Compiled by Carl Slaughter:

• The politics of Doctor Who

• Bradbury and The Twilight Zone

Marc Zicree claims Ray Bradbury gave him an exclusive on Bradbury’s falling out with Rod Serling. Zicree also makes a good case that without Bradbury’s proteges, The Twilight Zone would not have been as successful.

More items follow the jump.

• Rod Serling Interviews

In this 1958 interview with Mike Wallace, on the verge of launching The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling talks about censorship versus creativity, commercial storytelling versus artistic storytelling, entertainment versus social commentary, financial success versus professional satisfaction, family versus career.  He identified television as his natural and chosen medium, not movies, plays, or novels.  “In 11-12 years of writing, I can lay claim to this:  I have never written beneath myself.  I have never written anything that I didn’t want my name attached to.”  Also, a 1970 interview in which Serling clarifies that he could portray science fiction, but could not write it.

• Inspirational Roddenberry

Beginning at 17 minutes and 30 seconds is Gene Roddenberry’s most inspiring monologue.

• Star Trek sued over plagiarism

“Tardigrades Dev Suing CBS for Star Trek: Discovery Plagiarism” at One Angry Gamer

Indie developer Anas Abdin made a  blog post on August 21st, 2018, citing that he would be filing a lawsuit against CBS to sue them for plagiarizing his indie project Tardigrades, which he alleges CBS ripped off of for the 2017 streaming show Star Trek: Discovery.

• Les Moonves and behind-the-scenes Star Trek controversies

• Christopher Nolan interview

“Christopher Nolan says his Batman, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s heroes, doesn’t play well with others” in the LA Times

Chris, this summer, “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” signaled the true start of the “crossover era” in comic-book films with Marvel Studios putting an emphasis on the fact that their heroes coexist in the same world. DC and Warner Bros. may embrace a similar strategy, especially if the Justice League film project is revived. Does that concern you? Your Gotham doesn’t seem suited to that.

I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization. It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist? If you think of “Batman Begins” and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position — we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically — that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol. It’s a paradox and a conundrum, but what we did is go back to the very original concept and idea of the character. In his first appearances, he invents himself as a totally original creation.