Yes the original was better. But the one we got was easier/cheaper to film and his had many special effects shots which would have put them over time budget as well. Remember at the time ST was not the money machine it is now and was one of the more costly shows on air, and they tried to turn them around in about 2-3 weeks (when at the time the average was less than 1-4 days for most shows). Money was one of the reasons we saw a good amount of vasquez rocks in the show. It is in the movie zone and the pay was cheaper.
There's a somewhat hilarious audiobook about this by Ellison (titled the same as the episode, I believe), which is mostly a well produced rant burying Roddenberry's versions of events (your justifications included) in 37 tons of molten lead and firing them into the heart of a nearby dying star.
When I started listening, I didn't know what it was and kept wondering when the story would start. By something like 30-40 minutes in, I was laughing so hard I decided I didn't even care if I ever heard the script. It's a masterpiece of pettiness only Harlan could have crafted.
Before Star Trek Ellison also did two episodes of The Outer Limits; actually, IIRC this is how he ended up writing for Star Trek, because Bob Justman worked with him before on The Outer Limits. In one of them a soldier accidentally travels back in time to the then-present day (aptly named "Soldier").
In the first draft script Ellison wrote the time-travel scene had the soldier "flying through time" with spaceships and dinosaurs and what-have-you. They explained it was a great script but far too expensive to film due to all the required special effects, and told him to rewrite it to be cheaper. "Okay!", and so he went away to rewrite it. He came back and ... time-travel scene was still there! They again explained that filming the time-travel scene alone would cost several episodes worth of budget, and was simply an impossibility. He did not seem to understand; in his mind that scene was simply essential.
Needless to say, that episode was also not shot the way Ellison wrote it.
(This episode, together with the Demon with a Glass Hand episode he did for The Outer Limits, were allegedly plagiarized by James Cameron in the Terminator film – I have never seen any strong resemblances myself beyond some very superficial details; I guess the studio settled to avoid trouble, but it just seemed like Ellison being his difficult self more than anything else. He was a funny man, but also a difficult one with something of a vicious mean streak at times.)
Comments
Yes the original was better. But the one we got was easier/cheaper to film and his had many special effects shots which would have put them over time budget as well. Remember at the time ST was not the money machine it is now and was one of the more costly shows on air, and they tried to turn them around in about 2-3 weeks (when at the time the average was less than 1-4 days for most shows). Money was one of the reasons we saw a good amount of vasquez rocks in the show. It is in the movie zone and the pay was cheaper.
There's a somewhat hilarious audiobook about this by Ellison (titled the same as the episode, I believe), which is mostly a well produced rant burying Roddenberry's versions of events (your justifications included) in 37 tons of molten lead and firing them into the heart of a nearby dying star.
When I started listening, I didn't know what it was and kept wondering when the story would start. By something like 30-40 minutes in, I was laughing so hard I decided I didn't even care if I ever heard the script. It's a masterpiece of pettiness only Harlan could have crafted.
Before Star Trek Ellison also did two episodes of The Outer Limits; actually, IIRC this is how he ended up writing for Star Trek, because Bob Justman worked with him before on The Outer Limits. In one of them a soldier accidentally travels back in time to the then-present day (aptly named "Soldier").
In the first draft script Ellison wrote the time-travel scene had the soldier "flying through time" with spaceships and dinosaurs and what-have-you. They explained it was a great script but far too expensive to film due to all the required special effects, and told him to rewrite it to be cheaper. "Okay!", and so he went away to rewrite it. He came back and ... time-travel scene was still there! They again explained that filming the time-travel scene alone would cost several episodes worth of budget, and was simply an impossibility. He did not seem to understand; in his mind that scene was simply essential.
Needless to say, that episode was also not shot the way Ellison wrote it.
(This episode, together with the Demon with a Glass Hand episode he did for The Outer Limits, were allegedly plagiarized by James Cameron in the Terminator film – I have never seen any strong resemblances myself beyond some very superficial details; I guess the studio settled to avoid trouble, but it just seemed like Ellison being his difficult self more than anything else. He was a funny man, but also a difficult one with something of a vicious mean streak at times.)