Where am I stealing this from? Or am I?

Saint Fool · Jul 24, 2007

In my WIP, the hero has to immerse himself in water in his alien form every few days. He's not like Abe Sapiens in Hellboy who keeps the same form in or out of water. But I just have this image of a man, motionless at the bottom of a pool and I can't think of what it is from. Movie? TV? Book?

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where this might come from so that I can be sure that I'm not lifting my plot from someone else's whole cloth? Thanks.

JCT · Jul 24, 2007

S'Fool said:
In my WIP, the hero has to immerse himself in water in his alien form every few days. He's not like Abe Sapiens in Hellboy who keeps the same form in or out of water. But I just have this image of a man, motionless at the bottom of a pool and I can't think of what it is from. Movie? TV? Book?

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where this might come from so that I can be sure that I'm not lifting my plot from someone else's whole cloth? Thanks.

Got me. I wouldn't worry about it.

dclary · Jul 24, 2007

Bobby Ewing's underwater man show?

Or Ben Affleck's Daredevil in the sensory deprivation chamber?

The navigators in the Dune series must exist in a tank of water.

Caspar Van Diemme or Mark Hamil in their healing tanks in Starship Troopers or The Empire Strikes Back?

JohnDavidPaxton · Jul 24, 2007

How my last marriage ended?

Sharon Mock · Jul 24, 2007

It makes me think of Man From Atlantis, a cheesy '70s TV series about... well, the title says it all, really. I'm showing my age here, I know.

I wouldn't worry about it either. Whatever it's from -- if it's even from anywhere in particular -- it's what you do with it that matters.

Anonymisty · Jul 24, 2007

Sharon Mock said:
It makes me think of Man From Atlantis, a cheesy '70s TV series...

Aw, I loved Mark Harris! 'Course, I was 12 years old at the time...

sunna · Jul 24, 2007

S'Fool said:
But I just have this image of a man, motionless at the bottom of a pool and I can't think of what it is from. Movie? TV? Book?

All I can think of is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, and that was a pretty brief scene, and MVS wasn't an alien, just a human raised among them.

I'd go with it too.

Frosty · Jul 24, 2007

Isn't this a bit like that Darryl Hannah film where she's a mermaid?

Lyra Jean · Jul 24, 2007

I immediately thought of "Stranger in a Strange Land." I only read the novel. I dind't know they made a movie.

Pthom · Jul 25, 2007

The man motionless in the bottom of the pool is definitely in a scene from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. But in reading your first sentence, S'Fool, I was reminded of Odo, the shape-shifting constable in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He had to return to his native liquid state periodically and kept a bucket in his office for just that purpose. Fortunately, they didn't play that angle too much, for obvious reasons . . ..

Just Mike · Jul 25, 2007

Chill. Seriosly, if the idea rocks your socks and you write a great story nobody will care.

It's ALL been done before. Except for the arrangement, and the voice, and fine, fanciful details of the plot, and the unique imprint of your brain beamed out onto a million billion pieces of paper, and this, and that, and a little bit of the other.

Don't look for an excuse not to do it.

MattW · Jul 25, 2007

I'd agree that it probably doesn't matter - especially with the number of places people above have seen similar things before.

If it was something specific and obvious from only one work, it would be tricky.

Funny, right? Doing something second is worse than doing it for the 100th time.

Saint Fool · Jul 25, 2007

Aha! Stranger in a Strange Land! Thanks sunna7core and rosemerry and Pthom. As everyone said, I wasn't going to let it derail the book (not when I'm about to get to the alien-mad-monkey-sex scene). but it is nice to know where I thought I'd read/seen a similar image.

Toothpaste · Jul 25, 2007

Ah you figured it out. I was going to say either Dustin Hoffman from The Graduate or Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. Yes, neither are sci-fi/fantasy but they were the first two images that came to me. lol!

benbradley · Jul 25, 2007

I thought of Odo too, and it's been a long time since I read Stranger.

S'Fool said:
Aha! Stranger in a Strange Land! Thanks sunna7core and rosemerry and Pthom. As everyone said, I wasn't going to let it derail the book (not when I'm about to get to the alien-mad-monkey-sex scene). but it is nice to know where I thought I'd read/seen a similar image.

Go ahead and use it as-is, and whenever a fan asks about it at a signing, you can say you were just honoring Heinlein.

Stew21 · Jul 25, 2007

dclary said:
Bobby Ewing's underwater man show?

You mean Patrick Duffy in Man From Atlantis but I got the biggest giggle out of the way you describe it, Deek.

megan_d · Jul 25, 2007

Reminds me of the 'animorphs' kids series. The alien slugs have to leave the host body every three days and go for a swim in a pool of alien goo stuff to survive.

dclary · Jul 26, 2007

Stew21 said:
You mean Patrick Duffy in Man From Atlantis but I got the biggest giggle out of the way you describe it, Deek.

I bet you'd get a big kick out of an underwater man's show, Stew!

small axe · Jul 28, 2007

And a very recent one would be the cancelled tv series INVASION (not so much that the aliens return to their natural shape, but the image of alien-possessed humans floating wide-eyed and staring underwater)

Whether or not "it's ALL been done before" ... I'm sure the readers would appreciate some new take on it (and there your creativity wins you out of your dilemma!)

Man, I hate it when it suddenly hits me that something's simply been ripped off whole cloth from a movie or tv show we've all seen. So, yes, don't let it derail YOUR thing ... but you can always add something unique!

Chicken soup's chicken soup ... it's the sprinkle of exotic seasoning that make it new.

DraperJC · Jul 29, 2007

I thought of the things at the bottom of the swimming pool in Cocoon.

Where am I stealing this from? Or am I?

Saint Fool

JCT

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

JohnDavidPaxton

Sharon Mock

Wing nut

Anonymisty

sunna

Frosty

Lyra Jean

Two years old now.

Pthom

Word butcher

Just Mike

A trifle upsetting, isn't he

MattW

Company Man

Saint Fool

Toothpaste

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Stew21

megan_d

Falling in the milk

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

small axe

memento mori

DraperJC