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%% * CanadaEh: Occasionally.
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Incorruptible Pure Pureness has been renamed to The Incorruptible and redefined to be about characters who are portrayed in-universe as untemptable/incorruptible. Removing ZCE.
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%% * IncorruptiblePurePureness
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* GrowingTheBeard: Generally acknowledged to have happened around the start of the second season, due to two factors: the writers now had a clearer idea of the series' setting and their depictions of the crew synched up better, and the first season finale had helped provide useful background and {{origin stor|y}}ies for the AH.com/CF.net vendetta. Nothing at all to do with Dave Howery's infamous beard.
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* GrowingTheBeard: Generally acknowledged to have happened around the start of the second season, due to two factors: the writers now had a clearer idea of the series' setting and their depictions of the crew synched up better, and the first season finale had helped provide useful background and {{origin stor|y}}ies origin stories for the AH.com/CF.net vendetta. Nothing at all to do with Dave Howery's infamous beard.
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%% * HulaAndLuaus
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Once Acceptable Targets is no longer a trope
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%% * OnceAcceptableTargets: Likes to lampshade this.
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Enemies of the Germans, who infest the Wiki World (based on Wiki/TheOtherWiki) and seek to change reality to fit their views. Based on the large number of Polish trolls who have been known to spam alternatehistory.com's message board.
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Enemies of the Germans, who infest the Wiki World (based on Wiki/TheOtherWiki) Website/TheOtherWiki) and seek to change reality to fit their views. Based on the large number of Polish trolls who have been known to spam alternatehistory.com's message board.
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** Common targets are AlternateHistory authors Creator/HarryTurtledove and Creator/SMStirling, and of course Wiki/TheOtherWiki.
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** Common targets are AlternateHistory authors Creator/HarryTurtledove and Creator/SMStirling, and of course Wiki/TheOtherWiki.Website/TheOtherWiki.
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%% * TheMeanBrit
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ZCE comment-outs.
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* AffectionateParody: Many episodes use one of these as the basis of their setting.
* AlienSpaceBats: Recurring antagonists of the crew.
* AlienSpaceBats: Recurring antagonists of the crew.
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* CatchPhrase: Lots of these. Some examples :
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* CatchPhrase: Lots of these. Some examples :CatchPhrase:
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* TheChewToy: Luakel. Before he joined the crew, Othniel was often used instead.
* CityOfAdventure: The Hub of the Multiverse, [[SpaceStation sort of]].
* CityOfAdventure: The Hub of the Multiverse, [[SpaceStation sort of]].
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* CoolOldGuy: Ward, despite being a villain.
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* CunningLinguist: Leo Caesius.
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* GadgeteerGenius: Dave Howery.
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* ManIFeelLikeAWoman -- Used with the mirror crew in "Genderbender Mirror". Most eye-forkingly so with Female Mirror Luakel.
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* ManIFeelLikeAWoman -- ManIFeelLikeAWoman: Used with the mirror crew in "Genderbender Mirror". Most eye-forkingly so with Female Mirror Luakel.
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* OnlySaneMan: GBW's usual role on the ship.
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* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The AH.com Ship alone has a crew of about twenty regulars, not including the (often many) guest characters and recurring enemies and allies that appear in a typical episode. Often a writer chooses to focus on just a small number of crewmen to take centre stage for an episode.
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The series also has a [[Characters/AHDotComTheSeries character page]].
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** Also, via UniversalAdaptorCast; ''AH.com: Script/TheCreepyTeenYears'', ''AH.com: Wars'' and ''Luaky Commer'' (being parodies of HighSchool series, ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' respectively).
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** Also, via UniversalAdaptorCast; ''AH.com: Script/TheCreepyTeenYears'', DarthWiki/TheCreepyTeenYears'', ''AH.com: Wars'' and ''Luaky Commer'' (being parodies of HighSchool series, ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' respectively).
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tvtropestitleimage.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This happens a lot... Artwork by [[Webcomic/AllMannerOfBad Alex Claw]] ]]
The parodic adventures of the members of the Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom discussion board. Imagine ''Franchise/StarTrek'' if everyone on board was a pornography-obsessed stoner. And every episode was that "Mirror, Mirror" one.
The basic setting is that the ragtag crew of the ''MES AH.com'' travel between parallel Earth [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]], or timelines, exploring them for no better reason than to find booze and porn. Occasionally these timelines are serious, plausible scenarios, but more commonly they are jokey, unrealistic, magical or parodic situations, such as alternate Earths overrun by psychopathic lesbians or Charlton Heston film characters.
The show's main influences include Series/RedDwarf, Literature/{{Discworld}} and Series/{{Sliders}}. It has, oddly, "outlived" many real TV shows, having recently begun its fifth season with over 120 episodes produced.
New episodes of the Series are published on the main AH.com site, viewable only by members, but the Series has now acquired its [[http://mes-ah.com/ own site]], where [[http://mes-ah.com/episodes/ remastered versions of the old episodes]] will gradually be posted, complete with snazzy new title card artwork. The complete overview of the series can also be found on [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/ah.com_the_series this page]] of AH.com's wiki (including an [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/complete_list_of_ah.com_the_series_episodes episode guide]]).
The series also has a [[Characters/AHDotComTheSeries character page]].
----
!!''AH.com: The Series'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* TwoDSpace: Averted quite well in the space battles depicted. Of course it helps that the special effects budget consists of the reader's imagination.
* AffectionateParody: Many episodes use one of these as the basis of their setting.
* AlienSpaceBats: Recurring antagonists of the crew.
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: Commonly referenced due to the frequent use of a victorious South (the Confederate States of America) in AlternateHistory.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Subverted. The crew is about three-quarters American but is run by a Canadian, Doctor What. Also, most timelines lack a powerful USA (if only because [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Balkanised Americas]] are more interesting Alternate History possibilities).
* AuthorAvatar: Most of the authors of episodes are also characters on the ship. Some of them write themselves in a balanced way or don't mention their own character much at all. Rather more are subject to MarySue syndrome, or as it is known on the Board, Characterwank.
* BerserkButton: Several characters have these, most notably Flocculencio's tendency to go AxCrazy whenever anyone mentions the name of his nemesis Justin Pickard.
* {{BFG}}: The actual name of the plasma firearms used by the AH.commers.
* BigNo: after the crew saves the Multiverse in "Hair Today, Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", Doctor What asks Leo to bring the ship to an universe where all men are dead and all women are desperate for sex. Leo reveals that, due to the emergency they were in, he had to dump the data, including the address to that universe. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Cue the Big No]].
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Even though some of the writers are British, for a while the only episodes set in Britain were by non-Britons, thus leading to this being played straight.
* ButtMonkey: The recurring characters Chingo360 and Alt. Luakel, who are constantly trying to get their old ship back, failing, and returning to dead-end jobs in a mall on the Hub of the Multiverse.
* TheCaptain: Subverted; the AH.com Ship's captain, Doctor What, is a goofy screwball who leads the crew more through charisma and imagination than command ability.
* CatchPhrase: Lots of these. Some examples :
** Doctor What: [[ChivalrousPervert "I find that strangely arousing."]]
** Ward: [[{{Jerkass}} "Get your head out of your ass, boy!"]]
** Thande: [[BigDamnHeroes "Daring Commando Raid??"]]
** GBW: "[[ParodiedTrope Sorry]], [[InsaneTrollLogic logic and reason]], [[AvertedTrope I know...]]"
* CharacterisationMarchesOn: Typically with the more minor characters. Also, everyone has tended to become less AxCrazy over time.
* TheChewToy: Luakel. Before he joined the crew, Othniel was often used instead.
* CityOfAdventure: The Hub of the Multiverse, [[SpaceStation sort of]].
* ContinuityPorn: Anything written by Merry Prankster. Also the season three finale, "Hair Today Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", which tied together threads started in about seven earlier episodes.
* CoolAirship: Of course. For example, the ''Ludendorff'' from "Sealions on an Airship".
* CoolOldGuy: Ward, despite being a villain.
* CoolStarship: The AH.com Ship and [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/ships_of_the_ah.com_series its sister ships]], such as the CF.net or AV.net.
* CunningLinguist: Leo Caesius.
