I would love to see Harlan get screwed over again. That would be EPIC.

He always comes across like a hyperactive troll.

I didn't read this article, because I was so distracted by Harlan's beautiful eyes.

H.E. always reminded me of a Ferengi, and not the lovable Quark type but rather the loathsome ones you see in The Last Outpost.

Harlan is nuttier than a truckload of fruitcakes. 'Nuff said.

With all due respect to Mr. Ellison, City on the Edge of Forever is consistently rated as the BEST of the TOS episodes so I think he should just chill. So what if Roddenberry messed with it, it was, hmmm... let me see... HIS FREAKIN SHOW! That will always be known as "the episode that Harlan Ellison wrote" so it doesn't matter if his precious drug-dealing (seriously?) storyline got cut or not.

Harlan: so Roddenberry didn't worship the pearl-like essence of your breathtaking script. You know that book, "He's Just Not That Into You"? You may need one called, "He's Just Not That Into You - In Fact, No One Is Quite As Into You As You Are Into Yourself, So You Need To Accept That Not Everyone Will Treat Your Olympianesque Genius With The Awe and Worship That You Believe It Deserves".

a production exec whose name I have blissfully flensed from memory (but he had been, if I recall, a hairdresser or clothing designer or ex-boyfriend of someone or other, and he kept trying to press me to include the Mayan Calendar).
Holy crap... is he talking about Jon Peters? Sounds like one of his dumb ideas.

Has anyone ever read Ellison's original script for that episode? It made no fucking sense! Thank God Roddenberry rewrote it.

Jesus, he's such a douchenozzle, and I see he hasn't mellowed any with age.

Everyone seems to know at least one crazy guy or gal with no friends due to their shitty attitudes and general unsociability, and this message from him seems like the self-delusional rantings of such a person. "I'm not working at the moment, but that's totally my choice. Call me directly (pleeeeease!!) because I don't have an agent which is totally my choice. I have some totally awesome ideas that haven't been used because they are too highbrow for the troglodytes in charge, but if you pay me in advance you can use some of them!"

Give it up, man. You're abrasive and insane and you've spent the better part of your adult life alienating everyone else on the planet who has ever heard your name. No one is going to pay you. No one is going to hire you. It's over; let go.

I love Ellison's work and am not ashamed to say so. It can be disturbing stuff at times, but it's good, interesting writing.

Saying that, his beef with Roddenberry and Star Trek has always confused me. I DO know (from reading all manner of things from the '70s onward) that Roddenberry dicked him over, because GR was more and more about the drugs and the tail he could get as the series progressed, but the whole "they changed my script!!" thing... I just don't get it at all.

I mean, Ellison was hired any number of times during the '60s to 'fix' scripts, do re-writes, to even totally write a script that was bad but had an interesting 'hook'...just like what was done with 'City'.

So, whatever. I think at the core his gripe was with Roddenberry, GR is dead, Ellison won.

lou-bert vs. q-bert: Actually, D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana did the final rewrite of "City on the Edge of Forever". If the Great Bird HAD rewritten it, the end result would have been...best not to think about it.
And I have read Ellison's original script. A lot of that stuff was put in at Roddenberry's insistance, then tossed out. BorgQueen: As for "City" being consistently rated the best episode of TOS, I chalk it up to the fact that Trekkies have no sense of humor. I'd put it in the top ten, but "The Trouble With Tribbles" is my Number One.
Ellison and Abrams on a new Trek movie could be interesting - apocalyptic, but interesting.
Mr. Bricken: Perhaps you should shut down your computer for the day and go back to your daydreams about giving Joss Whedon a hand job.

Right now Ellison is calling Abrams "inordinately-talented" and "very smart", but can you imagine what Ellison will be calling him if he is snubbed and ignored? If he's such a great writer you'd think he could have written something with less obvious false obsequiousness.

Actually, if they ever do meet him I can just see Ellison turning up with his original City on the Edge of Forever script and demanding that they film it *exactly* as written...

I'd watch a Harlan Ellison Star Trek movie over a Kurtzman/Orci Star Trek movie any day. Ugh...bad memories...

Harlan Ellison is a phenomenal writer,he's also volatile,passionate,tough,& refuses to compromise on his work...ever!I've admired his writing for years & Star Trek would win the lottery if they would take him up on his offer.I read his book on the making of the episode City on the Edge of Forever for the original Trek show.As much as I've admired him,the show was far better served by the rewrite of his story.Check out his Demon with a Glass Hand from the original The Outer Limits TV series,it's every bit the classic that COTEOF is & one of the finest OL episodes created.

Harlan Ellison would be infinitely more talented than those simps Orci and Kurtzman,They who gifted the world with Devastator's Robo-testicles and the Cybertronian minstrel players,Skids and Mudflap, who make Jar-Jar look like Malcolm X or W.E.B. Du Bois by comparison.

I'm kind of impressed by his audacity over the whole thing though, I gotta say.

Ellison should be more upset that his idea for "The Terminator" was made into "Terminator: Salvation" (rather than upset with Cameron for stealing his idea) four movies into the series. Maybe he should be suggesting Mc G give him a call so he can write his next movie for him.

hades must be freezing over given that Harlan wants to do star trek after he has been ranting and raving for years over how his orginal script got rejected for he should be happy it is such a classic but to want to be part of what has for so long been his thorn. Harlan must finaly be losing his mind.

