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 has won the Edgar, Hugo, and Nebula awards for his speculative fiction. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

About Gabrielle de Cuir

Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie Angier’s Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Earphones Award.  She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.

About LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton is an acclaimed actor, director, educator, and cofounder of the award-winning Skybrary App; former host and executive producer of PBS's Reading Rainbow; and a lifelong children's literacy advocate. He hosts the podcast LeVar Burton Reads, sharing the in best short fiction, and a YouTube Series, This Is My Story, which highlights racism in America. Recently, he launched the LeVar Burton Book Club with Fable, a new platform for book clubs and social reading with the mission to improve mental wellness.  LeVar starred in the groundbreaking mini-series Roots and in the television series and feature films Star Trek: The Next Generation. He has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and twenty-seven Daytime Emmy nominations, culminating in twenty-one wins. During its astonishing twenty-six-year run, Reading Rainbow won more than twenty-five awards, including ten for outstanding series and the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. LeVar has also been nominated twice for the Spoken Word Grammy Award and won in 1999 for narrating The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.  

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

Kevin Baker is the author of one previous novel, Sometimes You See It Coming, and served as chief historical researcher for the recently published The American Century by Harold Evans. He is married and lives in New York City.John Rubenstein won a Theater World Award, a Tony, and a Drama Desk Award for his performances in Pippin and Children of a Lesser God.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices. Stefan’s early singing career included choral and solo concerts at Carnegie Hall, Judson Hall, and Lincoln Center.

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

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Quintet, the five books that chronicle the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, that follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and are set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, that tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.He is the author many sf and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son). There are also stand-alone science fiction and fantasy novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's recent work includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

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 is an American actor best known for his numerous appearances in the Star Trek universe, in addition to Frasier, Judging Amy, Guiding Light, and All My Children. He is a 1992 Masters of Fine Arts graduate of the Professional Theater Training Program at the University of Delaware. As a narrator, Paul has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie Award.

About Richard Brewer

Richard Brewer, a native Californian, has always been a lover of stories and storytelling. He has worked as a writer, actor, bookseller, story editor, book reviewer, audiobook narrator, and movie and television development executive. He is coeditor of the critically acclaimed Bruce Springsteen-inspired short story anthology Meeting Across the River.

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 audiobook narrator and a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows.

About Veronica Scott

Veronica Scott (she/her) discovered a love for teaching as an EdTech coordinator and K-6 teacher. Most recently, she served in the roles of Associate Director of DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging)  at Francis Parker School in San Diego and as a member of the Ambassador Collective for the organization Learning for Justice.


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