* DependingOnTheWriter: In the earlier seasons, much less noticeable later on.
* EvilCounterpart: The Mirror Crew, who in the finest traditions of this role are all equipped with goatees. Also became the crew's Opposite Gender Counterparts in the singularly disturbing episode "Genderbender Mirror".
* ExpansionPackPast: Everyone, due to flashback episodes filling in how different characters joined the crew. The ship itself has a backstory that only comes at the end of season one.
* ExplosiveInstrumentation: Discussed and then justified--it turns out that the ship's consoles are packed with explosives, because its original builders wanted to have the ability to detonate the console of a treacherous crewman in a YouHaveFailedMe fashion.
* ForeShadowing: when the Administratum says that the Luakels are all clones that tend to destroy everything in the timelines they are sent to, Doctor What mentions that the Luakel he knows has parents and all of that. [[spoiler:It is a plot point, because the AH.com Luakel is the original one.]]
* FunnyForeigner: Played with. The Board has a very international audience so this can only be used ironically. We meet entire planets' worth of people acting according to their national stereotypes thanks to a nefarious virus.
* GadgeteerGenius: Dave Howery.
* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: Chingo and Alt-Luakel. No matter how clever their ZanyScheme to get themselves out of their dead-end BurgerFool jobs at the Hub, they're always back there again by the end of the episode.
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Doctor What's children by Atta]].
* HumansAreWhite: Averted. While the majority of the crew are, indeed, various shades of pink, there are at least three non-white crewmembers - G.Bone (interracial), Flocculencio (Indian), and Psychomeltdown (the ''other'' sort of Indian) as well as many non-white guest stars.
* InnBetweenTheWorlds: Ouroboros, the "Pub in the Hub of the Multiverse", functions in this capacity, although it's technically in an ATL of its own not a separate dimension. Other locations serve similar purposes: it's implied that crosstime traffic is quite widely used in certain timelines and certain locations, for example the orbital city of Singapore, have developed into crosstime ports.
* LampshadeHanging: Every cliché of AlternateHistory and SpeculativeFiction has been lampshaded at least once.
* LaserGuidedKarma: a non-lethal one. In "Teens On A Ship", Ward infects most of the members of the AH.com ship with a "teenifying virus" to transform everyone into a kid. At the end of the episode, the AH.com happily get their revenge, and soon it is Ward and the others who are being teenified.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: The Rafeks.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The AH.com Ship alone has a crew of about twenty regulars, not including the (often many) guest characters and recurring enemies and allies that appear in a typical episode. Often a writer chooses to focus on just a small number of crewmen to take centre stage for an episode.
* LowerDeckEpisode: "Second Stringers", along with to a lesser extent other episodes by Michael.
* MacGuffin: Usually "vital engine parts" (which we never hear of again) fulfil this role in driving the crew to explore a timeline searching for replacements.
** Alternately, porn and booze.
* MadScientist: Both Thande (chemistry) and Torqumada (biology and medicine), who often compete. Dave Howery occasionally evokes more of a Mad ''Engineer'' persona.
* ManIFeelLikeAWoman -- Used with the mirror crew in "Genderbender Mirror". Most eye-forkingly so with Female Mirror Luakel.
* TheMultiverse: Given the jokey alternate history premises behind most episodes, this trope is the broad setting of the series, in addition to outer space. The trope is commonly referred to by its name.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Doctor What, having suffered memory loss, helps a bunch of Neandertals that nearly destroyed his homeworld escape death from Ward. The Neandertals proceed with their plans to kill Ward and then eliminate all humanity from the Multiverse.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:when they get sent back to the past, their presence is what makes the Machine clone Luakels.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Three examples stand out. The Asian Lesbian Ninjas in Leather from the episode "Genderbender Mirror". The Nazis Riding Dinosaurs, led by Cyborg Himmler and Golden Throne Hitler, in the middle of the hollow Earth, in "Dinos and Nazis and Deros, Oh My". And then there's "Hair Today Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", which features an interstellar virus ship being foiled by having its bomb bay doors blasted shut at the last minute by an F-16. Which is being piloted by Elvis. Who is the World Emperor and religious icon of the timeline in question.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Averted, both with Alyson Hannigan (who half the crew lusts after) and Keira Knightly (who is the subject of the other half's... affections).
* NoFourthWall: Varies, but tends to increase as the series progresses; one fourth-season episode is technically about what happens when the writing staff goes on strike and the [[ExecutiveMeddling Editor in Chief]] is forced to get... ''[[AxCrazy sub-par]]'' replacements.
* OfficialCouple -- Landshark and Iron Yuppie. Later, also Dave Howery and Keira Knightley (don't ask).
* OnlySaneMan: GBW's usual role on the ship.
* [[PutOnABus Put On A Crosstime Ship]] -- Often used due to former forum regulars, previously chosen to be crewmembers, leaving the Board. Crewmen Abdul Hadi Pasha and DMA were removed in this way - both eventually returned in real life, but only DMA was restored to the crew, Abdul Hadi Pasha instead being used in guest roles.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Some characters gain new catchphrases or attributes based on what their real life counterparts have been doing on the forum.
* RedShirt: Lampshaded with the CF.net's security goons, Federation X, Gedca and Fortyseven. All three are Trekkie forum members in real life, so naturally they wear red shirts as they go into battle. Yet subverted in that, while invariably defeated, they always survive. [[spoiler:That is, until the big battles at the end of the second season, which kill two of them]].
* LaResistance: Many episodes involve the AH.commers helping the Resistance from a timeline overthrow their oppressors, whether these be the Spanish Armada, [[Creator/HPLovecraft Hollywood Cthulhu]], or Barney the Dinosaur.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Averted with the ship's computer Leo Caesius' android avatar, who is a SteamPunk, obviously metallic humanoid robot. Played straight, however, with the super-sexy assassin droids Bill and Hillary (...yes) seen in the episode "Hey Hey We're The Monkeys".
* RunningGag: So many that we're forced to link to the AH.com wiki to list them. Most are [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/offtopic/running_jokes running jokes on the forum the Series is based on]], but others are [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/series_running_jokes unique to it]].
* SecondLawMyAss: Leo Caesius to some extent, especially after he gets infected with a virus in the episode "Leo Atrox".
* ShoutOut:
** The stories make frequent references to stuff that takes place on the AH.com discussion board, including various AH.com running gags and memes.
** The episode "Heart of Steel" includes references to "[[Website/SFDebris the magic meeting room]]" and "[[Film/HotShotsPartDeux Why did I bring helium instead of air?]]"
* SpinOff:
** ''AH.com the Next Generation'', written by and starring newer board members, "screened" in 2009 and 2010, but was LeftHanging later on. It featured a smaller crew of multiverse explorers aboard a newer ship, the ''MES Stranger'', and the definite rooting of the MES ship crews in the lore as the allies and employees of [[TruceZone The Hub of the Multiverse]].
** Also, via UniversalAdaptorCast; ''AH.com: Script/TheCreepyTeenYears'', ''AH.com: Wars'' and ''Luaky Commer'' (being parodies of HighSchool series, ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' respectively).
* SpiritualSuccessor: As a TimeSkip sequel to both AH.com The Series and AH.com The Next Generation, a new series titled "AH.com Enterprise" has been in the development stages since December 2013. The new series is meant to be part {{revival}} and part sequel to the first two series. (There are even some early plans of a {{crossover}} miniseries for the 10th anniversary of the first show - it would apparently feature the older crews and the newer crews from all three shows teaming up to go save the multiverse together.)
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:after the war with the [[AlienSpaceBats ASBs]] at the end of season 4, the crew and the ship get sent to the Big Bang (the start of the multiverse) and accidentally give the Alien Space Bats some ideas, as well as giving the Machine the DNA for cloning Luakel.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: Psychomeltdown with Alyson Hannigan. Later brought to high levels of squickery when [[spoiler:Psycho's [[GenderBender GenderBendered]] MirrorUniverse counterpart went insane and declared s/he WAS Alyson Hannigan - especially since s/he continued to maintain this even after partly changing back to a man]]. In later episodes, also used with several characters - both crewmen and recurring villains - with Keira Knightley.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: happens many times.
