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The City on the Edge of Forever Teleplay #5
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did indeed! Thank you, Eadie!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 11:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Maybe it would have been more convincing if they'd shaved the dog and painted it green. Everybody knows that green skin automatically means "alien being".




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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:

Trouble is that back in the 60s they could not really create a cool looking creature given the special FX that existed.

They did do such a creature on the episode "The Enemy Within." They took a small dog & put antenna on its head.

It was a horn, actually. So you could say Capt. Kirk wasn't the only horndog on that show!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Oh my gosh, you beamed up a good one that time, Scotty!

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Maurice
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just stumbled on this thread.

The story of Ellison and "City" is a lot more complicated than has been reported. I've been researching this for our Fact Trek project, and while I'm not quite finished with the research (I am literally comparing every outline and script draft to figure out who added or removed what), I can say that the Trek people haven't been entirely fair to Ellison. The script he delivered is basically exactly the story outline they approved to go to teleplay. Looking at the documentary trail (memos, scripts, etc.) it seems like no one in the writing staff quote understood the script and what it was about, missing the thematic points and effectively throwing the baby out with the bathwater as various staffwriters tried to "fix" it. The unfortunate result being they "fixed" many things that weren't broken and broke some things that didn't need fixing.

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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I never got the acclaim for Demon, mainly because of the aliens wearing socks on their heads!!! Why didn't the show give the bears of this episode a formidable look like they did for so many other creatures on the program?
JB
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nitpicks

After Dr. McCoy accidentally injects himself with the cordrazine, why didn't Mr. Spock apply his Vulcan neck pinch on Bones?

Does anyone else find it amazing that McCoy is able to throw off the powerful Spock's grip so easily and run away?

When Spock is able to see the obituary for Edith Keeler on his tricorder, he reports this to Kirk and then tells him he doesn't know exactly when Edith will die?

Don't obituaries usually list this information in fairly precise detail?

When McCoy makes his frantic run through the time portal he still has his phaser with him that he stole from the transporter operator earlier on the Enterprise. We know this because when a man discovers McCoy in the past and lying unconscious in an alleyway, the man finds the phaser and accidentally incinerates himself.

So how come the security detail back on the planet earlier never searched and disarmed the dangerous and out of control doctor? Wouldn't that be basic protocol under these circumstances?

Why couldn't the Enterprise use its scanners to locate McCoy on the surface of the planet? Once the landing party had transported to the planet, how come Uhura did not use her tricorder to find him?

Note from me: Good questions. I came up with the theory that the Enterprise's scanners and the tricorder were not operating at full capacity due to the incredibly powerful time wave displacement emitted from the Guardian of Forever structure. Its power greatly diminished the scanners and tricorder so much that they were unable to locate McCoy.

Of course none of this is indicated in the episode, but it could have easily been done so via a few lines of dialogue.

Did Kirk & Spock carry their communicators with them when they journeyed back into the past? Seems like they should
have as it would be an excellent way for them to stay in contact with one another whenever they were not together?

Like so many episodes of Star Trek, we see the Enterprise discovering an astonishing and unknown technology only to never see it or hear it mentioned again.

At least until ST:TAS episode "Yesteryear."
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2022 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here are some variations from the televised episode that were done by author James Blish in his novel's adaptation of "The City On The Edge Of Forever."

When a defective hypospray went off in McCoy's hand, a hundred times that amount was pumped into his body in a split second.

Sidebar: Blish is of course referring to the cordrazine drug that creates the good doctor's crazed state.

Ellison disliked that the aired episode had McCoy accidentally fall onto the hypospray after the Enterprise was seriously rocked by a time wave displacement emitted from the Guardian on the planet.
"....and had him [McCoy] make an asshole of himself by injecting himself with his own hypodermic. Caramba!" Haraln Ellison.

Originally, Harlan had Enterprise crewman Richard Beckwith selling the illegal Jillkan dream-narcotics, the Jewels of Sound to LT/JG LeBeque in order to get from him crucial information from the ship's security log about a planet and its valuable commodities.

Beckwith intends to hook the aliens on the illegal dream narcotics and then steal from them.

LeBeque has had enough and intends to turn in Beckwith to Captain Kirk. Beckwith then murders LeBeque and flees down to the planet and eventually into time vortex. It is Beckwith who alters history in the past by saving Edith Keeler from the street accident.

D.C. Fontana suggested to Harlan that he alter his script to have Dr. McCoy as the reason the past is changed through his actions. That way one of the lead cast members is now critically involved in the story.

