Great minds think alike?

Our fellow blogger, Roger Fraley, brought up a topic today I was discussing with my good friend Liz as we watched SG-1 reruns last night. We were talking about the repeated use of similar concepts or plots in different sci-fi series. What brought up this dialogue was the episode where Teal’C's energy signature was trapped in the Stargate network and he was unable to rematerialize. I couldn't help but compare it to the episode of STNG where Scotty's 75 year old energy signature is found in the transporter of an old ship. I have discovered that if I had a dime for every single time I find similar scenarios in different shows (or books for that matter) I would have many dimes.

One reason is very apparent. Various sci-fi series often employ the same people. For example, Ronald D. Moore wrote for STNG and is now the executive producer for BSG. In fact, Mr. Moore wrote the before mentioned STNG episode. Other reason may be lack of creativity or the inability to come up with something better. A lost energy signature is an interesting concept and there are plenty of vehicles available for writers to recycle this notion. Whatever it is, I am not at all upset or annoyed. Quite the contrary, I think it keeps us on our toes. You can always tell the die hard sci-fi fan who can quickly tell you what series, year, season and episode a reprocessed plot theme is from. Being a geek is cool!