The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison is Ellison’s big wet raspberry to Gene Roddenberry. Harlan Ellison has many traits that have won him awards and enemies. And one of his biggest traits is a thirst for revenge when he feel he has been wronged. After waiting and fuming for 30+ years with Gene Roddenberry saying his script was almost unfilmable and over-budget and had crew members doing drugs, Ellison waited until Roddenberry died and then published his side of the story.

Ellison brings out his venom and his sharpened pen focusing on Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry. The City on the Edge of Forever has long been considered the premier episode of the original Star Trek series. The episode, for the few people who haven’t seen it, has Bones accidentally giving himself a shot and going crazy. He goes through a gate a ‘The City on the Edge of Forever”, that will send people to any time in history, and makes changes to history that. Kirk and Spock follow Bones to New York City in The Great Depression and make friends with Edith Keeler, a social worker who takes them in. As Kirk starts falling in love with Edith, Spock comes to realize that she was supposed to die soon, but Bones saved her. She went on to found an anti-war movement that kept the US out of WWII long enough for Germany to develop atomic weapons.  Kirk is forced to stop Bones from rescuing a woman he has fallen in love with to ensure that history is set back on the correct path.

Ellison lays out in excruciating details how Roddenberry lied about Ellison’s script having Scotty deal drugs or that it was too expensive to film. Ellison shows us the first two drafts he penned, as well as budget details and letters from Roddenberry about the history. Now, Ellison is an extremely talented writer, as his numerous awards have proven out, and he is also a world-class pain-in-the-ass. If he feels that someone wronged him, he will go after them with everything he has. And this is what this book feels like. He has suffered the slings and arrows of Star Trek creators and brings his considerable venom to bear on his adversary.

Having said that, the book is a highly entertaining look at the behind the scenes drama in the original Star Trek series. The two drafts of the episodes here are a wonderful contrast to the filmed version and it’s interesting to see the progression of the work as it evolves. Highly recommended.