Of late and, at least to some extent, due in part to the San Diego ComiCon, there have been a number of sales on graphic novels/comic books via Amazon or its sister-company Comixology.

One of the books on sale is one I didn’t know existed: The graphic novel adaptation of the late (RIP) Harlan Ellison’s famous original Star Trek screenplay The City on the Edge of Forever. (I’ll abbreviate the title to CEF from here on)

For those unfamiliar with the episode, CEF is considered by many to be one of the -if not THE- best Star Trek episode ever created, and with good reason.  The episode was the penultimate which aired in the show’s first season (it would air in April 6, 1967) and here’s it’s promotional trailer:

Consider me among the ones who feel CEF is easily among my top 2 favorite episodes ever aired from that series (#1 on the list is tough… I feel CEF is on par with the wonderful season two episode The Doomsday Machine, which to this day I feel is easily the most suspenseful episode of the original -and any subsequent- series).

So here’s the thing: Harlan Ellison created the story and wrote the initial screenplay but changes were made to it and, the episode that eventually aired, had plenty of the Ellison story in it as well as plenty of deviations.  If you’re at all familiar with Mr. Ellison, you’ll know this didn’t sit well with the author.

A number of years ago Mr. Ellison released a book which included his original screenplay:

I have this book and have read the screenplay but found it difficult to envision/compare in my mind the actual episode and Mr. Ellison’s screenplay.  One simply outshone the other because the aired episode was so familiar to me and it was tough to get that same “visual” experience out of reading a screenplay.

What I didn’t know, until a few days ago, was that in 2015 IDW published a 5 issue comic book adaptation of this screenplay.  It was collected into a single graphic novel and, as of today, is available via Kindle for a mere $1.99 if you’re interested.  Here’s the book’s cover:

The original teleplay was adapted by writers Scott and David Tipton and illustrated -quite well!- by J. K. Woodward and, finally, I had a way to compare, almost one-on-one, the Star Trek episode with Mr. Ellison’s original screenplay.

And it was a curious thing!

To begin with, and with all due respect to Mr. Ellison, I still feel the original episode as aired is better.  The differences between screenplay and aired episode include the participation of Dr. McCoy (he plays a big part in the episode and doesn’t appear at all in the screenplay), the climax involves action taken by Kirk in the episode versus Spock in the screenplay, the appearance of a crippled WWI veteran (one thing I would have really liked to see in the episode but was cut out entirely), and a more cerebral conversation between Kirk and Spock in the screenplay’s conclusion.

Without going into too many spoilers, I feel the inclusion of McCoy in the episode was a stroke of genius and made us more engaged in what was to happen versus the character Mr. Ellison introduced, a drug dealer/murderer, who sets the actions in motion.  Further, I feel the climactic resolution resonates more in the episode by having Kirk act versus Spock.  It delivered an emotional gut punch that no other episode in the series was able to deliver.

And yet, as Spock would say, it is fascinating to see the original screenplay presented in graphic form.  It offered this reader the closest approximation to what the episode might have looked like had the producers used Mr. Ellison’s script more faithfully.

Would it have made for a better CEF?  To this reader, not quite.  But having said that, if you’re a fan of Star Trek and CEF in particular, do yourself a favor and give the graphic novel a look.  Recommended.