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Recycled IN SPACE!
alt title(s): Recycled INSPACE; INSPACE

Strong Sad: "But why are they in space? There's no reason for them to be in space!"
Strong Bad: "On the contrary, my dear Fatson; there's every reason for them to be in space!"
- From the Homestar Runner Strong Bad E-mail "best thing".

Old cartoons are often recycled from other shows, with the setting changed with just enough of a gimmick to make it look different. The characters will have the same character types, sometimes even the same voice actors. Sometimes these will be direct spinoffs, with the same characters with one major time or setting change. Later varieties included "AS KIDS!"

The majority of these are seen as nonsensical updates according to whatever else was popular at the time. Putting the series into space, though, is the big one.

See also: Animated Adaptation, Gender Flip, Recycled The Series, Setting Update, X Meets Y, This Is Your Premise On Drugs, Better By A Different Name.

Examples

Anime Comic Books
  • Green Arrow was originally Batman WITH A ROBIN HOOD MOTIF! (So it fits somehow that they cooperated against Superman in The Dark Knight Returns)
    • Later lampshaded in one comic when Green Arrow was relating an old adventure complete with "Arrow Mobile" and "Arrow Cave". Batman's comment "Yeesh man, did you EVER have an original idea back then?"
  • Usagi Yojimbo is Yojimbo (plus a laundry list of other Samurai stories and tropes) AS TALKING ANIMALS!, and has its very own spin-off IN SPACE!
  • Jink and The Rebels are Elf Quest IN THE FUTURE! Many fans hated them.
  • Ramayan 3392 AD is the Ramayama IN THE POSTAPOCALYPTIC FUTURE!
  • Rapunzel's Revenge is the Rapunzel story IN A SCHIZOTECH OLD WEST!
  • Marvel actually had a What If story called "What If Sgt Fury Fought WWII in Outer Space?", which was Exactly What It Says On The Tin. (It was actually surprisingly good.)
  • The Sentry is Superman WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES!

