前阵子有一部据说是《大话西游》续篇的电影很是火暴，可看了半天也没觉得和《大话西游》有什么联系，而制片方之所以一而再、再而三地称其为续篇，只是为了制造噱头罢了。这种与原作毫无关系的片子充其量算是一个派生作品，与原作相比，稍显逊色。当然，也有一些相当成功的派生片。而本期的《追星基地》中，我们就来关注一下西方的派生剧。 
 

    A spin-off in television is a new series which contains characters, or sometimes just thematic elements, from an old series. They are particularly common in situation comedies. The trick to creating a successful spin-off is to keep enough of what made the first show a success to make the fans want to watch it, while changing enough to make it new and interesting. Hopefully, this will also attract viewers who may not have liked the parent series.

    电视中的派生剧是一种包含有旧作系列中的角色，或者在有时候只包含一些主题元素的新系列剧。它们在情景喜剧中尤为普遍。创造一部成功的派生剧的诀窍是要充分保留原剧的成功因素来吸引剧迷们去收看，同时进行充分的调整，使其变得新颖有趣。而这也有望吸引到那些可能并不喜欢原作系列的观众。 
 
    Spin-offs are usually brought about when the original show is getting a bit tired, so the producers attempt to get good ratings by making the most distinctive characters the stars of their own show, or simply changing the setting of the show. Often, the two go together - e.g. in Frasier, a secondary character from Cheers becomes the lead, and the series is set in Seattle rather than Boston.  

    当原剧有点儿让人生厌的时候，制片人就会试图通过让那些最出位的角色在自己节目中成为明星或仅仅改变剧情背景的方式来取得良好的收视率，派生剧往往就是在此时产生的。而通常，都是双管齐下的——例如，《干杯》中的二号人物在《欢乐一家亲》中成为了主角，而这部连续剧的背景也由波士顿换成了西雅图。 
 
    Occasionally a spin-off runs at the same time as the original continues, in which case the spin-off characters sometimes make guest appearances in the parent show. Spin-offs also occur in films, though they are rather rare compared to TV spin-offs. The recent film Elektra was a spin-off from the Daredevil movie, for example . 

    有时候，派生剧会在原作持续放映的同时进行播出，在这种情况下，派生剧中的角色有时就会在原剧中做客串演出。派生剧在电影中也有，不过与电视派生剧相比数量很少。例如，新近的电影《艾丽卡》就是《夜魔侠》的派生作品。 
 
    Some spin-offs go on to be equally or even more successful than the series that spawned them, though most are not so lucky. Here is a look at a few of TV's more successful spin-offs.

    有些派生剧后来会跟作为其创作基础的系列一样的成功，甚至是更加成功，不过大多数并没有如此幸运。还是来看看几部更为成功的电视派生剧吧。