Despite franchise fatigue, older Star Trek shows have a high degree of original plots. Minimal use of Recycled Plots.

[Returnee BBS]

There is a minimal reuse of Recycled Plots - the Recycled Script Trope.

The eras of Roddenberry Trek and Berman Trek produced 703 episodes in live action series: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT.

Of these 703 episodes, up to 630 episodes are original plot episodes. That's 89%.

Of these 703 episodes, a minimum of 73 episodes have been suggested to be recycled script episodes. That's 11%. The exact episodes have been discussed on Memory Alpha, the TV Tropes website, Jammer's Reviews, the Reactor Mag website, other episode review blogs, as well as Trek BBS and other online forums.

Of the 73 recycled script episodes, 28 are better than the original ones.

The following is a tally from those aforementioned opinions. They are not my own.

Star Trek: The Original Series has 4 recycled script episodes out of 79. 5.1% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: The Next Generation has 13 recycled script episodes out of 176. 7.4% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has 8 recycled script episodes out of 176 4.5% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Voyager has at least 32 recycled script episodes / copycats out of 172. At least 18.6% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Enterprise has at least 16 recycled script episodes / copycats out of 98. At least 16.3% of its episodes are recycled plots.

 

[Gratty]

Found it! Thanks.

I have lots of thoughts. I'll take some time.

My first reaction is that it's true in most storytelling that ideas get recycled - and that's not a bad thing.

We keep telling the same stories over and over again, even in different forms, because we like them.

I mean the big "We" and stories in general - not just Trek.

More later.

cheers

 

[Tosk]

I'd have more to say if I knew which episodes were on what lists and so on.

So for now I'll just say that it all depends on how and how well you re-tell a story.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Indeed. I’m incredibly dubious of the data to be honest. It looks like something AI has scratched together and I know how reliable that is.

 

[Gratty]

Numbers be damned!

Let's talk stories!

"The Changeling" and TMP

Horatio Hornblower

"The Apple" and well, duh, the Bible, fer cryin' out loud (like I said, stories keep getting told over and over)

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Hide And Q"

"The Enemy Within" and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. And let's not forget the ancient Prometheus.

"The Conscience Of The King" and, wait.. what's that guy's name? Oh right: William Shakespeare.

That should get some stuff going. And we're barely halfway through the first season.

Cheers

PS maybe one of the "recycled" scripts was TNG's "The Child," which was originally written for the eventually-abandoned Star Trek Phase II TV project. "The Child" is also very similar to the Space: 1999 episode "The Alpha Child," both of which featured a woman being impregnated in a magical way. Where has that story been told before?

 

[Gratty]

Here's a number that has very little if anything to do with this thread, but somebody said numbers.

I counted the number of "romantic encounters," shall we say, that Kirk had in TOS. I wanted to test the general idea that Kirk was so renowned in real-life pop culture terms as such a lothario.

I'm pretty sure I came up with 12 out of the original 79, or about 15%.

I'll hafta check my facts again. I did the count above back around 1990. Going on memory.

Anyway I think the Fonz probably did better than 15%.

Kirk still rules of course. What do numbers mean?

 

[Quinton]

This looks like an AI made something up and churned it out — could we have further clarification? Which episodes count per each show?

 

[Returnee BBS]

I'd have more to say if I knew which episodes were on what lists and so on.

So for now I'll just say that it all depends on how and how well you re-tell a story.

I'll start off with TOS, TNG, and DS9.

