Dr. Seuss published over 60 children’s picture books in his lifetime, from “The Cat in the Hat” to “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” The last one he lived to see hit bookshelves was 1990’s “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.” Written in second person, the book depicts a young child on a journey through Seuss’ trademark storybook surrealism. They’ve got no destination in mind, other than one step ahead.
It’s, of course, a book encouraging children to live life to its fullest (“Step with care and great tact and remember that life’s a great balancing act”). How the narrator pushes the reader to get out and see the world makes it a fitting closing chapter to Seuss’ career. There’s a film based on “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” in the works, but with its lack of conventional narrative and reliance on narration, it feels like an odd choice for a film. That’s not to say no-one has ever tried to adapt “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” before.
Enter “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go,” a “Star Trek”-themed parody of the original book. The title, of course, refers to the opening narration of “Star Trek,” which famously touts Starfleet’s mission, “To boldly go where no man has gone before.” The composition of Seuss’ illustrations are preserved but give “Star Trek” details. For example, one page parodies the scene in “The Grinch” where all the Whos hold hands, only in this drawing, the Whos are all “Star Trek: The Original Series” characters:
ComicMix
The parody book was written by an actual “Star Trek” writer: David Gerrold, writer of “The Trouble With Tribbles” (an episode famous enough to be parodied on “Futurama”). The illustrations came from artist Ty Templeton, and the book was to be published by ComicMix with a crowdfunding campaign from KickStarter. That is, until Dr. Seuss Enterprises got wind of it.
The Star Trek/Dr. Seuss book that was never published
ComicMix first launched the crowdfunding campaign for “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go” in 2016. Dr. Seuss Enterprises (the media company that owns rights to the books) sued them for copyright infringement shortly after. It’s worth noting that Seuss’ estate, including his widow Audrey Giesel (who passed in 2018) have proven protective of his work and adaptations of it. 2003’s “The Cat in the Hat” was the last live-action Seuss movie because Giesel was so appalled by it that she forbade anymore stains on her husband’s legacy.
As with most lawsuits, the case went through rounds of appeal. A judge initially ruled in 2019 that the book was protected by fair use law. But the plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals’ 9th Circuit, who found in 2020 that the book was not protected on fair use grounds after all. “The court concluded that ‘Boldly’ did not critique or comment on ‘Go!’ as a parody would; rather, ‘Boldly’ mimicked ‘Go!’ and paralleled ‘Go!’s’ purpose,” as a memo from the U.S. copyright Office put it.
From there, the parties settled the case in 2021, with the agreement barring “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go” from being sold. There was another reason ComicMix decided not to press on: Ty Templeton was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer (which he announced in June 2021 on his blog with an issue of his “Buns Toon” webcomic) and in no condition to continue the lawsuit.
Fortunately, Templeton has since made a full recovery, confirming he was cancer-free in October 2022 with another edition of the comic. “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go” may have been put on the backburner, but every comic fan should be grateful that Ty Templeton can keep taking us to wondrous places the way Dr. Seuss did.
