TOS 3 - what happened to Gene Coon?

I just finished watching TOS season 3. Gene Coon's name has
disappeared from the end credits & replaced by Fred Freiberger. What
happened to Coon? Died? Fired?

Graeme...

Yeah. And Smith as the on again off again green haired superman.

deeeeeep hurting.

LOST IN SPACE meets "The Most Dangerous Game." (Everyone did a "Most
Dangerous Game" story back then--including GET SMART, which I remember
since it's my favorite GS.)

LindaY...

Yes!

I'm also fond of "The Haunted Lightship" although that kid who played
J5 was really strange...

I forget...which is the ep with Michael J. Pollard?

too, he finished those scripts under his Lee Cronin pen name.

Unfortunately, there was a reason those stories had been left in the
files rather than being written before. They weren't that good. Let
That Be Your Last Battlefield had been languishing since Season 1
because it didn't have enough action in it. It didn't when they made
it either. Spock's Brain might have worked if it had been an overt
comedy as Coon had intended, but Freiburger tried to do it straight.
Spectre of the Gun, well, the less said about the better. Wink of an

wdstarr...

I think "Spectre of the Gun" actually worked. It had a nice
dreamscape quality to it, yet the underlying premise made some
degree of sense.

Eye may have been the best, despite the bad science, but it was spoiled
by all the timing being wrong. Scotty is stuck in the doorway for half
the episode while things go on around him in other places.

Captain Infinity...

Well how do you know if, in real time, Scotty wasn't just goofing off
and loitering in the doorway? The man had weird hobbies: reading
technical manuals for fun, drinking mysterious green liquids without
knowing what they were, etc. Maybe loitering in doorways was one of his
habits?

**
Captain Infinity

GeneK...

Some of GR's original staff saw the handwriting on the wall in
Season 3, and backed off from the series and started working
on new projects the same way GR did. He became the producer
for another series ("It Takes a Thief"). Coon is credited for
writing several season 3 episodes under the name "Lee Cronin."
I've not seen any articles or interviews on why he adopted that
name, but since he had writer credits under his own name during
the first two seasons, my guess is that he wrote the Cronin eps
before Frieberger took over and didn't want his name on them
as finally produced.

Graeme...

No, it was a contractual thing. While under contract to one place he
wasn't allowed to work for another. So, while he was contracted to
Trek, Lee Cronin moonlighted elsewhere. When he went to his next job,
Gene Coon moved on, and Lee Cronin came to Trek.

GeneK...

So, not having "Gene L. Coon" on these episodes was just one
of those cases where necessity produced happier results... :)

Coon worked with GR again in '73, when he wrote the script for
"The Questor Tapes." He died in '74

Graeme...

Coon worked himself nearly to a nervous breakdown on Trek. He moved on
for health reasons. In exchange for letting him out of his contract,
he agreed to finish some half developed script ideas he'd left in the
files in Season 3. Since his new job didn't allow him to work for Trek
too, he finished those scripts under his Lee Cronin pen name.

Unfortunately, there was a reason those stories had been left in the
files rather than being written before. They weren't that good. Let
That Be Your Last Battlefield had been languishing since Season 1
because it didn't have enough action in it. It didn't when they made
it either. Spock's Brain might have worked if it had been an overt
comedy as Coon had intended, but Freiburger tried to do it straight.
Spectre of the Gun, well, the less said about the better. Wink of an

SparkoHeaps...

Nonetheless, here is what I have to say about it:

The sparse sets, the red background, and the understated spooky music
gave the episode a pleasantly surrealistic atmosphere.

Steven L....

I liked it too. The sparse sets and other weirdness reminded me of
several Twilight Zone episodes, and I was always a fan of TZ too. When
the landing party first materialized in the Tombstone town, you could
almost imagine Rod Serling stepping in to do his usual introductory
narration at that point.

I found the Chekov sup-plot amusing rather than annoying. YMMV.

The Earps were appropriately cold blooded and not quite there. I love
the way they randomly changed their line-up as they approached the OK
Corral. Both elements contributed to the surrealism.

Scotty's reaction to the whiskey was a fun addition.

Outside of The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web, Day of the Dove,
Is There in Truth No Beauty, and All Our Yesterdays, it was probably my
favorite 3rd season episode.

Wink of an

Yes, it is best not to think too hard about the technical details.

Deela was ravishing. Her fights with her husband were entertaining as
well as a little bit touching. I loved the way Kirk played her. I
wonder how much of this stuff actually came from Gene.