TVSquad

You have to admire the tenacity of writer Harlan Ellison. He filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount accusing the company of not paying him for all the ancillary income the company earned from the episode of Star Trek he wrote in 1967, "City on the Edge of Forever." Yesterday, Ellison announced on his web site that he had settled with CBS Paramount and he was very, very pleased. He didn't reveal how much money he made, but he probably did quite well.

After all, CBS Paramount has done very, very well with that original Star Trek episode. It's regarded as -- and is -- the all-time best show in the entire original ST canon. Ironically, Ellison never liked what Roddenberry and company had done with his script.

ABC certainly doesn't seem to be making the same mistakes as it did early this century when it relied on only one show (Who Wants to be a Millionaire) to carry its entire programming schedule. In other words, it's not counting on the successes of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy to carry the the whole network. So, only does it have a full slate of new series to try out on the public, but it is also experimenting with a few concepts that haven't been seen in awhile.

One of these is a new anthology series named Masters of Science Fiction. Created by IDT Entertainment, the same people who gave us Showtime's Masters of Horror, the six episode series will feature adaptations of stories from acclaimed science fiction writers such as Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein and Robert Sheckley. Each episode will be introduced by physicist, author, and recurring actor on The Simpsons Stephen Hawking.

A number of actors from current and new ABC series will be cast in this anthology. This includes Anne Heche from the upcoming series Men in Trees, Terry O'Quinn from Lost, and Desperate Housewives' James Denton. Also appearing will be Sam Waterson (Law & Order), Elisabeth Rohm (Angel), Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), and Macolm McDowell.