* SwissArmyGun: The 'BFG' weapons were eventually revealed to be this, in order to explain DependingOnTheWriter continuity issues with the weapons fire being described differently in different episodes.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The ASB s (Alien Space Bats).
* TakeAThirdOption: In "The Cult of the Swamp God", after a few members of the crew are forced to compete in a LARP due to a computer glitch, they are given the option to take one item from the LARP world. Dave Howery has to choose between a Bag of Holding and Keira Knightley. In the end, he chooses to put Keira in the Bag of Holding and take the Bag.
* TakeThat:
** Common targets are AlternateHistory authors Creator/HarryTurtledove and Creator/SMStirling, and of course Wiki/TheOtherWiki.
** A take that is given to [[BannedInChina German videogame censorship]] by having Germany use "Cyborg Robots With Green Blood"
* TechnoBabble: Used ironically. Notably, a powerful enemy weapon is said to use 'technobabblyon particle beams'.
** A term borrowed from ''Sev Trek'', a Franchise/StarTrek parody webcomic.
* TeleporterAccident: All the time, but usually played for laughs. There is the odd exception, such as "To A Theatre Near You", where it is used for drama.
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:what the main characters have to do when they accidentally send the [=AH.com=] into the future from the Big Bang, without themselves inside.]]
* TheVerse: "AH.comverse". The two newer series, AH.com The Next Generation and AH.com Enterprise, also use the same setting.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Hermanubis and Imajin on the Hub, Shadow Knight and Scarecrow on the ''Mercator'', and Flocculencio and Michael on the AH.com.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Occasional villains. So relentlessly studied in AlternateHistory that they are invariably used in an ironic or deliberately cartoonish way. Usually associated with their (historical) plan to invade England, Operation Sealion, which is generally acknowledged to be so badly conceived that even Hitler wasn't crazy enough to order its implementation.
* TooKinkyToTorture: Inevitably, Doctor What. The only interrogator who managed to wring information out of him was his own counterpart from another timeline, Docteur Quoi. And that was by holding lesbian porn up just out of his reach.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Used as the actual name of the fuel that the Shift drive runs on, lampshaded mercilessly. Usually to be found in asteroid field mazes haunted by an entire race of psychopathic Pac-Men.
* UnusualEuphemism: Although ordinary swearwords are used liberally, occasionally "fenk" shows up, possibly because "''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 every]] [[Series/{{Firefly}} other]]'' sci-fi series has a blatant made-up alternative to fuck !"
* VillainEpisode: The "Counterfactual" miniseries and the later episode "Whatever Happened to the CF.netters?"
* VitriolicBestBuds: Pretty much everyone on the AH.com, but particular vitriolic pairings are Flocculencio and Michael, Psychomeltdown and Michael, and Matt and Weapon M.
* WaveMotionGun: The CF.net Ship has one of these. It's so rarely used that a running joke is that it takes an entire season's worth of episodes to charge up.
* ZanyScheme: Ward's plan to infect the AH.com crew with a 'teenifying virus' in the episode "Teens on a Ship" (lampshaded in that the usually dark and gritty villain Ward admits he's just in a cartoonishly evil mood), and also the AH.commers' plan to pay for repairs by getting demeaning jobs in "Temps".
----
!!Awesome
* In "The Not So Great Crusade", a part of the crew helps a science-minded lord in a world [[MedievalStasis stuck in the Middle Ages]] because of the AlienSpaceBats to resist a siege by a force five times greater, thanks to the use of technologies such as a [[SteamPunk steam-powered rhino]] and the [[BigDamnHeroes timely arrival]] of [=DMA=] and several Spanish mercenaries.
----
!!Characters
'''Crew of the MES Alternatehistory.com'''
!!Doctor What
Captain by default, a goofy screwball with a heart of gold. Obsessed with porn and lesbians, and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs porn OF lesbians]]. Canadian.
* AGodAmI: Parodied with his catchphrase "AND ON THAT DAY I SHALL BECOME AAAA GODDDDDD!!!"
%% * BackFromTheDead: BasedOnATrueStory, would you believe...
%% * CanadaEh: Occasionally.
* TheCaptain: Thinks himself to be this, everyone else just goes along with it. Occasionally has a heroic moment that lives up to it.
* CatchPhrase:
** "I find that strangely arousing..."
* * "That's the 37th strangest thing I've ever seen" ''(then lists some of the others)''
* * "Don't tell me how to ''(something completely unrelated)'', I've seen every porn movie ever made!"
%% * PornStash: Has one of the biggest in existence.
%% * SeenItAll
%% * TooKinkyToTorture
!!Grey Wolf
Second-in-command, a perpetually drunken Englishman with a thing about genealogy and plush unicorns.
%% * DrunkenSong
%% * GeniusDitz
%% * UsefulNotes/TheMidlands
* VerbalTic: Starts most sentences with "Um, fuck..."
!!Landshark
Chief pilot and third-in-command. Spends most of his time snarking at the American crew members or taking part in an S&M relationship with Ironyuppie.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Saying "Hey, I'm British!" as an InsaneTrollLogic explanation for how he knows some completely unrelated bit of information.
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * TheMeanBrit
%% * UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Not usually, but his backstory showed he was originally this, and he occasionally reverts to it as part of a joke.
%% * TooKinkyToTorture
!![=IronYuppie=]
For much of the show's run, the only female crewmember. Terrifies most of the men. In a relationship with Landshark. Has a sex dungeon full of people they encounter on their voyages, occasionally added to.
%% * EvenTheGirlsWantHer
%% * GirlWithPsychoWeapon: The Electric Chinese Razor Yo-yo of Death
%% * NorseByNorsewest
%% * PlayingWithSyringes
!!Dave Howery
Chief engineer. Has a pathological hatred of Canada and an indestructible wiry beard.
* BerserkButton: Canada. And someone harming, putting the moves on, or spying on Keira.
%% * ChainsawGood
* FreudianExcuse: It's eventually revealed that the reason why he hates Canadians and Europeans is that he comes from a timeline where Canadians and Europeans were occupying and oppressing the USA, and he grew up under the occupation.
%% * It also explains why he is so over-protective with Keira. [[spoiler:Because one of the occupiers killed his wife there.]]
%% * GadgeteerGenius
%% * HomemadeInventions
!!G.Bone
Engineer and teleporter operator. Hawaiian.
%% * ADayInTheLimelight: "A Day in the Life of G.Bone"
%% * CloudCuckooLander
* {{Flanderization}}: A running joke was him not paying attention to working the teleporter due to doing something else. One of these activities was reading ComicBook/ArchieComics. This snowballed into him becoming an obsessive fanboy of Archie Comics, to the point where he considers having an opinion one way or the other BettyAndVeronica dilemma to be constitute different religious beliefs.
%% * GeniusDitz
%% * HulaAndLuaus
%% * IdiotSavant
%% * {{Steampunk}}: Is eventually revealed to come from a steampunk timeline.
!!Psychomeltdown
Engineer. Navajo Indian.
%% * ButtMonkey: Often.
%% * StalkerWithACrush: On Creator/AlysonHannigan.
%% * VitriolicBestBuds: With Michael.
!!Michael
Engineer and security officer. UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n.
%% * ChewToy
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * SmokingIsCool
%% * UseYourHead: The crew have been known to use ''him'' as AbnormalAmmo.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Psychomeltdown and sometimes Flocculencio.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Is scared of/repulsed by ducks and redheads.
!!Flocculencio
General layabout and compatriot of Michael. Singaporean of Indian descent.
* BerserkButton: Anyone mentioning the name of his nemesis Justin Pickard causes him to go AxeCrazy.
%% * BrilliantButLazy
%% * OnceAcceptableTargets: Likes to lampshade this.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: In "Pasha's Pilots" after being tortured with a RealityWarper machine, he becomes '''THE REVENGE COWBOY!''' (a forum InJoke).
%% * VitriolicBestBuds: With Michael.
!!Matt
Weapons officer.
%% * TheBigGuy
%% * CantHaveSexEver
%% * CasanovaWannabe
* DoesntLikeGuns: As a youngster in his origin story. Now of course he likes nothing better.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Weapon M, who was originally his mentor.
