Entertainment
Beloved Star Trek Character’s Best Episode Secretly Ripped Off An Earlier Show
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
There’s an old, somewhat controversial statement about creative works often attributed to Pablo Picasso: “good artists copy, great artists steal.” The quote often ruffles the feathers of creative types because it seemingly glorifies the act of stealing from someone else’s ideas. However, the greatest sci-fi franchise ever created has been engaging in this practice for over 60 years.
The first Star Trek show was originally conceived of as “Wagon Train to the stars,” which meant it would take the style and sensibility of Western TV shows and adapt them to a sci-fi setting. Subsequent spinoffs adopted this same mentality and, inevitably enough, some of Trek’s best episodes ended up cannibalizing the best episodes of previous shows. For example, the writer of the fan-favorite Voyager episode “Projections” admitted that he created this seemingly original tale by mashing together two different episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
If You Glitch Him, Does He Not Bleed?
“Projections” is a Voyager episode with a very fascinating concept: after an attack on the ship, the holographic Doctor discovers that he is flesh and blood. As the episode unfolds, he starts to believe that he is actually a human being and that the rest of the crew are actually holograms. Thanks to a surprise appearance from minor TNG character Barclay, the Doctor is convinced he must destroy the ship in order to end the holographic program he is stuck inside. However, he realizes far too late that he is actually stuck on the holodeck, and listening to Barclay’s destructive orders will actually delete his own program.
This Voyager episode was written by Brannon Braga, the rockstar writer who helped transform The Next Generation into must-see TV. He was so well-versed in that earlier Star Trek show that he wasn’t afraid to borrow heavily from it when he was writing Voyager episodes. In an old interview with Star Trek Monthly, he admitted that the plot of “Projections” is a mashup of the plots from two very different THG episodes: “The Measure of a Man” and “Frame of Mind.”
Mixing And Matching Star Trek Stories
“The Measure of a Man” is, of course, the iconic TNG episode in which Lieutenant Commander Data had to prove in court that he was a sentient being rather than Starfleet property. Meanwhile, “Frame of Mind” (which Braga also wrote) has Riker trapped in an asylum after the completion of a recent covert mission. He has trouble telling what’s real and what is not, eventually discovering that he was captured by enemies during the mission, and all of the mind games he was experiencing were a side effect of these aliens probing his mind for Federation secrets.
How does combining the plots from these two TNG episodes add up to Voyager’s “Projections?” Like Data in “The Measure of a Man,” the Doctor must prove that he is exactly who and what he thinks he is. But there’s an interesting inversion here: the artificial Data had to prove he had the same rights as humans like Riker and Picard, whereas the Doctor had to prove that he was completely artificial and not a flesh-and-blood human being.
The Ultimate Story Synthesis
The parallels between “Projections” and “Frame of Mind” are even easier to see: in each episode, the primary character had to decide which version of reality was authentic. The Doctor had to figure out whether he was actually an Emergency Medical Hologram or Lewis Zimmerman, the human scientist who created the EMH in his image. Riker, meanwhile, had to figure out if he was actually the first officer of the Federation flagship Enterprise or a crazy man trapped within an alien asylum.
Brannon Braga was the first to admit that “Projections” wasn’t the most original story because it mashed up the stories from two earlier Next Generation episodes. Nonetheless, he managed to synthesize two older stories into something that felt both fresh and innovative. The result was an episode that has thrilled fans for decades due to its cool concept, vaulting ambition, and pitch-perfect acting.
Entertainment
AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering
TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97.
Credit: Sterling Stock Picker
The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next?
Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries.
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It also handles the heavy lifting most people avoid. The platform analyzes financials, growth metrics, and risk, then surfaces signals like whether a stock is worth buying, holding, or avoiding. There’s even a “North Star” system that simplifies that call into something actionable.
Mashable Trend Report
If you’re building from scratch, there’s a done-for-you portfolio builder that aligns with your risk tolerance. If you already have positions, it can suggest adjustments based on your portfolio’s performance.
