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    The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay
    Unavailable
    The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay
    Unavailable
    The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay
    Ebook327 pages4 hours

    The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay

    By Harlan Ellison

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The award-winning original teleplay that produced the most beloved episode of the classic Star Trek series—with an introductory essay by the author.
     
    USS Enterprise Starfleet officers Capt. James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock escort a renegade criminal to a nearby planet for capital punishment, and they discover the remains of a city. This ancient civilization is inhabited by the alien Guardians of Forever, who are tasked with protecting a time machine. When the criminal escapes through the portal into the past, he alters Earth’s timeline, damaging humanity’s future role among the stars.
     
    Pursuing their prisoner, Kirk and Spock are transported to 1930s Depression-era New York City—where they meet pacifist Edith Koestler, a woman whose fate is entwined with the aftermath of the most devastating war in human history. A woman whom Kirk has grown to love—and has to sacrifice to restore order to the universe.
     
    In its original form, The City on the Edge of Forever won the Writers Guild of America Award for best teleplay. As aired, it won the Hugo Award. But as Harlan Ellison recounts in his expanded introductory essay, “Perils of the ‘City,’” the televised episode was a rewrite of his creative vision perpetrated by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and the show’s producers. In his trademark visceral, no-holds-barred style, the legendary author broke a thirty-year silence to set the record straight about the mythologized controversy surrounding the celebrated episode, revealing what occurred behind-the-scenes during the production.
     
    Presented here as Ellison originally intended it to be filmed, this published teleplay of The City on the Edge of Forever remains a masterpiece of speculative fiction, and a prime example of his uncanny ability to present humanity with all its virtues and faults.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateApr 1, 2014
    ISBN9781497604834
    Unavailable
    The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay

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    Reviews for The City on the Edge of Forever

    4.5/5

    14 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I know that Ellison was wronged a thousand times between his original draft and the publishing of this book 30 years later, but to read the 100 pages of foul mouthed drivel that he called an essay prior to reading the script took all enjoyment out of reading the script. We might not be able to force the other guy to act with honour, but there is never a reason why we, ourselves, cannot display a little class.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      An interesting screenplay from way back when Ellison was a writer, prefaced by his usual whining about how badly treated he was (in this case, by the entire cast and crew of Star Trek, Paramount Television and the Writer's Guild). Having read his version of the screenplay, I gotta say I liked the aired version better (the one that won a Hugo award). His had some interesting stuff, but it didn't really fit Star Trek.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Here Harlan Ellison presents his original version of the best episode of Star Trek: TOS, which could have been even better had it been filmed as written. There are one or two plot points on which the televised version improved (one of which Ellison only introduced in the first place because he was told that it was required), but in general Ellison's script, the one that won the WGA award, is a fascinating study of moral inabsolutes and human flaws which can ultimately only be corrected by the not-completely-human Spock. The televised version is still great because of what remains of the original, but it is watered down in comparison.The teleplay is introduced by a case-for-the-defense by Harlan Ellison, complete with documentary evidence. I was first impressed by Harlan's talent for a good rant before I ever read any of his work, so I enjoyed it. There are also two early treatments, a rewritten version of the early scenes once McCoy was made the catalyst for going back in time, and afterwords by several people with connections to Trek.

      1 person found this helpful