%% * ICallItVera
%% * {{Joisey}}
%% * StuffBlowingUp
!!Weapon M
Head of security. Once had a threesome. Will never get tired of telling you about it.
%% * DownOnTheFarm: He's from Michigan.
%% * [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]
%% * HeterosexualLifePartners: With Matt.
* HisStoryRepeatsItself: Likes to talk about his threesome at the first available opportunity.
%% * HyperspaceArsenal
!!Torqumada
Ship's doctor.
%% * BrainInAJar: Is fond of these kinds of experiments.
%% * DrJerk
%% * DeadlyDoctor
%% * MadDoctor
%% * MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: With Thande.
!!Thande
Ship's chemist.
%% * AscendedExtra (appears much more often than he used to)
* CatchPhrase: "Daring Commando Raid([[TradeSnark TM]])?"
%% * MadScientist
%% * OopNorth: From Yorkshire.
* PhraseCatcher: "BLAME THANDE!"
%% * StalkerWithACrush: on Keira Knightley.
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: With Torqumada.
!!GBW
Ship's operations officer. Often shown later as being a secondary pilot and piloting the shuttles.
* CatchPhrase: "Sorry, logic and reason, I know..."
%% * DarkAndTroubledPast / HiddenDepths (though only occasionally hinted at)
%% * OnlySaneMan
%% * TheSpock
%% * StrawVulcan
!!Othniel
"Ensign and standard bearer", an evangelical Christian from Utah.
%% * AlwaysLawfulGood
* BerserkButton: "I AM NOT A MORMON!!"
%% * IncorruptiblePurePureness
* MissionFromGod: To destroy Doc's porn collection.
!!Hendryk
Quartermaster and Whatian Priest. [[ForeignCultureFreak Sinophile]] Frenchman.
%% * ForeignCultureFreak
%% * HeroWorshipper: To Doctor What.
* ShoutOut: Likes to make Creator/HPLovecraft references.
!!DMA
Security and Orthodox Sheepist Priest. Australian.
* BattleCry: "A JIHAD ON THEIR ARSES!"
!!Diamond
Optician, nurse, cartographer and Reformed Sheepist Priest. Also practices Pantslessness.
%% * NewJobAsThePlotDemands
* PutOnABus: After getting banned from the board in real life.
%% * SceneryCensor
!!Luakel
[[WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers Eager Young Space Cadet]].
%% * ButtMonkey
%% * DoesntLikeGuns
* SendInTheClones: We've seen more alternate versions of Luakel than any other character, largely so the writers could kill him off in a variety of interesting ways; this eventually became the basis for a plot arc.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: After an incident involving a gender-flipped, MirrorUniverse version of Kit.
%% * WideEyedIdealist
!!Kit
Ship's operations officer. Gay Welshman.
%% * CampGay
* {{Robosexual}}: Admires Leo Caesius' robot body's 'fabulous glutes'.
%% * StalkerWithACrush: On Leo.
%% * StereotypeGay
%% * UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}
!!Leo Caesius
The ship's computer, appearing both as a disembodied voice and incarnate in a robot body.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Usually averted, though he gets taken over by a virus in "Leo Atrox" leading to this. His backstory shows that the leadership of his robotic civilisation were like this, though.
* CharacterDevelopment: His origin story shows he was originally a great admirer of humans, being a member of a robotic civilisation that had grown up after their human creators had died out. He gets more snarky over time as his romantic impressions get dented by the reality of the AH.commers. In particular being taken over by a virus in "Leo Atrox" leaves him with a tendency to mutter things like "Damn fleshbags".
%% * ComputerVoice
%% * CunningLinguist
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * SingleIssueWonk: Obsessed with the Mandaeans.
!!The Mosquito
A giant mosquito born from a teleporter accident.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Subverted, he's perfectly harmless - he's male, and only drinks nectar.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Averted--there were several previous one-off jokes with G.Bone accidentally creating a monster with the teleporters, but this one proved popular enough to keep.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Due to the writers being unable to settle on a name for him.
%% * OddFriendship: With Bobo.
* TeleporterAccident: Was created by one, enlarging a normal mosquito.
!!Bobo
A flying brain with tentacles created by Torqumada in one of his mad science experiments. Is intensely loyal to Torqumada and more recently also to Keira Knightley.
* NothingIsScarier: In his early appearances his description was kept deliberately vague.
%% * OddFriendship: With the Mosquito.
* PaperThinDisguise: Was at once point stuffed into a Frankenstein body to impersonate Thande, and none of the other crew noticed any difference (and, in fact, they thought Thande was the Frankestein body).
%% * StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Talks. Like. This.
%% * SuperMode: Shown in "The Dome Factor".
!!Creator/KeiraKnightley
A product of a TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons holodeck-style game world, a DamselInDistress clone of the actress who was rescued by Dave Howery as part of a party of inadvertent [=LARPers=]. He managed to smuggle her out using a BagOfHolding and she joined the crew as a regular.
* ActionGirl: a couple of times, she has joined a mission and played a role. She also became fundamental [[spoiler:when nearly the entire crew became five year old.]]
* ArtificialHuman: Which means she has a simplified genetic code, and Dave gets scared eventually that one of the genetic manipulations that get inflicted on the crew sometimes might be fatal to her.
* NeverGetsDrunk: A corollary of her simplified genetics is that her liver processes alcohol too fast for her to get intoxicated.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Averted. She's referred to simply as "Keira Knightley".
'''Crew of the MES Counterfactual.net'''
!!Ward
Hard-bitten former admiral with a grudge against Doctor What and, indeed, most of the multiverse.
* CatchPhrase: "Get your head out of your ass, boy!"
* DependingOnTheWriter: Can either be ruthless but honourable or does things ForTheEvulz. Over time the first characterisation became dominant.
%%* FourStarBadass: Was formerly an admiral.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Aimed at both the Devourer of Worlds and Doctor What (the latter case because he believes he abandoned him while fighting the Devourer).
%% * ShellShockedVeteran
%% * GeneralRipper
!!Grimm Reaper
Second-in-command and professional sadist. Dresses up as TheGrimReaper.
%% * Magnificent Bastard: At least, talks the talk.
%% * PetTheDog: Or cat, rather.
%% * RightHandCat: His cat Pumpkin, occasionally.
%% * SinisterScythe
!![=MerryPrankster=]
Third-in-command, perpetually trying to take over.
%% * HerCodeNameWasMarySue
%% * TheStarscream
%% * [[spoiler:DuelToTheDeath and YouHaveFailedMe]]
!!Kilngirl
Chief engineer.
%% * TheSmurfettePrinciple
%% * WrenchWench
!!Fortyseven
Engineer and teleporter operator.
%% * ZenSurvivor
!!Romulus Augustulus
Security officer.
%% * TheStoic
%% * TeensAreMonsters
!!Dominusnovus
Weapons officer.
%% * TheCasanova (or CasanovaWannabe, DependingOnTheWriter)
!!Faeelin
Ship's operations and communications.
%% * StraightGay
!!Midgard
Assault leader.
%% * MusicalAssassin
!!Bulgaroktonos
Assault goon.
%% * TheBigGuy
!!Darkslavik
Genetic weapons specialist.
%% * GoneHorriblyWrong
%% * MadScientist
'''Other recurring characters and groups'''
!!The Mirror Crew
Mirror Universe counterparts of the AH.commers.
%% * AxCrazy: Luakel in his second appearance (the result of trauma at the hands of Mirror Kit).
* BeardOfEvil: In an obvious reference to ''Franchise/StarTrek'', all the mirror crew have goatees - except Doctor What, because his primary-universe version has one.
%% * DarkerAndEdgier
%% * EvilCounterpart
%% * GenderBender: For one episode, and continuing for Doctor What.
%% * ManIFeelLikeAWoman Probably the most disturbing version ''ever''.
!!The Germans
A group of German mercenaries, obsessed with politics and perpetually arguing.
* ATeamFiring and ATeamMontage: Due to them being compared to the A-Team, with a Panzer as their van.
* BackFromTheDead: Steffen has a HeroicSacrifice, but his essence survives as the main computer.
* BerserkButton: Susano has several, such as people using "Teutonic" to mean "German", disunited Germanies, people praising King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, and more. Of course, [[UnstoppableRage when somebody presses them all at once]]...
