Recycled Script: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''"It's like they had a parrot on the staff during the editorial meetings that just kept pitching "[[Superman|Lois]] [[Superpower Silly Putty|gets super powers]]! Lois gets super powers!" over and over again...''
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* [[Douglas Adams]]' novel ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' reused several key concepts from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E06 Shada|Shada]]", a story he had written for ''[[Doctor Who]]'' but which had been unfinished due to strike action (and elements of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E02 City of Death|City of Death]]", which ''was'' broadcast). Another Adams novel, ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'', began its life as a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' screenplay called ''The Krikketmen''. It shows, as the [[Gotta Catch Em All]] plot is a very different sort of animal from its predecessors.
* [[Agatha Christie]] did this several times. The Poirot short story ''Yellow Iris'' became the Colonel Race novel ''Sparkling Cyanide''; the Poirot novellas ''Murder in the Mews'' and ''Dead Man's Mirror'' (which were published together) were based on the Poirot short stories "The Market Basing Mystery" and "The Second Gong", respectively; the Poirot novel ''The Blue Train'' uses the same device as the Poirot short story "The Plymouth Express"; and two Poirot stories, "Problem at Pollensa Bay" and "The Regatta Mystery", were later rewritten to be about Mr Parker Pyne. Note that Poirot, Race and Pyne all exist in [[Canon Welding|the same universe]].
* When Robert E. Howard's ''By This Axe I Rule!'', a short story featuring his barbarian king Kull of Atlantis, was rejected by ''Weird Tales'', he changed its setting and replaced Kull with a new protagonist he had been toying
** In an interesting reversal, the script for a third Conan film -- ''Conan The Conqueror''
* Chris Van Allsburg recycled his book ''[[Jumanji]]'', about a magic safari-themed board game that draws the players into its world, into ''[[Zathura]]'', which is about a magic ''sci-fi''-themed board game that draws the players into its world. ''[[Jumanji]]'' was later adapted into a movie; several years later, so was ''[[Zathura]]'', and many of the changes to the plot of ''[[Jumanji]]'' were also put into ''[[Zathura]]'' (for instance, both films introduced a character who had been trapped in the game world since childhood, since he started a game and didn't finish it).
* Any ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book with a "II" in the title.
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** [[Terry Pratchett]]'s 1991 short story "FTB" (also known as "The Megabyte Drive To Believe In Santa Claus") is basically Hex's subplot from ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'', relocated to Roundworld.
* The [[Roald Dahl]] adult short story "The Champion of the World" is about two men who come up with the idea of poaching pheasants by dosing raisins with sleeping pills and scattering them though the wood. [[Danny, the Champion of the World|There's something familiar about both title and plot...]]
* The conclusion to the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth|Pip and Flinx]]'' tales, in which some last-minute brilliance by Flinx allows him to track down a [[Lost Technology]] universe-warping superweapon and thus, save the galaxy from being devoured by the Great Evil, is basically a
* Dan Brown's ''[[Digital Fortress]]'' mentions a subplot explaining the etymology of the word "Sincere" as derived from "sine cera" which literally means "without wax" in Latin. In ''Digital Fortress'' he credits this to Spanish instead. It's explained that ancient sculptors would cover flaws in their work with wax, therefor a piece finished "without wax" would be considered honest and without flaw. Interestingly enough, Dan Brown revisits this exact same subplot when he explains "without wax" in his other book ''[[The Lost Symbol]]''. This time correctly crediting the etymology to Latin
== Live Action TV ==
* This trope was the basis for the early [[Too Good to Last|short lived]] 2000s NBC show called ''[[The Rerun Show]]'' in which a group of actors took actual scripts of old shows such as ''[[Bewitched]]'' and ''[[Married... with Children]]'', and used the same exact dialog, while spoofing the show with props and actions.
* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' and ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' shared a fair number of scripts. The most obvious of these was a plot involving a crash on a remote island, stranding the bionic individual with a lot of extras plus a coworker from OSI (Oscar for Steve, Rudy for Jaime). The coworker is seriously injured, but there is a doctor among the survivors who can save him despite the primitive conditions; to help him do so, though, Steve/Jaime must cut open a finger on their bionic hand and bare two wires so that the doctor can cauterize a blood vessel.
* Not the same show, but from the same writer: Kenneth Johnson wrote the two part ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' episode intoducing Jaime, who was to be married to Steve until her bionics (recently acquired in the course of the two-parter's first half) malfunctioned and she ran amuck during a tropical storm, after which she died from her condition. A couple of years later Kenny would write the season two opener of ''[[The Incredible Hulk]],'' where David Banner fell in love with a doctor with a terminal brain
* ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' and ''[[Gemini Man]]'' once shared a script about a lookalike for the title character infiltrating the agency where she/he works despite being ignorant of the main character's superhuman abilities. They are both assassins, targeting the main character's superior. At the climax, the hero(ine) and the double are both claiming to be the real deal; the hero(ine) proves his/her identity by using their special
* ''[[Buck Rogers|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'' had a script, "Journey To Oasis", which was very nearly identical to the original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "Journey To Babel". Actor Marc Lenard even appeared in both, playing very nearly the same character.
