cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/chevron7/p/987676/they-wrote-the-same-episode-twice
- https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Emancipation
- https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)
Both episodes feature a female officer being abducted and later participating in a fight to the death, which both parties survive. In further coincidence, both episodes are the fourth episodes of their shows’ first season.
Not shown: Katharyn Powers’ episode of Friends in which Phoebe and Rachel are forced to fight to the death to please Chandler.
Both 1x4 as well
And both on my “skip during my yearly rewatch” list…
Yeah but she also wrote some good episodes. It’s strange.
It’s not that strange. Writers are often up against tight deadlines and you just gotta do what you gotta do. Not every thing you produce is going to be your best work.
Not an excuse for blatant racism.
I don’t think anybody was trying to make excuses for racism or anything else, the discussion was about reusing plots and this other person correctly pointed out that writers commonly do it. I mean I understand everybody has their hot issues they bring up at every opportunity - one of mine is the Epstein files, but you don’t see me irrelevantly mentioning the Epstein files.
That user was saying that having a short schedule does not excuse all the problems that make it not a good episode. That first commenter had mentioned “good episodes”, and the reply mentioned that the reason that this episode is not “good” is because of the short schedules or whatever. But there is a small list of reasons why these episodes are often considered not good:
- racism
- sexism
- reused plot
- etc.
Having a short schedule only excuses one of these points. The other points which make it not a good episode have nothing to do with the schedule. That is what the “not an excuse for racism” reply was directed towards. They understand that a short schedule explains why the plot was reused, but it does not actually explain why the episode was simply not good.
Brought it up because these episodes are bad above and beyond because of racism its not irrelevant at all?
I was trying to keep it light. This is a thread about reusing plotlines. I mean if you see a black guy and a white guy walking down the street there’s really no need to start a rant about the history of slavery. I’m out.
A thread about this particular example which involved racist writing watch code of honor and tell me again racism is irrelevant in this conversation what are you even talking about?
What the fuck, man? Nobody said anything about “blatant racism”, and you downvote me, too? I am not familiar with either of these episodes just by their name. I’m simply responding to the idea that the same person can write good things and terrible things for TV.
okay yes in general but these episodes are extremely racist nonsense so your defense isn’t accurate in this case at all.
Maybe don’t weigh in on things you don’t understand then?
If you don’t know what the episodes are and why they are problematic, I’m not sure why you’d wasn’t to try and defend the episode writing…
The topic is specifically about a writer reusing the same script for two different TV series. Not about racism. I’m not sure who invited the censors who want to stop people from talking about one thing just because it’s related to something else.
She wrote lizards, not africans
No, but it is an explanation. Racism is ultimately just a particularly harmful kind of lazy thinking, reducing complex people to lazy stereotypes. But just because it can have a mundane origin doesn’t mean it’s not evil.
Yep… They’re basically the same plot. Such an original writer, that one is…
Hey, at least Powers didn’t contribute to the thing we dislike about “Code of Honor”. Those aliens were originally lizard-like.
From the original storyboard for the episode:
Is that why so many of episodes seem similar!?
You mean we could have seen this episode a dozen times?
A dozen, a hundred, it’s impossible to meme.
