MovieChat Forums > Seven Days (1998) Discussion > 'borrowed' stories

'borrowed' stories

posted 17 years ago by epb0205
10 replies | jump to latest

I've become a fan of this show, but I've noticed that the writers seemed to be short on ideas from time to time:

Doppelanger: Backstep spilts Parker into two different people. This has been done on Star Trek a few times.

Last Card Up: Cult compound under seige. Obviously taken from the Waco/Branch Davidian incident.

Last Breath: Russian submarine leaking radiation. Sounds alot like K19: The Widow Maker.

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A cranky old Adrimal comandeers command of a U.S. Navy warship, and ends up on the brink of war with China. This one has elements of Moby Dick, The Kane Mutiny, and Crimson Tide in it.

Time Gremlin: A gremiln hitches a ride with Parker on a backstep. This may be a bit of a reach, but the gremlin reminded me of the one that haunted William Shatner in the Twilight Zone episode: Terror at 20,000 feet.

Brother, can you spare a bomb?: The "ameribomber" (Ramsey's brother), was obviously based on the "unibomber", Ted Kazinski.

Pope Parker: Parker backsteps into the body of the Pope. This might also be a reach, but this one might have been an homage to Quantum Leap.

The Cure: Cure for cancer mutates into a deadly virus. As mentioned in another thread here, sounds alot like I Am Legend. Just for the record, I Am Legend was a novel written in the '50's I believe.

The Final Countdown: Parker tries to stop a nuclear missle launch that was based on bad/lack of information. This one is Crimson Tide without the submarine.

I have yet to see all 66 episodes, nor have I seen every T.V. show or movie ever made. Therefore I may have missed a few. Any thoughts?

[–] Gary198617 17 years ago

Most of those things you cited drew inspiration from something else. So I really don't see a point in pointing out that Seven Days borrowed from them. And actually as mentioned in that other thread, I am Legend borrowed the idea from seven days, which probably borrowed it from soemthing else.

[–] epb0205 17 years ago

I told you where it came from. "I Am Legend" was a novel written by Richard Matheson in 1954. "I Am Legend", the movie relased in 2007 was the third movie adaptation of this novel. The fist was "The Last Man on Earth" (1964), starring Vincent Price. The second was "Omega Man" (1971), starring Charleton Heston. So as you can see the story has been around for over 50 years.

[–] Gary198617 17 years ago

And in the novel, what caused the disaster was something else. As mentioned in the other thread.

[–] skelk 15 years ago

The last episode I watched was very similar to the film 'Run Lola Run' where he has time glitches (the beer bubbles go the wrong way - he calls them time burps).

Effectively split into three parts, the same story three times. The last being the most accomplished. He even spends the whole episode running which is the same in run lola run. They wouldn't be so blatent if they didn't want people to notice.

I think the writers are paying homage to their favourite movies/shows. The episodes are entertaining, they don't copy stories, just ideas and premises. There is plenty of originality to make it appealing. I am looking forward to finding more of these.

[–] Gurgus 15 years ago

I remember seeing that episode and thinking "hey, that's 'Run Lola Run'!".

Just watched the episode "Parkergeist". It was kind of a short version of 'Ghost'.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099653/

Stupidity is superior to the speed of light, because the speed of light has a limit!

[–] AtheistRevolution 15 years ago

Yea I noticed that. The whole alien babies thing.(species) And the episode about the alien prisoner.(outer limits) Pinball Wizard episode.(Wargames)

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

[–] JoeyBagOfDonuts 14 years ago

"Walter" was a direct script transfer of Rainman... I mean, can we get any more blatant.

"Please sign on the dotted line."

[–] Gary198617 14 years ago

Not really, its a rip of Mercury Rising. Have you ever even seen rainman btw?

[–] Matthyew_AKA_Jasonbronze 11 years ago

A lot of those tropes were used in maaany different programs not to mention books.

but they also used a lot of stories like waco to let people see the things that happened around america/the world that they could change, same with widowmanker which i believe is based on a true story and every other story that lent from history.

a cure mutating is an old trope even before i am legend, which was butchered in the recent movie. why the hell was he even a legend if other humans still existed?

[–] Lunchbox-3 10 years ago

I just watched "Doppleganger" and I think it's less interesting than Star Trek. In "The Enemy Within" Kirk is split into two halves and neither can function. One is thoughtless and agressive, the other is thoughtful but timid. It's an interesting study showing that many components both desirable and not can be necessary to make a person complete.

In "Doppleganger" the original Parker is unaffected and the second one is just evil. They might have been better off explaining that the evil Parker came from another universe (like "Mirror, Mirror") because it doesn't really make sense that the sphere drew the evil out of Parker but he was still completely himself. Secondly, how does the regular Parker get killed and then come back to life? In the recap at the beginning of part 2 they even mention that Parker has been killed by his evil twin and that he later resurrects ... somehow. Also, when the evil Parker split off the original they both had the same clothes. But when the good Parker split off the evil one at the end they had different clothes. Why?

Mostly it was an action story that didn't really require two parts.