Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay

author: Harlan Ellison
name: Wayne
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/17
date added: 2019/01/09
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
'Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay' is a terrific way to present this screenplay. The art is great and it is only helped by being in a graphic novel format.

Anyone who vaguely knows the original Star Trek series has some familiarity with the episode 'The City on the Edge of Forever.' It's an iconic episode that ends in a heartbreaking choice by Kirk. That's all still here at the core, but the framing story is different.

In the original episode, McCoy goes crazy, ends up back in the 1930s and Kirk and Spock go back to stop him. This story has a completely different framing story involving a corrupt crewman, a crew of marauders attacking the Enterprise and a group of aliens known as the Guardians intent on preserving the pathways of time. Maybe the casting budget is what decided the changes, and when it's all said and done, the core story is the same, so it's more interesting just to see this as alternate take on a classic Trek episode.

The script adaptation is solid, and the art by J.K. Woodward is really top notch. My review copy didn't include anything but the comics, but I understand the full version includes an afterword by Harlan Ellison and also artist notes from J.K. Woodward on his process. Highly recommended for Trekkers like me.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, IDW Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this excellent graphic novel.


via Wayne's bookshelf: read http://bit.ly/2VFqqcv