Harlan Dissents

Harlan Ellison dissents and recommends writers vote NO on the new WGA contract. Interestingly, in the comments to his post on United Hollywood a lot of writers seem to agree with him. We'll find out, when the results of the contract ratification vote are revealed if this is a minority report.

BSG co-exec producer Mark Verheiden voted aye on the contact.

The Strike on Christmas

With the holiday season in full swing, there isn't much new strike news to report. However, Star Trek.Com has a bunch of videos from Star Trek Day including video interviews with Ronald D. Moore, Harlan Ellison, and Deep Space Nine exec producer Ira Steven Behr. Read the article and view the videos while you can, because those humanitarians at CBS/Viacom that own and run Star Trek.Com fired the entire web team just in time for the holidays. Here's their final message:

12.14.2007
Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team

Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.

We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.

If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com - we hope someone at CBS will read them.

Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.

I guess when CBS decided to pay their CEO 200% above what other CEO's earn, well cuts had to come from somewhere.

There's still a chance you can help stop more of these big media consolidations from continuing, but time is running out.


See also, Bill Moyers Journal.

The Real World

Ron Moore at Star Trek Day.

Deadline Hollywood and United Hollywood, via Jane Hamsher of Firedog Lake, report that the Washington lobbyist goons of Fabiani & Lehane the AMPTP hired to lie about the writers are losing their labor union contracts, and hopefully soon will be completely out of business.

The strike is destroying NBC's bottom line.

Today the was the first day of deliveries of pencils to moguls with Ron Moore and Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson dropping off the pencils.

Trek Movie Report covered Star Trek Day at Paramount and spoke to Harlan Ellison. LAist has a photo essay.

United Hollywood lists the events for this week. A reality writer responds to the AMPTP's unreality.

Copyright

Harlan Ellison talks about copyrights and internet theft of creative work:


I apologize for the shaky camera footage.

WWHD

When faced with a difficult choice, always just ask yourself, "What would Harlan do?" and the path will be clear. Ron Moore is interviewed in "DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH" a documentary about author Harlan Ellison. Here's the trailer:


In strike news...

Deadline Hollywood Daily is working on a report on the latest talks.

But United Hollywood reports that some of the studios are ready to cut a deal, while others are dragging their feet. United Hollywood compares it to "development hell" which is a term used to describe what happens when too many cooks are in the kitchen.

UH also points to a recent Bill Moyers Journal on the FCC and media consolidation.

Jane Espenson has details on Friday's Mutant Enemy Day at 20th Century Fox in Century City, and a benefit called Write Aid to be held at UCLA's Royce Hall Friday December 14th.

Star Trek Day

Trek Movie Report notes that the WGA is planning a Star Trek day at Paramount on Monday December 10. Writers and actors from Star Trek will walk the picket line, including Scott Bakula, Brent Spiner, Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens, Harlan Ellison and Ronald D. Moore (as confirmed by Mrs. Ron). Ron's first professional sale was the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Bonding".

From Trek Movie Report:

They also hope people working on the new Star Trek film will join them. There will even be a band (The Intergallactic Blues Band). Fans are also welcome to come and show their support.

If you are interested in attending, the check in spot is the Windsor Gate. The event runs from 11-3 at Paramount Pictures at 5555 Melrose in Hollywood.

TrekMovie.com will provide updates on the event as new information becomes available. TrekMovie.com will also report from the event itself on Monday.

The March on Lankershim

Front Lines

Another simple explanation of the situation for writers in New Media.

At Friday's WGA rally at Fox, author Harlan Ellison can be seen here in photo number 2 holding a sign that says, "Nick Counter Sleeps with the Fishe$$$". (Nick Counter is the mafia style negotiator for the corrupt corporate bosses of the AMPTP.)


UPDATE: photo of Harlan by Eric Appel.

Writer Josh Friedman, the show runner of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (to be scored by Bear McCreary) has a great blog post on the strike. Also, check out the latest from Ken Levine on the march up Pico.

What Does Harlan Think?

Harlan Ellison discusses the merit of getting paid for one's writing.

Warning: NSFW

Moore and Ellison

There is a documentary film called Dreams with Sharp Teeth coming along about legendary writer Harlan Ellison. BSG exec producer Ron Moore is interviewed in the film talking about Harlan and Harlan's influence on his work. (Ron can be seen briefly the trailer, as well as a segment on the film's site titled "An Evening of Sharp Teeth" about a screening of the doc at the Writer's Guild Theatre, where Ron introduced the film.)

Reviews of the doc, here, here, and here.

So Say We All

Writer Clark Perry provides an in-depth report from the BSG Cinerama Dome festivities on his blog.

BSG co-exec producer Mark Verheiden briefly reflects on the Dome event and thanks the fans for always supporting the show and expresses his hope for more BSG events of this type.

