By James H. Burns: A few months ago, when Lou Scheimer, co-founder of Filmation Associates, died, I mentioned the tale, in passing, of when I first met Lou and his partner, Norm Prescott, at their Los Angeles office. Norm was trying to get Harlan Ellison interested in one of their series, and it was around that time, roughly, that it was announced that he was writing a feature length script for the studio… Seven Worlds, Seven Warriors was to have been a science fiction take on The Magnificent Seven…

A quality live action movie either on prime time or in the theatres could seriously have changed the fate of the plucky studio. What I didn’t know, sillily, was that just last summer DC Comics released Seven Against Chaos, a graphic novel from Ellison and the estimable Paul Chadwick.

Nowhere on the net, though, can I find mention of the seeming Filmation connection, and origins.

One blurb does mention that the plot contains some of Ellison’s pitch for the very first Star Trek movie: a scenario in which "contemporary" 23rd century life shows signs of falling apart (literally) as an AMPHIBIOUS race challenges the evolution that gave Earth to the mammalians. (Perhaps Jon Pertwee would have made a cameo?)  I don't know if the Trek-pitch elements were always a part of the Filmation project -- which might have made it even more interesting to have seen in the late 1970s/early '80s -- or if the DC volume has a different provenance entirely.... But certainly, a curiosity!