City on the Edge of Forever - 45th Anniversary

[MikeH92467]

I don't JMS had to do much real handling of Ellison. IIRC Ellison's title was "Creative Consultant" which sounds pretty impressive, but given JMS's iron grip on the show, I suspect it was a case where Ellison could suggest and JMS could accept or reject as he saw fit.

 

[Knight Templar]

I don't JMS had to do much real handling of Ellison. IIRC Ellison's title was "Creative Consultant" which sounds pretty impressive, but given JMS's iron grip on the show, I suspect it was a case where Ellison could suggest and JMS could accept or reject as he saw fit.

I always had a feeling that Ellison was a "first impressions man".

If he respected you from the get go then he did not change his opinion.

And on a more mercenary note, if you bought him off he stayed bought. So once he was happy on B-5 he stayed happy. And once he was upset with Roddenberry he stayed upset.

That said, Ellison is far, far from the only writer who had major disputes with Gene Roddenberry regarding Star Trek material. David Gerrold to name just one.

 

[scotpens]

I never liked Ellison but I can cut him some slack as Roddenberry in regards to City on the Edge of Forever told some flat out lies regarding Ellison's original script.

Did G.R. ever actually accuse Ellison of writing a script in which Scotty was the one dealing drugs?

 

[MikeH92467]

That said, Ellison is far, far from the only writer who had major disputes with Gene Roddenberry regarding Star Trek material. David Gerrold to name just one.

GR had some interesting comments about relationships with writers in "The Making of Star Trek". One of the things GR found out was that in some cases the prominent sci-fi writers they commissioned were good at telling stories, but not so good at writing TV scripts.

Without naming names he mentioned that his insistence on rewriting scripts cost him some friendships but it had to be done maintain the consistency of his vision. The book is GR's version and it white washes a lot of things and sidesteps a lot of issues, but it does have the value of being written before everyone (including GR) got the urge to settle old scores and tell their own stories.

 

[Elder Knight]

...
I don't think that the full original script is available online anywhere. If my remaining Trek stuff wasn't several hundred miles away from here in storage, I would be happy to scan the pages and post them, because I have all versions of the script, including the original outline.
...

Watch it! If you scan and post Ellison's stuff without his permission, he'll sue you. If you're lucky. He may come over and personally give you what-for.

 

[Knight Templar]

I never liked Ellison but I can cut him some slack as Roddenberry in regards to City on the Edge of Forever told some flat out lies regarding Ellison's original script.

Did G.R. ever actually accuse Ellison of writing a script in which Scotty was the one dealing drugs?

According to the wikipedia entry on the episode, GR did make that claim but later admitted that it had been many years since he had read the script he was referring to.

That said, Ellison is far, far from the only writer who had major disputes with Gene Roddenberry regarding Star Trek material. David Gerrold to name just one.

GR had some interesting comments about relationships with writers in "The Making of Star Trek". One of the things GR found out was that in some cases the prominent sci-fi writers they commissioned were good at telling stories, but not so good at writing TV scripts.

Without naming names he mentioned that his insistence on rewriting scripts cost him some friendships but it had to be done maintain the consistency of his vision. The book is GR's version and it white washes a lot of things and sidesteps a lot of issues, but it does have the value of being written before everyone (including GR) got the urge to settle old scores and tell their own stories.

Wasn't "The Making of Star Trek" by David Gerrold? Ironic then that Gerrold himself was at odds with Roddenberry during the first season of ST:TNG reportedly.

 

[scotpens]

Wasn't "The Making of Star Trek" by David Gerrold? Ironic then that Gerrold himself was at odds with Roddenberry during the first season of ST:TNG reportedly.

No, David Gerrold wrote The World of Star Trek. The Making of Star Trek was written by Stephen E. Whitfield, with extensive quoted material from Gene Roddenberry.

 

[Knight Templar]

Wasn't "The Making of Star Trek" by David Gerrold? Ironic then that Gerrold himself was at odds with Roddenberry during the first season of ST:TNG reportedly.

No, David Gerrold wrote The World of Star Trek. The Making of Star Trek was written by Stephen E. Whitfield, with extensive quoted material from Gene Roddenberry.

I keep confusing them.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

With respect to the issue of whether actual fans of Star Trek living in the 70's had an interest in which episodes had won Hugo Awards, I can say as one of those people that this issue was definitely on my radar. The episode guide printed in David Gerrold's The World of Star Trek indicated which episodes had been nominated for Hugos and which had won. In fact, it was this book, incidentally written by a budding professional science fiction author, that introduced the little eight-year-old me to what Hugos were. I didn't know what they were at first, but to Gerrold they really sounded like something important. I was even miffed that my favorite episode, The Doomsday Machine, had lost to City.

The World of Star Trek was one of only five non-fiction Star Trek reference books on my bookshelf during the 1970's, which also included The Making of Star Trek, The Trouble with Tribbles, Star Trek Lives! and the Star Trek Concordance. Until the Concordance came out, World was the only one of these with a complete episode guide, and it didn't suffer from the errors in Making's partial two season guide (e.g. "Man Trap" instead of "The Man Trap"). My World episode guide was the one I referred to the most, and it was flipped through so much, that today one of the pages is held together with scotch tape.

 

[Elder Knight]

Just a few years later, Star Trek could have done the occasional two-hour show to support more involved plots. But they weren't doing that circa '67.