Sci-Fi Pulse has video of Katee Sackhoff and others at the Saturn Awards.

David Eick told Sci-Fi Wire he hopes to use as many BSG actors as he can in the new Bionic Woman.

ABC will finally be bringing the works of great science fiction writers to TV:

ABC will finally air episodes of Masters of Science Fiction in a four-week run starting Aug. 4, Zap2it.com reported.

From the same producers as Showtime's Masters of Horror, the anthology series was initially considered a mid-season show; ABC ordered six episodes, but now plans to air only four in the death timeslot, Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

There's no word yet on which four installments will air. The hourlong shows feature adaptations of stories by such SF masters as Robert A. Heinlein and Harlan Ellison, as well as Walter Mosley. Actors taking part include Terry O'Quinn (ABC's Lost), John Hurt (V for Vendetta), Anne Heche, Judy Davis, Sam Waterston and Malcolm McDowell (NBC's Heroes), the site reported.

Moore / Ellison

Harlan Ellison talked to Ron Moore at the L.A. Screenwriters Expo not long ago, and Tom's Hardware has a transcript of their interview.

Harlan Ellison and Ron Moore

Harlan Ellison presents Best TV Writer of the Year Award to Ronald Moore for Battlestar Galactica at the 2006 Expo 5 Screenwriting Conference.

Ron Moore's favorite SF books

SCi Fi That Soars
Sun 8th Jan

BY RON MOORE
From Wall Street Journal:

1. "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein (Putnam, 1961). In part a retelling of the Christ story as seen through a science-fiction prism, this sprawling social commentary tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a son of human colonists lost in the first manned flight to Mars. Raised by Martians, Michael has been returned to Earth, before whose society, and foibles, he stands uncomprehending. Soon enough, he is a victim. It says something about the complexity and intellectual edge of "Stranger in a Strange Land" that it remains one of the few science-fiction classics to have escaped adaptation by the movie industry. The book is very much of its time, the 1960s, in the way its central story of Valentine's reintegration into human society challenges organized religion and gender roles. Not to mention its embrace of those swinging '60s themes, free love and group sex. An emblem of this book's influence: the word "grok"--Martian for complete, instinctive understanding--has entered the language and a dictionary or two.

2. "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov (Gnome, 1951). This is simply the first volume of a trilogy that brought together the massive series of "Foundation" stories that Isaac Asimov began writing in the 1940s. A heady blend of speculative fiction and epic storytelling spanning literally hundreds of thousands of years, the saga concerns the huge and prosperous Galactic Empire. At the center of it all is psycho-historian Hari Seldon, whose mathematical calculations predict the future fall of the empire, to be followed by a 30,000-year dark age before a new civilization emerges. To safeguard its knowledge through those hellish centuries, the empire allows Seldon to establish a small outpost, a foundation, which grows large, thanks to its command of technology and learning of all kinds. Mr. Asimov's lucid prose and extravagant imagination ensures that if you read this book, you'll go on to read the entire trilogy.

3. "Dune" by Frank Herbert (Ace, 1965). The world depicted here by Frank Herbert is as richly textured and detailed as J.R.R. Tolkien's "Rings" triology, to which this novel has been compared. Set in an outer-space empire many thousands of years into the future, the plot is structured around the combat between powerful families vying for political control. Mr. Herbert portrays every aspect of the galaxy culture--the warring noble houses and the characters and societies they represent--with a particularity that makes them unforgettable. This was the book that made me realize that science-fiction could be more than ray guns, rugged heroes and wacky sidekicks.

4. "Dragonflight" by Anne McCaffrey (Ballantine, 1968). The first book of Ms. McCaffrey's wildly popular "Dragonriders of Pern" series introduces a world that appears, at first glance, to be a product of the purest traditional fantasy--a place where majestic dragons sweep the skies above medieval castle holds. In fact, it is a meticulously constructed science-fiction universe. The heroine is Lessa, who lives in servitude on the planet Pern, colonized long ago by humans. She goes off to the place of the great dragons, where she learns to ride and commune with the creatures. Now dismissed as burdens on society, the dragons are no longer revered as saviors of the planet in a long-ago battle. Soon they will be needed again. Don't look for slash-and-burn dragon warfare here or anything hard-edged. The pleasures of this work are to be found in Ms. McCaffrey's lyrical style.

5. "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison (Pyramid, 1967). The short story that gives this collection its title is one of the most frightening works you're likely to encounter. The tone is set with the opening line: "Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported--hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern." This is a tale of five humans trapped within the belly of a supercomputer, called AM, which has managed to wipe out everyone in the world but these five, whom it relishes tricking and torturing. Mr. Ellison's prose here is like the machine he envisions: a peerless force.



Mr. Moore is creator and executive producer of the Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" series.