TOS

TOS 2-5 The Apple
From TOS 1-21 The Return of the Archons

TOS 2-18 The Immunity Syndrome
From TOS 2-06 The Doomsday Machine

TOS 2-24 The Ultimate Computer
From TOS 2-3 The Changeling

TOS 2-25 Bread and Circuses
From TOS 2-23 The Omega Glory
Better than Original

TNG

TNG 1-3 The Naked Now
From TOS 1-4 The Naked Time

TNG 1-4 Code of Honor
From TOS 2-1 Amok Time

TNG 1-5 The Last Outpost
From TOS 1-18 Arena

TNG 1-10 Hide and Q
From TOS 1-17 The Squire of Gothos

TNG 1-12 The Big Goodbye
From TOS 2-17 A Piece of the Action
Better than Original

TNG 1-18 Home Soil
From TOS 1-25 The Devil in the Dark

TNG 2-7 Unnatural Selection
From TOS 2-12 The Deadly Years

TNG 4-21 The Drumhead
From TOS 1-20 Court Martial
Better than Original

TNG 5-14 Conundrum
From TNG 4-14 Clues
Better than Original

TNG 5-18 Cause and Effect
From TNG 2-13 Time Squared
Better than Original

TNG 5-21 The Perfect Mate
From TOS 3-13 Elaan of Troyius
Better than Original

TNG 5-25 The Inner Light
From TOS 3-3 The Paradise Syndrome
Better than Original

TNG 6-9 The Quality of Life
From TNG 3-1 Evolution

DS9

DS9 1-15 Progress
From TNG 3-02 The Ensigns of Command

DS9 3-5 Second Skin
From TNG 6-14 Face of the Enemy

DS9 3-9 Defiant
From TNG 4-12 The Wounded
Better than Original

DS9 3-10 Fascination
From TOS 1-4 The Naked Time

DS9 4-3 The Visitor
From TNG 7-21 Firstborn
Better than Original

DS9 4-18 Rules of Engagement
From TOS 1-20 Court Martial
Better than Original

DS9 5-05 The Assignment
From TNG 5-15 Power Play

DS9 6-25 The Sound of Her Voice
From VOY 1-7 Eye of the Needle (the VOY episode was produced first)
Better than Original

 

[AntonyF]

"Despite franchise fatigue, older Star Trek shows have a high degree of original plots."

That is such a non sequitur.

Also I think the data is fraught with issues, as people will disagree entirely what is and isn't derivative. And just because it's a similar story doesn't mean it's recycled.

 

[Tosk]

Holy cow, a bunch of those are a real stretch to call recycled plots. Sure, they may share one key similarity, but that's not the same thing as recycling a plot.

Turns out the only "more to say" I would have though is to disagree with a bunch of them.

Edit: I do thank you for the list though!!

 

[F. King Daniel]

While the OP does have that air of AI written aggregator website spam about them, I will say that Strange New Worlds (and The Orville, for that matter) seem to pull random past-Trek plot-point balls from a tumbler to contruct their episodes. I'm not sure they have done anything that hasn't happened in some close form before.

But with like 900+ episodes, perhaps running out of new ideas was inevitable.

That said, I don't they've done the kind of staight-up remakes that TNG to ENT did.

 

[Returnee BBS]

This looks like an AI made something up and churned it out — could we have further clarification? Which episodes count per each show?

Like I said, I went through each of the websites manually, and used no AI.

Here's the Voyager tally:

