{"id":181705,"date":"2016-04-09T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/04\/09\/asshole-of-the-day\/"},"modified":"2016-04-09T18:51:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T23:51:00","slug":"asshole-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/04\/09\/asshole-of-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Asshole of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Broadcast System<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For \u201cStar Trek\u201d fans it was like finding a lost Shakespeare play \u2014 only to have it snatched away by the playwright\u2019s heirs.<\/span>

<\/span>Last fall an unused script for the cult 1960s television show turned up after being forgotten for years. Its author, the science-fiction writer Norman Spinrad, announced that it would become an episode of a popular Web series, \u201cStar Trek New Voyages: Phase II,\u201d which features amateur actors in the classic roles of Capt. James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and other crew members of the starship Enterprise.<\/span>

<\/span>But then another player stepped in: CBS, which said it owned the script and blocked a planned Web production of it. Trekkies were appalled. \u201cThese executives should be phasered on heavy stun,\u201d said Harmon Fields of Manhattan, who called himself \u201ca \u2018Star Trek\u2019 fan of galactic proportions.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>The story begins in 1967, after Mr. Spinrad wrote an acclaimed episode of the original series, \u201cThe Doomsday Machine.\u201d \u201cI did \u2018The Doomsday Machine\u2019 fast,\u201d Mr. Spinrad, 71, said by phone from his home in Greenwich Village, \u201cand then they said: \u2018We\u2019re in a hole. Can you write something in four days?\u2019 \u201d<\/span>

<\/span>The result was \u201cHe Walked Among Us,\u201d which the producers envisioned as a dramatic vehicle for the comedian Milton Berle. His character is a well-meaning but messianic sociologist whose conduct threatens to destroy the planet Jugal. The crew of the Enterprise must remove him without disrupting the normal development of the culture.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Mr. Spinrad soon donated his sole copy of \u201cHe Walked Among Us\u201d and other papers to California State University, Fullerton. With several other drafts of the script, it lay in the archives for decades. Sharon Perry, the university\u2019s archivist and special collections librarian, said she had received only one inquiry about \u201cHe Walked Among Us\u201d in her 27 years there.<\/span>

<\/span>But in October, at the annual New York City Collectible Paperback and Pulp Fiction Expo, a man seeking Mr. Spinrad\u2019s autograph showed up with a copy of the script, which he said he found at another convention. A few months later Mr. Spinrad began selling the script on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com, and the producers of \u201cStar Trek New Voyages: Phase II\u201d learned of it.<\/span>

<\/span>Based in Ticonderoga, N.Y., \u201cPhase II\u201d is one of numerous fan-generated \u201cStar Trek\u201d Internet series, this one named for \u201cStar Trek Phase II,\u201d Mr. Roddenberry\u2019s failed 1977 attempt to revive his creation for television. This Web series is distinguished by its fidelity to the original\u2019s sets, costumes, props, music and other elements, as well as appearances by some original cast members and new stories by writers like Ms. Fontana.<\/span>

<\/span>Over the years CBS gained the television, online and merchandising rights to \u201cStar Trek.\u201d But because the \u201cPhase II\u201d cast and crew make no money from their work, the network usually allows them to indulge their hobby.<\/span>

<\/span>Around the time Mr. Spinrad offered \u201cHe Walked Among Us\u201d online (confusingly he published an unrelated novel with the same title in 2010) he arranged with the \u201cPhase II\u201d senior executive producer, James Cawley, who also portrays Captain Kirk, to film it. The writer said he was \u201cblown away\u201d by the series and planned to direct the episode himself next fall.<\/span>

<\/span>But this month, Mr. Cawley said, CBS asked him in an e-mail to cease and desist. CBS also contacted Mr. Spinrad, who withdrew \u201cHe Walked Among Us\u201d from the Internet.<\/span>

<\/span>The network said it was now \u201cconsidering opportunities to offer licensed copies of the work.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

F%$# CBS.<\/p>\n

Without lube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Broadcast System: For \u201cStar Trek\u201d fans it was like finding a lost Shakespeare play \u2014 only to have it snatched away by the playwright\u2019s heirs.Last fall an unused script for the cult 1960s television show turned up after being forgotten for years. Its author, the science-fiction writer Norman Spinrad, announced that it would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1134,1065,1109,1064,1171,1077],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","category-entertainment","category-ip","category-media","category-science-fiction","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}