FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ELLISON SUES STAR TREK
Harlan Ellison, multiple award-winning writer of the famed teleplay for the original Star Trek episode, City on the Edge of Forever, sued Paramount on March 13, 2009 for failing to account to, or pay, Mr. Ellison for the merchandising, publishing, or any other exploitations, of the famous teleplay, from inception to date. The suit also names the Writers Guild of America and alleges the WGA failed to act on Ellison’s behalf after numerous requests.
Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever (the memorable episode starring Joan Collins as salvation sister Edith Keeler, the woman Kirk loved and watched die; remember?) continues, 35 years after its original NBC airing, to receive critical accolades, and has become legendary as one of the all-time money-making commercial favorites: it won the coveted Writers Guild award for year’s best teleplay; it won the “Hugo” award of the World Science Fiction Convention; it was ranked as one of the “100 Greatest Television Episodes of All Time” by TV Guide in 1997 as part of its 50 year survey; it was “One of the 100 Most Memorable Moments in Television History” in the 29 June 1996 nationwide survey; and as recently as its 20-26 April 2002 issue, TV Guide celebrated Star Trek’s 35th anniversary featuring, of the hundreds of episodes since its debut, its 35 Greatest Moments! Harlan Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever was #2.
Mr. Ellison’s attorney, John H. Carmichael, points out that the 1960 collective bargaining agreement between the WGA and the Producers, as amended in 1966, assures to the writers of individual teleplays “a piece of the pie.” Specifically, Mr. Carmichael states, “Writers under that WGA agreement are supposed to get 25% of the revenue from the licensing of publication rights. From Dollar One. Here, Paramount licensed its sister-corporation Simon & Schuster, through its Pocket Books division, the right to publish a knock-off trilogy of paperbacks – the ‘Crucible’ series – novels based on City, using Ellison’s unique elements: plot, specific non-Trek characters, prominently including The Guardian of Forever, singular conceptual uses of time travel, the sense of tragedy that propels the story, the mood and venue of the story in the 1930s Great Depression, and at the stories’ heart, pivotally, whether Edith Keeler lives or dies. Not merely minor points or window dressing or name-changes. No, they are the body, heart, and guts of Mr. Ellison’s original creation – the best story Star Trek ever told.
“But even as flagrant in evidence as is this case, Paramount has gone tabula rasa. Paramount will not respond to any alleged Guild requests for an accounting. Not just for the books, but for much City-related merchandise, such as a Hallmark Christmas ornament of the “talking” Guardian of Forever actually using lines Ellison wrote for his script – obvious re-uses of Ellison’s singular creation, for which he should be compensated. Paramount will not send statements; Paramount will not admit anyone is owed anything; and even when the WGA requests an accounting, they are blown off with – ‘we’ll get back to you,’ which they don’t. And the WGA seems routinely to accept such cavalier non-responsiveness without a fight. Paramount will not permit examination, and will not open the books; perhaps for fear of loosing a Super-Accountant/Pandora on them, who will open holes in their duplicity. But the WGA is clearly unwilling to take action on Mr. Ellison’s behalf, and so we must seek intervention of the Federal Courts to ensure that the principles of the collective bargaining agreement are upheld. Mr. Ellison is singularly reluctant to sue his own labor union, of which he has been a 47-year member, a valued public spokesman, and where he has twice served on its Board of Directors. In this fractious matter, Mr. Ellison is only asking for one U.S. Dollar from his Guild. But he wants a judicial determination as to whether the WGA is doing what its stated purpose has been since day-one! To fight and negotiate for him and other writers. To obtain misappropriated, withheld, hidden earnings, no matter how minuscule or difficult to retrieve – but HIS, nonetheless. These are intended, true, benefits from earlier WGA bargaining agreements. But after waiting patiently either for the Guild to move against dismissive Paramount, or for Paramount to have a brain-flare of honesty or integrity, these huge sums due continue to be dumped into the studio’s ever-hungry maw. Mr. Ellison wants every penny of his long ago agreed-upon share of the revenue from Paramount’s relentless Trek exploitations, which have been unbelievably, financially remunerative in demonstrable measure as a result of Mr. Ellison’s significant contribution to the original Star Trek series.” Carmichael highlights: LA Times, 28 July 2007: “Paramount DVD sampler collects favorite episodes from all five Star Trek TV series.” The one starring Captain Kirk, Wm. Shatner’s pick as his favorite, is Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever. (And see Ellison’s “Pay the Writer”–299,000 hits during the recent strike.)
