Update: Well, after a six-month sabbatical of sorts, OMBlog is back. To make a long story short, I've been tied up with some work issues, a couple of deaths in the family - including my oldest cat, Papaduck and one of the three kittens just a few weeks earlier - and a couple of medical situations that, quite frankly, left me way to tired to frack around with blogging. Add to this is that I've wound up with yet another cat, bringing the count back up to five, and keeping them entertained has been somewhat of a chore at times. Especially since the two surviving kittens are now big enough to get into things, and have learned that sleeping behind the notebook and/or on top of the keyboard happen to be the warmest places here at OMWorld Central, and the most likely place to find me when they want something.In any case, I've somehow managed to keep everyone somewhat updated on Twitter, as well as Facebook - yes, I actually got involved with FB during all this - but since OMBlog usually requires more thought than 140 character Tweets allow, I wound up simply not having the time or the energy to keep the blogging going like I'm used to. Which as some have pointed out, coincidentally seems to happen during the Summer months for some reason. But then again, consider the fact that I'd been keeping things going pretty much without a real break from September of 2007, all the way through getting "Stumpy", right up to April of 2009. I could be wrong, but I don't think Gerry Trudeau gives us that much continuous Doonesbury these days.
Anyway, the weather's changing, Daylight Rapings Time is almost outta here, and I've got some free time *and* energy for once. So let's get at least a half-assed attempt to get OMBlog going again, shall we?
Item: What better way to restart off OMBlog than with a quick disclaimer, and a related e-mail. Some of you apparently thought that the reason I took that "leave of absence" was due to this particularly incendiary entry. Sorry, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Still, my tirade against and about Harlan Ellison did receive this comment from none other than David Gerrold that does need quoting and addressing:
In your blog of April 1, 2009, you wrote:"I'll let you decide on David's comments on your own, kids, but keep in mind that David did try to go after his own brass ring by trying to sue Paranoidmount and Gene Roddenberry over his claims he "co-created" Next Generation. He lost that case big time, which probably explains why he's never tried to sue for royalties on every Tribble sold or used."I'm sorry, but this is inaccurate.
1) I never sued Roddenberry or Paramount with the claim that I co-created "Next Generation." That was a falsehood that Gene Roddenberry's biographer David Alexander published in his book. What did happen was that after I left the show, the Writers Guild of America filed a grievance on my behalf, and on behalf of Dorothy Fontana; that's not a lawsuit, it's a labor-relations issue. In my case, the grievance stated that I had been asked to do producer-level work while not being credited or paid as such. DC Fontana's grievance was related.
2) I did not lose that case. I won. So did DC Fontana. Because the terms of the settlement prohibit me from discussing the terms of the settlement, I will not say anything except to say that I took additional money instead of screen credit. I will say that the number that David Alexander quoted in his Roddenberry biography is laughably wrong. (And in fact, that Roddenberry discussed the issue with him at all, was his violation of the terms of the agreement. Confidentiality means you're not supposed to talk about it.)
3) And yes, I did file a lawsuit against Paramount in 1999 for merchandising of tribbles. Paramount's legal dept immediately recognized that such merchandising was indeed covered by the original contract for the story and teleplay of "The Trouble With Tribbles" and settled that case out of court. They are required to make annual payments on tribble merchandising.
In the future, if you are going to write about my professional dealings, please have the courtesy to email me and check your facts. I will always be happy to provide them, especially if it will prevent additional pebbles being added to the avalanche of misinformation.David Gerrold
And now, for the not-so-opposing view.
First off, I thank David for taking the time to send in those corrections, much less taking the time to actually read OMBlog. As someone who's been a fan since the Tribbles episode first aired on NBC, and one who's still convinced that The Starlost proved The Galactic Whirlpool could have been filmed on Star Trek's limited TV budget, his reply I consider an honor even if it's slightly on the ass-chewing side.
Which brings us to the meat of the matter. From what I've been able to gather, bouncing and pinging old friends and long-time Trek fans I've known since my days on rec.arts.startrek, WWIVnet's Trek board(s), and even the anally-misadministered FiDOPEnet boards dedicated to wanking all over Trekkers who even so much as hinted they liked FASA's Star Trek RPG, David Gerrold's side of the story is pretty much God/Yahweh/Roddenberry's truth. Since I've been out of those groups actively since about 1998 - the last time I got involved in ras*, as the BBS networks were pretty much dead by then - the credibility and accuracy of David Alexander's biography on Gene Roddenberry has come under significant question with regards to some of Gene's business dealings, especially all the controversies that surrounded Gene's involvement with Star Trek - The Next Generation. After managing to track down even the Holy Kolker himself, Rich Kolker, I was able to piece together how the blames and accusations were placed on both David Gerrold's and DC Fontana's collective backs.
In a nutshell, it appears that two particular sources - David Alexander and Richard "Melakon" Arnold - took advantage of the then-relatively new forms of computer networking that Star Trek fans were utilizing with previously unheard of success in keeping literally *millions* rapidly informed of all Trek-related news and events. You'd be surprised how many people from those days I queried for their recollection of their sources went:
- "Hmmm...you know, ISTR that I'd heard that from David [Alexander] at a con..."
