I was well aware of the differences between what we saw on the Trek episode and the original manuscript- I've read the version that Ellison released.

 

I received a copy of this IDW edition from Netgalley and I am was quite impressed.  I will definitely pick up a physical copy for my Trek collection!

 

*Book source ~ A review copy was provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

The Star Trek Enterprise has a crazy man on board. He manages to escape to the planet below, but this isn’t any old planet and Captain James T. Kirk and crew are about to find out how different and mind-boggling it truly is.

 

Fans of the original Star Trek show most likely count The City on the Edge of Forever as one of their favorites. I know it’s in my Top Ten, maybe even in my Top Five. I’ve never actually sat down and catalogued them. Written by Harlan Ellison, it was one of the best episodes of the series in terms of story and acting. However, this graphic novel is a bit different than what aired. It’s still an excellent story, but I think I prefer the plot tweak the show had over this one.

 

The illustrations are wonderful. I would definitely seek out more stories illustrated by J.K. Woodward. Having seen the show first and now reading the novel, I’m having a hard time deciding if the story told in the novel is sufficient to get the point across. There do seem to be a few gaps, but the story is sufficient to get the point across. And the ending is as heart-rending as on the show.

 

I can’t remember if this quote was in the show, but it’s in the novel and I have to include it.

 

“No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love.” ~ Spock

 

Though my oldest sister was always the trekkie of the family, I believe I have seen every episode of the original Star Trek series at least once, though some possibly not since the 1970's.  There are a few episodes, however, that stick out in my mind (if a child ever starts saying "bang-a-rang" around me, I might freak out, just sayin'...) and it turns out that the episode that was based on Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, was one of them.  So, expecting a never produced teleplay then discovering part way into the graphic novel that it was an episode I clearly remember was a nice surprise, as it slowly became more and more familiar.  That out of the way, let's talk briefly about the graphic novel itself.

 

The art is fantastic.  Either the artist has an incredible talent for realistic and detailed depictions or someone was busy with photoshop.  I choose to believe the former.  My experience of graphic novels is not vast, but others I have read where the characters were depictions of actors have not come so close to exact likenesses, clear down to Joan Collins' fake eyelashes.  At times this graphic novel has the appearance of a fully realized story-board.  At others there were some great stylistic choices that helped frame the mood of the scene.

 

The story is very much the episode I remember, but with a more intriguing set-up. Gritty is the word that keeps coming to mind, with greed and addiction being the catalysts for the conflict.  The differences between this and the televised version would make for an interesting study in contrasts.  Some of the changes are small and subtle, and I am sure I missed others as I haven't viewed the episode in quite some time.  I don't remember, for example, Yeoman Janice Rand being such a strong character.  Ellison's Yeoman Rand is a badass.  And that in itself made reading this worthwhile, downloaded as a "Read Now" ebook courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The review will be crossposted at my site.

The City on the Edge of Forever is often described as the best episode of the original series of Star Trek, and it’s hard to argue against that. The script, written by Sci-Fi legend Harlan Ellison, won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1968, and also the Writer’s Guild of America award of the same name. That those awards were actually for different scripts is where the comic book adaptation comes in (here is some background). As you can see, Ellison – never one to stay calm in the face of even imagined slights – famously criticized the edits done by Trek’s writers to his story, a “fatally inept treatment”. I remember discovering this after seeing Ellison doing his best ‘Andy Rooney of Sci-Fi’ in remarks on the old Sci-Fi Buzz show on the Sci-Fi channel, and being curious about what his story was like.

BlockQuoteCityEdgeForeverI no longer have to wonder, as IDW has published a faithful adaptation of one of Ellison’s drafts of the script. (spoilers possible from here) Many of the story beats are the same – Kirk and Spock must travel back to fix the timeline after a crewman screws it up – but the devil is in the details. Here, a drug-dealing crewmember is the one who mucks things up, something that probably wouldn’t have flown with Roddenberry’s vision of the future. His treatment also dealt more with the racism of the time, which was present but toned down in the TV episode. Gone, also, on TV was the fact that the Enterprise changed after the crewman escaped to the past. Ellison’s script actually has a rather badass picture of Yeoman Rand standing with the redshirts on this other ship in the changed timeline, phaser-blasting and elbow-dropping dudes to buy Spock and Kirk time to beam back down to the Guardian of Forever.

But the most intriguing change is to the end, with what happens to Edith Keeler. In this story, the crewman (this vile drug-dealing killer) attempts to save Edith from the truck while Kirk stands dumbfounded. Spock knocks the crewman away, and Edith dies as she is meant to. It provides a bit for Spock and Kirk to ponder at the end, debating how good and evil can come from the same place.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Scott and David Tipton ably adapted the story, and the JK Woodward art comes across as a series of paintings, expertly capturing the actors in their youth. I could’ve used some smoother transitions from scene to scene or panel, but it does the job well. Of course, this version would’ve been impossible to film at the time it was written. Too long to film, too much stuff to make. But hey, now you can see the story as Ellison meant it.

Thanks again to NetGalley for the early review copy. Pre-order your own trade at Amazon. Or check on the individual issues at your local comic shop.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I will start by saying that I wasn't that huge a fan of the star trek series although I did watch a number of the episodes growing up, I would never call myself a trekkie. That being said I really enjoyed this read.

The story itself has a rogue crew member, Beckwith, beaming himself down to a planet that appears to be responsible for time anomalies on the ship. Kirk, Spock and a small crew party follow him and come across the Guardians of Forever. They stand guard over the vortex and as they explain how it works, Beckwith escapes past the crew into the vortex as it's set to 1930. The guardian tells Kirk that Beckwith has altered events in the past, Kirk and Spock are then sent back to an earlier time to try and stop his actions and ensure the past stays as it should be.

There is a lot to love in this but best of all was the art, it was absolutely gorgeous. Each panel was beautiful, vibrant and highly detailed. It really is absolutely stunning.

This is so close to the feel of the show it's amazing how well it's been transferred from the teleplay to a graphic novel.
An absolute must for Star Trek fans but really any graphic novel reader will love this.
Highly recommended.