Says Mr. Ellison of the suit: “To quote Gandhi: ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.’
“And please make sure to remember, at the moment some Studio mouthpiece calls me a mooch, and says I’m only pursuing this legal retribution to get into their ‘deep pockets,’ tell’m Ellison snarled back, ‘F- – – -in’-A dámņ skippy!’ I’m no hypocrite. It ain’t about the ‘principle,’ friend, its about the MONEY! Pay Me! Am I doing this for other writers, for Mom (still dead), and apple pie? Hëll no! I’m doing it for the 35-year-long disrespect and the money!
“The arrogance, the pompous dismissive imperial manner of those who ‘have more important things to worry about,’ who’ll have their assistant get back to you, who don’t actually read or create, who merely ‘take’ meetings, and shuffle papers – much of which is paper money denied to those who actually did the manual labor of creating those dreams – they refuse even to notice…until you jam a Federal lawsuit in their eye. To hëll with all that obfuscation and phony flag-waving: they got my money. Pay me and pay off all the other writers from whom you’ve made hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars…from OUR labors…just so you can float your fat áššëš in warm Bahamian waters.
“The Trek fans who know my City screenplay understand just exactly why I’m bare-fangs-of-Adamantium about this.”
When Mr. Ellison calmed down, he continued, soberly, “They maintain fortresses staffed and insulated with corporate and legal Black Legions whose ability to speak fluent bûllšhìŧ is the ramadoola of gyrating, gibbering numbers via which they cling to every dollar. And when you aren’t getting paid for the marvels you helped bring forth — fine, hard, careful artifacts that are making others pig-rich — at some point any sane person knows he has three, and only three choices: the first is to sit around dinner parties and ceaselessly whine over your sushi about how they screwed you, boo hoo, but you can’t beef about it Out There in the World or they’ll blacklist you; the second is to pick up an Uzi somewhere, crash your SUV through a Studio gate, and just run amok; and the third, last, choice is this one – to act like an adult, to take ‘em on in Federal Court and to make the greedy, amoral bášŧárdš blink blood out of their eyes. What they do is tantamount to common street-thug robbery… just add the pig-rich Madoff-style smoothyguts attorneys.
“And I learned today that the Actors Guild is having to fight, right now, just to maintain the very concept of residuals as part of their agreement with the Producers. So I am happy as a centipede-with-track-shoes that this infamous behavior, arrogantly ignored for too dámņëd long, is timed to call attention to the degree to which the creative cadres in this business are getting parboiled and served up in a dog-dish! The part of this imbroglio that truly dismays me, is that my once-tough, beloved Guild – my UNION – that got massively screwed when it let the Alliance scare the slacker-gen dolts into thinking not losing a job meant ‘just bend over and grin,’ – if one’s own dámņ Guild won’t help you, – when you’ve entreated them for months – then hëll, you’ve got no choice but to raise the skull and crossbones, hone the edge of your demon attorney, and just start cutting off noggins and nuts.
“Cowardice is like parrot fever in this town; I think there are writers and other artists who revel in being bìŧçh-šláppëd, in being pilfered on a regular basis, as if they were artistic trailer-trash! And if the WGAw isn’t going to watch my back – and I’ve been their loyal hit-man, pit bull, and go-to guy for 47 years – I dread the possibility that the timorous Guild won’t raise the bloody axe for other artists, writers, actors…saner and less pìššëd-off than I. So you can tell’em I’m coming!”
There were flecks of blood on Mr. Ellison’s otherwise charming face.
Contact: John H. Carmichael, Esq. (949) 829-9743
ELLISON v. CBS-PARAMOUNT, Inc.
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA
U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
CASE #: CV09-1777, filed March 13, 2009
JUDGE: The Honorable Christina A. Snyder
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Sorry I didn’t read the whole thing, but it got a little dense for me. In the part I did read, there was one bit that I’d like some clarification on.