%% * CoolTank: The Panzer.
%% * FunetikAksent
%% * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Oberdada is an exaggerated stereotype of this played for laughs.
%% * HotBlooded: Susano.
%% * TheStarscream: Alayta, though on the one occasion he did manage to take over, it didn't go well.
%% * VitriolicBestBuds
!!The Pole Trolls
Enemies of the Germans, who infest the Wiki World (based on Wiki/TheOtherWiki) and seek to change reality to fit their views. Based on the large number of Polish trolls who have been known to spam alternatehistory.com's message board.
* {{Anime}} FanBoy: The Wikimasters, the incompetent rulers of the Wiki World, are universally of this type.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Human237, who steals [=IronYuppie=]'s sex toys to use as weapons.
* JizzedInMyPants: Molobo continuously does this after talking about the glories of Poland, constantly requiring a new pair of underwear from Hurgan. When the Germans show up with all their firepower, he asks for [[BringMyBrownPants the brown pair]] for a change.
%% * RewritingReality
* VerbalTic: Their Armenian ally, Rafi, is unable to speak a sentence without the word "genocide".
!!The Lesbian Space Marines
Originating from a planet where all the men were killed by a virus. After acquiring shift-drive technology from the AH.commers, began expanding into other timelines.
%% * GodSaveUsFromTheQueen
%% * PsychoLesbian
!!The Administratum of Bankind
A GrimDark civilisation perpetually at war and consisting of countless hellish hive worlds and huge warships like gothic cathedrals, presided over by a dark religion dedicated to a a dead leader upon a great golden chair. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
%% * ChurchMilitant
%% * PstandardPsychicPstance: Evil [=MrP=].
* {{Retcon}}: They were originally a more straightforward reference to ''Warhammer 40K'', but were later reworked to incorporate references from the forum's AH.com-ised fan variant, ''Banhammer 40K''. This change was explained in-universe as being the result of ASB interference.
%% * ShoutOut and LawyerFriendlyCameo (for ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40K]]'')
%% * StalkerWithACrush: Evil [=MrP=] has one for Keira Knightley.
!!The Guild of Cartographers
Or the Mappist Cabal, a group of elite mapmakers crewing the ship ''Mercator''.
%% * BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats
%% * GadgeteerGenius: Magnificate.
%% * NoManOfWomanBorn
!!The King
Saviour, religious icon and ruler of a planet. Wears white suit, eats cheeseburgers, plays guitar, has quiff. Reminds me of someone, but can't quite think who...
%% * [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]
%% * MusicalAssassin
%% * RightfulKingReturns
!!Mike Collins
Powerful enemy of the Hub.
%% * BigBad: In early seasons.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Whether he has powers of his own or if they are just the result of technology. The former view eventually won out.
%% * EnemyMine: [[spoiler:during the ASB War]].
%% * TheStarscream: In any episode involving him working for or teaming up with others.
* TakeOverTheWorld: His goal in many episodes is to take over the Hub. He actually has taken over several versions of Earth in the past, including Dave Howery's origin timeline.
!!The AlienSpaceBats (ASB)
Enemies of the Hub, embodiments of chaos, and have been interfering with various timelines since at least Season 2.
%% * MassTeleportation
%% * MedievalStasis: ASB interference reduces many timelines to this state.
%% * OrderVersusChaos: The Chaos to the Hub's Order.
%% * SufficientlyAdvancedAlien
!!The Hub of the Multiverse
A vast complex in its own dimension, a place where timelines intersect. The Pub in the Hub, Ouroboros, often features - it can be accessed from any bar in the multiverse through the door labelled 'Authorised Staff Only'. The Hub also contains docks for ships, huge shopping malls, and so on.
%% * TheBartender: Ian, who is also possibly the most powerful being in the Multiverse.
%% * OrderVersusChaos: The Order to the Alien Space Bats' Chaos.
%% * CityOfAdventure
%% * HeterosexualLifePartners: Chingo and Alt-Luakel, who are also [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] with GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity.
%% * ICouldaBeenAContender: Hermanubis, jealous of [=Super55=].
%% * InnBetweenTheWorlds
%% * TakeOverTheWorld / TakeOverTheCity: A common plot involves a villain wanting to take over the Hub.
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: Hermanubis and Imajin.
%% * WretchedHive: In places.
----
!!Drinking Game
Drinking game for [[Script/AHDotComTheSeries alternatehistory.com]]:
* Every time Creator/HarryTurtledove mentions that Sam Carsten sunburns easily, take a shot.
* Take a shot whenever Jake Featherston flirts with Clarence Potter over the phone
* Take a shot whenever you encounter the phrase "better--but not a whole lot better".
* Take a shot whenever US soldiers discuss the differing qualities of Yankee and Confederate tobacco.
----
!!YMMV
* GrowingTheBeard: Generally acknowledged to have happened around the start of the second season, due to two factors: the writers now had a clearer idea of the series' setting and their depictions of the crew synched up better, and the first season finale had helped provide useful background and {{origin stor|y}}ies for the AH.com/CF.net vendetta. Nothing at all to do with Dave Howery's infamous beard.
* {{Squick}}: So much. Oh, so much. Highlight if you dare: [[spoiler:A teenager loses his virginity with the {{Gender Bender}}ed evil MirrorUniverse counterpart of a gay crewmember; that same gay crewmember is forced into a porn shoot with ten women; the details of Landshark and Iron Yuppie's relationship are so wrong that they can only be alluded to obliquely; and many more]]. A squick-worthy moment is usually denoted by most crewmen crying for 'the forks!' (to [[BrainBleach stab into their eyes and erase the memory]] of having seen the act), except Doctor What, who will muse that he finds it [[CatchPhrase strangely arousing]].
** Even worse. In "The Narcissus Syndrome", Doctor What drinks a virus that changes his personality into something similar to [[{{Narcissist}} DominusNovus]] and [=Super55=]. The result is a Doctor What that thinks himself as the most attractive person in the multiverse. [[spoiler:He goes find the Mirror [=AH.com=] ship and [[SelfCest has sex with his mirror]] {{Gender Bender}}ed [[SelfCest counterpart]]. When he "wakes" from the virus influence, he cleans himself using several gallons of bleach, an entire toothpaste tube and a bucket full of medicinal alcohol.]]
----
[[caption-width-right:350:This happens a lot... Artwork by [[Webcomic/AllMannerOfBad Alex Claw]] ]]
The parodic adventures of the members of the Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom discussion board. Imagine ''Franchise/StarTrek'' if everyone on board was a pornography-obsessed stoner. And every episode was that "Mirror, Mirror" one.
The basic setting is that the ragtag crew of the ''MES AH.com'' travel between parallel Earth [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]], or timelines, exploring them for no better reason than to find booze and porn. Occasionally these timelines are serious, plausible scenarios, but more commonly they are jokey, unrealistic, magical or parodic situations, such as alternate Earths overrun by psychopathic lesbians or Charlton Heston film characters.
The show's main influences include Series/RedDwarf, Literature/{{Discworld}} and Series/{{Sliders}}. It has, oddly, "outlived" many real TV shows, having recently begun its fifth season with over 120 episodes produced.
New episodes of the Series are published on the main AH.com site, viewable only by members, but the Series has now acquired its [[http://mes-ah.com/ own site]], where [[http://mes-ah.com/episodes/ remastered versions of the old episodes]] will gradually be posted, complete with snazzy new title card artwork. The complete overview of the series can also be found on [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/ah.com_the_series this page]] of AH.com's wiki (including an [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/complete_list_of_ah.com_the_series_episodes episode guide]]).
The series also has a [[Characters/AHDotComTheSeries character page]].
----
!!''AH.com: The Series'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* TwoDSpace: Averted quite well in the space battles depicted. Of course it helps that the special effects budget consists of the reader's imagination.
* AffectionateParody: Many episodes use one of these as the basis of their setting.
* AlienSpaceBats: Recurring antagonists of the crew.
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: Commonly referenced due to the frequent use of a victorious South (the Confederate States of America) in AlternateHistory.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Subverted. The crew is about three-quarters American but is run by a Canadian, Doctor What. Also, most timelines lack a powerful USA (if only because [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Balkanised Americas]] are more interesting Alternate History possibilities).
