Gene's Letter to Harlan Ellison About His Criticism of Trek

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The Roddenberry 360 Project released today Gene Roddenberry's letter to Harlan Ellison regarding the latter's critique of Trek during a broadcast interview.

Ellison made a few inflammatory remarks about STAR TREK on a February 1976 interview with Tom Synder, which also featured De Kelly, Walter Koenig and James Doohan. That interview has been shared around these parts before.

Here's the whole program once again:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

You can read Roddenberry's letter to Ellison here: https://www.facebook.com/roddenberry/posts/10153801567253144

 

[Albertese]

That was a pretty fun interview. Thanks for posting that.

--Alex

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ten years after the series premiered and they all looked so good.

 

[kkt]

Thanks for posting those. GR writes a good letter.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I have to bump this up or it'll get buried and I'll forget to check it out from home, with no at-work firewall blocking the letter.

 

[Warped9]

I've seen the interview before but not the letter. Interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[alensatemybuick1]

Ellison clearly didn't "learn his lesson", as is obvious reading his Starlog review of Star Trek: The Motionless Picture a few years later (reprinted in his film criticism book "Watching").

The bit in the letter about Roddenberry running into a cop who just happened to bring up Star Trek set off my internal bullshit detector.

 

[Warped9]

Ellison clearly didn't "learn his lesson", as is obvious reading his Starlog review of Star Trek: The Motionless Picture a few years later (reprinted in his film criticism book "Watching").

The bit in the letter about Roddenberry running into a cop who just happened to bring up Star Trek set off my internal bullshit detector.

Hard to say. Over the years I have run into individuals that turned out to be Trek fans who I might have suspected were not.

 

[SPCTRE]

That was a great read. Say what you will about GR, he did certainly achieve some of the goals he did state there.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The bit in the letter about Roddenberry running into a cop who just happened to bring up Star Trek set off my internal bullshit detector.

I found myself wondering if GR had part of that experience for real, and being a fabulist, just made the story better. He was a fiction writer, and that skill kind of carried over into how he communicated with people from time to time.

 

[johnnybear]

Great show and nice to relive the past with everyone mentioning the movie (which took another three years to produce) but didn't they love their cigarettes! All that filthy smoke..yuck!
JB

 

[skip bittman]

I'd love to see Harlan's response. How is he these days? Last few times I encountered him he was in bad shape and grumbling about dying. The thought of a planet without Harlan Ellison is depressing... we need more characters like that causing trouble!

 

[johnnybear]

HaHaHa Do we? I thought they usually ended up in prison cells!
JB

 

[The Lensman]

Does anyone know the day that Snyder interview originally aired? Can't seem to turn up a date, but I recall being allowed to stay up and watch it. I mainly remember it because this was in the time when I had not yet seen every episode (though I though I had at that point), and the part I remember most is the clip from Omega Glory where they beam into the Exeter. I remember thinking at the time "What episode is that?!" It's also possible that I had never seen the opening act since trying to watch Trek on UHF in the 70's was always a chore. Especially since I lived far enough outside of the city to get the signal, but not close enough to get it clearly.

 

[mb22]

February 4, 1976
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-tomorrow-show-1973/february-4-1976-2671134/