What are your favorite 'Retread' or 'Rehash' episodes?

If it was (provably) stolen. Not if somebody else had the same idea as you without knowing of your idea. Some things have become archetypes by now, or everyone wants to do their own spin on a classic basic plot. They want to see their characters handle it in their own way.

 

It was called Beastermaster wasn't it? lol

 

While don't doubt that happens often enough, I'm sure most of the time it was one of two things:
1) "Hey, that was an interesting plotline on that other show last night! We have 22 episodes to fill out this season, let's do something like that."
2) "Hey, I found out the other studio is doing a story about [plot X]! Let's crank out something blatantly similar to cash in!" Sometimes with the added: "If we can get it out first, it'll make it look like they stole from us!"

 

People buy genuine stuff when they're allowed to. You can force them to buy fakes.

 

I haven't watched Stargate in a while and I'm drawing a blank on the episode Collateral Damage. Who ended up getting in trouble?

 

I feel an ugly B5 argument coming on.

 

Voyager's "Workforce" and Stargate SG-1's "Beneath the Surface" are the exact same story.

 

Cameron Mitchell got framed for a murder he was sure he didn't commit, despite having the memory of committing it. The planet of the week in that episode was experimenting in memory transfer technology.

Both are re-telling Metropolis.

An FYI, Greg Cox is a published author and editor. His words carry more weight in this discussion than yours.

 

Blink of an Eye is a very flawed, dumbed-down telling of Robert Forward's novel Dragon's Egg (that said, I did enjoy it, but it's nothing on its source). So it isn't a retelling of Wink of an Eye.

As I mentioned in a similar thread, I do think Catspaw and Devil's Due are linked in at least one way beyond magic generally--I think there was an effort to make Ardra somewhat like Sylvia, what with attempted seduction of the captains and also fairly all-body covering wardrobe.

 

As silly as Catspaw is, I find Sylvia much more interesting than Ardra. Korob too, and their interactions.

"You.....are a fool"

 

Depends. I believe Cheapjack was talking about movies and TV. I was mostly talking about book publishing. Not necessarily the same worlds or the same rules.

Where books are concerned, you can't copyright a mere.idea. "Vampire mermaids" is an idea, but nobody can clam dibs on that notion. Unlike, say, a specific novel, Blood Splash by Joe Author, in which what is being copyrighted is the actual prose and execution, not just a high concept. You'd have to copy Blood Splash almost word for word, chapter by chapter, before you'd be talking actionable plagiarism.

Otherwise, vampire mermaids has surely been done before and will be done again, without any copyrights being infringed. I throw the idea out to the world. Have at it!

 

I think a lot of people bring out accusations of plagiarism too easily for things that are base, obvious ideas. For example, South Park did an episode about cheating in the Special Olympics then a year later a movie came out about the same thing and a lot of people accused them of plagiarism, but the South Park creators made it clear they in no way think they were copied because the idea was so base and obvious anyone could have come up with it.

The same applies across a lot of scifi franchises too. There are some premises in a long running scifi series you just kinda do. Time looping. Mind switching. It's not plagiarism, it's just obvious ideas that a lot of different people thought of.

 

Ok, that's a bit of a stretch. They have labor related class struggles in common, but Workforce and Beneath the Surface have no robot doppleganger messiahs and Metropolis has no mind control.

 

The DVD commentary for the SG-1 episode admits it was based on Metropolis.

 

Exactly. Believe it or not, it's perfectly possible for multiple people to come up with the same basic ideas independently, and when you're dealing with such well-trod territory as time-travel, vampires, space empires, androids, and so on, that becomes practically inevitable.

And the same applies to mainstream fiction. Back when I was an assistant editor at Arbor House, I once received two multi-generational family sagas set in Appalachia on the same afternoon--from two different agents and authors.

Was one ripping off the other? Nope. Just a funny coincidence. Because the "idea" of writing an epic family saga set in Appalachia is something that more than one person can come up with. Ditto for "wild" ideas like "what if the tooth fairy was evil?" (Off the top of my head, I can think of at least four very different takes on that premise, ranging from silly to deadly serious to exquisitely sensitive and literary.)

Writers, especially newbie writers, tend to think that their ideas are much more unique and precious than they usually are. But it's not about the ideas; it's what you do with them that really matters.

Back when I read submissions for a living, I always read the first chapter before I looked at any enclosed synopsis or outline. I figured if the writing wasn't any good, there was no point in finding out what the plot was about.

 

And in Workforce, they aren't slaving away to keep a city for elites running. They're actually given really good jobs. The were kidnapped because of shortage of skilled labor, and the conspiracy involved just a few people.

 

The book I co-wrote actually has vampire-mermaids.

 

Hah! I've been using that as my go-to example of a "random" idea for years now!

(Although sometimes I mix it up and do a riff on samurai vampires instead.)

 

add "...from Hell" and I think I knew a guy who made a loooow budget movie like that once!