* AuthorAvatar: Most of the authors of episodes are also characters on the ship. Some of them write themselves in a balanced way or don't mention their own character much at all. Rather more are subject to MarySue syndrome, or as it is known on the Board, Characterwank.
* BerserkButton: Several characters have these, most notably Flocculencio's tendency to go AxCrazy whenever anyone mentions the name of his nemesis Justin Pickard.
* {{BFG}}: The actual name of the plasma firearms used by the AH.commers.
* BigNo: after the crew saves the Multiverse in "Hair Today, Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", Doctor What asks Leo to bring the ship to an universe where all men are dead and all women are desperate for sex. Leo reveals that, due to the emergency they were in, he had to dump the data, including the address to that universe. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Cue the Big No]].
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Even though some of the writers are British, for a while the only episodes set in Britain were by non-Britons, thus leading to this being played straight.
* ButtMonkey: The recurring characters Chingo360 and Alt. Luakel, who are constantly trying to get their old ship back, failing, and returning to dead-end jobs in a mall on the Hub of the Multiverse.
* TheCaptain: Subverted; the AH.com Ship's captain, Doctor What, is a goofy screwball who leads the crew more through charisma and imagination than command ability.
* CatchPhrase: Lots of these. Some examples :
** Doctor What: [[ChivalrousPervert "I find that strangely arousing."]]
** Ward: [[{{Jerkass}} "Get your head out of your ass, boy!"]]
** Thande: [[BigDamnHeroes "Daring Commando Raid??"]]
** GBW: "[[ParodiedTrope Sorry]], [[InsaneTrollLogic logic and reason]], [[AvertedTrope I know...]]"
* CharacterisationMarchesOn: Typically with the more minor characters. Also, everyone has tended to become less AxCrazy over time.
* TheChewToy: Luakel. Before he joined the crew, Othniel was often used instead.
* CityOfAdventure: The Hub of the Multiverse, [[SpaceStation sort of]].
* ContinuityPorn: Anything written by Merry Prankster. Also the season three finale, "Hair Today Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", which tied together threads started in about seven earlier episodes.
* CoolAirship: Of course. For example, the ''Ludendorff'' from "Sealions on an Airship".
* CoolOldGuy: Ward, despite being a villain.
* CoolStarship: The AH.com Ship and [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/ships_of_the_ah.com_series its sister ships]], such as the CF.net or AV.net.
* CunningLinguist: Leo Caesius.
* DependingOnTheWriter: In the earlier seasons, much less noticeable later on.
* EvilCounterpart: The Mirror Crew, who in the finest traditions of this role are all equipped with goatees. Also became the crew's Opposite Gender Counterparts in the singularly disturbing episode "Genderbender Mirror".
* ExpansionPackPast: Everyone, due to flashback episodes filling in how different characters joined the crew. The ship itself has a backstory that only comes at the end of season one.
* ExplosiveInstrumentation: Discussed and then justified--it turns out that the ship's consoles are packed with explosives, because its original builders wanted to have the ability to detonate the console of a treacherous crewman in a YouHaveFailedMe fashion.
* ForeShadowing: when the Administratum says that the Luakels are all clones that tend to destroy everything in the timelines they are sent to, Doctor What mentions that the Luakel he knows has parents and all of that. [[spoiler:It is a plot point, because the AH.com Luakel is the original one.]]
* FunnyForeigner: Played with. The Board has a very international audience so this can only be used ironically. We meet entire planets' worth of people acting according to their national stereotypes thanks to a nefarious virus.
* GadgeteerGenius: Dave Howery.
* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: Chingo and Alt-Luakel. No matter how clever their ZanyScheme to get themselves out of their dead-end BurgerFool jobs at the Hub, they're always back there again by the end of the episode.
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Doctor What's children by Atta]].
* HumansAreWhite: Averted. While the majority of the crew are, indeed, various shades of pink, there are at least three non-white crewmembers - G.Bone (interracial), Flocculencio (Indian), and Psychomeltdown (the ''other'' sort of Indian) as well as many non-white guest stars.
* InnBetweenTheWorlds: Ouroboros, the "Pub in the Hub of the Multiverse", functions in this capacity, although it's technically in an ATL of its own not a separate dimension. Other locations serve similar purposes: it's implied that crosstime traffic is quite widely used in certain timelines and certain locations, for example the orbital city of Singapore, have developed into crosstime ports.
* LampshadeHanging: Every cliché of AlternateHistory and SpeculativeFiction has been lampshaded at least once.
* LaserGuidedKarma: a non-lethal one. In "Teens On A Ship", Ward infects most of the members of the AH.com ship with a "teenifying virus" to transform everyone into a kid. At the end of the episode, the AH.com happily get their revenge, and soon it is Ward and the others who are being teenified.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: The Rafeks.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The AH.com Ship alone has a crew of about twenty regulars, not including the (often many) guest characters and recurring enemies and allies that appear in a typical episode. Often a writer chooses to focus on just a small number of crewmen to take centre stage for an episode.
* LowerDeckEpisode: "Second Stringers", along with to a lesser extent other episodes by Michael.
* MacGuffin: Usually "vital engine parts" (which we never hear of again) fulfil this role in driving the crew to explore a timeline searching for replacements.
** Alternately, porn and booze.
* MadScientist: Both Thande (chemistry) and Torqumada (biology and medicine), who often compete. Dave Howery occasionally evokes more of a Mad ''Engineer'' persona.
* ManIFeelLikeAWoman -- Used with the mirror crew in "Genderbender Mirror". Most eye-forkingly so with Female Mirror Luakel.
* TheMultiverse: Given the jokey alternate history premises behind most episodes, this trope is the broad setting of the series, in addition to outer space. The trope is commonly referred to by its name.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Doctor What, having suffered memory loss, helps a bunch of Neandertals that nearly destroyed his homeworld escape death from Ward. The Neandertals proceed with their plans to kill Ward and then eliminate all humanity from the Multiverse.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:when they get sent back to the past, their presence is what makes the Machine clone Luakels.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Three examples stand out. The Asian Lesbian Ninjas in Leather from the episode "Genderbender Mirror". The Nazis Riding Dinosaurs, led by Cyborg Himmler and Golden Throne Hitler, in the middle of the hollow Earth, in "Dinos and Nazis and Deros, Oh My". And then there's "Hair Today Gotterdammerung Tomorrow", which features an interstellar virus ship being foiled by having its bomb bay doors blasted shut at the last minute by an F-16. Which is being piloted by Elvis. Who is the World Emperor and religious icon of the timeline in question.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Averted, both with Alyson Hannigan (who half the crew lusts after) and Keira Knightly (who is the subject of the other half's... affections).
* NoFourthWall: Varies, but tends to increase as the series progresses; one fourth-season episode is technically about what happens when the writing staff goes on strike and the [[ExecutiveMeddling Editor in Chief]] is forced to get... ''[[AxCrazy sub-par]]'' replacements.
* OfficialCouple -- Landshark and Iron Yuppie. Later, also Dave Howery and Keira Knightley (don't ask).
* OnlySaneMan: GBW's usual role on the ship.
* [[PutOnABus Put On A Crosstime Ship]] -- Often used due to former forum regulars, previously chosen to be crewmembers, leaving the Board. Crewmen Abdul Hadi Pasha and DMA were removed in this way - both eventually returned in real life, but only DMA was restored to the crew, Abdul Hadi Pasha instead being used in guest roles.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Some characters gain new catchphrases or attributes based on what their real life counterparts have been doing on the forum.
* RedShirt: Lampshaded with the CF.net's security goons, Federation X, Gedca and Fortyseven. All three are Trekkie forum members in real life, so naturally they wear red shirts as they go into battle. Yet subverted in that, while invariably defeated, they always survive. [[spoiler:That is, until the big battles at the end of the second season, which kill two of them]].
* LaResistance: Many episodes involve the AH.commers helping the Resistance from a timeline overthrow their oppressors, whether these be the Spanish Armada, [[Creator/HPLovecraft Hollywood Cthulhu]], or Barney the Dinosaur.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Averted with the ship's computer Leo Caesius' android avatar, who is a SteamPunk, obviously metallic humanoid robot. Played straight, however, with the super-sexy assassin droids Bill and Hillary (...yes) seen in the episode "Hey Hey We're The Monkeys".
