From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos
From Address: nope@noway.com
Subject: Re: IDW Does Harlan Ellison

In article , David Johnston
 wrote:

> On 7/15/2014 9:23 AM, A Friend wrote:
> > In article , Daniel
> >  wrote:
> >
> >> On 15/07/2014 12:30 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >>> In article , Jim G.
> >>>  wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> A classic revisited, just as Harlan envisioned it...
> >>>>
> >>>> The City that Never Sleeps or Goes Away: Harlan Ellison and Star Trek,
> >>>> Again
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/07/the-city-that-never-slee
s-or-goes-away-
> >>>> ha
> >>>> rla
> >>>> n-ellison-and-star-trek-again
> >>>> or http://preview.tinyurl.com/l4sppdm
> >>>>
> >>>> QUOTE
> >>>> Adapted for the comics by IDWrCUs primary Trek writers Scott and David
> >>>> Tipton, and with beautiful art by J.K. Woodward (who did slick work on
> >>>> the Doctor Who/TNG crossover a few years ago) everything about this
> >>>> release is totally legit. In the debut issue of this limited run (there
> >>>> will be five in all) IDW Trek editor Chris Ryall writes fondly about how
> >>>> this venture was his idea, and one that took some convincing of
> >>>> everybody to go along with. In his words, over time rCRnosrC# turned
into
> >>>> rCRhmmmms.rC#
> >>>> END QUOTE
> >>>>
> >>>> Okay, so how long until Ellison sues IDW over something about this?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> I read the original script about 35 years ago, and I don't remember
> >>> anything about a Bizarro World Enterprise.
> >>>
> >>> The article asks the question, "And yet, now nearly 50 years later,
> >>> with numerous Treks behind us, the question still nags: would EllisonrCOs
> >>> original script for rCLThe City on the Edge of Forever,rCY have been
better
> >>> than what ended up on screen?"  I don't think so.  The story is not
> >>> about Beckwith, it's about Kirk and Edith Keeler, and Kirk's duty to
> >>> history and the future.  The story didn't require Beckwith or anybody
> >>> like Beckwith.  Accidentally overdosing McCoy gets things rolling quite
> >>> nicely.
> >>>
> >>> Ellison's ending -- with Beckwith stuck in a time loop getting
> >>> annihilated every few seconds inside a nova -- is beyond melodramatic.
> >>> In the show as seen, Kirk's final line, "Let's get the hell out of
> >>> here," is powerful, especially in a day when saying "hell" on U.S. tv
> >>> was a very rare thing indeed.
> >>>
> >>> BTW the really confusing thing about City is just how history was
> >>> changed.  Everybody thinks McCoy saved Edith from getting run over by
> >>> that truck, and that wasn't the case.  The creepy little guy at the
> >>> rescue mission (his name in Ellison's script is Rodent) eventually
> >>> rapes and murders Edith.  He doesn't do so in the changed history
> >>> because he fiddled with McCoy's phaser and disintegrated himself.  The
> >>> significance of this was purposefully obscured, but that's why the
> >>> phaser scene is in there.  What's also not explained is why Kirk and
> >>> Spock simply didn't take Edith with them into the future, which would
> >>> have effectively "killed" her in 1930.  Neither story ever explains why
> >>> Edith's death was necessary.
> >>>
> >>> Also, Clark Gable didn't make a movie until 1931.
> >>>
> >> Hasn't the Edith Keeler story line been mentioned here as a possible ST
> >> 13 re-do storyline??
> >
> >
> > Not a chance.  Nobody's going to touch it.  They don't need the almost
> > certain litigation.  Even the Pocket Books novels and various comics
> > don't use or refer to City.
> 
> You DO know that this whole thread is about a comic book adaptation of 
> the original script, right?


Well, that's fairly condescending.

This is a conversation.  Right now I'm talking about the history of
City and Ellison's litigation concerning same, with specific reference
to a possible future film.  The IDW comic is not a future film. 
(You'll note that someone has jokingly -- I hope -- wondered how long
it will be before Ellison sues IDW.)  No one is going to remake City
for the reasons I gave.  If you think otherwise, you're deluded.

BTW, to clarify, there are references to the Guardian of Forever in
about a dozen other Trekkish works (this is part of Ellison's 2009
lawsuit), but none that I can find to Edith Keeler or even to Kirk and
Spock's time-trip to 1930, which is what I had in mind.
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