Harlan Ellison bests CBS Paramount over 42 year-old Star Trek episode

You have to admire the tenacity of writer Harlan Ellison. He filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount accusing the company of not paying him for all the ancillary income the company earned from the episode of Star Trek he wrote in 1967, "City on the Edge of Forever." Yesterday, Ellison announced on his web site that he had settled with CBS Paramount and he was very, very pleased. He didn't reveal how much money he made, but he probably did quite well.

After all, CBS Paramount has done very, very well with that original Star Trek episode. It's regarded as -- and is -- the all-time best show in the entire original ST canon. Ironically, Ellison never liked what Roddenberry and company had done with his script.

He accepted the accolades that the show won -- a WGA best original teleplay honor and a Hugo award -- but he bitched and moaned about Star Trek. Among Trekkies or Trekkers (whichever camp you're in), Ellison was both revered and reviled.

It's understandable that Ellison wasn't thrilled with the changes made to his script back in 1967, but he did take the awards the show won. And it's also understandable that Ellison was looking to cash in on the success of that particular episode. When he saw talking Christmas ornaments based on the guardian of forever (from his script), he must have thought that he earned a piece of the action (another episode that he had nothing to do with).

So, Ellison sued and today they settled. Good for him. I hope that in the years ahead he'll stop kicking Trek and appreciate that 42 years after the show aired, it remains the preeminent episode of an iconic series.

I can hope, but I don't think hard-hearted Harlan will ever be so sanguine.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/10/24/harlan-ellison-bests-cbs-paramount-over-42-year-old-star-trek-ep/