Is Gary 7 really Doctor Who?

I appreciate your comments, and recognize that as a writer you must wrestle with these issues.

Still, the distinction is not bizarre at all. Look, even in 1977 Lucas openly talked about being affected by 1930's serials, Kurosawa, etc. The Kurosawa/Japanese influence is also apparent and documented by people like Ralph McQuarre (spelling?) in the pre-production work on Star Wars. But in the 1970's, 1930's serials and films about feudal Japan were not big sources of interest to most people, and most people in the west had never seen a Kurosawa film. I.e. Lucas was not trying to capitalize of something that was "hot" and acknowledged his source material.

Conversely, by 1978 scifi was of great interest to studios to make $$$$$ off of. Hence, to me, 1978's BSG and the dreadful Battle Beyond the Stars were genuine ripoffs, meant to capitalize on the acute marketability and popularity of scifi, and to turn a quick buck off of very unoriginal properties that mimicked Star Wars as much as possible. Remember how popular "Jaws" was in 1975? Interesting that in 1977 "Orca" was released, about a man battling a killer whale. Same ripoff problem.

Nobody expects everyone to come up with a whole new idea every time, but if it is too close to something else, both conceptually and, often, temporally, then the ripoff alarms start to go off.

 

Except that ideas get ripoffed al the time or just reused, as Peter DeLuise said once in a Stargate SG1 commentary the French use the term "homage" the English use the term "aliteration" and Americans use the word "ripoff" but I do think that in end it's the same thing.

 

I'm not sure how fair the term "rip off" is for all of those, though in the case of the first one you might well have a point.

In most cases though you are talking a similar source - holograms were hardly a new thing in sci-fi in the late 80s for either show, the term "Positronic Android" for data was a deliberate tip of the hat to Asimov, Forbidden Planet was based on Shakespeare, It's A Wonderful Life owes a massive debt to Dickens and the Remans and Uber-Vamps are both based on the original and classic Nosferatu.

As another poster said the word "Rip-Off" is over-used on the Net.

 

Interesting...you'd think the English would know that alliteration is using a series of words that start with the same letter, such as "Fantastic Four Film's Fabulous Flubs".

What a bunch of morons the brits must be.

 

It was Peter Deluise who being silly like usual in a SG1 commentary and I think I got the word wrong I meant allusion my fault.

 

Gary Seven wasn't examined that I can remember, and even if he was medical knowledge of a Time Lord/Gallifreyan physiology would have been completely unknown, which is why Gary Seven said he was only a human that was trained on another planet that would have made it a lot easier for him to get away with his comment.
My reasons for believing that Gary Seven is a Time Lord/Gallifreyan.
1. Has a Sonic Screwdriver device.
2. Has a companion, (Isis the cat woman).
3. Appeared when Earth was in trouble of Nuclear War.
4. Was not affected by Vulcan Neck Pinch-strong nerves.
5. Is from a planet that came hide itself from others.
6. Was beamed on the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 while traveling through space, which has happened to The Doctor on some occasions.
7. Has knowledge of different species in the Universe and has knowledge of Time Travel.
8. Can talk to his companion Isis the cat when she is in cat form.

 

Star Wars was heavily and obviously influenced by The Hidden Fortress (I spotted this right away when I first watched the latter). If they'd seen it, a lot of people who rail about "ripoffs" would be apoplectic about how much Lucas borrowed from it...not that Kurosawa seemed to mind.

 

Coming to the party rather late, I know where Christopher is coming from. The word rip-off, with its implication of deliberate plagiarism, does tend to get thrown around way too freely on the internet. Here's the way it too often works:

Fan sees new movie about a vampire mermaid. Fan remembers reading a book about a vampire mermaid a few years back. Fan instantly jumps to assumption that the movie-makers must have stolen the idea from that same book. "Rip-off!"

Whereas, in fact, it's entirely possible for more than one person to come up with idea of vampire mermaids. In fact, as I type this, I have no doubt that somebody somewhere is writing the great American vampire mermaid story. Probably several somebodies.

And chances are, vampire mermaids are a time-honored trope of aquatic Gothic literature dating back at least as far as a 17th century Finnish poem that later inspired a half-dozen popular Lithuanian operas before popping up in an obscure 1927 pulp novel that inspired a largely forgotten silent movie starring Theda Bara in a scaly bathing suit . . . .

In other words,the "stolen" idea is often an very old one that's been used by countless writers, poets, cartoonists, and movie-makers over the years.

Actual plagiarism is far less common.

 

McCoy takes detailed scans of Gary, and determines that he is human. If Gary had been any other species, McCoy would have said so.

 

OMG
Rip Off=ZEITGEIST!