Ellison then rewrote his script so that Dr. McCoy is bitten by an alien zoological specimen from the planet Spahfohn he had been examining.

The creature was growing younger due to the magnetic radiation from "a strange silvery planet under a wan and dying red ember of a sun."

The accident occurring after the Enterprise is struck by a shock wave from the planet's surface then causes the doctor to be affected: "McCoy is shoved against the little beast they were examining, and with the speed of a raccoon, the alien creature strikes, in panic. It sinks its tiny fangs into McCoy's hand."

This bite by the affected alien is what causes McCoy to go off the deep end.

Sidebar: I would imagine such a scene could have been easily done. We saw a small dog dressed up to be an alien critter on the episode "The Enemy Within." Not all that convincing, but still such a scene could have been shot on Ellison's episode. Hardly a budget buster scene to include.

So Harlan did not create the cordrazine drug that is ultimately used to propel McCoy into a state of madness and frenzy.

I do think Jim Blish did a decent job of having a malfunctioning hypospray be the cause of Bones unintentional injection. After all, even in the 23rd century gadgets can glitch out.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2022 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Mike, you did a masterful job of presenting the various and highly diverse story lines which several writers presented for this highly regarded episode of TOS.

Frankly, I'm amazed that the producers managed to wade through all the complex variations and finally select one that was not so wild and wacky that the frustrated audience who watched it ended up throwing their shoes at their televisions and deciding never to watch Star Trek again! Rolling Eyes

To put it bluntly, the overrated Mr. Ellison's ideas seem drug induced and very far removed from anything which Star Trek would ever present.

The fact that the version of this episode which aired is considered one of TOS's best is proof that old wacka-doodle Halan's ideas had all the merits of fresh cow manure before it dries in the sun and can be scooped up and used as fertilizer.
Rolling Eyes
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2022 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bruce, I take it that you won't be joining the Harlan Ellison website in the near future, or far future for that matter.

Some more info from Harlan's script.

Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock first meeting The Guardians of Forever: "The instant impression is age. Old, terribly old, as old as time itself, as old as the dying sun overhead.

Nine feet tall, gray-silver in tone, shapeless beneath the long white robes that reach the mist-laden ground. They seem incredibly tall, not merely because they are a motionless nine feet in height, but because of their hair which rises up like mitered headpieces because of the beards that hang down from their silent and ancient faces.

Though only their heads show, they seem almost religious in tone; there is a vast dignity, am immense holiness about them. They do not move ever, and for a beat we suspect they may be stone."

Sidebar: I never warmed up to this concept by Harlan of having nine foot beings with long white beards as the caretakers of the time vortex. This seemed more like something out of a fantasy such as Lord of the Rings, and not science fiction. These beings come off like sorcerers instead of an unknown alien race.

I certainly can envision these aliens being easily done today.
CGI could do it for sure. I could also see someone like the awesome Jim Henson Company construct stunning animatronic creations like these described by Harlan.

On the one of my all time favorite SF TV show, the sensational Farscape, the Henson had to create the enormous & complex animatronic puppet of Pilot. Pilot ran the star ship Moya and was probably at least nine feet.

However, Pilot was a regular cast member. I doubt if many productions would go to all the trouble & expense of designing and creating such several puppets for just one episode of a SF TV series. Beings we see once and then never again.

So CGI it is.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harlan Ellison's description of the Time Vortex from his book based upon his original teleplay.

"Set in a tall, narrow rocky defile, it rise up, different to each who see it. A pillar of flame, a shaft of light, a roiling brightness of smoke, whatever wonder you care to make of it, the obvious aspects are light, height and insubstantiality. Construct it as you choose."

Sidebar: Ellison's line about the time vortex appearing "different to each who see it," does certainly sound imaginative & intriguing to me.

Still & all, I always liked how they realized the Guardian of Forever on the Star Trek episode. It was like some strange, other worldly looking archaeological relic. And on top of that it could talk to other beings, and lit up doing so.

That this object defined itself as both machine and being, and neither, blew my mind at the time. I loved it. I loved the look of it because it was so unusual. It was alien, it was living, it looked like a sculpture. Very cool.

I preferred the elimination of the nine-foot tall ancient caretakers as described by Harlan. We didn't need any alien beings in the story other than this bizarre unique artifact that talked.

The pillar of flame in a narrow gorge sounded underwhelming to me by comparison. So artistically I feel that the those who rewrote this part of Harlan's script came up with a superior concept for the look for Guardian.

Even if some sneeringly refer to it as a lopsided doughnut. I call it the Time Doughnut. But only with respect.