The suit lists several things that were in a series of paperbacks that shows them as derivative not just of Star Trek, but specifically of the episode Mr. Ellison wrote. Elements like “specific non-Trek characters, prominently including The Guardian of Forever” make perfect sense to me, that’s obviously his stuff. However, “singular conceptual uses of time travel, the sense of tragedy that propels the story, the mood and venue of the story in the 1930s Great Depression” all sound like standard elements that are too vague for anyone to lay claim to.
Let’s say PAD wrote a novel about the Enterprise going back to the 1980s and rescues a porpoise. Would that count as derivative of Star Trek IV, even if the trip to get the whale is never mentioned?
Perhaps someone more familiar with the books or the lawsuit could tell me if these claims are more specific than they sound. If they’re not just referring to “sense of tragedy” in general, but to the specific tragedy of the death of the Joan Collins character, that’s different.
If they’re not more specific than that, then Dr. Who owes Ellison some money for their “Hooverville” episode.
This same issue also came up in STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES in an episode utilizing the Guardian of Forever. In this case, the issue was resolved without much fuss (if I remember correctly). Of course, this is a different bunch of Paramount executives, who were not involved in the earlier cases.
It would depend. If the Enterprise traveled back to get a porpoise to, say, perform experiments verifying that porpoises did, indeed, originate on Romulus, then it wouldn’t be derivative. If they traveled back in time to rescue a porpoise because an alien ship was threatening the Klingon homeworld with destruction unless a porpoise turned up and sang, then, yes, it would be derivative.
In other words, when you’re using a character created by Mr. Ellison to tell other stories, then you’re deriving the plot from his creation. Traveling the Enterprise back to the 1930’s to prevent Edith Keller’s death so Kirk stays in the ’30’s with her, is derivative.
That’s why I’m asking for more details. “Sense of tragedy” sounds way too vague and I’d like a clarification, if anyone has one.
“Sorry I didn’t read the whole thing, but it got a little dense for me. In the part I did read, there was one bit that I’d like some clarification on.”
Sorry, I’m a lot grumpy this morning. You the hëll would you ever admit that your attention span is so small you couldn’t read ten paragraphs that might contain the answer you’re looking for? Seriously, read the whole thing and respond, or shut up.
No.
What I said was entirely reasonable. I got the gist of the story quickly and didn’t want to read the legalesse. I then asked a reasonable question, one that apparently wasn’t answered in the remainder of the article since nobody has answered it.
Feel free to continue to make your point by only offering insults.
So glad to see that the spirit of even-handedness and calm disciurse is still holding here.
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That sounds like the sort of hectoring disdain that is (one of) the reason(s) that a lot of people don’t like Harlan, no matter how brilliant he was at one time as a writer, and no matter what Good Things he does – like the auction he ran at the ’86 Worldcon here in Atlanta to raise money for Manly Wellman’s widow.
Hey Peter,
The press release references the WGA contract from 1960/1966. Do you know if the WGA contract has changed since that time to cover these sorts of situations? Say, for example, a derivative work was made from the Babylon 5 episode you wrote. Would you be given compensation?
Um. Well, the Crucible series very much revolved around Harlan’s creations…that’s extremely fair, given the characters and the themes wouldn’t have been possible without him.
On the other hand, there’s IMZADI…
If I remember the anecdote correctly…
The author of Imzadi got permission to use the Ellison-owned concepts. Maybe the author could confirm this.
Roger – being that Peter and Harlan are rather close friends – and that one of the first pages of _Imzadi_ has the dedication “This one has to be for Harlan” – and, if I recall correctly from one of his convention panel talks, he specifically asked Harlan if it would be a problem using the Guardian – it’s a completely different scenario.
Anyone foolish enough to try to screw over Harlan Ellison deserves what they get.
