Star Trek too too

[RobertScorpio]

Have you ever watched an episode of another TV show and thought it was a rip-off of a Star Trek story? Or even the other way around. Have you ever watched an episode of TREK and thought, holy cow, they did this on another show (and I don't mean another TREK show, We all know TREK shows borrow from each other...all the time..)

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Sector 7]

Many episodes 'borrowed' from William Shakespeare. Heck the whole series was pitched to the networks as Wagon Train to the Stars.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Many episodes 'borrowed' from William Shakespeare. Heck the whole series was pitched to the networks as Wagon Train to the Stars.

Balance of Terror borrowed from Run Silent Run Deep. I actually think the Cage borrows from The Forbidden Planet in many ways....

I think, in a musical way, John Williams borrows many musical attributes from the various Star Trek composers of TOS...

Rob
scorpio

 

[kissthestar]

I think alternate Willow (vamp in leather) from "Buffy" is a lot like alternate Kira.

 

[Loneknight]

I suppose it depends on the story. Most plots in any TV series (or movie) revolve around a message, and almost every episode of Trek usually has a message they're trying to convey. It's just re-telling the story using a different method of conveyance (i.e.: a different medium).

 

[Sector 7]

When I first saw this thread title... I thought "Oh crap! Star Trek ballet?!"

 

[RobertScorpio]

When I first saw this thread title... I thought "Oh crap! Star Trek ballet?!"

Hmmmm...not a bad idea...!!! Ill come up with something..!!!

Rob

 

[Maurice]

Many episodes 'borrowed' from William Shakespeare. Heck the whole series was pitched to the networks as Wagon Train to the Stars.

Balance of Terror borrowed from Run Silent Run Deep. I actually think the Cage borrows from The Forbidden Planet in many ways....

I think, in a musical way, John Williams borrows many musical attributes from the various Star Trek composers of TOS...

Rob
scorpio

Balance of Terror owes more to "The Enemy Below" than the film you cite, right down to the very patriotic enemy crewman who annoys his commander.

John Williams borrows from the same classical composers that the TOS composers did, not from them, Doomsday Machine similarities to the Jaws shark theme notwithstanding.

 

[bintak]

Many episodes 'borrowed' from William Shakespeare. Heck the whole series was pitched to the networks as Wagon Train to the Stars.

Balance of Terror borrowed from Run Silent Run Deep. I actually think the Cage borrows from The Forbidden Planet in many ways....

I think, in a musical way, John Williams borrows many musical attributes from the various Star Trek composers of TOS...

Rob
scorpio

The Enemy Below actually is the reason why Romulans have a cloaking device. Paul Schneider had to have some way to describe a submarine's tactics in space. Biggest mistake a Trek writer ever made next to giving us Jean Luc I think.

 

[Jeri]

"What Are Little Girls Made Of" is similar to an earlier "Wild, Wild, West" TV show episode having to do with a doppelganger (a double), which is an old concept that has inspired a lot of curiosity and conjecture over human history. Below are some comparisons.

19th-century technology vs. The Old Ones' technology

Teaching a new dog old tricks

One of these doesn't eat food

The big quandry: which is the evil twin, the one to shoot?

 

[RobertScorpio]

Great post, Jeri. I will try to see that episode of WWW. My friend has all the episodes. I only saw the Wil Smith movie for the first time last weekend..what was your take on it? I liked Kevin Kline, I always have. But Wil Smith just seemed out of place in the movie. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and it kept my 4 year old son entertained...so on that level it was okay. But it seemed, I don't know, too far fetched? To much FX..needed more character

Rob
Scorpio

 

[ManOnTheWave]

TNG's "Future Imperfect" was a reworking of "There's No Place Like Springfield," an episode of the GIJoe cartoon. Riker/Shipwreck is injured on a mission. Waking up, he discovers it's been several years since that day, or has it? Same scriptwriter.

 

[Jeri]

...I will try to see that episode of WWW. My friend has all the episodes. I only saw the Wil Smith movie for the first time last weekend..what was your take on it?

I saw the movie once; it doesn't bear much resemblance to the original show, IMO. And it's pretty much universally panned (4/10 points with 41,000 votes at IMDb). Apparently, Will Smith is supposed to have said it's the movie he most regrets making.

I'm glad you enjoyed the screen caps: they're from first-season episode No. 10, "The Night that Terror Stalked the Town".

At that link, there is a long, detailed recap you can click through to, if you are a spoiler fan. I hope you get to see the show sometime. (Only the first season is in black and white.)

"Dr. Miguelito Loveless" became a favorite, recurring villain on the show. The reason I had him in the screen caps is that Michael Dunn was also in Star Trek ("Alexander," TOS:Plato's Stepchildren).

P.S. A bit of trivia: the fellow that plays "Mr. Janus," James West's doppelganger, really was Robert Conrad's stunt double on the show, even though he did a lot of his own stunts.

 

[Loneknight]

I saw the movie once; it doesn't bear much resemblance to the original show, IMO. And it's pretty much universally panned (4/10 points with 41,000 votes at IMDb). Apparently, Will Smith is supposed to have said it's the movie he most regrets making....

