cordrazine-induced psychosis |
In 1966, months before the start of the first broadcast season of Star Trek (the pilot had been filmed in 1964), Harlan Ellison was asked to write an episode for the new show.
1957 |
The City on the Edge of Forever
I have no idea why Ellison inserted a drug dealer into his story. I've seen the claim that during the time when Ellison was writing his episode of Star Trek, he visited the studio and watched some of the filming of "Mudd's Women", which became one of the earliest broadcasted episode of the show, seen on TV in the fall of 1966.
20-year-old Diane Pine turns up the heat on the star ship Enterprise. |
rock and ray guns |
Mudd and the three women. |
stories from the 1950s |
There is a long history of attempts to build science fiction stories around fictional chemistry. Mudd is depicted as providing his three female passengers with an illegal drug (called the Venus drug). In the end, his goal becomes making sure that the wealthy dilithium miners will pay top dollar for their "mail-order brides".
It is easy to view Mudd as a pimp, using drugs to keep control of "his women". Only by chance does an opportunity arise for Mudd to cash in and make "his women" into brides for 3 rich miners.
In his 1957 story, "World of Women", Harlan Ellison imagined a planet where a drug was used to give women immortality.
Mudd's artificial women |
Why did Gene Roddenberry ask Harlan Ellison to write an episode of Star Trek? I think that Ellison was best known at that time within Sci Fi fandom for "Demon with a Glass Hand". I saw that television program when I was very young, and it left a lasting impression on me; probably my first exposure to the idea of a robot that looks like a man (see the image, below).
robot and Arlene Martel |
In 1966, The Avengers had appeared on television in the United States. The origin of these "avengers" was in an attempt to get revenge for the actions of some drug dealers. However, the drug angle really only appeared in the original 1961 episode (Hot Snow) in England and in subsequent comic books. In 1967, Dragnet illustrated how recreational drug use was portrayed on television in the United States. In 1965, LSD was taken off the psychiatric drug market by Sandoz. In 1966, California made use of LSD illegal. In the mid-1960s, recreational drug use was in the news and if the drug was not alcohol or nicotine, it was not going to be welcomed on television.
1967 television depiction of a drug dealer |
Episode on the cusp of forever
At a time when some Star Trek episodes were created, filmed and seen on television in just a few months, "The City on the Edge of Forever" took almost a year. Ellison took well over half a year to write the original story then there were more delays due to the episode going through multiple re-writes. Apparently there were only a few of Ellison's original lines remaining in the final version of the story that was seen by Star Trek fans.
Time
The Guardian, a sentient time travel portal. |
time travel |
Asimov's Time Axiom
Time axiom 1: science fiction writers can't resist time travel. Isaac Asimov took note of the fact that we have no reason at all to suspect that time travel is possible, but science fiction story writers simply enjoy creating stories about time travel.
Asimov's time travel novel, The End of Eternity, illustrates another principle, what I'll call time axiom 2: the only good science fiction stories about time travel are those that end with all further time travel having been made impossible. If you don't put an end to time travel than you are committing yourself to some endless Time Travel War.
Time-twisted love: Zarabeth and Spock |
Edith and Kirk |
Several Star Trek episodes depicted romances for the main characters; Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Kirk's love affair with Edith Keeler in 1930 is both tragic and futile. Exactly how Kirk gets the chance to travel back through time to meet Edith is never explained.
McCoy eventually decides that Edith is not a hallucination |
Spock brings future technology to 1930 |
source |
Apples and Oranges
I recently came across a 2015 essay by Noah Berlatsky concerning "The City on the Edge of Forever" (read the Noah Berlatsky essay). Berlatsky wrote that "The City on the Edge of Forever" is "an elaborate exercise in justifying violence".
Berlatsky says that Kirk's need to let Edith die is ethically equivalent to dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in an effort to save the lives of soldiers who otherwise would have died while invading Japan. Berlatsky also claims that when Kirk allows Edith to die, his act is based on the same moral justification that was used for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein.
"The City on the Edge of Forever" came to television just when Americans were watching the horrors of the Vietnam War unfold on their television screens. Spock mutters words to the effect of: Peace is the way, but now is not the time for peace.
Edith ad astra |
Fear mongering is an ever-popular way to get a democracy into a war. "If we wage war now, we will prevent even worse horrors". A populace can be in doubt, but willing to err on the side of caution, feeling that it is wiser to fight a bully than give in to the abuses handed out by the bully. Using that logic, we often abandon the path of peace. Berlatsky also claims that the popularity of "The City on the Edge of Forever" is "inseparable from its rejection of pacifism".
In the Ekcolir Reality Original cover art by Willis Terry |
Picard's mind trip. fan favorite: the next generation |
image source |
Harlan Ellison died about a month after I wrote this blog post.
Next: the science fiction computer game experience
Visit the Gallery of Posters and the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers. |
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