Unfortunately, anyone who accidentally upsets Harlan is liable to get the same thing as someone who tries to screw him over – like a friend of mine who made a small joke a lot less offensive than many Harlan has made about others, and got Harlan screaming in his ear at 3AM, followed by the phone ringing every fifteenminutes with bn-one there the rest of the night …
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Or the New York editor whose magazine accidentally misprinted an Ellison story; after which (according to sources i tend to put credence in) Harlan waited tll midnight California time to call the (New york) editor at home and scream at him – and then insisted that the magazine reprint the story correctly … and pay him a second time. (Likely one of the reasons the magazine died young.)
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He’s a brilliant writer – or was; has he published anything recently? – and a good friend if he’s your friend … but he’s got no brakes when he feels he’s been offered the slightest offense.
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Whether he actally has or not.
In the grand scheme of things, any money due Harlan for use of the Guardian in prose novels is probably small change by comparison to residuals arising from the episode itself — and those may not be trivial at all, not now that the SFX-upgraded TOS episodes are making the rounds, not only on DVD but also over the airwaves (my local Fox station is showing the series on weekends again).
That said, the Guardian has popped up from time to time in the print novels. As I recall, it’s used in at least one of the A. C. Crispin “Zar” books, and I have a vague memory of at least one other usage from that general period, which would have significantly predated Imzadi.
I don’t know what the writers’ contracts were like – but i seem to recall that in those days the standard actor’s contract only paid residuals for the first five showings, since this was before the days of wide-spread syndicationm and nobody expected that a gievn episode would be shown ore than maybe twice – first run and then one re-run.
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The money for use of characters and concepts will be where the big money is – again, i don’t know the details, but i do know that, in the case of music, if you use a recording in a filmed movie or TV production, you have to pay everybody involved in the original recording session a second time. (If it’s on tape, it counts the same as playing it on the radio, which is a *lot* less and goes through ASCAP or BMI) So, it may be that every time they use one of his characters in something, he has to be paid effectively what he got originally … am\nd maybe part of the profits, too.
If you are going to file a law-suit and make a press release about it, this is how to go about it. I hope he’s right, and I hope he wins.
This is like watching Hank Rearden when he gets f’ing pist in court.
Hmm… I wonder if Harlan could get Denny Crane to represent him?
J.
Now that would be amusing to watch.
The last time I really remember Harlan’s name being brought up was about 2 years ago… when he originally threatened to sue over the Star Trek: Crucible novels.
How much does a Trek novel generate in profits, anyways? Yeah, I know, it’s not about the money… except that it is about the money to Harlan. And I could’ve swore he’s already sued over this whole thing in the past (or maybe more than once).
I know this really isn’t the case, but it *seems* like all he does these days is threaten and file lawsuits against everybody.
Go get ’em, Harlan! Hang the bášŧárdš!
The 1960 collective bargaining agreement between the WGA and the Producers, as amended in 1966, assures to the writers of individual teleplays “a piece of the pie.”
Luigi Novi: Shouldn’t that be “A Piece of the Action”?
Sorry, wasn’t clear….contrasting IMZADI with CRUCIBLE as the right way to do it. Blame lack of sleep and way too much work…
(although I’m not sure exactly what I mean nowadays)
(hm. seems odd that Paramount hadn’t ironed this out before hand….)
Give ’em hëll, Harlan.
I can’t speak for whether Mr. Ellison is on top of the legal argument, though I’m comfortably certain he is.
I do think his timing is as sharp as the proverbial thumbtack. It was the Superman movie that got Kal-El’s creators some overdue due, and Paramount’s crew probably don’t want any legal to-do or doo-doo with the May release encroaching.
Anyone foolish enough to try to screw overwork with Harlan Ellison deserves what they get.
Fixed that. Unless Ellison actually has finished The Last Dangerous Visions while I wasn’t looking?
a Hallmark Christmas ornament of the “talking” Guardian of Forever actually using lines Ellison wrote for his script
Huh? Ellison complained, IIRC, that only one line of his original script survived to the episode. How could the ornament use lines, plural? Did Hallmark go back and use lines not in the actual episode?
Harlan Ellison complaining about people acting with “arrogance”, or with a “pompous dismissive imperial manner”? Just more proof that he’s the best dámņ comedy writer in America, a perfect parodist of the self-obsessed “genius” who thinks his self-anointed status means he’s not bound by the rules of conventional society.
