The City on the Edge of Forever, Harlan Ellison
The City on the Edge of Forever, Harlan Ellison
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Synopsis

The original teleplay that became the classic Star Trek episode, with an expanded introductory essay by Harlan Ellison, The City on the Edge of Forever has been surrounded by controversy since the airing of an “eviscerated” version—which subsequently has been voted the most beloved episode in the series’ history. In its original form, The City on the Edge of Forever won the 1966–67 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Teleplay. As aired, it won the 1967 Hugo Award.The City on the Edge of Forever is, at its most basic, a poignant love story. Ellison takes the listener on a breathtaking trip through space and time, from the future, all the way back to 1930s America. In this harrowing journey, Kirk and Spock race to apprehend a renegade criminal and restore the order of the universe. It is here that Kirk faces his ultimate dilemma: a choice between the universe—or his one true love.This edition makes available the astonishing teleplay as Ellison intended it to be aired. The author’s introductory essay reveals all of the details of what Ellison describes as a “fatally inept treatment” of his creative work. Was he unjustly edited, unjustly accused, and unjustly treated?

About Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) wrote or edited 75 books and more than 1700 stories, essays, articles, and newspaper columns as well as two dozen teleplays and a dozen motion pictures. He won the Hugo award nine times, the Nebula award four times, the Bram Stoker award six times (including The Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996), the Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers of America twice, the Georges Méliès fantasy film award twice, and was awarded the Silver Pen for Journalism by PEN, the international writer’s union.

About Gabrielle de Cuir

Gabrielle de Cuir, an Audie and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills.

About LeVar Burton

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s writing has appeared in Guernica, The Guardian, Phoebe, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. Her short story “Control Negro” was anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay, and read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI’s Selected Shorts series. Johnson has been a fellow at Hedgebrook, Tin House Summer Workshops, and VCCA. A veteran public school art teacher, Johnson lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

About Scott Brick

Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year. Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.

About John Rubinstein

John Rubinstein made his debut as the title role in Bob Fosse’s Pippin. He is a skillful, AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has read works by Jonathan Kellerman, Orson Scott Card, Tom Clancy, and Gabriel Brownstein. Rubinstein is also a successful actor and has acted in the films Jekyll, Choose Conner, The Truth About Layla, and 21 Grams.  His television credits include The Young and the Restless, Greek, Desperate Housewives, Day Break, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, CSI and Law & Order.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

About Robert Forster

Robert Forster has appeared in a wide spectrum of roles in television, theater, and film over the past four decades. He received an Academy Award® nomination for his portrayal of Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch; and starred in the television series Karen Sisco, based on characters created by Leonard.

About David Gerrold

David Gerrold is the author of the Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated The Man Who Folded Himself, When Harlie Was One, and the Chtorr, Dingillian, and Star Wolf series. He also wrote “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode of Star Trek, which was voted the most popular Star Trek episode of all time. He lives in Northridge, California.

About Orson Scott Card

Born in Richland, Washington, in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid missionary for the Mormon Church and received degrees from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. The author of numerous books in several genres, Card is best known for Ender’s Game and his online magazine, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show (www.oscIGMS.com). He teaches writing and literature at Southern Virginia University and lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina.

About Bonnie MacBird

Bonnie MacBird was born and raised in San Francisco and fell in love with Sherlock Holmes by reading the canon at age ten. She attended Stanford University, earning a BA in Music and an MA in Film. Her long Hollywood career includes feature film development exec at Universal, the original screenplay for the movie TRON, three Emmy Awards for documentary writing and producing, numerous produced plays and musicals, and theatre credits as an actor and director. In addition to her work in entertainment, Bonnie teaches a popular screenwriting class at UCLA Extension, as well as being an accomplished water-colourist. She is a regular speaker on writing, creativity, and Sherlock Holmes. She lives in Los Angeles, with frequent trips to London    

About Paul Boehmer

Paul Boehmer attended his first Shakespearean play while in high school; he knew then that he was destined to become the classically trained actor he is today. Graduating with a master's degree, Paul was cast as Hamlet by the very stage actor who inspired his career path. A nod from the Universe he'd chosen aright! Paul has worked on Broadway and extensively in regional theater. Coinciding with another of his passions, sci-fi, Paul has been cast in various roles in many episodes of Star Trek. Paul's love of literature and learning led him by nature to his work as a narrator for audiobooks, his latest endeavour. Paul is married to the love of his life, Offir, and they live in Los Angeles with their two midnight-rambling tomcats, Dread and David.

About Alex Hyde-White

Alex Hyde-White is an actor and a producer of two films and hundreds of audiobooks thru his label Punch Audio.

About Richard McGonagle

Richard McGonagle is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and an experienced film, television, and voice-over actor. He has appeared in such films as Rules of Engagement and such television shows as The Practice and JAG.

About Jim Meskimen

Jim Meskimen is an American comedian and actor, best known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and his extensive voice acting and television work. Books he has narrated include the Calendar Mysteries series by Ron Roy, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, by Josh Berk, and The Deleted E-Mails of Hillary Clinton by John Moe.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim

The City On The Edge Of Forever was originally written by Harlan Ellison, aired April 6, 1967, & has been voted the best original Star Trek episode ever. This audio version is kind of a nerd's paradise since it is a teleplay of an early script & has other revisions all read by a great cast. I saw th......more

Goodreads review by Michael

Once you get past the 70 page essay on how Gene Roddenberry ruined his brilliant script, you can read the original Harlan Ellison version of the classic "Trek" episode. And I can see why the changes that were made were made. This is a good script, a nice idea but it's not "Star Trek." And the best par......more

Goodreads review by Brad

I could probably go on and on about the City on the Edge of Forever debate, and the whys and wherefores of my feelings, but I don't really have the energy for that today, so I am going to sum up my thoughts in point form: --Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever is a superior piece of Sci-F......more

Goodreads review by Betsy

This book is half rant, half tv film script. Ellison wrote the original script for this Trekkie favorite, which is also my favorite episode, (along with "The Trouble With Tribbles"). I had never known there was such a long winded controversy over this. Ellison has been angry for 30 years over not on......more

Goodreads review by Amy H.

If you liked/loved "The City on the Edge of Forever," an episode generally held as one of the best single works in all of Star Trek, then you owe it to yourself to read the original script as Harlan Ellison wrote it -- or better yet, hear it. I listened to this in the 2016 full-cast audio recording......more


Quotes

“Ellison’s numerous fans along with the general clamoring for all things Trek are bound to put this book in high demand.” Library Journal

“What makes this the ST book of the year (maybe all time) is Ellison’s sputtering, raging, fuming introduction in which he sets the record straight, by God!” Booklist

“For the first time, science fiction maverick Harlan Ellison’s first-draft ‘Star Trek’ script is performed in its entirety, with ace voice talents John Rubinstein and Scott Brick gleefully taking on the major roles. A desperate Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy dives into a time portal and changes the course of human history, while Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are right behind, bent on reversing the damage. So begins one of the most popular episodes of the original ‘Star Trek’ television series. It’s also the most controversial. Reading from a number of interviews and essays, the outspoken Ellison re-voices his battles with ‘Star Trek’ creator Gene Roddenberry over the direction of the story. Both Ellison’s original script and the aired ‘edited’ version received major awards. So, listen and decide which version you prefer.” AudioFile


Awards

  • AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year