Harlan Ellison is Suing Paramount and Pocket Books
- Thread starter nx1701g
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The more I hear about him and his antics, the more I think Harlan Ellison seems like a complete tool.
In one of the threads in the Trek movies forum, someone posted an infamous rant by Ellison against Trek fans. I believed he called us 'the most pathetic servile creatures on Earth'. Or words to that effect.
In one of the threads in the Trek movies forum, someone posted an infamous rant by Ellison against Trek fans. I believed he called us 'the most pathetic servile creatures on Earth'. Or words to that effect.
Huh. Ellison first began making noise about this two years ago; I'm surprised it's still gonna happen.
In any event, what he's going to be suing them over, if he's still suing them for the same reason he said he was going to in 2006, is over the use of the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler in the Crucible trilogy, a series of TOS novels written by David R. George III (a poster on this board) that examine the lives of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from the perspective of the death of Edith Keeler as being the central turning point in all three men's lives.
In any event, what he's going to be suing them over, if he's still suing them for the same reason he said he was going to in 2006, is over the use of the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler in the Crucible trilogy, a series of TOS novels written by David R. George III (a poster on this board) that examine the lives of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from the perspective of the death of Edith Keeler as being the central turning point in all three men's lives.
What, does he think he OWNS the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler? 
Surely the corporate owners own those as well as the rest of the canon characters (yes, I think the Guardian can be considered a character).
I haven't finished reading that trilogy yet; however, I found the one about McCoy to be mostly pretty good, with some quite unexpected twists.
Surely the corporate owners own those as well as the rest of the canon characters (yes, I think the Guardian can be considered a character).I haven't finished reading that trilogy yet; however, I found the one about McCoy to be mostly pretty good, with some quite unexpected twists.
What, does he think he OWNS the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler?
His contract on that episode was a little bit different than the standard one. I don't know the details.
What, does he think he OWNS the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler?
His contract on that episode was a little bit different than the standard one. I don't know the details.
I think it had something to do with the rewrite that was done to it and negotiations that followed... if I remember correctly.
Where is TGT, he would know.
What, does he think he OWNS the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler?
His contract on that episode was a little bit different than the standard one. I don't know the details.
Ellison clearly believes that he owns the characters of the Guardian of Forever and Edith Keeler. We do know that his contract for "The City on the Edge of Forever" was a little different from others' -- he retains legal ownership of his unused draft and of characters that are unique to that draft, for instance. The question is whether or not he retains legal ownership of characters that appeared in the finished episode or not.
So far as I know, there is no publicly-available source of information on whether or not he owns those characters. We do know that most such characters are owned by the corporation -- formerly Paramount, currently CBS -- while the writers of the episodes that they were created for, if those writers were freelance rather than staff, retain the right to receive royalty payments even though they don't have ownership or control of the use of the character.
We also know that the Guardian of Forever has appeared in previous novels for decades, including perhaps most famously Imzadi, Time's Orphan, and Time's Arrow, without incident.
He actually does think he owns them. I remember a few months back, when there were rumours that the Guardian of Forever was going to be in Trek XI, he went apeshit demanding that Paramount and JJ Abrams pay him royalties.
BTW, those rumours have since been debunked, so don't cry to me about spoilers.
Well I'm not surprised he's going to do this, not at all. The man is big on creator right and rabidly protecting anything he's created. So this is well in character for him. Plus, I think he's got a pretty good track record with his court actions, so he wouldn't be going into this if he didn't think he could win.
The knock on effect, should he win or they settle out in his favor, could be to drive CBS/Paramount further to the realm of reboot for any future 'Trek projects-- basically wiping the slate clean and make sure they hold all the cards 100%
The knock on effect, should he win or they settle out in his favor, could be to drive CBS/Paramount further to the realm of reboot for any future 'Trek projects-- basically wiping the slate clean and make sure they hold all the cards 100%
PAD did ask Ellison for permission, though if I remember right it was more out of good manners than legal necessity.
Of course, the only reason Ellison knows about these books at all is that one of his own fans saw one in a shop and wrote him because he was disgusted that Ellison wasn't mentioned in the acknowledgments. Perhaps someone should tell him about the comics, novels, and short stories that also contain elements from "City," any number of which were produced without his blessing.
Yeah. Why is this in General Trek Discussion instead of TrekLit? Not that I expect the Pocket folks or the author (who post in TrekLit) to be able to discuss the suit, but hey, it's a book discussion, and there's a book forum.
Yeah, I have a thought........Harlan Ellison is a douchebag.
The man's just trying to protect his creative rights, so? And if he's just trying to cash in, again so? I may not agree with the man a 100% of the time, and think he's a bit of a dick, but not over stuff like this.
Could he potentially sue over the fact that HE was parodied in "Far Beyond the Stars"? I believe the guy Armin Shimerman was playing was intended to resemble him...