VOY

VOY 1-4 Time and Again
From TOS 3-23 All Our Yesterdays

VOY 1-5 Phage
From TOS 3-1 Spock's Brain
Better than the Original

VOY 1-8 Ex Post Facto
From TNG 3-14 A Matter of Perspective

VOY 1-14 Faces
From TOS 1-5 The Enemy Within

VOY 2-03 Projections
From TNG 6-21 Frame of Mind

VOY 2-13 Prototype
From TOS 2-8 I, Mudd

VOY 2-17 Dreadnought
From TOS 2-24 The Ultimate Computer

VOY 2-18 Death Wish
From TNG 4-13 Devil's Due
Better than the Original

VOY 2-23 The Thaw
From DS9 1-10 Move Along Home
Better than the Original

VOY 3-10 Warlord
From DS9 1-9 The Passenger
Better than the Original

VOY 3-12 Macrocosm
From TNG 6-18 Starship Mine

VOY 3-15 Coda
From TNG 5-24 The Next Phase

VOY 3-16 Blood Fever
From TOS 2-1 Amok Time

VOY 3-20 Favorite Son
From TNG 4-18 Identity Crisis

VOY 3-22 Real Life
From TNG 3-16 The Offspring

VOY 4-7 Scientific Method
From TNG 6-5 Schisms

VOY 5-8 Nothing Human
From TNG 5-16 Ethics

VOY 5-14 Bliss
From TNG 2-2 Where Silence Has Lease
Better than the Original

VOY 5-22 Someone to Watch Over Me
From DS9 6-20 His Way
Better than the Original

VOY 5-23 11:59
From DS9 6-13 Far Beyond the Stars

VOY 5-25 Warhead
From TOS 2-3 The Changeling

VOY 6-4 Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy
From TNG 3-21 Hollow Pursuits
Better than the Original

VOY 6-07 Dragon's Teeth
From TOS 1-24 Space Seed
Better than the Original

VOY 6-12 Blink of an Eye
From TOS 3-11 Wink of an Eye
Better than Original

VOY 6-14 Memorial
From VOY 3-6 Remember
(VOY copied itself here)

VOY 6-20 Good Shepherd
From TNG 7-15 Lower Decks

VOY 6-25 The Haunting of Deck Twelve
From TNG 1-07 Lonely Among Us

VOY 7-11 Shattered
From TNG 7-26 All Good Things... Part II

VOY 7-15 The Void
From VOY 5-1 Night
(VOY copied itself here)
Better than the Original

VOY 7-18 Human Error
From TNG 3-21 Hollow Pursuits

VOY 7-19 Q2
From TNG 3-13 Deja Q

VOY 7-20 Author, Author
From TNG 2-9 The Measure of a Man

 

[Richard S. Ta]

What does all of this prove? Why does it matter?

 

[Mudd]

There is a minimal reuse of Recycled Plots - the Recycled Script Trope.

The eras of Roddenberry Trek and Berman Trek produced 703 episodes in live action series: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT.

Of these 703 episodes, up to 630 episodes are original plot episodes. That's 89%.

Of these 703 episodes, a minimum of 73 episodes have been suggested to be recycled script episodes. That's 11%. The exact episodes have been discussed on Memory Alpha, the TV Tropes website, Jammer's Reviews, the Reactor Mag website, other episode review blogs, as well as Trek BBS and other online forums.

Of the 73 recycled script episodes, 28 are better than the original ones.

The following is a tally from those aforementioned opinions. They are not my own.

Star Trek: The Original Series has 4 recycled script episodes out of 79. 5.1% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: The Next Generation has 13 recycled script episodes out of 176. 7.4% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has 8 recycled script episodes out of 176 4.5% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Voyager has at least 32 recycled script episodes / copycats out of 172. At least 18.6% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Star Trek: Enterprise has at least 16 recycled script episodes / copycats out of 98. At least 16.3% of its episodes are recycled plots.

Gonna need real citations for all of this.

As is, it reads as a collection of personal opinions with guesstimate "percentages" pulled out of the aether.

 

[Fire(BOO!)]

BREAKING: TV show on production grind of putting out an episode every other week in a calendar year has to dig back into the coffers and file off the serial numbers to avoid shutting down production.

Film at 11.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

What does all of this prove? Why does it matter?

I think the point is that ST has an amazingly high level of diversity and originality in stories, and an amazingly low level of repeating itself.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think the point is that ST has an amazingly high level of diversity and originality in stories, and an amazingly low level of repeating itself.

Oh, okay.

So now what?

 

[Mudd]

I think the point is that ST has an amazingly high level of diversity and originality in stories, and an amazingly low level of repeating itself.

Yeah, I don't think so.

But that's all this is - a difference of opinion and taste. With dodgy "statistics" added to the mix.

 

[Canonical Continuity]

"The Ultimate Computer" and "The Changeling" do not qualify as one reusing the plot of the other.

If one were being overly reductive, I can see how one might come to that incorrect conclusion, though.

 

[1001001]

As is, it reads as a collection of personal opinions with guesstimate "percentages" pulled out of the aether.

Yes, it does.