The episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th CenturySpace Vampire is Dracula...In Space, complete with a wrecked ship with a ship's log that documents the deaths of the crew and a passenger named William Helsing from "New London"
While Power Rangers repeatedly uses this trope (list below), the series actually titled Power Rangers in Space is not an example. The move to outer space brought a lot of changes to the status quo, such as more complex villains and mostly abandoning the City of Adventure setup in favor of searching alien planets for their kidnapped mentor. That said, most Power Rangers series are recycled:
"Murder on the Rising Star" = Murder on the Orient Express
Both the old and new series was heavily inspired by series creator Glen Larson's Mormon faith, making it effectively The Book of MormonIN SPACE!
Hmm...the twelve tribes colonies, originated from Eden Kobol, was forced to move from their homeland to find a promised land Earth that only was known from legend, all due to the actions of a certain man, who after receiving visions and power from a higher being, eventually become the founder and leader of Judaism Christianity a monothestic religion and preach about grace, and after wandering around the desert space for forty four years, manage to arrive on a lush green place planet that is eventually OUR Earth, all according to the plan of the higher being. Hmm, sounds like a familiar book...
The re-imagined series gave us the episode "The Captain's Hand" = Crimson TideIN SPACE!
With the revival of serial-formatted TV such as 24 and others, rather than episodic tales, the Re-imagined Series and J.J. Abrams's Lost were can't-miss-an-episode shows at the time. The subject matter and Mind Screw plots between these two shows were too similar for some fans, jesting that the new BSG was "LOST:IN SPACE!"
Suite Life on Deck is The Suite Life of Zack and CodyON A LUXURY LINER! This one is a direct continuation, a sequel series with the setting changed from a hotel to a cruise liner.
Xena was ''Hercules...WITH CHICKS! And INCREASINGLY BLATANT LESBIAN SUBTEXT!
The Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" is the 1957 WWII submarine movie The Enemy BelowIN 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. The Enterprise's phasers act like depth charges, and at one point the Enterprise and the Romulan ship both go to silent running, fearing to talk loudlylest the other vessel hear them.
The Romulans in this episode were The Roman EmpireIN SPACE!, as exemplified by Mark Lenard's dignified Centurion character. They didn't stay that way, though. Compare the Romulans in the Star Trek reboot movie.
The much-maligned Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Meridian" was, as admitted by producer Ira Steven Behr, BrigadoonIN SPACE! Recalling this idea at a later date, Behr admitted: "I am a moron."
The original concept for Deep Space Nine (before they shifted the location from a Federation colony planet to a space station after J. Michael Straczynski pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount) would have been Star TrekON LAND!
The episode "Starship Down" is basically Das BootIN SPACE.
Stargate Infinity is Stargate SG-1IN THE FUTURE! 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 GirlIN SPACE!". And they're NONE TOO PLEASED ABOUT IT, EITHER! Actually, it's more like "LostIN SPACE!" (but definitely not Lost in Space).
The "you can't go home again" and "big ancient structure with lots of rooms to explore" premise means that Universe is Stargate AtlantisIN 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 off the back of a lorry, no questions asked."
The Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned" was The Poseidon AdventureIN SPACE! It's even lampshaded, since the space ship is appropriately named The Titanic.
Its seems to be a recurring theme for the specials, 2010 had "A Christmas Carol" which was, of course, A Christmas CarolIN SPACE! ...WITH A FLYING SHARK!
The Third Doctor story "The Daemons" is Quatermass and the PitIN WILTSHIRE INSTEAD OF KNIGHTSBRIDGE!
Doctor: Have you seen?! There are these things, these great big space Rhino things, I mean, Rhinos from space, and we're on the moon! Big space Rhinos, with guns! ON THE MOON!
The Eleventh Doctor story "The Lodger" is lampshaded as Doctor WhoON EARTH.
In-show examples; In "The Big Bang"(not really spoilers since they don't involve the main plot), we learn that the Doctor had previously taken Amy to "Miami IN SPACE"(with "automated sand"). At the very end of the episode, the Doctor is informed of an "Egyptian Goddess on the Orient Express--IN SPACE".
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.
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 BellIN SPACE!
Baywatch Nights? Baywatch...WITH DETECTIVES! And when that didn't work out, WITH THE PARANORMAL! And also WITH SCI-FI! And shortly thereafter, WITH PROMPT CANCELLATION!
Acceptable TV had a tease for Operation Kitten Calender: In Space!
Unhappily Ever After is Married with Children with A TALKING BUNNY! (And the dog became a third kid.)
House is Sherlock HolmesIN A HOSPITAL! Which brings the recycling full circle, since the Sherlock Holmes character was real-life diagnostician Joseph Bell AS A DETECTIVE!
Earth: Final Conflict has the 4th season episode "Phantom Companion" which is basically the Phantom of the Opera set on the Taelon mothership, or to put it simply, IN SPACE!
Code Red is BonanzaIN CONTEMPORARY TIMES WITH THE CARTWRIGHTS AS A FAMILY OF FIREFIGHTERS!
Dustys Trail is both Gilligan's IslandIN THE OLD WEST and Wagon TrainWITH GILLIGAN, THE SKIPPER WAGONMASTER TOO, THE MILLIONAIRE AND HIS WIFE, THE MOVIE STAR DANCEHALL GIRL, THE PROFESSOR AND MARY ANN!
The Duck Factory featured a young Jim Carrey tasked with rebooting a stale cartoon show. After finding he'd just proposed killing off the producer's favorite character, he notes the producer's office decor and saves the day by adding, "did I mention this all happens IN SPACE?"
Firefly's premise is the American Civil War...IN SPACE!
Sherlock: the 2010 TV Series is Sherlock HolmesIN MODERN TIMES!
Although it was beaten to the punch in the 1940's by the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes movie series which was Sherlock HolmesIN (THEN) MODERN TIMES-....AND HE SOMETIMES FIGHTS NAZIS!
The episode "Duet" of Deep Space Nine is a Recycled In Space take on the play The Man in the Glass Booth. The main difference is that the latter is about Nazis and their victims, while the former centers on the Cardassians, who are A Nazi by Any Other Name.
Rob Drydek's Ridiculousness is JackassWITH A SKATEBOARDER!
The Australian series Wild Boys is a Western IN AUSTRALIA!
White Dwarf is Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard in a science-fiction setting; with an added subplot adding elements of political intrigue and exploration of prejudice and tolerance.
MTV's Death Valley is COPSWITH VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES AND ZOMBIES! (Oh my!)
GCB (originally was supposed to be Good Christian Bitches) is Desperate HousewivesIN THE SOUTH. The advertising is blatant with this one, since they are on the same network and Desperate Housewives is on its final season.
This would make sense, since "The Kids" was created by Don Kirshner, who was the Monkees original music supervisor and record producer before the group had a falling out with him and he was fired.
Charmed: "Dead Man Dating" is GhostIN SAN FRANCISCO, WITH WITCHES AND DEMONS!.