Film

Literature
  • Shakespeare gets this treatment a lot:
    • Disney's The Lion King and its sequel are essentially Hamlet and Romeo And Juliet, respectively, AS TALKING ANIMAL CARTOONS!
      • And Lion King 1 1/2 is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Were Eaten by a Lion Are Dead (a Tom Stoppard play featuring Those Two Guys from Hamlet)
      • Really? Existentialism in a Disney movie? I may have to watch it after all.
    • West Side Story was Romeo and Juliet IN THE MODERN DAY! (when it was made), AS A MUSICAL!
    • ShakespeareReTold [sic] was blatantly this-
    • Scotland, Pa. was Macbeth AS A DARK COMEDY SET IN A RESTAURANT IN 1970S AMERICA!
    • There are a bunch of examples of Shakespeare in an unconventional setting, WITH THE SAME DIALOGUE!
      • The 1996 Film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is the play IN THE MODERN DAY! WITH ALMOST THE EXACT SAME DIALOG! (They even had guns called "Sword 9mms".)
      • Similarly, the 1995 Film of Richard III is the play IN THE DEPRESSION! WITH NAZI PARALLELS!
      • And the 2000 Hamlet is the play IN CORPORATE AMERICA!
      • ...featuring some of the most numerous and blatant product placements ever filmed. Who can forget the Ghost of Hamlets father disappearing in to a Pepsi machine?
      • And 1999's Titus, set WHENEVER JULIE TAYMOR FELT LIKE IT!. No, seriously. One minute it's Ancient Rome, the next it's the 1940s. Perhaps it was ON ACID!
      • The 2006 Macbeth is the play WITH MODERN-DAY AUSTRALIAN DRUG LORDS! And WITH GOTH CHICKS! as the three witches, for good measure.
      • There's a BBC Macbeth, made in 1997 and starring James Frain and Ray Winstone, set in A PRESENT DAY SLUM!
    • There are also a bunch of films whose premise is Shakespeare IN A MODERN DAY HIGH SCHOOL!
      • 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew).
      • She's The Man (Twelfth Night).
      • O (Othello WITH RAP STARS!)
      • Four Words: Hamlet II: Ophelia's Revenge.
    • Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood was Macbeth WITH SAMURAI!
    • Just as Akira Kurosawa's Ran was King Lear WITH SAMURAI!
    • And King of Texas was King Lear... wait for it... IN TEXAS!
    • While Jane's Smiley's A Thousand Acres is King Lear IN IOWA!
    • Forbidden Planet (1956) was The Tempest IN SPACE!
      • However, all of those, with the exception of King of Texas, were actually very good.
    • Tromeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet in modern Manhattan and as a Troma film.
    • Oh, and instead of dying, the title characters run off and get married despite turning out to be brother and sister. It is a Troma film after all.
    • Hobson's Choice (a play, later filmed) is King Lear IN A 19TH CENTURY INDUSTRIAL TOWN IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND!
    • Possible Trope Maker is Orson Welles. He first did Macbeth WITH AN ALL BLACK CAST, IN HAITI!. Then his radio production of Julius Caesar IN A POLICE STATE! catapulted him to national fame.
    • Twilight is even described by the author as Romeo And Juliet WITH SPARKLY VAMPIRES AND EMO WEREWOLVES!
      • Unfortuneately none of the protagonists die as horribly to the characters to whom they are compared.
    • Gnomeo and Juliet. There's GNOMES!
  • Jo Walton's novel Tooth and Claw is Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope WITH DRAGONS WHO EAT EACH OTHER!
  • There was a movie called G that was The Great Gatsby WITH RAP STARS! "Black" versions of old stuff has become disturbingly common in recent years.
  • Clueless was Jane Austen's Emma IN A MODERN DAY HIGH SCHOOL!
  • Bride and Prejudice was Pride and Prejudice [-IN BOLLYWOOD-!]
    • Armaan was basically Casablanca IN INDIA AND AS A BOLLYWOOD MUSICAL!
  • Larry Niven, after writing his famous science fiction novel Ringworld, later realized that he had ended up writing The Wizard Of Oz IN SPACE!, with the plot and characters mirroring those in the film.
  • Science fiction grandmaster Issac Asimov was open about the fact that his classic Foundation trilogy was The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire IN SPACE!
    • Incidentally, The Trigan Empire was The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ON ANOTHER PLANET!
  • This troper remembers seeing a play called Pan, pretty much Peter Pan IN THE MODERN DAY, IN NIGHTCLUBS, ON NUMEROUS ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES! And it was performed in an abandoned power station.
  • James Joyce's Ulysses is The Odyssey IN DUBLIN WITH ORDINARY PEOPLE! And really confusing!
  • Micheal Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (and the movie version "The 13th Warrior" is Beowulf WITH NEANDERTALS!
  • Stephen King's The Stand is The Lord Of The Rings IN POST-APOCALYPTIC AMERICA!
  • How can you forget Eragon, which was The Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars WITH DRAGONS AND VEGETARIAN ELVES!? Durza essentially being Grima Wormtongue WITH RED HAIR! doesn't help, either.
    • On a similar but wholly different note, Temeraire could be described as Master and Commander WITH DRAGONS!. It doesn't help that Maturin is briefly alluded to in the latest book, according to Word of God.
  • Second only to The Bard is Charles Dickens, especially A Christmas Carol, which is a trope unto itself.
  • Harry Turtledove's Darkness sequence is World War II WITH MAGIC!
  • Umberto Eco's short story "Nonita" is a spoof of Nabokov's Lolita WITH A GERONTOPHILE AND AN OLD LADY!
  • Robert A Heinlein's Double Star is The Prisoner Of Zenda IN SPACE!
  • Karen Hancock's Arena is The Pilgrims Progress IN THE MATRIX!
  • Dragon Lance is The Lord Of The Rings IN A FANTASY WORLD .. err.. wait... WITH LOTS OF DRAGONS NOT JUST THE ONE ... and ... IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE... uhm... complete with Gandalf/Fizban AND Palantir/Dragon Orbs... only without hobbits or that funny magic ring.