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Entertainment
Get 2TB encrypted cloud storage and collaboration tools for just $112.49
TL;DR: Lifetime access to 2TB of secure Drime cloud storage is on sale for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
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Cloud storage is one of those things that quickly turns into a monthly bill you forget about. That’s what makes a lifetime option like Drime worth a closer look.
You can currently get 2TB of storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99), which means no ongoing fees just to keep your files accessible.
Mashable Deals
But this isn’t just a place to dump files and forget about them. Drime leans more toward being a full workspace. You can upload, sync, and access files across devices, but also edit documents, leave comments, and collaborate with others without switching tools. It’s useful if you’re juggling projects, clients, or even just shared folders with family.
Security is a big part of the pitch. Files stored in the encrypted Vault are protected by end-to-end encryption, and everything is hosted in Europe in compliance with GDPR standards. This means your data isn’t floating around unsecured, and you have more control over who sees what.
There are also a lot of small quality-of-life features that make a difference over time — like version history for restoring older files, advanced link sharing with passwords and expiration dates, and even built-in e-signature tools.
It’s a simple way to get more control over your files without adding another monthly expense.
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Get lifetime access to 2TB of Drime Cloud Storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
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Entertainment
The Bear still doesnt know how to write romance
Whenever The Bear introduces a new female character, I pray she doesn’t become a love interest for one of the male leads. Not because I hate romance, but because I specifically hate the way The Bear does romance.
The clearest offender is Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon). A childhood friend who re-enters Carmy’s life, Claire is less a real human character than she is a walking self-help book for Carmy. She spends almost every moment she’s on screen talking about him: her memories of him, his mental health struggles, his relationship with his family. In theory, she has a life apart from Carmy — her defining character trait outside of being his girlfriend is vaguely “nurse” — but in watching The Bear, you wouldn’t know it.
Usually a great performer (see: Shiva Baby, Oh, Hi!, and more), Gordon is reduced to two modes here: luminous love interest hanging onto Carmy’s every word, or calming therapist. She’s not the only Bear character to meet this fate. As The Bear builds Ever staffer Jessica (Sarah Ramos) into a possible match for Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), it replaces her level-headed expertise with empty platitudes designed to ground him. (Season 4 line “honesty is sanity” made me want to drive my head through a wall.) Elsewhere, Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), acts as a similar pillar of support.
Their heads constantly askew, their eyes lit up in adoration, their mouths always ready to offer up an eager laugh or some cornball advice, these characters morph into The Bear‘s single idea of a Woman In Love. Now, The Bear‘s standalone episode “Gary” offers a new addition to this pantheon: Sherri (Marin Ireland) from Gary, Indiana.
Mashable Top Stories
Sherri is a woman whom Richie and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) meet at a bar while on a work trip to Gary. She immediately strikes up a rapport with Mikey, playing a private game of “Fact or Fiction” with him, listening to his complicated woes while nestled together in a bathroom stall, and stealing his beanie and wearing it like a middle schooler trying to get a rise out of a crush. It’s a level of blindly supportive compassion we haven’t seen since Claire Bear, and Ireland, typically a huge asset to any project, soon becomes trapped in The Bear‘s love interest archetype. (Someone please ban affectionate head tilts from the set of The Bear, effective immediately.)
While Sherri feels like she was meant to be a moment of bright connection in Mikey’s life, maybe even “the one that got away,” she really just comes across as an empty vessel for him to pour his trauma into. “What are you looking for, Michael?” she wonders. Later, when he asks permission to do a bump of cocaine, she simply responds, “I want you to be you.” It’s a series of faux-deep exchanges that even two great performers can’t sell. (It doesn’t help that Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach wrote the episode.)
That faux-deepness is what sinks The Bear‘s other romances, too. The show tries to force these deep, cosmic connections, but it forgets that these relationships should be a two-way street. Perhaps that’s why many viewers are drawn to shipping Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). While the showrunners have affirmed that their relationship is platonic — and I personally agree with that choice — what sets this hypothetical pairing apart is that they each have such rich lives, both in their work together and their time apart. That’s because The Bear is invested in both of them as characters, rather than just using one as a device to unlock the other. You simply can’t say the same of The Bear‘s other romantic pairings, and the release of “Gary” further proves that romance is the recipe The Bear has yet to master.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
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