Today is City On The Edge Of Forever Remastered Day October 7, 2006
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: TOS Remastered , trackback
Kirk and Spock go back in time to save McCoy.
Video preview / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha
This episode was written by Harlan Ellison and is often considered one of the best of the series. However there doesn’t seem much for CBS to play with for new CGI effects. We do know that there will be a new Guardian Planet, other possible things that might get a CGI upgrade
- the Guardian of Forever (the glow talk effect and/or the images seen in it)
- Guadian planet ’set’
- Spock’s tricorder display
- an enhanced Joan Collins?
TrekMovie will have screenshots up tonight, and a review by tomorrow.
so what did you think of City on The Edge Of Forever Remastered?
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“John” Collins?? I didn’t know they were altering the episode THAT much! ;)
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
When is “Who mourns for Adonais” supposed to air?
I want to see some Palpatine lightning stretch forth from Apollo’s hands!
Sadly, I won’t get to see my favorite TOS episode remastered as it will be pre-empted by the MLB playoffs. I’m especially looking forward to the screenshots and review to get an idea of what I missed.
Somebody enchanced Joan Collins?
The one thing that desperately needs fixing is the transition from planet to space when they learn the Enterprise isn’t there anymore and Kirk looks up to say, “We’re all alone.” The camera pans up into an empty starfield, but the transition from the planet set to the stars is pretty awful.
What is an enhanced Joan Collins!? :-)
Isn\’t Joan Collins already “enhanced”? (and by that I mean she\’s had an eye tuck or two)
And I fixed “John” for “Joan” for Anthony, me thinks he got a little gender confusion there ;)
well. how are they going to screw up this episode? i suppose the gaurdian entity will need some new images. perhaps a few images taken from between 1969 and the present day. perhaps some images with an “agenda”. those self serving SWINE! we shall see.
harlan ellison was creditted with the screenplay and he did win an emmy. i saw him on the tom snyder show and when snyder asked him about it he said in effect “yup yup let’s move on”.
years later i got the true story. ellison was hired to write a script. he deliverred some unproducable crap and roddenberry had to come up with an entirely new story at the last minute.(this was a common occurrence) in this case ellison insisted on being creditted and when he got his emmy he held it up defiantly right in front of rodddenberry.
the written at the last minute nature of this episode is evidenced by all of the plot difficulties. for example, spock records the gaurdian for a couple of minutes and gets edith keeler’s obituary as well as TWO count em TWO distinct timelines. and of course, how the heck did they get home
did kirk, spock and mccoy stand on top of a building and shout ” GAURDIAN, GAURDIAN. TAKE US HOME NOW”? kirk wouldn’t be shouting. he was to bummed out about killing his girlfriend.
ala red shirts, that’s another endangered species on star trek tos. kirk’s girlfriends. half of them get killed.
heres a high resolution close up of joan collins/edith keeler
http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/7/73/Zora.jpg
oooh man!! she’s really hideous too!!
Anybody here from Toronto? Any chance to catch this on Rogers Cable?
Sorry thus far it is only being sold to US local brodcast syndicators, not cable networks, and only in the USA, sorry :(
kirok-
Although I don’t like the tone of what you are saying, a lot of what you say is true. Harlan had issues with what Rodenberry did to his script but has always been around when the awards and applause takes place for this episode.
I have a friend who knows Harlan a bit, and, frankly I think Harlan is just an angry little man who thinks that NONE of his worked should ever be tampered with or tweaked. As it is, it seems that as much as he hates it, the Roddenberry/Ellison version of Star Trek has certainly been good for both men and the Star trek franchise.
BTW-though I am not a big Joan Collins fan (I always adored Linda Evans much more), aren’t you being just a tad cruel?
I think Warren Beatty enchanced her.
Let me clarify “unproducable”:
Ellison’s script is far superior science fiction, but he ignored certain realities of week-to-week network television with recurring characters.
What GR did was bring it within Trek continuity and the show’s meager budget.
Having said that, I wish Ellison’s script had been the one produced. It’s beautifully written.
yeah, I always wanted Scotty to be a drug dealer. No thanks!
Scotty WAS NOT a drug dealer. He’s not even in the script. It was just a crewman named Beckwith.
You’re just repeating Roddenberry’s misinformation.
You shouldn’t chime in when you don’t know what you are talking about, “Anonymous.”
ellison’s original script is available? i didn’t know that. is it essentially the same story or is it completely different from the broadcast.
perhaps they could give roddenberry a writing credit in the remaster.
http://www.amazon.com/Harlan-Ellisons-City-Edge-Forever/dp/1565049640/sr=1-1/qid=1160264095/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0082734-5190503?ie=UTF8&s=books
The book features Ellison’s outline draft, his completed original script, plus his two attempts to bring in line with Gene’s wishes, plus 74 pages of Harlan bitching about it like it happened yesterday….