Completely having nothing to do with the article, but can you change the font color on the main page? For me (Using IE7), it’s coming up as white text on a light blue background, which is next to impossible to read.
Hmmm..I really dont know which side to take here. I respect both PAD and Mr. Ellison but my gut take is that CBS/Paramount owns the copyright to all things Trek. I think it would like if Peter was fired from New Frontier and then CBS hired Hulk Hogan to write the series. It would suck but Peter could not do anything about it because he does not own the characters. The same can be said here, even though Mr. Ellison created Edith Keeler and the Guardian of Forever, they where crated for Star Trek. However, if he was not properly paid for the creation of the characters, then he has grounds to sue.
Are we sure PAD doesn’t own (or at least isn’t entitled to money if they get used in other ST-related circumstances) the characters in the “Excalibur” books – not, i mean, Arex and M’Ress or Scott, but the ones he created for the books?
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PAD – how about it? Do you get anything if they use your original creations in other books or on teevee or in a film?
I don’t know about any of this, man, I just wish that the Edgeworks had been done right, continued and I could’ve had a nice big set of hardcovers instead of four typo riddled sad sacks sitting there all alone.
I have to wonder if there’s a statute of limitations on this.
I read some of the Pocket Books stories that used the Guardian of Forever. Imzadi for one. But also the A.C. Crispin one which gave Spock a son from 5000 years in his past. And I’m sure there’s been a few others, like Devils Heart by Carmen Carter which featured the Guardian more tangentially.
And as someone else noted, the animated series also used the Guardian of Forever.
By not bringing this suit earlier, isn’t there an implied allowance? If we were all using the word Xerox(tm) to mean photocopy for 20 years, and in that time Xerox never took anyone to court for it, wouldn’t that imply they were permitting it?
PAD,
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the episode… (my favorite is probably “…Tribbles” )
But as a member of the ALCU and a big believer that “the studio” is a bunch of greedy business morons, I’ll fight to the end to defend Mr. Ellison’s right to be compensated for his work. The company should ‘ve done right by him a long time ago. If they were smart , (and they’re obviously not), they’d take the high road and pony up. There ought to be plenty to go around after 35 years.
Bob A
PAD,
sorry… that was ACLU….
mea culpa.
RTA
I believe that harlan’s position is that there is something in the contract he was working under that gave Paramount the rights to the story but NOT the rights to anything created for that story. Edith, the Guardian, etc were all one shot deals. It’s like how Marvel published a Superman vs Spiderman comic but doesn’t have the rights to Superman. (ok, weak analogy, but work with me here)
Whether or not that is the case will depend on the lawyers. At any rate, I’ll bet this will cost more to Paramount than tossing a few shekels and a nice big “Created by” credit would have.
I’m not qualified to speak to the legal rights and wrongs here.
I do think there’s an argument that if someone creates something for you that turns into a money maker you cut them in for a piece of the action and hope they’ll do it again. Repeatedly!
I do love that when faced by the corporate mantra that “It’s nothing personal” there are still people who step up, take the offending weasel by the lapels and snarl “Yes it ****ing is!”. Go get ’em Mr Ellison!
Cheers.
I wonder about the timing of it too. Is the Guardian used in the new Trek movie perhaps?
An Ellison never forgets…
I have to wonder if there’s a statute of limitations on this.
Are they making money on his work NOW? If so, that’s when the statute of limitations starts. NOW.
Huh? Ellison complained, IIRC, that only one line of his original script survived to the episode. How could the ornament use lines, plural?
Hmmm..I really dont know which side to take here. I respect both PAD and Mr. Ellison but my gut take is that CBS/Paramount owns the copyright to all things Trek.
I think it would be best if people didn’t argue without knowledge of the contractual and legal issues here. For example, things as stories and screenplays are separate entities. Concepts drawn from the underlying story can indeed be covered under WGA rules and writers compensated for creating them, even though the surrounding universe is owned by the studio.
Whatever. If Ellison gets some money out of this, hooray for him and his lawyer. He’s not writing any more, and nothing is at the bookstore, so this is his retirement, suing on old properties. Many of us thought he’d finish up in grander style, but we’ll find other heroes.