* In what is probably a specialized case, ''[[The New Odd Couple]]'' recycled eight scripts that were written for the original version of ''[[The Odd Couple]]''.
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** After three years of the original series and ''eighteen'' years for its spin-offs, scripts began to be borrowed and recycled from within each show and across the franchise as a whole. For example, the basic script for the original series episode "Elaan of Troyius" was recycled ''twice.'' It got particularly bad with ''Enterprise,'' which was accused of being a recycle of ''Voyager'' as a whole set in the past.
* The ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' episode "Doctor's Orders" is virtually identical to the ''Voyager'' episode "One."
** The ''Enterprise'' episode "Home" was similar to the ''Next Generation'' episode "Family". Both dealt with the ''Enterprise'' returning to Earth and the crew going on shore leave to visit their families and friends. Both were basically done so the characters and viewers could recover from the previous episodes, which had been emotionally trying for everyone ("Best of Both Worlds" for ''Next Generation'', the entire Xindi arc for ''Enterprise''). However, "Home" did serve a higher purpose, introducing three plot elements that would be expanded upon later (T'Pol's political problems and arranged marriage, human xenophobia, and the character of Erika Hernandez, captain of the starship ''Columbia''). Short version: "Home" was "Family" with a few [[Chekhov's Gun
** "Oasis" from ''Enterprise'' was extremely similar to "Shadowplay" from ''Deep Space Nine'', both being about isolated societies that turn out to mostly consist of holograms created by the one real person to stave off loneliness after the people they're based on were all killed. "Oasis" even brought back ''Deep Space Nine'' cast member Rene Auberjonois, who immediately pointed out the similarity.
** ''Enterprise'' also has the episode "Chosen Realm," an obvious redo of the original series' "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." Both deal with aliens who are at war over a trivial matter reflecting society at the time(having different colored skin, or a trivial religious debate), who ultimately return to their planet to discover that everyone has long since killed each other.
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** Some of the black and white episodes were redone after the show went to color.
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' and ''[[That's So Raven]]'' both had a [[Very Special Episode]] about racism. In both, the black friend gets denied a job because he's black and video evidence is used to get the word out. Both shows were made by [[Disney]].
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' has reused a few scripts from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', usually with a [[Lampshade Hanging]]. In the Atlantis episode, "The Intruder", McKay comments on how the SGC faced a similar situation before (in the SG-1 episode "Entity"). The SG-1 episode "Grace" has a sister Atlantis episode "Grace Under Pressure". There was even a week in which the two shows, airing back-to-back, featured very similar, yet unrelated enemies haunting each team's base: SG-1 had to deal with Anubis in "Lockdown", and the Atlantis team faced an alien being in "Hide and Seek". Both enemies took the form of inky black [[Energy Beings]] and were disposed of the same
** Two episodes of ''Stargate SG-1'' several years apart both featured O'Neill being implanted with an Ancient [[Magical Database]] that gave him access to tremendous lost wisdom but was slowly killing him. In both episodes, his fading language ability was a serious obstacle, and in both episodes, the solution depended on him using his newfound mysterious knowledge to activate some powerful [[Applied Phlebotinum]] to reach the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Asgard]] for help. However, this was more of a twist or deconstruction of the
** Writer Katharyn Powers's first episode of SG-1, "Emancipation", was basically a recycled script of an episode she wrote for ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', "Code of Honor". Both episodes are considered some of the worst episodes their franchises ever produced.
** In a plot spanning several episodes, the home base has been infiltrated and all but conquered by a ruthless enemy; simultaneously, a cataclysm outside is threatening to destroy the base if the conflict cannot be ended quickly enough. ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' ("The Storm") and ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' ("Incursion").
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** Perhaps this makes the "quantum slipstream drive" that becomes a plot point in latter seasons of ''Voyager'' a bizarre hybrid of [[Shout-Out]] and [[Mythology Gag]].
* An episode of ''[[Friends]]'' had Monica obsessing over a switch which didn't seem to do anything, and spent the episode going to further and further extremes to figure out what the switch did. The episode ended with her flicking it on and off, deciding that it did nothing, but we see it actually turns the TV on and off in Chandler and Joey's apartment. A clear recycle of a ''[[Married... with Children]]'' episode where Al spends the episode obsessing over a switch that doesn't seem to do anything, going to further and further extremes to figure out what it did. The episode ended with Al flicking it on and off, deciding that it did nothing, but we see that it actually turns the lights on and off in the dog house.
** This was further recycled from (or into) a bit in Stephen Wright's stand-up comedy routine, where he tells of having such a switch in his house which he flicked randomly every time he passed
** Recycled again into a Nationwide Insurance [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV0GGspZAos commercial], featuring a man asking his wife the question while repeatedly toggling the switch. Cut to the neighbor's car getting smashed by the neighbor's garage door cycling up and down with the switch.
** Another episode of ''Friends'' had Chandler learning a lesson about not [[Minor Flaw, Major Breakup|breaking up with women over petty little reasons]]
*** The above paragraph was recycled from the [[Broken Aesop]] entry.
* In its last two seasons, ''[[MacGyver]]'' started recycling material from its earlier seasons, but with more emphasis on the Aesop than on the story itself.
