Similar plotlines

[Overgeeked]

As I mentioned in that other thread, most of Star Trek is just variations on the monster of the week theme. Sometimes it's aliens, freaks, evil admirals, spatial anomalies, time vortices, space hippies, mutants, or whatever. Many other shows use this same format, including most cop shows, Buffy, Supernatural, Doctor Who, X-Files, Charmed, Supergirl, Flash, Smallville, and many many others.

This is more a structural-level similarity rather than specific plot details similarity, so it might be more abstract than you're asking for.

 

[KelisThePoet]

The original Star Trek only had four plots: the alternate earth, the petulant god, the irrational machine, and the humanized monster.

Occasionally, they mixed things up a bit by making the petulant god an irrational machine.

 

[UnknownSample]

TOS Requiem for Methuselah and TNG The Offspring

Both involve someone making an android. The stories aren't otherwise similar.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If you get generic enough you can confirm anything to templates. You or I could probably make up a 'There are only (arbitrary number) of basic plots every story used' and it'd be equally valid as the woman who told Data all things are composed of four elements.

A common Trek theme is 'Oops, we didn't know that thing was alive. Crap, better stop murdering it.' Devil In The Dark, Home Soil, The Cloud.

 

[UnknownSample]

If you get generic enough you can confirm anything to templates. You or I could probably make up a 'There are only (arbitrary number) of basic plots every story used' and it'd be equally valid as the woman who told Data all things are composed of four elements.

I was always suspicious of the idea that there are only seven plots or stories in the world. When I finally saw a list of what they were supposed to be, it wasn't a list of plots or stories. It was a list of categories of plots/stories. Plenty of room for different, original stories within those broad categories.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Yeah, when you list contains "comedy" and "tragedy" as a catch all for a plot you know you generalized too much.
Otherwise all stories are basically one and the same: a Story: a narrative that might or might not be or might in part be fictional, containing people, animals or things representing people, being in realtionships, acting upon or reacting to the world and events around them doing something.


There, seen one, seen them all.

 

[Tenacity]

Both involve someone making an android. The stories aren't otherwise similar.

The "deaths" of the two androids are from a inability to handle the emotions that they are feeling, this similarity goes beyond just "someone making an android."

 

[UnknownSample]

The "deaths" of the two androids are from a inability to handle the emotions that they are feeling, this similarity goes beyond just "someone making an android."

Oh, okay, good point.

 

[KelisThePoet]

"Author, Author" feels like Voyager's take on "The Measure of a Man."

 

[Voth commando1]

"Author, Author" feels like Voyager's take on "The Measure of a Man."

It's somewhat different in circumstances and build up though-not an exact copy by any means.

 

[Seven of Five]

Was DS9's Shadowplay and ENT's Oasis mentioned at all? In both episodes the crew encounters a group of people who turned out to be mostly holograms, and the similarities are pretty glaring due to Rene Auberjonois guest spot in the ENT episode.

 

[Vandervecken]

Devil's Due reminds me of Catspaw. Sylvia/Ardra. Of course Sylvia and Korob were a much greater, real threat than Ardra, but the way Sylvia chases after Kirk is a lot like the way Ardra chases after Picard. They both wear some sort of dress/lingerie that drapes from their arms, too (Ardra does this while in Picard's quarters).

 

[The Wormhole]

Was DS9's Shadowplay and ENT's Oasis mentioned at all? In both episodes the crew encounters a group of people who turned out to be mostly holograms, and the similarities are pretty glaring due to Rene Auberjonois guest spot in the ENT episode.

Yes, I mentioned this, along with Rene Auberjonois even commenting on the similarities in an earlier post.

DS9 Shadow Play and ENT Oasis. Indeed, Rene Auberjonois guest starred on Oasis and Scott Bakula commented to him in conversation "this is a pretty good episode" Rene responded "we had an episode just like it on our show."

 

[Seven of Five]

That's what I get for skimming.