I once imagined a sequel to this story where the Enterprise crew returns to the planet to visit the Guardian. They cannot find it! It isn't where they first encountered it. Turns out the darn thing can move all around the planet as it wants to.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, I know I've slandered Mr. Elison fairly often, so no one will be surprised if I state that frankly all that "a pillar of flame, a shaft of light, a roiling brightness of smoke" crap just sounds like a lazy writer who can't think of a good way to describe something — so he just makes the reader to do his work for him. Rolling Eyes

To illustrate my point, in the novels I've written, published, and posted here on All Sci-Fi, I've taken great pride in "painting word pictures" that were as sharp and well-defined as my own artwork.

For example, when I wrote chapter 18 of Sail the Sea of Stars, I described an abandoned alien city which was discovered on a planet in the Magellanic Clouds — a city which was shielded by a violent storm created by a supercomputer to protect it.

Here's what I wrote.

________________________________________________




The two stellascouts broke free of the maelstrom and shot into a clear area. Five miles of desert flashed by beneath us at Mach 2 before we could react to the thing which stood before us. Rising from the desert floor like the Emerald City of Oz, standing more than two miles high at its tallest point, the artifact was a stunning sight.

The cloud cover was a high, undulating dome above it, like a rounded roof made of moving smoke. The lightening played along the inside of the cloud dome, crawling and twisting and wrestling with itself.

________________________________________________

And here's the jpeg I created after spending many hours combining several images and modifying them to illustrate the scene I'd described.






Forgive me, folks, is I seem overly impress with my own work. I'm just trying to illustrate what a dedicated writer and artist can do when he puts his mind to it. Very Happy
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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A Review From the British Sci Fi Freak Site:

"The City On The Edge Of Forever" really doesn't have that much going for it. Little actually happens and it is the love story that dominates, a love story that is never going anywhere.

Sidebar: Ouch! Quite a harsh review considering that this Harlan Ellison scripted episode is rated by both fans and critics as the finest hour of the original series ever produced. It is often placed at number one on a list of the Top Ten episodes from ST:TOS.

Someone from across the pond isn't impressed at all.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2022 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

That review is totally wrong. The author is clearly not a Trek fan. The story is complex, engaging, and suspenseful.

No wonder we beat the British in the War for Independence!

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PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2022 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree, this gent really missed the mark by a country mile with his negative review.

City is hailed as one of the finest Trek episodes for a reason and that's because the script by Ellison is sensational.

Interestingly to me, it is also one of their least action-packed episodes. Oh, it has some action with the Guardian's time-displacement waves striking the Enterprise, Doc McCoy running around the ship before he transports himself to the planet, the poor hobo who immolates himself with the phaser he examines.

And of course the tragic street accident ending. All of these qualify as actions that involve movement and activity.

However, it isn't jammed with lots of over-the-top activities.

I find that there can be a certain mindset with some writers, producers, directors, and performers that if you don't always work in plenty of fights, stunts, explosions and such, that the story is therefore boring and suffers.

Not always true. There can be such marvelous scripting that it produces compelling stories that draw you in intellectually and emotionally. Sometimes those tales require minimal amounts of action.

We also see the converse. Plots filled with action but no heart or intelligence. Those can be dull, the very thing that frightens the producers, writers, and so forth that feel if they have a lot of stuff going on that it automatically equals good entertainment. It can leave you feeling empty at times.

Sadly too many writers and directors give the audience non-stop action, stunts, and visual effects instead of a story that resonates with heart and soul.

Movies are about moving is their philosophy and nothing more. Same applies to television. Indeed, there are audiences that demand constant action and movement and visuals. They really don't want to have a film or TV show convey deep emotions or thoughts. They just want to park their brain in the lobby, or someplace else, lay back and take in mindless entertainment...all the time.

So do I, but not all the time. I get a kick out of the James Bond films like everyone else, an action-packed western, or a comedy. Their intention can be to offer nothing more than mesmerizing their audience with pure entertainment.

Someone once told one of the old-time movie studio moguls that he wanted to deliver a message to the audience via his film. The mogul replied "You want to deliver a message go to Western-Union."

Unfortunately though that seems to be the thinking that has permeated many studios and networks. Keep the audience happy and dumb. That's sad because this has never had to be a situation where they had only one choice.

You can have entertaining films and TV shows that are light on profound ideas. You can have ones that delve into substantive topics with passion.

I always compare as to going to a buffet. Yes, I'm looking forward to healthy and filling fish, chicken, fruit, and veggies. I'm also going to be checking out the delicious desserts, too. See, you can have both. But a steady diet of nothing but desserts will leave you empty.
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