If you read all of this book, I have the faint and joyless hope that at last, after all this time, you will understand why I could not love that aired version, why I treasure the Writers Guild award for the original version as that year’s best episodic-dramatic teleplay, why I despise the mendacious fuckers who have twisted the story and retold it to the glory of someone who didn’t deserve it, at the expense of a writer who worked his ass off to create something original, and why it was necessary—after thirty years—to expend almost 30,000 words in self-serving justification of being the only person on the face of the Earth who won’t let Gene Roddenberry rest in peace.

1 August 1995 
Revised and expanded June 1996

Endnotes

Endnotes

Perils of the "City" Endnotes

[1] Before we get too far along, let me offer you a sample of the kind of bullshit I’ve had to put up with for three decades. This little gem comes out of a volume titled CAPTAIN’S LOGS: The Complete Trek Voyages by Edward Gross & Mark A. Altman (Image Publishing 1993).

On page 41, in a section dealing with “City,” here is what we find:

“City on the Edge of Forever” is generally considered the best episode of Star Trek ever produced. At the same time, it is perhaps the most controversial, due to the fact that Gene Roddenberry supposedly rewrote Harlan Ellison’s original teleplay and Ellison was not happy about the rewrite.

For over two decades fans have accepted the fact that Roddenberry did the rewrite of Ellison’s script, however [schlock tv producer] Glen Larson disputes this point, stating that it was actually Gene L. Coon who was responsible. This startling revelation came to Larson’s attention during a Writers Guild award ceremony in which the script was a nominated entry.

“That night,” Larson reflects, “I knew that something was troubling Gene and I asked him what was wrong. And he said, ‘There are two scripts up tonight for the Writers Guild award, and I wrote them both.’ One of them was by Harlan Ellison, and he said, ‘If Harlan wins, I’m going to die.’

“Coon had a great respect for writers…. Nevertheless, if you knew a guy was going to stand up and accept an award for what you did, that was more painful than the money. The mere fact that somebody was going to get credit for his thoughts and actual words, because they were so important to him, was almost too much to bear. He shared that with me.”

As far as Roddenberry’s taking credit for the rewrite, Larson offers, “Gene Coon was there…”