- "That schmuck [Richard Arnold] was quoting that as verbatim from Gene to a group of fans at several cons!"
- "Well, you can google the post to see if it's there, but I recall quite correctly that the ultimate source turned out to [Alexander and/or Arnold]."
- "Didn't that get quoted from some 'reliable source' in [insert fanzine and/or "Starlog"]??
- "How *are* David and Phyllis anyway?"
Sadly, the one source I couldn't track down was Tim Lynch, who pretty much sank "Melakon's" career by exposing how he'd sabotaged Peter David's classic run on DC's Star Trek comic book and - thankfully unsuccessfully - tried to prevent the publication of Vendetta and Q-In-Law, although he still managed to damage the Trek licensing franchise so badly that it took *years* to regain any semblance of credibility long after Arnold was ousted the week after Gene's passing in 1991. I'd have loved to have gotten Tim's recollections, not to mention seeing how he's been doing all these years, but suffice to say the consensus of the other "big name fans" and "Big Name Fans" - yes, there's a difference - was enough to give David Gerrold's "side of the story" more than enough credibility.
So David, as I've pointed out in the past, when confronted with the evidence that I'm wrong, I've no problems about admitting said and making apologies if not amends. In fact, it might be time for me personally to drag out Alexander's book and go over it again with a fine-tooth bat'leth and see what else doesn't jive right. Considering I'm doing just that with quite a few biographies of the movers and shakers who made NASA a success during the glory years of the Space Race, I can probably take a little time and throw his book in the grinder as well. A compare and contrast with Joel Engel's book would probably work the best.
One final point that should be made, tho: your mention that the WGA was behind the grievance. Thanks for once again proving my claims that what's screwing up Hollyweird more than anything else is union meddling. Of course, I'll probably get my head handed to me on that one, but it wouldn't be the first time.
On a related side note, I *did* manage to catch JJ Abrams' reimaged Star Trek. I'll have a somewhat late review of the film here in a few days, but for those who pestered the hell out of me during opening week, I'll reiterate what I said then: It works, but there's places where it could have been much better. Again, more on that later next week at the earliest.
Obit: One of the first humans to orbit the Earth, Pavel Popovich, has gone to the true Final Frontier. Popovich, the fourth Russian to go to space, died on Wednesday at a sanatorium. He was 79, five days short of his 80th birthday.
According to Vladimir Kovalenok, the head of the Russian Federation of Cosmonauts:
"Pavel Romanovich Popovich died Wednesday in one of the sanatoriums in Crimea. Now everything is being done to take his body to Moscow...."He was one of the few people who not only had no enemies, but only had friends. With this guy you could go into flames, into water, on an intelligence mission, wherever!"
Popovich is best known for piloting the Vostok 4 probe that in August,1962, took part in the first ever instance of two manned satellites orbiting the earth at the same time, a trip that made him the sixth human in orbit. The other vessel, Vostok 3, was piloted by Andriyan Nikolayev, who himself passed on in 2004. Popovich also took part in a longer 15-day mission as commander of the Soyuz-14 spacecraft in July 1974.
According to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, as well as other online sources, Popovich was born in 1929 in the Kiev region of the Ukraine, and was part of a pioneering team of cosmonauts who were trained to pilot the Vostok craft that were the first manned probes the Soviets sent into space. In a 2002 TASS-ITAR interview, Popovich recalled a mid-orbit conversation with Nikolayev during their landmark double flight, when he operated under the call name "Golden Eagle".
According to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, as well as other online sources, Popovich was born in 1929 in the Kiev region of the Ukraine, and was part of a pioneering team of cosmonauts who were trained to pilot the Vostok craft that were the first manned probes the Soviets sent into space. In a 2002 TASS-ITAR interview, Popovich recalled a mid-orbit conversation with Nikolayev during their landmark double flight, when he operated under the call name "Golden Eagle".
"Andriyan said 'Golden Eagle, Golden Eagle, this is Falcon! Do you hear me?' And I said 'Hello Andriyan! I can not only hear you but I can see you! You are flying by on my right, like a little moon.'"
Although the conversation was recorded, most space history experts agree that neither Popovich nor Nikolayev were in position to see each other when the exchange occurred. Still, Popovich was remembered by his colleagues as a "witty man who loved company, always described himself as the first Ukrainian to go to space." He was in fact the eighth man in space but the sixth man to go into orbit after the first two manned US spaceflights did not go into earth orbit.
Following his Vostok flight, Popovich later took part in the Soviet manned lunar program, which was shut down after failing to beat the US in putting a man on the Moon. For his work with the Soviet space program, he was awarded two Hero of the Soviet Union medals, the Soviet Union's highest honor.
Following his Vostok flight, Popovich later took part in the Soviet manned lunar program, which was shut down after failing to beat the US in putting a man on the Moon. For his work with the Soviet space program, he was awarded two Hero of the Soviet Union medals, the Soviet Union's highest honor.
Popovich's death came the same day as the blast-off of a Russian cosmonaut, a US astronaut and a Canadian clown turned space tourist on a Soyuz rocket on the latest mission for the International Space Station.
Otay, that brings today's OMBlog to a close. But just in case you kids thought I'd forgotten, here's your Wikilink of the Day:
Once adversaries, and now friends. Fly straight and true, sir!
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