Variations on Themes

[Dave2]

I ask this partly ironically, but do sci fi writers consciously copy each other's themes, thereby making their workday easier?
We see Daniel Jackson go invisible after seeing the crystal skull, exactly like Quinn Mallory in Sliders.
We see the time machine of Dr. Givens in Outer Limits function like the device in Sliders. Sliders had an episode where an alien inhabited a human just like a goa'uld.
And the Wraith were also recreated on Sliders or partiially so as Kromags. Aliens in Outer Limits resembled Wraith and goa'uld.
So I guess they share themes to make work easier.

[Quizziard]

There are only so many sci-fi classic plots... bound to be re-cycled.

[maneth]

Indeed. I don't think there's anything sinister in it. Also, the Atlantis spacegates were predated by a dozen years or so by Babylon 5 jumpgates. Crystal data storage devices appear in more than one show, as do beam transporters (at least Trek and SG), wormholes (Trek and Farscape), and there are Keepers in Babylon 5 that remind me strongly of Goa'uld in SG. There are few truly original ideas left it seems, but what you do with them is what matters.

[Starfist]

Here's one for you.
The use of wormholes in Stargate.
Reminds me of 'Tunnel in the Sky' by Robert Heinlein.

[Snowman37]

If Stargate has similarities to The Outer Limits, it's probably because several producers and writers worked on both shows.

[Dave2]

Yep, they did it in The First Ones (Season 4) and did it with the masks and teeth of the aliens in Outer Limits and the Unas in SG1.