Last night's episode on BBC America was another remake of an episode from the "Mothership" series: Season 4's Born Bad.

The script changes* -- in particular the updates and the local color (err, "colour") -- make it worth watching anyway.

*A London crowd riots differently than a New York crowd; cell phones with cameras were not as common in 1994

And we have some old friends.

Doctor Who's Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) plays Crown Prosecutor Alesha Phillips.

BSG's Jamie Bamber plays DS (Detective Sergeant?) Matt Devlin

This week's BBC America episode, "Vice," is based on the script from Season 7's "Working Mom," as already noted, by one of our British members, on that episode's board, who posted it last year, when this episode first aired.

The one I caught last night on BBCA: "Unloved" is clearly a remake of the mothership's S4 "Born Bad".

It even has the same resolution.

Doh! Didn't even see TomM's comment at the top!

"Unsafe" is a remake of Mothership's fourth season show "American Dream."

The original script showcased Michael Moriarty's Ben Stone at his ultra-idealistic best. Ben Daniels' James Steel is normally temperamentally closer to Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy, so to explain his passion, they made the original conviction Steel's very first as a Crown Prosecutor, and the one that brought him to the notice of his superiors, leading to a quick rise through the ranks.

"Buried" is based on Season 2's "In Memory Of." The new title is doubly appropriate, referring both to Tommy's remains and Julia's memories.

It's interesting that in the original, in which the murder happened in America in the 60's, the initial suspect was not known to be gay; the cop only assumed that he was because he was literary, and because he shared the apartment with another "bachelor" roommate. And when the modern cops tracked him down, the two were still roommates, confirming they were, indeed gay. Also, they were not convinced that Ceretto and Logan were any different. Of course in 80's Britain the guy could be openly gay (or it could at least be an "open secret"), so there was no need for the roommate*. And in 2009 Britain, he would have no reason to disbelieve the detectives' sincerity, so his bitterness was only directed toward the retired cop.

What I thought was intriguing was in "Buried" was in the final scenes outside the courthouse. It was the background shots of Drake. For some reason, I just thought they were extremely well done, and moving in some sense.

Defence was based on the sixth season "mothership" episode Pro Se. One major difference was that the previous prosecution "screw-up" that had left the antagonist free had been Claire's case and her decision. Because of this, the scene where she is prepping the survivor of the current attack and getting heat from her angry father is more personal than it is when Alesha preps her in this version

I suppose that maybe they dropped the assistant prosecutor's previous involvement with the defendant in this episode because they had added a similar previous involvement for the lead prosecutor into Unsafe, which would have still been fresh in the audience's memory

Anonymous is based on the eighth season "Mothership" episode Stalker.

On "Mothership" Briscoe's ease in "reinterpreting" the evidence had been well established (though he'd never gotten so close to perjury as he did in this episode), and McCoy (especially in the first decade when Sam Waterston was still distancing his character from Michael Moriarty's Ben Stone) was seen as willing to do anything short of suborning perjury to win his case. Right up to the last year, McCoy was almost proud about how many times he'd been up against the Disciplinary Committee.

Also, Curtis was already established as scrupulously honest right from the start (In his first episode he was outraged when he discovered that Lennie's meal and his coffee were being comped by the owner of the eatery.), and Jamie Ross was portrayed as an idealist. So it was easy to believe that Briscoe would play fast and loose with the truth, and McCoy would exploit that, despite the protests of their partners.

In the UK version, the other four principals (including the "Guv") and, to a lesser extent the audience, had to believe that there was at least a 51/49 chance that Ronnie Brooks really believed that he was telling the truth about why he re-investigated and about his new conclusions. Even to the point where twice Steele directly questioned him on the issue before adding the murder to the cyberstalking charge.

Shaken is based on the mothership episode Homesick.

This episode is more re-worked than most UK episodes. Almost the only things the same are that a baby died, while the au pair/nanny was supposed to be watching, and some of the evidence was thrown out because of an illegal search.

In New York, Cause of Death was poisoning; in London, it was not, although, in an homage to the original script, the nanny had accidentally poisoned the baby on a previous occasion.

It was either Shaken Baby Syndrome or an accident, a point which was not resolved until after someone was killed as a "baby-murderer" and a trial ended in a hung jury.

Law & Order - UK is taking a break; it's not known when (or if) new episodes will be made. Bradley Walsh is leaving the show regardless. Here's a review of what may well be the series finale.