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Harlan Ellison (1934-), Speculative Fiction Writer, Best Known for Televised Adaptions of His Work


DonRocks

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I'm not quite sure what the difference is between speculative fictionscience fiction, and pulp, but Harlan Ellison appears to have blurred the lines between the three genres.

Ellison, a supposedly cantankerous man of 84, is most famous for having written stories which became notable on television - for example, "The City on the Edge of Forever" on "Star Trek."

One of the reasons he got to write this story was because Ellison had just won the 1965 Writers Guild of America award for "Outstanding Script for a Television Anthology" for "Demon with a Glass Hand," (a second-season episode of "The Outer Limits" starring Robert Culp and Arlene Martel  (who went on to play T'Pring on "Star Trek")).

I've been slowly winding my way through "The Outer Limits," and "Demon with a Glass Hand" is absolutely the best I've seen so far (it's Season 2, Episode 5) - Harlan Ellison actually sued James Cameron (of "The Terminator" fame), and won an unspecified amount out of court - his name is apparently also in the credits of the original Terminator film (and if you watch this episode, you'll see why, hint hint). TV Guide ranked this #73 in their 2009 list of "100 Greatest TV Episodes," hint hint, although you need to keep in mind that this was a weekly series, and costs were limited to less than $100,000 per episode (the enemy species looked liked divers in wet suits), but all-told, the special effects were pretty darned good for a weekly TV series from 1965, especially The Hand - and Robert Culp was *perfect* in his role (the story was actually written with Culp in mind).

Click on Harlan Ellison and read through his Wikipedia entry - his background is quite impressive.

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Speculative fiction-  thinks about technology we currently have and projects into the future.  Ie:  we can screw around with DNA and genomes, so what happens next.  Margaret Atwood is a good example of a speculative fiction writer.

Science fiction- thinks about technology we don't currently have.  ie: warp drive, time travel, etc.

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