I’ve recently seen current printings of both Slippage and Dangerous Visions on bookstore shelves. Recently bought current printings of Shatterday and Watching off bookstore shelves. And from a quick online check, Angry Candy and Paingod seem to be in print.
“Are they making money on his work NOW? If so, that’s when the statute of limitations starts. NOW.”
That onkly makes sense if they hadn’t been making money off his work earlier, which is clearly not the case.
What?
That doesn’t make any sense at all, storymark.
Actually, it might. “You snooze, you lose” is at the heart of a number of legal doctrines (statutes of limitations, adverse possession, laches, etc.). If Ellison knew about Paramount’s breach and did nothing to address it for years, he could run into some problems– either losing the suit outright or only being able to recover damages for the things that happened recently, for which the statute of limitations hadn’t run. It’s also possible that Paramount could be held accountable for a single ongoing pattern of conduct that brings it all within the statute of limitations. For all I know Ellison could be perfectly okay under California law, but it’s a legitimate issue raised by storymark.
On some things (like failure to register for Selective Service in the Viet Nam era) the Statute of Limitations doesn’t start running out till you stop committing the act – that is, in the case of the draft, if the SoL was five years, it was five years after you either finally registered of reached the age when you were no longer eleigible for the draft.
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If that obtains here, the SoL doesn’t start running till the day after they use one of Harlan’s characters or other creations for the last time.
Scrivener’s Error has a short item — with a linked video — on this matter; that’s of significance given that the Scrivener was a key player on one of Harlan’s prior legal teams (in the case against AOL).
From my reading, Bill Mulligan and Roger Tang have hit the salient point: the contracts in question are those signed Way Back When with respect to the original script/episode, which may have included language providing for payments to the original writer when material created by that writer was re-used. While it’s generally correct that the studio/corporate parent ends up owning all the relevant characters and trademarks, payment under such a contract would presumably accrue as long as one could show that material of Harlan’s had been used. (Whether such payments would be based on the script as submitted and paid for, or as rewritten and aired, may be a more interesting legal question, though presumably Paramount has rights interests in both versions.)
>I’ll fight to the end to defend Mr. Ellison’s right to be compensated for his work.
Um, but he WAS compensated for his work. Or did they steal his original script at gun point then shove him out the door without a cent?
Interesting to note that, if I’ve got it right, writers from back then appear to expect to still be getting paid decades later, even though the actual actors stopped getting residuals after only a few broadcasts.
If it was in their contracts, then they’re supposed to expect that.
Um, but he WAS compensated for his work.
And if they use concepts from his work in the future, he should be compensated again. That is, after all, the contract they signed.
This isn’t necessarily work-for-hire here. Need to know the relevant case and contract law before saying what’s right and what’s wrong.
BTW….
This isn’t a case of a employer/employee. This is a case of two independent business entities working under a business agreement. It changes the dynamics when you think of it that way.
It is rumored that the new film will contain an appearance of the Guardian. If so,somebody at Paramount’s legal department f*cked up in not getting Harlan’s permission before hand.
Seeing as how the Guardian has not been used that much in Trek lore, and that Ellison hasn’t exactly been a household name in terms of creative output in the years since that episode played, I think he needs to move on after 35 years of grousing about it. Why not put that excess negative energy into creating something new and epic for sci-fi fans to enjoy…more than Trek?
There is a rumor that the rumor of the Guardian’s appearance in the new film is just another internet rumor.
Alan Coil says:
March 17, 2009 at 11:37 pm
“There is a rumor that the rumor of the Guardian’s appearance in the new film is just another internet rumor.”
The sound you hear now is Gerard Way’s lawyers, baying in the distance. (Funny and obscure! Ðámņ I’m good!)
Cheers.
For the love of God, Montresor, pleeeease can we have the blank line suppression turned off in here?
Cheers.
Hmmm. Alan, I think that I heard a rumor about your rumor.:)
Ellison actually had quite a rant about the Guardian rumours, which were later disproved.
