Ex Post Facto vs. A Matter of Perspective

[UltimateTrekker]

I hate doing this, but I watched the first half of Ex Post Facto (VOY) last night and it is an awful lot like A Matter of Perspective (TNG)

Quick recap, in Ex Post Facto, Paris is accused of murdering after sleeping with his wife.  The last thoughts are taken from the deceased's mind and transfered into a machine that is played in the courtroom as the main evidence.  Then Paris has to relive the memory every 14 hours for the rest of his life.

In A Matter of Perspective Riker is accused of murdering a man after nearly sleeping with his wife.  They use his journal and other witnesses stories to recreate what they saw in the holodeck, it is to be used as the main evidence.

I usually hate comparisons because most of they time they are, "If you take these 2 DS9's, add a pinch of this TNG epsidode, then throw in this VOY ep, it's JUST like that Enterprise last night"

But this one really IS pretty close (like Berman forgot they did that already).

[Holodoc]

You should have seen the second half. Whodunits are a dime a dozen, but how they get resolved sets one apart from the other. One cannot really judge a mystery without seeing the resolution.

[StolenThunder]

Hmm, both story premises are very similar, albeit with different endings...

However, while they were similar, both were decent enough episodes, and so I don't mind too much.

[Elric3960]

TOS did that on several occasions and they had 3 seasons and 79 episodes to work with, so you can imagine the limited permutations the other Trek shows had to operate under and have yet to face with its new show.

I would have to see both shows to see the similarities and differences, but it could also be compared to the DS9 episode "Curzon" where Sisko had to clear Curzon Dax's name posthumously in order to spare Jadzia's life as well as the symbiote, even though we later learned that the symbiote already committed murder while in another host before it was planted into Curzon's body!

Maybe Reed should be shopping for a Deerstalker cap, trenchcoat and pipe for his whodonit.  No, I don't have any advanced knowledge of any future plots, but Worf seems to have been the only security officer that didn't have any murders to solve, so far....

[UltimateTrekker]

Finished it last night, and I agree the final solution is different, it was just odd how much they rang together.... Not a big deal, it was just something I noticed (after 350 episodes (that's abotu what they were at then) a duplicate (or near duplicate) story line is no big deal.)

[Holodoc]

'Perspective was just on TNN. This is the first time I've watched it since it first aired.

You're all wrong in your comparisons and pegging the Voyager one as a remake. Their only similarity is the male pegged by the producers as the romantic idol of the crew was accused of killing over the wife of a local - the trio is a dime a dozen. The plot itself is totally different.

In fact, 'Matter of Perspective is a ripoff of the Kurasawa classic Rashomon (sp). There's your actual derivative, folks.  8)

[UltimateTrekker]

Like I said in my last post.  I don't think it was a theft of remake, but just some related themes.  Like you said, the plot of the wrongfully accused is old and used time and time again, but it is quite similar.