RIP: Harlan Ellison - We Hardly Knew Ye

[CarterNMA]

Harlan Ellison Died Today

Great author though I've only read some of his works. And probably the inspiration behind "The Terminator". A very interesting character. My high school SF teacher loved telling a crazy story about him and the lengths he went to, to avoid spending money in Arizona when he was legally obligated to attend a SF convention in Phoenix.

[CrimsonFox]

So awesome.

So much awesomeness. My favoritestuff from him was the twilight zone from the 80s. so great! He also wrote a great screenplay for Asimov's I Robot that was never produced.

[Edward64]

I've seen his books but was never a fan. Saw this which I thought was interesting.

I remember bits-and-pieces of that episode, I'll have to hunt it down on Netflix/Prime and watch it again.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/6/2...ce-fiction-rip

Harlan Ellison, the legendary, legendarily irascible speculative fiction writer who died this week at age 84, wrote the greatest episode of Star Trek ever made. And he hated it.

“The City on the Edge of Forever” aired on April 6, 1967, late in the original series’ first season, and won acclaim for capturing everything Star Trek could do at its best while suggesting weighty themes and emotional depths only hinted at in previous episodes. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama on Television. Ellison accepted both. Neither salved his bitterness that the episode had been rewritten.
:
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) give chase, in time learning that McCoy has changed time by saving the life of Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), the near-saintly proprietor of a soup kitchen. If allowed to live, her idealistic message of pacifism and tolerance will delay the United States’ entry into World War II, allowing Hitler to develop the atomic bomb, win the war, and dominate the Earth — shutting the door on the hopeful future imagined throughout the series.

And so, as Spock says twice in the episode — first as a question then as a statement arrived at through cold, hard logic — Edith Keeler must die. The only problem: Kirk has fallen in love with her and isn’t sure he can bring himself to let her die. But, after reuniting with McCoy, he does just that, stopping the doctor from saving Edith from a truck that strikes her down in the street.
:
Yet much of the brilliance can be traced back to the script. Star Trek had raised philosophical issues before, but few as thorny as whether taking one life can be justified in the name of a greater good. And not just any life: Kirk falls for Edith because she’s virtuous and beautiful and finds him charming, sure, but also because she’s the living embodiment of the utopian principles he’s sworn to uphold as a member of Starfleet.

[path12]

One of my favorite writers and one of my favorite cranky bastards. RIP.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by path12

One of my favorite writers and one of my favorite cranky bastards. RIP.

nicely said, +1