..."Dr. Miguelito Loveless" became a favorite, recurring villain on the show.

I saw the movie in the theater, then recently watched it on DVD (my wife likes bad movies, go figure). It's what you expect for a campy summer flick that offers no real substance, just action and cheesy one-liners (and since it was one of Smith's first films, it offered him the chance to do another song using someone else's music track to...in this case, Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" was turned into Will Smith's "Wild Wild West").

That's interesting about the recurring villian, though. I thought they made up the bad guy in the movie (his name was Dr. Arliss Loveless). I wonder if they had planned to do something with the character, like have Arliss be the son of Miguelito or something..

...anyway, sorry for the threadjack.

 

[RobertScorpio]

...I will try to see that episode of WWW. My friend has all the episodes. I only saw the Wil Smith movie for the first time last weekend..what was your take on it?

I saw the movie once; it doesn't bear much resemblance to the original show, IMO. And it's pretty much universally panned (4/10 points with 41,000 votes at IMDb). Apparently, Will Smith is supposed to have said it's the movie he most regrets making.

I'm glad you enjoyed the screen caps: they're from first-season episode No. 10, "The Night that Terror Stalked the Town".

At that link, there is a long, detailed recap you can click through to, if you are a spoiler fan. I hope you get to see the show sometime. (Only the first season is in black and white.)

"Dr. Miguelito Loveless" became a favorite, recurring villain on the show. The reason I had him in the screen caps is that Michael Dunn was also in Star Trek ("Alexander," TOS:Plato's Stepchildren).

P.S. A bit of trivia: the fellow that plays "Mr. Janus," James West's doppelganger, really was Robert Conrad's stunt double on the show, even though he did a lot of his own stunts.

I always thought Conrad was cool.. his show down with Lou Fergino on BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS was a classic

Rob
Scorpio

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think alternate Willow (vamp in leather) from "Buffy" is a lot like alternate Kira.

And... I think they're kinda gay,

 

[M'Sharak]

I think, in a musical way, John Williams borrows many musical attributes from the various Star Trek composers of TOS...

...

John Williams borrows from the same classical composers that the TOS composers did, not from them, Doomsday Machine similarities to the Jaws shark theme notwithstanding.

Exactly. John Williams draws particularly from Richard Wagner in his use of motifs and is extremely well-versed in the styles, technical devices and harmonic materials of many important composers of the last two-and-a-half centuries. To say that he borrows from the composers of Star Trek music is not only dead wrong but it ignores completely the fact that Williams had been a working television and film composer for a decade or more before Star Trek went on the air in 1966.

 

[Jeri]

That's interesting about the recurring villian, though. I thought they made up the bad guy in the movie (his name was Dr. Arliss Loveless). I wonder if they had planned to do something with the character, like have Arliss be the son of Miguelito or something...

Dr. Miguelito Loveless has a nice Wiki entry, as does Michael Dunn; in fact, they claim he is most well known for that character, even though he had a varied career.

I always thought Conrad was cool.. his show down with Lou Fergino on BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS was a classic...

I saw him recently on a re-run of "Just Shoot Me," where he plays himself. But best of all, the classic miniseries, "Centennial" was just issued on DVD this past summer, and he was terrific as the fur trader "Pasquinel" in that. We really enjoyed it and even bought some of those wool caps he wore for this winter, LOL.

...it ignores completely the fact that Williams had been a working television and film composer for a decade or more before Star Trek went on the air in 1966.

Speaking of which, I just recently bought a CD of the soundtrack of the movie, "Diamond Head" (1963), which he scored and where he is credited as "Johnny Williams." I always loved the music to that show. It is haunting.

This thread is bound to go far afield, because it's naturally going to bring up derivatives.

 

[FalTorPan]

"What Are Little Girls Made Of" is similar to an earlier "Wild, Wild, West" TV show episode having to do with a doppelganger (a double), which is an old concept that has inspired a lot of curiosity and conjecture over human history. Below are some comparisons.

19th-century technology vs. The Old Ones' technology

Teaching a new dog old tricks

One of these doesn't eat food

The big quandry: which is the evil twin, the one to shoot?

I have nothing insightful to add. I just wanted to opine about how hot Sherry Jackson was as Andrea. Dang.

 

[EEE]

Fantastic fotonovel-ish comparison! (that took more than a few minutes, I'm sure!)

I loved The Wild Wild West, back in the day! Each seque to commercial was a fade to cartoon figure and shoved in a corner of the screen. And of course James was in some trouble every 15 minutes at the commercial! (it was like having 3 cliffhangers every week!) Shame about the actor who played Artemus (brain cramp on his name).

I remember thinking that Shatner's unsuccessful Barbary Coast series was a cheap imitation of TWWW. A shoe phone may be cool for Maxwell Smart, but a boot toe switchblade was cooler (not to mention the wrist-flicking derringer contraption being cooler-est!)

Now I'm going to have to find TWWW on DVD somewhere.