Star Trek XI Plot Details Revealed

HotChk101 writes to tell us that the plot for Star Trek XI has been revealed over at IESB. This information has not yet been confirmed by the studio so take with the requisite grain of salt. Be warned link contains potential spoiler information.

Comments

Harlan Ellison

[WombatControl]

Harlan Ellison, who wrote the original TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" was not at all happy about the rumors:

Would someone go to that site, and suggest to those people there, that "City" and all its elements EXCEPT specific Star Trek characters, belong to Harlan Ellison--author of that much-lauded episode--by terms of the Separation of Rights clause of the Writers Guild's Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA), and if Mr. Abrams--with whom I'm currently on strike--or anyone else, at Paramount or elsewhere, thinks they're going to use MY creations--whether the City, the Guardians, Sister Edith Keeler, or any other elements CREATED BY HARLAN ELLISON...they had damned well better lose the unilateral arrogance, get in touch with me, or my agent, Marty Shapiro, and be prepared to pay for the privilege of mining the lode I own.

Thank you, and thank Peter David, who just called to alert me, as have you, Mark, to yet another gimmegimme grab by Paramount and the Star trek francchise that makes billions, but withholds recognition or recompense to the artists who labored in that vein.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

So either Abrams didn't get clearance, or the rumors aren't true. From what we know of Leonard Nimoy's involvement, I'd guess that it's the former rather than the latter. So either Abrams will have to pay Ellison off, or production will have to shut down since the WGA strike precludes any changes to the script.

This could really throw a monkey wrench into everything...

Re:Harlan Ellison

[Rogerborg]

Hey, thanks; I was pretty much ready to fetch my torch and pitchfork over this fucking travesty, but now that I know that it's pissing off Harlan "Fuck off" Ellison, I may even pre-order a ticket.

Re:Harlan Ellison

[Grandiloquence]

Based on Penny Arcade's encounter with Mr. Ellison, I would say the man is unhappy quite often at just about everything.

Re:Harlan Ellison

[Chris Tucker]

So, Harlan DIDN'T have a standard "Work for Hire" contract with paramount/DesiLu/Roddenberry/rest of world + dog?

And that he somehow OWNS all the non-Trek specific aspects?

Yeah, good luck, Harlan.

As an aside, WAY back when, when Budweiser introduced 8 oz cans of beer, we called them "Harlans".

They were, after all, bitter, impotent half pints.

Re:Harlan Ellison

[OECD]

The thing is, the Guardian of Forever that appeared in Harlan Ellison's scripts was very, very different than what appeared in the episode.

And he HATED the version that was ultimately produced. But now it's all his.

See also this interesting account.

Re:Card

[Spuds]

Yeah, except Ender's Game came out in 1985 and Star Trek II, where this was introduced, came out in 1982. So not really.

Re:More time travel? DO NOT WANT!

[Applekid]

There seems to be an almost religious fantatisism with keeping everything nicely contained within the same timeline of events at Paramount.

While not related, I had played through the Halflife 2 Epsiode 2 commentary and they mentioned something about the flashlight battery now being separate from the main HEV sprinting battery, and their argument was that they weren't going to make the game less fun just for the sake of a keeping bad game design decision true throughout the lifespan of the series.

That said, I've always felt this was the most compelling argument for allowing for new things to happen without always resorting to time travel: http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/files/ST2004Reboot.pdf

Re:I for one....

[magarity]

I have to disagree; the Borg are a pretty good relentless antagonist and not a cheap plot device in themselves... although unfortunately cheap plot devices are too often used to get the Federation Friends out of their clutches.

Re:Oh no!

[elrous0]

Harlan insults pretty much everyone he meets {particularly anyone who doesn't immediately gush over his greatness}. To call him an "infamous prick" would be an insult to infamous pricks. The guy makes Joe Eszterhas look like a modest sweetie.