. Ellison would probably have told them where to stick it ("Pay the writer"). And CBS had previously put their collective foot down over the unfilmed Spinrad script at NV. I'm surprised they got away with making "Kitumba" and "The Child" at all.
The Star Trek Continues cast did very well and it's such a shame that they were prevented from carrying on with their shows! Especially with Discovery being allowed to go to a second season despite all the disinterest to put it mildly!
JB
JB
I would have thought that Ellison would have relished a chance to show that he was "right" perhaps even getting involved - although it would have been a bit harder to do with amateur actors.
They got actors with real chops to play the leads in a recording of the script a few years back, albeit their choice to include people sans vocal presence like Gerrold and Nemecek to read the screen directions and minor characters is rather fap fap fap.
You can hear a bit of the script here (link). The whole 8 hours of the audiobook was only like $6 when I just looked.
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They don't typically renew unsuccessful shows for second seasons. Somebody is certainly interested enough to watch the series.
Wow that's interesting.Was it was Ellson approved?
However a voice recording and the comic while being pretty amazing doesn't prove that it would work in a one hour episode.and still keep to GR's 'vision'. What might work in the comic say wouldn't necessarily work on TV.
For instance it won't show the so called costly elements that would have to be cut back. Or the problem bringing the guest star into the episode half way through.
Ellison voices Trooper in this, so it’s a safe assumption he approved it. Also, this is a reading of Ellison’s City book (story outlines, teleplays, introudction, and afterwords), not the comic version.
C'mon, Johnny. You're perfectly entitled to dislike the show, but it's disingenuous to pretend that it's somehow not successful. I absolutely hated Into Darkness, but it was obviously successful enough to warrant another sequel. And good thing, too, since I liked ST Beyond a lot more.
Those people don't decide if the show gets picked up,The producers and writers?
JB