Live Action TV
  • There is a Power Rangers series literally titled Power Rangers In Space. Interestingly, it is considered a classic among Power Rangers series with its introduction of a fully serialized plot and "sympathetic and multi-dimensional villains" (quoting That Other Wiki), as well as the spectacular finale Countdown to Destruction (aka "Crisis of Infinite Rangers"). Power Rangers in Space single-handedly saved the show from being canceled, after the debacle of Turbo.
    • On the other hand, the next series, ''Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy" is sometimes referred to as Power Rangers LOST IN SPACE!
  • Many episodes of the 1970s Battlestar Galactica are lifted from classic movies;
    • The Gun on Ice Planet Zero = The Guns of Navarone and Ice Station Zebra
      • Both movies were based on books by Alistair MacLean.
    • The Magnificent Warriors = The Magnificent Seven which itself was a western version of Seven Samurai
    • The Lost Warrior = Shane
    • Fire in Space = The Towering Inferno
    • Murder on the Rising Star = Murder on the Orient Express
  • Thats So Raven is Lizzie Mcguire WITH A PSYCHIC!
  • Many episodes of Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess are lifted from classic movies, themes or tropes, especially in later seasons. (Probably too many to list individually!)
  • The Movie of The Honeymooners was WITH BLACK PEOPLE!
  • The Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" is the 1957 WWII submarine movie "The Enemy Below" IN SPACE! Even the bearing of the unidentified initial contact and the captain's maneuvering orders to the helm are copied nearly verbatim. The Romulan ship is cramped and has LOTS OF PIPING AND CONDUITS IN ALL BACKGROUND SCENES.
  • Sea Quest DSV was effectively Star Trek The Next Generation OUT OF SPACE , much more pronouncedly so after the end of TNG's run (In the very first seaQuest episode after TNG ended, an alien race arrives in a ship whose design was quite obviously lifted from that of the Borg Cube).
  • Stargate SG-1 is Stargate IN SPACE!
    • And following that, Stargate Infinity was Stargate SG-1 IN THE FUTURE!
    • Not to mention how the episode "200" toyed with this concept. Imaginary pitching segments show SG-1 AS TEENAGERS! and the show remade WITH PUPPETS!, among other things.
    • Commenters to Gateworld are already calling the new spinoff Stargate: Universe "90210 in Space!" and "Gossip Girl in SPACE". And they're none too pleased about it, either.
      • Based on the premise, it may be more accurate to label it as Star Trek Voyager...IN THE PRESENT!
  • seaQuest DSV was Star Trek UNDERWATER!
  • Heroes is X-Men IN THE REAL WORLD!
    • Ever heard of Deconstruction?
    • To be fair, Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes, never read/watched X-Men, so the recycle was unintentional.
      • There are just too many parallels for it to be coincidence, and someone knew enough about the comics to name a one-shot character after Chris Claremont. The Shanti virus is most obviously borrowed: they may as well stop pretending and call it the Legacy Virus. It definitely belongs here, but remember: Tropes Are Not Bad.
      • You can probably blame that and any other comics shout-outs, allusions, or similarities on Jeph Loeb, a writer and producer on Heroes who's also quite well known for his comics work.
  • One of the criticisms of Andromeda was that it eventually became Hercules The Legendary Journeys IN SPACE!
    • Mind you, people were criticizing it for that long before it actually happened.
  • The Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned" was The Poseidon Adventure IN SPACE!
    • Half of all Doctor Who episodes ever are "Hammer Horror/Classic Literature/Contemporary Movie/Greek Mythology etc. WITH ALIENS! Doctor Who author Ben Aaronovitch once said that "Talent borrows, genius steals, and Doctor Who authors get it wholesale off the back of a lorry."
    • The Fourth Doctor story The Androids of Tara is The Prisoner Of Zenda IN SPACE!
    • The Tenth Doctor story Human Nature is the Seventh Doctor novel Human Nature WITH A DIFFERENT DOCTOR!
    • In the Big Finish Eighth Doctor story Max Warp, the eponymous Show Within A Show is Top Gear IN SPACE!
  • There are two unrelated Russian TV miniseries - Graf Krestovsky (Count Krestovsky) and Favorsky, both of which are The Count Of Monte Cristo IN PRESENT-DAY RUSSIA!. And now there's a third one, aptly named Montekristo...
  • Homeboys in Outer Space was, well… Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
  • Parodied on The Daily Show during a short in which Jon Stewart, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert are TV producers trying to come up with a new reality show - at one point, Colbert complains that "Every pitch [Stewart] makes is just one of mine with the words IN SPACE! added to the end."
  • Farscape, with varying degrees of delight, made several such episodes. Possibly the most memorable is the one where, locked inside his own mind, Crichton turns his existence into a Looney Tunes cartoon, with a lot of reference to the Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons.
  • Firefly is pretty much the Wild West IN SPACE!
    • This troper has seen it suggested that Firefly's biggest failing was it's inability to decide whether it was the Wild West IN SPACE!, or a Space Opera IN THE OLD WEST!...
      • Uh. Isn't Space Opera Fantasy IN SPACE, WITH COWBOYS? So Yeah...
      • No. No it isn't. Space Opera is science fiction that takes place in space, and usually contains no reference to our Earth. I think.
  • How has no one mentioned this? Lost in Space is Swiss Family Robinson IN SPACE! They are, quite literally, the Space Family Robinson!
  • The Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog was Power Rangers IN MYTHOLOGICAL IRELAND!
  • Turned on it's head with the Sarah Jane Adventures which is Doctor Who ON EARTH!
  • In 1993, thanks to the popularity of Saved By The Bell, NBC replaced its Saturday Morning lineup with TNBC, a lineup composed completely of shows that were Saved By The Bell IN SPACE!
  • The New Odd Couple was The Odd Couple WITH BLACK PEOPLE!
  • Babylon 5: Thirdspace was Quatermass and the Pit IN SPACE!
  • As Lampshaded in a Voltaire filk, Star Trek: Voyager was Lost in Space IN SPA... ummm... IN THE NINETIES!
  • Lost episode "The Constant" was essentially Slaughterhouse-Five ON A BOAT!
  • Extreme Makeover Home Edition is Extreme Makeover FOR HOUSES!. Need we say more?
  • Pirate Master is Survivor WITH PIRATES!
  • Cosmo and George is Mork And Mindy IN SINGAPORE! WITH MINDY AS AN INDIAN GUY!
  • Stylista is The Devil Wears Prada AS A REALITY SHOW!
  • Rock Star: INXS is American Idol IN SEARCH OF MICHAEL HUTCHENCE'S REPLACEMENT!
    • And Rock Star: Supernova is the above series IN SEARCH OF A LEAD SINGER IN A SUPER BAND!
  • One In A Million is ''Malaysian Idol'' WITH A MILLION RINGGIT AS ITS PRIZE!
  • Satu Hati Berdansa is Dancing With The Stars IN MALAYSIA! WITH CELEBRITY COUPLES!
  • Emmanuelle ... IN SPACE. Heh.