Getting a Harlan Elliosn Star Trek movie would be so much better than a remake of Wrath of Khan.

This just makes me sad - both because Ellison is desperate for work, and because he's SO desperate that he's convinced himself that J.J. Abrams doesn't suck (he does).

If I recall, H.E. was pretty excited about the idea of Star Trek in the beginning. He may have had a personal beef with Roddenberry and been less than complimentary of the show and movies (and fans) at times, but if he thought he had a great idea for it and could make money, why wouldn't he want to be part of it again? I think the operative word is money here, and so what? He may not be the easiest guy to deal with, but his talent is unquestionable. That he can bitch-slap fools in a heartbeat should be endearing to people these days, but for the fact that he had the nerve to speak his mind about the Great Bird. Heaven forbid anyone say anything remotely bad about Him.

Oh God. That message board is offensively...1996. Yes, 1996 is an adjective.

I enjoy Ellison's work (the Essential Ellison is sitting on my table as I type) but as a person, he seems very unlikeable.

Ellison's a brilliant writer but, let's face it, he's one of those authors whose work just doesn't translate well into visual drama (Ray Bradbury is another). And, after 40 years of working on the fringes of Hollywood, he still hasn't figured this out. His colossal ego certainly doesn't help things.

If he does go to work with Abrams, it will unravel the same way it always does: Abrams will find Ellison's script unfilmable in its unaltered form, make adjustment, which Ellison will hate, and that will be the end of that. And then Ellison's message board will be filled with anti-Abrams invective. You read it here first.

I would like to see him write for Doctor Who or Farscape.

I'd love to see a Star Trek movie written by the team of Harlan Ellison and Alan Mooore; The two crankiest, most curmudgeonly writers working today.

I love HE's work ("I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" and "The Glass Teat", for example), but the guy is an egomanical asshole of the highest order. Sure, Ellison is kissing JJ's ass now, but once hired, Harlan will take the whole thing over and tell JJ to suck his withered old yambag. Afterward, HE will write a book about how "a certain producer" 'messed with his script', 'made him do rewrites','stole his ideas'...blah, blah, blah...

"I have no Matlock and I must scream."

What you guys are missing is the fact that Gene Roddenberry (And to a lesser extent, William Shatner) deliberately screwed over Harlan on this script. They payed him a standard fee for something that took 10 months to write, they forced him to do a half dozen rewrites (unpaid) that involved halfassed additions to the story that made no sense, and were expensive, then they claimed the additions and rewrites were his idea from the beginning (They weren't) and took the whole script away from him. Then Roddenberry wouldn't let him take his name off the script - because Harlan has cachet - but took credit for a final rewrite that he (Roddenberry) never actually did. (It was DC Fontanna).

Then, for the next THIRTY FREAKIN YEARS, Roddenberry consistently dicked over Harlan, told lies about him, about "City", about everything, and consistently tried to ruin Harlan's career.

I think there's some justification for bad blood there.

Also, you're overlooking that Harlan has been badly, badly ripped off in the past. The Terminator, for instance? Based on Ellison's "Demon With a Glass Hand," without credit, of course. So if, say, a company is making money off of something *HE* invented - one of his concepts or plot devices - why shouldn't he get a piece of it? And if a questionably-legal fan film is making use of his intelectual property to tell questionably legal stories in a questionably legal (But undeniably entertaining way), why shouldn't he have the right to get a bit pissy about it?

You're *also* forgetting that Harlan Ellison is pretty much the archetypical Horatio Alger story: He came from very modest roots, became successful off of nothing more than talent, hard work, and determination, and he's a self-made millionaire. You do *not* become a self-made millionaire by *not* taking care of your assets, and that includes suing people who try to yoink stuff from you.

Actually looking at that still he looks like he's auditioning for a part in a remake of Poltergeist.

" Go t'wauds the light, Carol-Ann - or ah'll belt you in the face... "

Cool, I didn't know JJ was taking open solicitations. I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I am also available to draft a script, story, treatment, or anything else Paramount is willing to pay me for. I have no agent or legal representation, but I have co-wrote and produced an independent film. My other credits include, but not limited to, watching all 11 Trek films, and the complete run of TNG, DS9 and Voyager. Please contact me as soon as you can start paying me.

he can fuck off.

my guess? russle t davies didn't call him back.

I lvoe that old man. Lvoe him.

I'm also suprised he hasn't written for WHO. Back in the 70s he wrote the forewards to the American imports of the story adaptations, praising the show. Maybe he doesn't like the new incarnation?

With WHO attracting some big writers for his fifth season (Which will be produced by Stephen Moffat replacing RTD), I'm suprised he hasn't considered.

Not writing for Who *IS* interesting and odd. I can only assume that they couldn't afford him. The budget on the old show was pretty threadbare through the 80s...

I don't know if getting older makes you more clever, Harlan, but it sure as hell makes you bitchier and more ornery. God love ya, ya crazy old bastard.

Harlan Ellison is still alive? I just finished a 'How to Write Science Fiction' book with a chapter from him on it. He was old in the eighties!