I'm actually split. Overall, as I said in my earlier post, I like the original. But the version that aired made a better "Star Trek" episode. I understand why the producers chose to change it. Both versions did win awards. The original doesn't really have a Star Trek feel to it. The principals of the story don't act in character, which I think was the point Harlan Ellison was trying to make. In the Ellison version Kirk was willing to sacrifice his crew and ship for love. It was actually Beckwith that tires to save Edith, not Kirk. We all know Kirk would never do that.
I do like the Jewels of Sound aspect of the original plot. It is a better explanation than having McCoy accidentally inject himself with a drug and causes him to change time. Lieutenant Richard Beckwith deals in the drug Jewels of Sound which kills a crewmember. As his punishment, the Captain and crew take him to a planet to execute him, but he escapes through throught the time vortex. I like that the Guardians of Forever are a group of nine foot tall aliens and not vortex itself.
It's those things that make it more of a science fiction story to me. Perhaps they could have incorporated the aspects of both stories better.
