# Wherein the Star Trek franchises plagiarize each other.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 8, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350 "2017-02-08T20:37:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/1 "2017-02-08T20:37:15Z")
Forgive me, I can’t remember the episode names so I’ll just leave a brief summary:
Example 1.)
**Voyager:** Seven and the Doctor are the only ones left awake as the rest of the crew sleeps as the ship passes through a nebula. Seven starts to lose her shit from the isolation.
**Enterprise:** T’pol and Dr. Phlox are the only ones left awake as the ship passes through a nebula (or whatever). This time it’s the doctor that loses his shit. At the end, we learn that T’pol was never really awake, but rather an illusion.
Example 2.)
**NG:** Riker gets accused of murder after fooling around with some researchers frisky wife.
**Voyager:** Paris gets accused of murder after fooling around with some researcher’s frisky wife.
Pretty sure there’s more, just can’t think of them off the top of my head. Anyone else?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/2 "2017-02-08T20:45:41Z")
I can’t recall any examples, but it seemed to me throughout the first season of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ they were redoing ideas from the original series. It got so bad that I stopped watching altogether for years.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/3 "2017-02-08T21:18:22Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> Seven starts to lose her shit from the isolation.
For a moment there I thought you said “shirt.” Gotta say, that would have almost made Voyager almost worth watching.
(Oldish news, but I found out just today that Seven’s predecessor Kes [lost both her shit _and_ her shirt](http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/jennifer-lien-arrested-star-trek-voyager-1201594328/).)
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/4 "2017-02-08T21:32:56Z")
TNG’s _The Naked Now_ is a rip off of TOS’s _The Naked Time_, they allude to it.
I would argue that _Star Trek Nemesis_ is a poor man’s _Wrath of Khan_.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/5 "2017-02-08T23:23:46Z")
I presume we’re not counting the blatant ones like “The Naked Truth” / “The Naked Now”? I guess that by that time in the show’s run, the writers had just run out of ideas.
How about this: A freak accident splits (Kirk)/(Torres) into (his)/(her) (good half and evil half)/(human half and Klingon half). (He)/(She) struggles to keep (his)/(her) other half out of trouble, but in the end realizes that (he)/(she) needs both parts of (his)/(her) personality, and is recombined back into a whole person.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/6 "2017-02-08T23:38:06Z")
The Changeling vs TMP - old Earth space probe encounters an alien probe in deep space, gets combined with it…the combined entity returns to Federation space, ‘cleansing’ organic ‘infestations’ and ultimately threatening Earth, until brought to heel by a member of the Enterprise crew. It ended better for V’Ger than for Nomad, but still…
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/7 "2017-02-08T23:52:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I presume we’re not counting the blatant ones like “The Naked Truth” / “The Naked Now”? I guess that by that time in the show’s run, the writers had just run out of ideas.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just pointing out that “Naked Now” was literally the third episode of TNG ever broadcast.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/8 "2017-02-08T23:53:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I presume we’re not counting the blatant ones like “The Naked Truth” / “The Naked Now”? I guess that by that time in the show’s run, the writers had just run out of ideas.
“The Naked Time” was a major step in the TOS; it defined Spock as a character and was the beginning of his popularity. “The Naked Now” was deliberately trying to do the same thing for the new crew.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/9 "2017-02-09T00:14:42Z")
Besides, in “The Naked Now” we learn that Data is fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques.
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### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/10 "2017-02-09T00:25:27Z")
I can’t remember the name, but TOS episode where the "alternative’ Universe with the much more ‘barbaric’ Kirk and crew was re-visited (twice, IIRC, or in two episodes) during Deep Space Nine.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/11 "2017-02-09T00:28:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Miller** :
>
> I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just pointing out that “Naked Now” was literally the third episode of TNG ever broadcast.
Whoosh.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/12 "2017-02-09T00:43:07Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#):
>
> I can’t remember the name, but TOS episode where the "alternative’ Universe with the much more ‘barbaric’ Kirk and crew was re-visited (twice, IIRC, or in two episodes) during Deep Space Nine.
There were _5_ Mirror Universe episodes in DS9 - One each in Seasons 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7.
It was also revisited in the Enterprise two-parter In a Mirror, Darkly.
But all of these are sequels (or a prequel for IaMD), not repeating the same plot. (Crossover did involve an accidental crossover, where Cisco interfered with the MU’s development, but that’s an extremely vague similarity.)
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/13 "2017-02-09T04:18:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> “The Naked Time” was a major step in the TOS; it defined Spock as a character and was the beginning of his popularity. “The Naked Now” was deliberately trying to do the same thing for the new crew.
Exactly. The really stupid parts were:
1. Riker doesn’t know who James Kirk is??? Really??? If I serve aboard the HMS Bounty V, I should get keelhauled for not knowing who Bligh is.
2, Riker never seems to get the ‘disease’. Does this mean “drunk” is his default setting?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/14 "2017-02-09T11:48:11Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> Exactly. The really stupid parts were:
No, the really stupid part was “polywater”.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/15 "2017-02-09T16:13:00Z")
No. The really stupid part was the whole damned episode. But, then, that can be said of much of the first season. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-the-star-trek-franchises-plagiarize-each-other/779350/16 "2017-02-09T18:14:22Z")
Q showing up in every franchise. He had a few good episodes in TNG, then he popped up on DS9. Although I appreciated it when Sisko punched him in the face. Maybe if Riker or Worf had done that, he would have left the Enterprise alone. Then he showed up on Voyager. The first time, with the other Q who wanted to commit suicide, was decent, but the episode with the Q civil war was beyond stupid. Then he comes asking Janeway for help in disciplining his son.