Radio
  • The Green Hornet was The Lone Ranger IN MODERN TIMES!

Tabletop Games
  • Dungeons And Dragons started as wargames AT THE SQUAD LEVEL!, wandered through Lord Of The Rings FREESTYLE!, and with the most recent edition hs been described as a fantasy MMORPG ON YOUR TABLETOP!
    • Then there was the Eberron campaign setting, which was Dungeons And Dragons FEATURING STEAMPUNK!
    • The MMORPG thing is more of a complaint.
      • And, given that many fantasy MMORPGs eventually boil down to Dungeons & Dragons ON THE INTERNET!, it's come full circle in that respect.
  • d20Modern is...well, Dungeons And Dragons IN THE MODERN WORLD!
    • The Urban Arcana setting in particular.
    • Then there's d20 Future. Which is d20 Modern (which as has been mentioned is Dungeons And Dragons IN THE MODERN WORLD!) IN THE FUTURE!...OH, ALL RIGHT: IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!.
    • Don't forget d20 Past, and d20 Apocalypse, which are Dungeons And Dragons IN THE LATE 1800s and AFTER THE END respectively. Both also had Urban Arcana style settings as well.
  • Warhammer40000 began as Warhammer IN SPACE! but is now pretty much its own entity; it still, however, has goblins in space, orcs in space, elves in space, ogres in space, the Church Militant in space, and Chaos Gods in space. Previous versions also had dwarfs in space.
  • White Wolf has a bizarre relationship with this trope and Ret Cons.
    • Mage: The Ascension was originally conceived as the medieval RPG, Ars Magica, IN THE MODERN DAY! - but then begat not only Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade (MtA IN THE RENAISSANCE!), but Dark Ages: Mage (You Figure It Out).
    • Exalted, in turn, was supposed to be the original