8 Star Trek Episodes That PISSED OFF Other Franchises
We may be one, big happy fleet but that doesn't mean the others are feeling the love here.
Star Trek has been a fairly successful franchise, a fact that we can all generally agree on. For many years, it stuck to a formula that helped it deliver some truly remarkable episodes - ship flies through space, ship meets aliens, wackiness ensues, everybody's friends.
Sometimes, Star Trek tried to step outside that formula and it paid off beautifully. Just think of In The Pale Moonlight, The Inner Light, and The City On The Edge Of Forever - classics, all of them, veering away from that plot technique. Sometimes, however, the franchise managed to piss a lot of people off with its efforts.
Now, this article is not saying that Star Trek stole any ideas contained here, though there are compelling arguments for heavy inspiration along the way. Sometimes, there are hard feelings for completely justifiable reasons. Other times, there are examples of people being sore losers. In all of the cases, there's a really interesting story to be found in the annals of history, if one only has the fortitude and enough coffee to find them.
There may be some familiar ideas in these entries. There may be some bitter fights. But there may also be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
8. Our Man Bashir Vs MGM
Our Man Bashir was the fourth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that pays loving tribute to the spy genre, though of course it most closely resembles the work of Ian Flemming. Alexander Siddig described the episode as The Spy Who Loved Me, From Russia With Love, Octopussy, and DS9 all rolled into one. The episode aired one week after the release of Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan's first movie as the famous spy.
This was an attempt to capitalize on the resurgence of Bond. Thankfully for Star Trek, Goldeneye revived the franchise and was extremely well received. Unfortunately for Star Trek, MGM got wind of what had happened and a very angry letter was sent to the producers.
While the Deep Space Nine companion doesn't disclose what was actually in the letter, Ronald D. Moore simply said that MGM did not find imitation that flattering. This left the writers a little gunshy about using overt Bond references in the future so when the program next appeared in season five's A Simple Investigation, the references were toned down significantly, avoiding another run-in with the rival studio.