Interesting article about Scifi shows that were inspired by Doctor Who

[Marc]

Re: Interesting article about Scifi shows that were inspired by Doctor

^Well, sure, but what I mean is that it was Douglas Adams adapting the scripts that he himself wrote for Doctor Who when he was its story editor -- although "City of Death" was actually a David Fisher story heavily rewritten by Adams and producer Graham Williams, and aired under the BBC house pseudonym David Agnew. Adapting ideas that he came up with in the first place isn't "influence" in the same way that drawing on other people's ideas would be.

I thought you meant adapting general story ideas or concepts. Taking a general idea that was intended for a particular venue (even if it's your own idea) and retaining the overall tone or theme while working it into a different setting with different characters and presumably a different plot ... well, that seems to fit the definition of "emulating" the source ... or almost fits it.

The original BSG emulates much of the style and tone of "Star Wars". We'd likely still say that even if Glen Larson had his inspiration from working under George Lucas.

Likely. Possibly. Perhaps. Maybe.

Never seen any really similarity between Star Wars and BSG. Okay maybe the former made a big sci-fi series possible int terms of audience interest in the late 70s but thats about it.

Lucas took his his inspiration from some of the Japanese films of the 50s, Larson from the Book of Mormon and general mythology.

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: Interesting article about Scifi shows that were inspired by Doctor

Thematically, the two are quite different. The similarities are more in the visual material, the tone, and some of the setup. In both cases the tone is "light-hearted, swashbuckling adventure" where the heroes obviously only take things just so seriously even though planets are getting destroyed around them. The genre in each case is "space fantasy" where science-fiction elements are present but they rarely have any bearing on the story.

In each case you've got a relatively small group of plucky refugees who are unambiguously good and who are up against an Eeeevil Empire. The bad guys are unambiguously bad and will do anything to destroy the heroes up to and including genocide. Anything except hire a new army, that is, as in both cases 99%+ of the enemy army consists of armored, faceless drones.

Both feature dreadnought-sized starships and even larger space stations. The heroes get to prove themselves in ground combat but are equally competent at dogfighting in single-man ships -- and in each case the designs of the hero craft are distinctive because of the winglike vanes clustered around the engines. That last may sound like nitpicking through a microscope, but the fact is that the X-Wing design became practically iconic as far as visual fiction is concerned. Any fighter design with a similar feature, even if distinguished by "ours has three, theirs has four" is going to invite comparison.

You'll find some of those elements in visual fiction from earlier periods, but I doubt there's anything that featured all of them. Plenty of those elements — sometimes all — were present in later visual fiction, but in those cases there's no argument from where they got their inspiration. And of course, BSG followed SW by less than two years. Thematically Larson took his inspiration from the Book of Mormon, but visually he took it from a franchise that was fresh in people's minds.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Interesting article about Scifi shows that were inspired by Doctor

Be a while since I read Corpse Marker but was it the same character who also appeared in The Kaldor City audios?

Apparently so. The character's name was Carnell.

Never seen any really similarity between Star Wars and BSG. Okay maybe the former made a big sci-fi series possible int terms of audience interest in the late 70s but thats about it.

The main similarities between the two are visual. They both had conceptual designs by Ralph McQuarrie and visual effects produced and directed by John Dykstra and Richard Edlund. That gave them a similar look and feel. I suppose the other main similarity is their emphasis on fighter pilots. And one can see similarities between Luke/Han/Obi-Wan and Apollo/Starbuck/Adama.