* RunningGag: So many that we're forced to link to the AH.com wiki to list them. Most are [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/offtopic/running_jokes running jokes on the forum the Series is based on]], but others are [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/stories/series_running_jokes unique to it]].
* SecondLawMyAss: Leo Caesius to some extent, especially after he gets infected with a virus in the episode "Leo Atrox".
* ShoutOut:
** The stories make frequent references to stuff that takes place on the AH.com discussion board, including various AH.com running gags and memes.
** The episode "Heart of Steel" includes references to "[[Website/SFDebris the magic meeting room]]" and "[[Film/HotShotsPartDeux Why did I bring helium instead of air?]]"
* SpinOff:
** ''AH.com the Next Generation'', written by and starring newer board members, "screened" in 2009 and 2010, but was LeftHanging later on. It featured a smaller crew of multiverse explorers aboard a newer ship, the ''MES Stranger'', and the definite rooting of the MES ship crews in the lore as the allies and employees of [[TruceZone The Hub of the Multiverse]].
** Also, via UniversalAdaptorCast; ''AH.com: Script/TheCreepyTeenYears'', ''AH.com: Wars'' and ''Luaky Commer'' (being parodies of HighSchool series, ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' respectively).
* SpiritualSuccessor: As a TimeSkip sequel to both AH.com The Series and AH.com The Next Generation, a new series titled "AH.com Enterprise" has been in the development stages since December 2013. The new series is meant to be part {{revival}} and part sequel to the first two series. (There are even some early plans of a {{crossover}} miniseries for the 10th anniversary of the first show - it would apparently feature the older crews and the newer crews from all three shows teaming up to go save the multiverse together.)
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:after the war with the [[AlienSpaceBats ASBs]] at the end of season 4, the crew and the ship get sent to the Big Bang (the start of the multiverse) and accidentally give the Alien Space Bats some ideas, as well as giving the Machine the DNA for cloning Luakel.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: Psychomeltdown with Alyson Hannigan. Later brought to high levels of squickery when [[spoiler:Psycho's [[GenderBender GenderBendered]] MirrorUniverse counterpart went insane and declared s/he WAS Alyson Hannigan - especially since s/he continued to maintain this even after partly changing back to a man]]. In later episodes, also used with several characters - both crewmen and recurring villains - with Keira Knightley.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: happens many times.
* SwissArmyGun: The 'BFG' weapons were eventually revealed to be this, in order to explain DependingOnTheWriter continuity issues with the weapons fire being described differently in different episodes.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The ASB s (Alien Space Bats).
* TakeAThirdOption: In "The Cult of the Swamp God", after a few members of the crew are forced to compete in a LARP due to a computer glitch, they are given the option to take one item from the LARP world. Dave Howery has to choose between a Bag of Holding and Keira Knightley. In the end, he chooses to put Keira in the Bag of Holding and take the Bag.
* TakeThat:
** Common targets are AlternateHistory authors Creator/HarryTurtledove and Creator/SMStirling, and of course Wiki/TheOtherWiki.
** A take that is given to [[BannedInChina German videogame censorship]] by having Germany use "Cyborg Robots With Green Blood"
* TechnoBabble: Used ironically. Notably, a powerful enemy weapon is said to use 'technobabblyon particle beams'.
** A term borrowed from ''Sev Trek'', a Franchise/StarTrek parody webcomic.
* TeleporterAccident: All the time, but usually played for laughs. There is the odd exception, such as "To A Theatre Near You", where it is used for drama.
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:what the main characters have to do when they accidentally send the [=AH.com=] into the future from the Big Bang, without themselves inside.]]
* TheVerse: "AH.comverse". The two newer series, AH.com The Next Generation and AH.com Enterprise, also use the same setting.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Hermanubis and Imajin on the Hub, Shadow Knight and Scarecrow on the ''Mercator'', and Flocculencio and Michael on the AH.com.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Occasional villains. So relentlessly studied in AlternateHistory that they are invariably used in an ironic or deliberately cartoonish way. Usually associated with their (historical) plan to invade England, Operation Sealion, which is generally acknowledged to be so badly conceived that even Hitler wasn't crazy enough to order its implementation.
* TooKinkyToTorture: Inevitably, Doctor What. The only interrogator who managed to wring information out of him was his own counterpart from another timeline, Docteur Quoi. And that was by holding lesbian porn up just out of his reach.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Used as the actual name of the fuel that the Shift drive runs on, lampshaded mercilessly. Usually to be found in asteroid field mazes haunted by an entire race of psychopathic Pac-Men.
* UnusualEuphemism: Although ordinary swearwords are used liberally, occasionally "fenk" shows up, possibly because "''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 every]] [[Series/{{Firefly}} other]]'' sci-fi series has a blatant made-up alternative to fuck !"
* VillainEpisode: The "Counterfactual" miniseries and the later episode "Whatever Happened to the CF.netters?"
* VitriolicBestBuds: Pretty much everyone on the AH.com, but particular vitriolic pairings are Flocculencio and Michael, Psychomeltdown and Michael, and Matt and Weapon M.
* WaveMotionGun: The CF.net Ship has one of these. It's so rarely used that a running joke is that it takes an entire season's worth of episodes to charge up.
* ZanyScheme: Ward's plan to infect the AH.com crew with a 'teenifying virus' in the episode "Teens on a Ship" (lampshaded in that the usually dark and gritty villain Ward admits he's just in a cartoonishly evil mood), and also the AH.commers' plan to pay for repairs by getting demeaning jobs in "Temps".
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!!Awesome
* In "The Not So Great Crusade", a part of the crew helps a science-minded lord in a world [[MedievalStasis stuck in the Middle Ages]] because of the AlienSpaceBats to resist a siege by a force five times greater, thanks to the use of technologies such as a [[SteamPunk steam-powered rhino]] and the [[BigDamnHeroes timely arrival]] of [=DMA=] and several Spanish mercenaries.
----
!!Characters
'''Crew of the MES Alternatehistory.com'''
!!Doctor What
Captain by default, a goofy screwball with a heart of gold. Obsessed with porn and lesbians, and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs porn OF lesbians]]. Canadian.
* AGodAmI: Parodied with his catchphrase "AND ON THAT DAY I SHALL BECOME AAAA GODDDDDD!!!"
%% * BackFromTheDead: BasedOnATrueStory, would you believe...
%% * CanadaEh: Occasionally.
* TheCaptain: Thinks himself to be this, everyone else just goes along with it. Occasionally has a heroic moment that lives up to it.
* CatchPhrase:
** "I find that strangely arousing..."
* * "That's the 37th strangest thing I've ever seen" ''(then lists some of the others)''
* * "Don't tell me how to ''(something completely unrelated)'', I've seen every porn movie ever made!"
%% * PornStash: Has one of the biggest in existence.
%% * SeenItAll
%% * TooKinkyToTorture
!!Grey Wolf
Second-in-command, a perpetually drunken Englishman with a thing about genealogy and plush unicorns.
%% * DrunkenSong
%% * GeniusDitz
%% * UsefulNotes/TheMidlands
* VerbalTic: Starts most sentences with "Um, fuck..."
!!Landshark
Chief pilot and third-in-command. Spends most of his time snarking at the American crew members or taking part in an S&M relationship with Ironyuppie.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Saying "Hey, I'm British!" as an InsaneTrollLogic explanation for how he knows some completely unrelated bit of information.
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * TheMeanBrit
%% * UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Not usually, but his backstory showed he was originally this, and he occasionally reverts to it as part of a joke.
%% * TooKinkyToTorture
!![=IronYuppie=]
For much of the show's run, the only female crewmember. Terrifies most of the men. In a relationship with Landshark. Has a sex dungeon full of people they encounter on their voyages, occasionally added to.
%% * EvenTheGirlsWantHer
%% * GirlWithPsychoWeapon: The Electric Chinese Razor Yo-yo of Death
%% * NorseByNorsewest
%% * PlayingWithSyringes
!!Dave Howery
Chief engineer. Has a pathological hatred of Canada and an indestructible wiry beard.
