# Star Trek TNG characters - stolen from Larry Niven? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595 "2000-05-04T20:01:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/1 "2000-05-04T20:01:48Z")
It’s probably just me, but doesn’t it seem to anyone else that the four main characters on TNG, and their chemistry and relationships to each other, are almost exactly like the four characters in Larry Niven’s Ringworld? Picard = Louis Wu (wouldn’t Patrick Stewart look good in a queue? Worf = Speaker-to-Animals Data = Nessus Deanna = Teela Brown Coincidence or plagiarism? You make the call. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/2 "2000-05-04T20:06:30Z")
Highly unlikely. All the characters in ST:TNG were created by Alan Dean Foster. He doesn’t have to steal. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/3 "2000-05-04T20:14:53Z")
I think the parallel “Deeanna = Teela Brown” is stretching it anyway. What do they have in common, besides being attractive women? Similarly to Data = Nessus. Nessus is a vegetarian pacifist, whose primary characteristics are paranoia and fear. Data has no emotions and is capable of violence. The only common characteristic I see is their implied superior intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![soulsling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@soulsling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulsling)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/4 "2000-05-04T21:50:01Z")
it’s sci-fi, in most stories of the same type of genre you’ll find similarities as such. 'sides, who would dare try to rip off Niven? He’ll like reach down from the sky and rip their spines out or something. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/5 "2000-05-05T04:27:09Z")
Larry Niven once said that when the parallels between _Ringworld_ and _The Wizard of Oz_ were pointed out to him, he realized he may have unconsciously lifted ideas from Baum. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/6 "2000-05-05T13:25:45Z")
Did anyone notice the resemblance that ST’s “mugato” had to Flash Gordon’s “orangopoid?” ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/7 "2000-05-05T13:46:43Z")
Nemo, I read about that Wizard of Oz parallel, too, and once I thought about it, Ringworld IS very Wizard of Oz-like. But Dorothy didn’t chop up the Emerald City (and, doubtless, the inhabitants) with shadow-square wire when she left. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/8 "2000-05-05T14:44:46Z")
There _was_ a Star Trek/Larry Niven crossover, written by Niven himself. One of the animated episodes (yeah, I know), _The Slaver Weapon_ was by Niven and was a direct conversion of _The Soft Weapon_ to the Star Trek universe. It put Niven’s Kzinti and Slavers into the Star Trek background. I know Spock replaced the Puppeteer from the original story but can’t remember who the other two replaced. (The Star Trek characters were Sulu and (I think) Uhura; I can’t remember who the Niven characters were). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/9 "2000-05-05T14:52:00Z")
By the way, tanstaafl, isn’t your username inspired by Larry Niven’s work? I forgot, what does it mean? ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/10 "2000-05-05T17:26:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > By the way, tanstaafl, isn’t your username inspired by Larry Niven’s work? I forgot, what does it mean? > \*\* There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I’ve never seen anything from Niven, but R. Heinlein uses this phrase constantly. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/11 "2000-05-05T17:55:01Z")
Perhaps, Arnie, you are thinking of There Ain’t No Justice! = TANJ I had not heard of the Heinlein phrase, not having read. Another suspicious borrowing? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/12 "2000-05-05T17:56:25Z")
Perhaps, Arnie, you are thinking of There Ain’t No Justice! = TANJ I had not heard of the Heinlein phrase, not having read Heinlein for years. Another suspicious borrowing? ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/13 "2000-05-05T18:00:39Z")
Apart from the slight resemblance of Kzin to Klingons, I think you’re out to lunch. And since Klingons first appeared in 1966, before the first Kzin story (“The Warriors”), Star Trek had the claim first. But let’s compare the characters– Louis Wu–200 year old dilletante. Likes to dodge responsibilites. Sexually promiscuous. Flamboyant dresser. Jean-Luc Piccard–65 year old military man. Rigidly devoted to regulations and diplomacy. Very conservative, especially in affairs of the heart. Nessus–two-headed vegetarian coward. Would sell his own host-mother for a profit. Irrational and prone to cataleptic fits. Data–artifical life form. Completely honest. Has no emotions. Doesn’t understand “hidden agendas.” Teela Brown–spoiled mutant. Has little understanding of other people’s feelings. Genetically lucky; has never been hurt. Troi–a born empath; has the ability to sense the feelings of others. Trained psychotherapist. As to their relationships to each other, Troi and Picard have never had the kind of relationship that Louis and Teela did. Neither is the Picard/Data relationship in any way like Louis/Nessus. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-characters-stolen-from-larry-niven/18595/14 "2000-05-05T23:58:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Larry Niven once said that when the parallels between _Ringworld_ and _The Wizard of Oz_ were pointed out to him, he realized he may have unconsciously lifted ideas from Baum. > \*\* That’s what he told me when I met him at a book-signing. He was a bit embarrassed by it. It was Spock, Sulu and Uhura in his Trek script. The Kzinti were just Kzin, with a neurotic telepath.