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* The season 3 ''[[MASH the Series|M* A* S* H]]'' episode "White Gold" has a scene where Hawkeye and Trapper slip a mickey to Col. Flagg so they can perform an unnecessary appendectomy on him and put him out of commission, thus allowing the soldier Flagg's after (an aid-station medic who'd stolen some much-needed penicillin from the 4077th) to return to his unit unscathed. While it's more or less played for laughs, a very similar plot would be used to much more serious effect in season 8's "Preventative Medicine": in that episode, Hawkeye performs the unnecessary surgery on a gung-ho colonel so he can't lead his troops into a suicidal objective, but B.J. will have nothing to do with it, accusing Hawkeye of [[What the Hell, Hero?|violating their ethical code as doctors]].
** Ken Levine, one of the show's executive story editors at the time of the later episode, has stated that the similar plot was entirely unintentional, and that when they discovered it they were so embarrassed that they [http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/mash-oscar-show.html deliberately had their episode scheduled opposite the Academy Awards ceremony] so it would be seen by the smallest possible audience.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', "Six Months Ago" v. ''Buffy'', "Help": Character tries to save girl from predestined death by murder (Sylar/some crazy cult)? Check. {{spoiler|Girl ends up dying anyway of medical causes? Check (blood clot/heart attack
** Although {{spoiler|Hiro eventually does manage to get Sylar to save Charlie}}.
* The short-lived syndicated version of ''[[Bustin Loose]]'' (starring Jimmie "JJ" Walker) lifted several scripts wholesale from Walker's previous show, ''[[Good Times]]'', usually nearly word-for-word.
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** Snake ends up challenging Metal Gear's pilot to a fistfight (Gray Fox in MG2, Liquid Snake in MGS1)
* Actually ''invoked'' in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''. {{spoiler|According to some characters, one of the objects of the whole thing was to see if going through what Snake did in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' would create another super-soldier; and as a result, there are many elements that subtly echo the first game, such as the fight with Fatman among the crates, similar to Vulcan Raven; having to backtrack to the beginning, similar to the rifle; a fight where the player is able to go through the middle, but doing so is a game over, with both Vamp and Ocelot; even a cyborg ninja just to have one.}}
* All three ''[[Uncharted]]'' games share plot elements: [[Evil Brit|Evil and/or]] [[Jerkass|Jerkass Brits]], a vehicle chase in a jeep with a rear-mounted machine gun/grenade launcher, a [[Public Domain Artifact]] that mutates its victims (and makes them [[Goddamned Bats|incredibly]] [[Demonic Spiders|annoying]] to fight, {{spoiler|although the third game uses it only as part of a [[Meta Twist]]}}), a brief [[Genre Shift]] to [[Survival Horror]], and a good guy getting shot only to later be revealed as surviving. Meanwhile, the first two games share even more plot points, in addition to the above: a traitor who didn't actually betray you, a [[Big Bad]] with a less-than-reliable [[The Dragon|Dragon]], a forced team up with a rival against previously-mentioned mutants while you wait for your allies to rescue you, the Big Bad getting exposed to the artifact, bad guys dying [[Karmic Death
* It must have been made in large part as an homage, since the game Titan Quest has innumerable similarities to Diablo 2 – taking it much further than even most Diablo clones do. Consider the following...
** The first world of each game: In Diablo 2 is mostly grasslands ending in a dungeon crawl, in Titan Quest, it is the grasslands of Greece ending in a dungeon crawl.
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* Many of the early [[Hanna-Barbera]] series reused stories from old ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoons (understandable, since the studio was made up of MGM artists), as well as a few ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' (Some of the Warners story men wrote for HB). For example, the T&J short "Pecos Pest", about a relative of Jerry's from Texas who comes to practice for a TV appearance and uses Tom's whiskers as guitar strings, was redone as a Pixie and Dixie short. Similarly, the [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] cartoon "Windblown Hare", in which the Three Little Pigs sell Bugs their homes just as the Big Bad Wolf arrives, was redone with [[Yogi Bear]].
* [[Filmation]] recycled the premise of the ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' episode "Day of the Machines" ([[Big Bad]] uses an [[Energy Beings|Energy Being]] to tamper with the heroes' computers) into an episode of ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters|Filmations Ghostbusters]]'' ("Cyman's Revenge").
** Not only that, but the writer of "Day of the Machines" also recycled the plot for an episode of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''
** Similarly, ''[[Bravestarr]]'' has two episodes, "No Drums, No Trumpets" and "To Walk a Mile", that basically have the same plot: "a former Galactic Marshal, who has sworn off guns due to a tragic incident in his past, is looked down upon by his child. Then, said child is kidnapped by bad guys, forcing him to take up his weapon once more." Alan Oppenheimer even voiced the former Marshal character in both episodes.
* An unfinished ''[[Swat Kats]]'' episode called "The Curse of Kataluna" had its script recycled to make the ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures|Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'' episode "Eclipse" and ''[[Scooby Doo on Zombie Island]]''.
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