As for this matter, I don’t blame him at all. The details of his claim are quite entertaining and outline his position well. The Crucible series was very heavily based around his episode, and retold many of the scenes. I am stunned there was no notice given to Ellison of that, let alone permission sought.
If he has the contractual right to seek compensation for that, good luck to him.
Harlan, God bless him, has been banging on this drum for close to 40 years.
Contracts are written in black and white for a reason. It should be a fairly simple thing to look at the original contract and see if Harlan had anything put in there about retaining the ownership of the new elements he created for the screenplay. If he did, pay the guy. if he didn’t then he signed a sucky contract, but he should honor it and stop all this tilting at windmills
I love Harlan, have followed him for a LONG time, but he seems to be getting more and more cranky as he gets older, and given where he started from, that is saying something.
Lou–
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This is a different drum. It’s not just trying to make clear he never had Scotty selling drugs, it’s that he is owed money for merchandising and usage of characters he created. Same company, same person making the complaint, different drum. Whether he is right or wrong the courts will decide.
For that matter, has he gone after the fan group which has been cranking out new episodes of the original series, one of which actually involved William Windom reprising his role as Commodore Decker and featured both Doomsday Machines (yes, plural) and Guardians of Forever (yes, more than one!)? Probably not, since they’re strictly not-for-profit.
A good question, actually. My guess would be that the relevant productions fall under low-budget/no-budget umbrellas with the various Guilds that would not trigger residuals or re-use fees under a Guild contract. (It’s also very possible, given the number of other Trek alumni involved with that group, that they were smart enough to get Harlan’s blessing beforehand.)
And a key part of the press release that we’ve mostly been overlooking is that one reason the grievance has been simmering for this long is that despite requests, Paramount hasn’t let Harlan’s people so much as look at the books to figure out how much money might be involved. Thus the years of delay are better blamed on Paramount and its assorted corporate masters, rather than on Harlan.
Well, the drum kit is the same. It’s the “Star Trek Ate my Baby” deluxe set. The “they changed my precious words” part was the bass drum, the “not getting my just desserts” was the snare.
Right now he’ss just trying to be a loud cymbol
Quite frankly, considering the liberties taken by many large companies on this sort of thing, including the lobbying for Orphan Works legislation, I hope he eviscerates them in court.
James Van Hise posted to Mr. Ellison’s website that the late Jerome Bixby asked Paramount for similar royalties for the use of the Mirror Universe on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine but was flatly denied them, and did not have the resources to fight for what was his; of course the Mirror Universe was also used on Star Trek: Enterprise, in Diane Duane’s novel Dark Mirror, the “Shattered Mirror” anthologies, the DC Star Trek comics, and probably lots of other places I haven’t seen or don’t recall. I would imagine his estate would have a similar case to Mr. Ellison’s.
And I confess I’m wondering why Mr. Ellison hasn’t included the use of the Guardian in the animated Star Trek, or in A. C. Crispin’s novels, James Cawley’s fan film “In Harm’s Way”, or the Tim Russ film Of Gods and Men. (Perhaps, like Paramount, he’s given tacit permission with regard to the last two? I don’t know one way or the other.) Again, there might be other uses I don’t know about or don’t recall.
I guess I’ll post this question to Mr. Ellison’s site and see what reply I get….
If Bixby got a dollar for every time someone used the trope that putting a goatee on a character means they’re evil, he could have just BOUGHT Paramount.
Lou–
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I’m sorry you are so misinformed about what is happening.
Oh, don’t be sorry for me…
I think I got a pretty good grip on what the issues are.
Like I said earlier. It all comes back to the original contract. If he’s entitiled to profit participation for his contiribution to the trek-verse then pay him and make it one of those big checks they give lottery winners.
If he’s trying to re-negociate the terms of a 40 yr old contract…well buddy, good luck with that
Frankly, I don’t care. I don’t mean that in the sense of “not caring about the injustice done to Harlan Ellison”, or “not caring about the latest bit of pettiness done by Harlan Ellison”, which seems to be how the two camps are falling; I just mean I don’t care at all. It’s a legal matter, and it’s being handled by the courts. They’ll hand down a decision, and I have no input in that decision or stake in its outcome. So, not caring. 🙂