Love TNG one of the best Trek Versions!
- Thread starter johnar
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"Darmok" was too much a rip-off of "Enemy Mine" in the same way that "Q-pid" was too much of a rip-off of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," though everyone involved totally denies it. This does not mean, or imply that these TNG episodes (and other "homages") sucked, by any stretch of the imagination. As a point-of-fact, Mark Twain had this to say on the subject of 'originality' ...
".....substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing. . . ."
Still in all, I happen to prefer the less-derived TNG episodes, myself.
".....substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing. . . ."
Still in all, I happen to prefer the less-derived TNG episodes, myself.
Awesome post! Enemy Mine is a movie I read about one day and then completely forgot. I may have to pilfer the high seas of the Internet for a copy. Thank you for bringing it back to my attention! And that Twain quote is a real doozie and completely accurate. I'm going have to remember that one for later, especially since we're now in an era of creativity converging on different mediums simultaneously. I think the quote also fits well with the concept of the "Darmok" episode in general, the difference being they used original stories to express themselves without any sort of personal touches. Perhaps their temperament guides them into which stories to relate to instead of changing the elements of the hand-me-down metaphor/trope/idea like we do.
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