Well the good news is that pan from Kirk up to stars is better, you see the camera pan up through atmosphere into space, but it is still a bit jerky. I’ll try and post a video clip later with the usual screen shots.
The origianl script is crap. I thumbed through it years ago. I got it as an xmas gift and returned it. I didn’t wand 300 pages of Harlin Elison’s whining on my shelf.
The dumbest thing was the bad guy got roasted again and again by the sun for all eternity. It didn’t really make sense and would have been impossible to film.
Crap? Ellison’s version won the 1967 Hugo award.
AFAIK — what was aired won a Hugo Award, not his original story.
You are correct, the original script won a Writers Guild Award, the teleplay won the Hugo.
Well, needless to say it sounds like everyone has an opinion on the Roddenberry/Ellison thing. It was nice that the Enterprise nacelles were the same throughout the episode (though still too orange for a lot of people’s tastes). I was looking at my DVD version and laughed at the fact that it went from one type of nacelle to another while orbiting the planet. That’s the kind of thing that makes me LIKE the enhanced versions better. I still like the new planet better, even if I am in the mass minority. I’m so glad the fixed then “smoke” on the Guardian when the crew beamed up and when they put up the credited writer, producer, etc.
I read Ellison’s book on the screenplay of this episode (along with his repeated rants about Roddenberry, etc.) and I have to say that the televised version seemed to be the best, in my opinion. From Herbert Solo’s Audio Book on Star Trek, he indicated that DC Fontana actually did most of the rewrite of this story (without Harlan knowing about it), and I think she did a great job. FYI, Solo’s audio book gives a great insight on the beginnings of Star Trek, and a 3rd-party perspective of Gene Roddenberry and the cast of TOS (I highly recommend it).
Unfortunately, the local Seattle TV stations aren’t broadcasting the remastered version of the shows. :(
Well I saw COTEOF. Planet shots looked good as usual , so did the Enterprise.
The thing that bugged me the most about this eps. was do to increased commercial time, they edited out the “bum” shooting himself with McCoys phaser. :-(
Yet to see this… FYI, for any non-cable enhanced(yeah, i know :-P) )Dallas area fans, the local channel that appears to be airing STAR TREK Remasted is some BFE channel 52 @ 9pm on sunday night. Not sure what episode they’re showing. We’ll see. :-)
TomBot2006: Trek Remastered is only available on broadcast TV stations, it isn’t on cable.
Trek Remastered is available both over the air and on cable but I would certainly think that cable or a direct (home dish) setup would be far superior to anything you would receiver via antenna – Right?
The only way it’s on cable is because your cable company carries your local stations. It is not being shown on any cable network.
It’s on KSTW from Tacoma, Sealth
Portland Oregon isnt broadcasting in HD either. Thats Shatners real hair in TOS. Ellison also has his own damning story of his run in with Shatners ego. Bill wanted him to swing by his house with the finished script before delivering it to Paramount. Ellison
as a courtesy did but realized when there that Shatner wasnt reading the script but just counting his lines!
I wish theyd add more F/X in the episodes. This couldve had an exterior shot of the enterprise riding out the temporal waves, make the ruins more dramatic and actually have them stretch into the horizon as mentioned. Add a CG sky. Put some famous skyscrapers in the backlot scenes. I thought they were going to do these kinda things. Better time clips in the portal. The opening shot of Enterprise going into orbit around the planet was well done.
Anyon know if these remastered episodes will reach DVD uncut?
Nowhere has it in HD.
And Shatner did wear toupees in TOS…
some of these “enhanced planet” shots are ridiculous. in the opening scene, the enterprise was orbiting with the planet on the viewscreen. THE PLANETS SURFACE WAS ADVANCING AS THE ENTERPRISE FLEW OVER IT??? THIS IS WRONG!! in another shot, the orbital period looked to be about 90 SECONDS. RIDICULOUS!! Get a scientific consultant for chrissake.
the refinery in devil in the dark was judged to be in need of some touching up, so they added SMOKE?!? SMOKE int 22nd CENTURY?!?
and the enterprise and crew are on a 5 year mission to explore etc. etc. NOT to sell ORANGE CREAMCICLES!!!!!
DO I SOUND LIKE HARLAN ELLISON!!!!
Captain Pike, what time and day is it on in Seattle? KSTW (Channel 11) at 10:00 pm isn’t the right time, nor any time between 7 pm and midnight. I checked the local TV guides and didn’t see it come up when I watched those channels… is it a different day?
Kirok,
I don’t think they need a scientific consultant. I think they need a 60s effects consultant. those planets look bad. they look like star wars. and why is there oceans on the planet? it’s supposed to be a burned out dead planet. and what is wrong with smoke? besides it could be steam. nuclear plants make steam. Oh, and it’s the 23rd century. and no, you don’t sound like harlan. no where near whiney enough.
rob lincoln
with the problem of interstellar travel solved, i would think that steam and boilers and turbines were things of the past. just like oil lamps are today.