Character problem

[RedImperator]

So I'm about to start on my original sci-fi story. I've spent months working on the details, sketching ships and weapons, plotting out a basic story, designing the characters, etc. For shits and giggles, I've decided to write it in a TV script format. One of my characters, who I thought would turn out to be pretty interesting and offer a lot of story possibilities, was the avatar of the ship's AI, in the form of a pretty, anatomically correct android who was curious about the human experience (more because it looks like fun than because she's interested on an intellectual level, the way Data was).

Then, two days ago, I find out that shitstain show Andromeda beat me to the fucking idea. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck. So, what should I do? Should I scrap the character, or just go on with it because in five years, nobody's going to remember Andromeda anyway?

[Sonnenburg]

If two people can simultaneously invent the telephone, this certainly falls under coincidence. There's a Crossgen comic series called Sigil with a twist on this idea (except that the avatar possesses the memories and physical appearance of a dead shipmate.

All I would do is try not to cover the same ground.

[RedImperator]

If two people can simultaneously invent the telephone, this certainly falls under coincidence. There's a Crossgen comic series called Sigil with a twist on this idea (except that the avatar possesses the memories and physical appearance of a dead shipmate.

All I would do is try not to cover the same ground.

Since I've never had the pleasure of watching more than a few minutes of Andromeda, I'd have no idea if I were covering the same ground or not. I guess since I'm trying to avoid copying a Kevin Sorbo series, I could just use the old "stupid/not stupid" test and feel pretty confident.

[The Dark]

Pfft. Anne McCaffrey already breached the idea in The Ship Who Searched. Andromeda's not the first with the idea.

[RedImperator]

I know Andromeda isn't the first with the idea, but since I'm writing it as a TV series instead of a straight-up novel, what Andromeda does seems to be more relevant to me. Why am I writing it as a TV series? Who the hell knows.

[Stormbringer]

Then, two days ago, I find out that shitstain show Andromeda beat me to the fucking idea. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck. So, what should I do? Should I scrap the character, or just go on with it because in five years, nobody's going to remember Andromeda anyway?

Fuck Andromeda. It'll be gone and forgetten in not too long.

[Master of Ossus]

If you actually came up with it independently, then you should continue to write the story. You probably have a different take on the situation, and it will probably come out in a much different way than it did in the other show. I know that right now I'm working on a SW book, and I'm really tortured because every time an NJO book comes out it has an idea that I was ALREADY using (and had it written down), and then they butcher its potential. Even some of the things that Destiny's Way did right could have been taken straight from my book, and while Denning did much better with some of the things in his work than I'm doing, he still didn't capitalize on every opportunity that I took full advantage of.