Okay...I'm about to lose my temper, so anyone who doesn't want to see it,
skip to the next message.

Y'know, I am getting so goddamned tired of people who have no frame of
reference beyond the latest STAAAAAAAR TREEEEEEEKKKKKK episode labeling stuff,
to use the phrase uptopic, "little more than a remake of a TNG episode." Tell
me, do you *really* think that STAAAAAARRRR TREEEKKKKKKK invented the internal
investigations/trial story? If not, I have about 30 movies and a hundred or
so books to show you.

The logic of any such investigation is that you're going to come in, and
you're going to pull in the head of security because that person has
information you're going to need. What, do you think Star Trek thunk that up?
It's SOP in such situations. But because we did it, that makes it Star Trek.


Are you aware that neither I, nor Larry, ever *saw* "The Drumhead?" So
now you tell me how we make this "little more than a remake."

Further...you don't think. Damn it, you don't *think* about what you're
saying. You just type it in. Someone who owns the RIGHTS to a story can do a
REMAKE. If you lift a story from another series and to it (do it) yourself,
that's not a remake, that's theft. That's called plagiarism. You in essence
call Larry a thief. Dance around it all you want to, that's what plagiarism
*is*. And that's *precisely* what you accuse in your message.

Because YOU don't have a frame of reference outside TNG, suddenly Larry's
a thief.

Let me state this clearly, so the less synaptically enabled will be able
to understand it: I do not watch ST in any of its incarnations. I have no
desire to do any story that TNG has done. If I discover that any story we do
comes close, I try to change it. My operating theory is that a proper B5
story would be undoable in the ST universe. We do NOT do "remakes" of TNG
episodes. I did not work seven years of my damned life to do "remakes" of
TNG episodes, and I resent the hell out of this crap, which floats to the top
of the discussion every once in a while, usually from people who should maybe
watch something other than TNG once in a while and broaden out their
repertoire.

If TNG did or did not do a story similar to us is irrelevant to th4e fact
that we DO NOT do TNG remakes, and we DO NOT borrow stories from TNG, ever, at
any time, for any reason.

In the last two weeks, I've had to defend David Gerrold who got hit by
accusations that the premise for "Believers" was stolen from TNG because THEY
did a story about religious parents who don't want their kid operated on for
religious reasons, and lord KNOWS *they* originated that story...DC Fontana
got a few of the same when "War Prayer" came out, and I'm getting just a
little tired and cranky about people who do not fully grasp the implications
of what they are talking about offhandedly saying it's a remake or was
borrowed. How'd you like it, Kiwi, if I sat here and casually accused you of
shoplifting? Or sleeping around on your wife or girlfriend? Well, the
accusation of plagiarism/story borrowing is no less offensive to *any* working
writer.

Are we absolutely, crystal clear on this?

jms