10 Biggest Feuds In Star Trek History
2. Harlan Ellison And Star Trek
Harlan Ellison was responsible for the genesis of what would become one of Star Trek's greatest episodes - The City On The Edge Of Forever. He wrote an original story that was vastly different from the finished draft. In his version of the story, McCoy didn't feature at all. Instead, a crew-member was dealing drugs among the crew and was about to be turned in, but murders the would-be confessor.
He escapes down to the planet, travels through a portal (the Guardians were an alien race), landing in 1930. From there, the story-beats are similar, though Kirk freezes at the end - leaving Spock to be the one to ensure Keeler's death.
Roddenberry had several issues with the story, with the fact that drug problems still exising in the future being one of them. There was also a line written that suggested Kirk should 'leave Spock to be lynched by the mob', which was deemed too far out of character. The script went through several rewrites. Ellison himself conducted the first one, then Gene L. Coon had a go.
The final version of the script was largely penned by D.C. Fontana. Ellison was very unhappy with what had been done to his script, though he didn't blame Fontana at all. He laid the blame strictly at Roddenberry's feet, then attempted to use 'Cordwainer Bird' as the pseudonym under which the episode should be published.
Roddenberry was faced with an issue. Ellison had used this name before and always on scripts and shows that had, in his opinion treated the writers badly. He pushed back, fearing Star Trek would become a pariah for science fiction writers. Ellison claimed that Roddenberry threatened him but, whatever the final truth, Roddenberry won out - and Ellison is credited, by name, for the episode.