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Episodes resembling other shows

M

MAGolding

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
I watched :The Alternative Factor" on March 15, 2022.

And that started me thinking about Star Trek episodes which resemble other tv episodes or movies.

The way one Lazarus was shown being replaced by the other Lazarus several times seemed familiar. The spinning rectangles reminded me of the spinning newspapters used to show the passage of time in old movies, and the superimposed imageof the Triffid Nebula (also known as Messier 20 and as NGC 6514) reminded me of some scenes in some episodes of The Outer Limits (1963-65)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_Nebula

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outer_Limits_(1963_TV_series)

And I guess that there are scenes and entire episodes of Star Trek which remind people of other movies and tv shows.

An example from another show is the Doctor Who serial "The Keeper of Traken" from 31 January to 21 February 1981.

Thee is something about the syle of "The Keeper of Traken" that reminds me of my dim memories of the Shirley Temple Storybook episode "the Terrible Clockman", January 29, 1961, based on a story by Jules Verne.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0699636/

And some plot elements seem to be inspired by the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Flight of the War Witch" March 27, 1980.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0533100/?ref_=ttep_ep21

And I get the impression that one of the creators read the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.

So can you think of movies and tv shows that various Star Trek episodes remind you of?
 
Are we speaking of influences, coincidences, prior to, thereafter . . . ? I mean, Elaan of Troyius is a fairly obvious nod to The Taming of the Shrew, for example (and The Iliad), but I get the impression that's not what you had in mind.

What's the Silmarillion's influence on The Alternative Factor that you perceived? Two figures battling each other for eternity?
 
Smallville's "Onyx" is a very obvious riff on "The Enemy Within"

Trek has inspired so much... is any show that has an evil mirror universe a nod to "Mirror, Mirrror"?
 
Phaser Two said:
Are we speaking of influences, coincidences, prior to, thereafter . . . ? I mean, Elaan of Troyius is a fairly obvious nod to The Taming of the Shrew, for example (and The Iliad), but I get the impression that's not what you had in mind.

What's the Silmarillion's influence on The Alternative Factor that you perceived? Two figures battling each other for eternity?
Click to expand...

Melkor and Melkur have similar roles.
 
I'm confused...while J.R.R. Tolkien was writing various versions of what became The Silmarillion since 1917, the book itself (assembled and edited by his son Christopher) wasn't published until 1977.
 
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mb22 said:
I'm confused...while J.R.R. Tolkien was writing various versions of what became The Silmarillion since 1917, the book itself (assembled and edited by his son Christopher) by wasn't published until 1977.
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There seems to be a problem with reading comments.

In my post nuumber 1, I was writing about resemblences between "the Keeper of traken" and other shows, not "The Alternative Factor." when I wrote: [

QUOTE]And I get the impression that one of the creators read the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. [/QUOTE].

You failed to notice that. And in turn when you wrote:

What's the Silmarillion's influence on The Alternative Factor that you perceived? Two figures battling each other for eternity?
Click to expand...

In post number 2, I failed to notice that you were writing about "The Alternative Factor" instead of "The Keeper of Traken".
 
Episodes resembling other shows
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Assignment Earth episode which was a back door pilot for a possible spin-off.
Gary 7 seemed somewhat Trek's take on a Dr. Who type.(although maybe crossed with James Bond)

Had a hidden time-dimension portal, their mission
At first unwitting companion in Teri Garr.
Even had his own multi purpose tool sonic-screwdriver/servo-pen.
539mz2.gif

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Not a specific episode, just somewhat conceptual similarities.
It's hard to say if the similarities were intentional, or if it's just a great coincidence.
 
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MAGolding said:
Star Trek episodes which resemble other tv episodes or movies.
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The Galileo Seven apparently loosely inspired by Five Came Back
Particularity the dynamic of how structure of command is defined, "choosing" who would be left behind, vs will be rescued, etc.
Regardless of the Trek and Lucile Ball connection, still if you haven't seen it, terrific under-appreciated movie worth seeing.
 
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"The Alternative Factor" (March 30, 1967) and "Mirror, Mirror" (October 6, 1967) also have some similarities to the Lost in Space episode "The Magic Mirror" (February 16, 1966), which was also set in an alternate universe or a pocket dimension.

And in turn the Lost in Space episode "The Anti-Matter Man" (December 27, 1967) also had some similarities to the TOS episodes "The Alternative Factor" (March 30, 1967) and "Mirror, Mirror" (October 6, 1967) since it involved an antimatter unverse and people in one universe who were doubles with opposite personalities to their selves in the other universe.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" (April 6, 1967) had a scene that sort of reminds me of the series The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). When the landing party learns that the Enterprise, Starfleet, and the Federation no longer exist, Kirk looks up at the sky and the camera pans upward to reveal a dark and starry sky. And that reminds me of the opening and closing segments of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) showing a black sky with stars.

(And I wonder if the makers of TOS-R were tempted to put in Romlan and Klingon ships battling for control of the galaxy in that scene).

And the final battle between the Enterprise and Apollo in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" sort of reminds me of the battles between the Mysterian base and the Earth forces in The Mysterians (1957).
 
Phaser Two said:
...What's the Silmarillion's influence on The Alternative Factor that you perceived? Two figures battling each other for eternity?
Click to expand...

We have now established in previous posts that I was not referring to similarities between the Silmarillion and "The Alternative Factor" but similarities between the Silmarillion and "The Keepr of Traken". But your comment about two figures battling each other for eternity reminded men of something. So I wonder if any of the science fiction reading creators of TOS in general and "The Alternative Factor" in particular had ever read the Philip K. Dick novel.The Cosmic Puppets (1957) which has a scene with a vision of two gigantic figures locked in eternal battle, one fighting for good and one fighting for evil.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2504
 
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MAGolding said:
There seems to be a problem with reading comments.

In my post nuumber 1, I was writing about resemblences between "the Keeper of traken" and other shows, not "The Alternative Factor." when I wrote:

You failed to notice that. And in turn when you wrote:



In post number 2, I failed to notice that you were writing about "The Alternative Factor" instead of "The Keeper of Traken".
Click to expand...

He didn't write the question about the Silmarillion and The Alternative Factor, I did - and I also asked whether you were looking for coincidences, present, past, future, etc. I knew that the Alternative Factor writers couldn't have had access to the Silmarillion. I should have asked, "What similarity did you see between the two?" rather than use the word "influence," which implied a direct borrowing from the Silmarillion by the Alternative Factor writers. Sorry for that confusion. But now it looks like you were talking about the Traken episode of Doctor Who. Is that right before I comment further?
 
Balance of Terror reminds me of something else. Can't quite put my finger on it.

OH, I remember. The Wackiest Ship in the Army. No wait, that's not it.

It'll come to me...
 
Phaser Two said:
He didn't write the question about the Silmarillion and The Alternative Factor, I did - and I also asked whether you were looking for coincidences, present, past, future, etc. I knew that the Alternative Factor writers couldn't have had access to the Silmarillion. I should have asked, "What similarity did you see between the two?" rather than use the word "influence," which implied a direct borrowing from the Silmarillion by the Alternative Factor writers. Sorry for that confusion. But now it looks like you were talking about the Traken episode of Doctor Who. Is that right before I comment further?
Click to expand...

Yes I was writing about a certain pssible influence of the Silmarillion on "The Keeper of Traken".
 
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