* BerserkButton: Canada. And someone harming, putting the moves on, or spying on Keira.
%% * ChainsawGood
* FreudianExcuse: It's eventually revealed that the reason why he hates Canadians and Europeans is that he comes from a timeline where Canadians and Europeans were occupying and oppressing the USA, and he grew up under the occupation.
%% * It also explains why he is so over-protective with Keira. [[spoiler:Because one of the occupiers killed his wife there.]]
%% * GadgeteerGenius
%% * HomemadeInventions
!!G.Bone
Engineer and teleporter operator. Hawaiian.
%% * ADayInTheLimelight: "A Day in the Life of G.Bone"
%% * CloudCuckooLander
* {{Flanderization}}: A running joke was him not paying attention to working the teleporter due to doing something else. One of these activities was reading ComicBook/ArchieComics. This snowballed into him becoming an obsessive fanboy of Archie Comics, to the point where he considers having an opinion one way or the other BettyAndVeronica dilemma to be constitute different religious beliefs.
%% * GeniusDitz
%% * HulaAndLuaus
%% * IdiotSavant
%% * {{Steampunk}}: Is eventually revealed to come from a steampunk timeline.
!!Psychomeltdown
Engineer. Navajo Indian.
%% * ButtMonkey: Often.
%% * StalkerWithACrush: On Creator/AlysonHannigan.
%% * VitriolicBestBuds: With Michael.
!!Michael
Engineer and security officer. UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n.
%% * ChewToy
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * SmokingIsCool
%% * UseYourHead: The crew have been known to use ''him'' as AbnormalAmmo.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Psychomeltdown and sometimes Flocculencio.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Is scared of/repulsed by ducks and redheads.
!!Flocculencio
General layabout and compatriot of Michael. Singaporean of Indian descent.
* BerserkButton: Anyone mentioning the name of his nemesis Justin Pickard causes him to go AxeCrazy.
%% * BrilliantButLazy
%% * OnceAcceptableTargets: Likes to lampshade this.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: In "Pasha's Pilots" after being tortured with a RealityWarper machine, he becomes '''THE REVENGE COWBOY!''' (a forum InJoke).
%% * VitriolicBestBuds: With Michael.
!!Matt
Weapons officer.
%% * TheBigGuy
%% * CantHaveSexEver
%% * CasanovaWannabe
* DoesntLikeGuns: As a youngster in his origin story. Now of course he likes nothing better.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Weapon M, who was originally his mentor.
%% * ICallItVera
%% * {{Joisey}}
%% * StuffBlowingUp
!!Weapon M
Head of security. Once had a threesome. Will never get tired of telling you about it.
%% * DownOnTheFarm: He's from Michigan.
%% * [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]
%% * HeterosexualLifePartners: With Matt.
* HisStoryRepeatsItself: Likes to talk about his threesome at the first available opportunity.
%% * HyperspaceArsenal
!!Torqumada
Ship's doctor.
%% * BrainInAJar: Is fond of these kinds of experiments.
%% * DrJerk
%% * DeadlyDoctor
%% * MadDoctor
%% * MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: With Thande.
!!Thande
Ship's chemist.
%% * AscendedExtra (appears much more often than he used to)
* CatchPhrase: "Daring Commando Raid([[TradeSnark TM]])?"
%% * MadScientist
%% * OopNorth: From Yorkshire.
* PhraseCatcher: "BLAME THANDE!"
%% * StalkerWithACrush: on Keira Knightley.
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: With Torqumada.
!!GBW
Ship's operations officer. Often shown later as being a secondary pilot and piloting the shuttles.
* CatchPhrase: "Sorry, logic and reason, I know..."
%% * DarkAndTroubledPast / HiddenDepths (though only occasionally hinted at)
%% * OnlySaneMan
%% * TheSpock
%% * StrawVulcan
!!Othniel
"Ensign and standard bearer", an evangelical Christian from Utah.
%% * AlwaysLawfulGood
* BerserkButton: "I AM NOT A MORMON!!"
%% * IncorruptiblePurePureness
* MissionFromGod: To destroy Doc's porn collection.
!!Hendryk
Quartermaster and Whatian Priest. [[ForeignCultureFreak Sinophile]] Frenchman.
%% * ForeignCultureFreak
%% * HeroWorshipper: To Doctor What.
* ShoutOut: Likes to make Creator/HPLovecraft references.
!!DMA
Security and Orthodox Sheepist Priest. Australian.
* BattleCry: "A JIHAD ON THEIR ARSES!"
!!Diamond
Optician, nurse, cartographer and Reformed Sheepist Priest. Also practices Pantslessness.
%% * NewJobAsThePlotDemands
* PutOnABus: After getting banned from the board in real life.
%% * SceneryCensor
!!Luakel
[[WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers Eager Young Space Cadet]].
%% * ButtMonkey
%% * DoesntLikeGuns
* SendInTheClones: We've seen more alternate versions of Luakel than any other character, largely so the writers could kill him off in a variety of interesting ways; this eventually became the basis for a plot arc.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: After an incident involving a gender-flipped, MirrorUniverse version of Kit.
%% * WideEyedIdealist
!!Kit
Ship's operations officer. Gay Welshman.
%% * CampGay
* {{Robosexual}}: Admires Leo Caesius' robot body's 'fabulous glutes'.
%% * StalkerWithACrush: On Leo.
%% * StereotypeGay
%% * UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}
!!Leo Caesius
The ship's computer, appearing both as a disembodied voice and incarnate in a robot body.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Usually averted, though he gets taken over by a virus in "Leo Atrox" leading to this. His backstory shows that the leadership of his robotic civilisation were like this, though.
* CharacterDevelopment: His origin story shows he was originally a great admirer of humans, being a member of a robotic civilisation that had grown up after their human creators had died out. He gets more snarky over time as his romantic impressions get dented by the reality of the AH.commers. In particular being taken over by a virus in "Leo Atrox" leaves him with a tendency to mutter things like "Damn fleshbags".
%% * ComputerVoice
%% * CunningLinguist
%% * DeadpanSnarker
%% * SingleIssueWonk: Obsessed with the Mandaeans.
!!The Mosquito
A giant mosquito born from a teleporter accident.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Subverted, he's perfectly harmless - he's male, and only drinks nectar.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Averted--there were several previous one-off jokes with G.Bone accidentally creating a monster with the teleporters, but this one proved popular enough to keep.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Due to the writers being unable to settle on a name for him.
%% * OddFriendship: With Bobo.
* TeleporterAccident: Was created by one, enlarging a normal mosquito.
!!Bobo
A flying brain with tentacles created by Torqumada in one of his mad science experiments. Is intensely loyal to Torqumada and more recently also to Keira Knightley.
* NothingIsScarier: In his early appearances his description was kept deliberately vague.
%% * OddFriendship: With the Mosquito.
* PaperThinDisguise: Was at once point stuffed into a Frankenstein body to impersonate Thande, and none of the other crew noticed any difference (and, in fact, they thought Thande was the Frankestein body).
%% * StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Talks. Like. This.
%% * SuperMode: Shown in "The Dome Factor".
!!Creator/KeiraKnightley
A product of a TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons holodeck-style game world, a DamselInDistress clone of the actress who was rescued by Dave Howery as part of a party of inadvertent [=LARPers=]. He managed to smuggle her out using a BagOfHolding and she joined the crew as a regular.
* ActionGirl: a couple of times, she has joined a mission and played a role. She also became fundamental [[spoiler:when nearly the entire crew became five year old.]]
* ArtificialHuman: Which means she has a simplified genetic code, and Dave gets scared eventually that one of the genetic manipulations that get inflicted on the crew sometimes might be fatal to her.
* NeverGetsDrunk: A corollary of her simplified genetics is that her liver processes alcohol too fast for her to get intoxicated.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Averted. She's referred to simply as "Keira Knightley".
'''Crew of the MES Counterfactual.net'''
!!Ward
Hard-bitten former admiral with a grudge against Doctor What and, indeed, most of the multiverse.
* CatchPhrase: "Get your head out of your ass, boy!"
* DependingOnTheWriter: Can either be ruthless but honourable or does things ForTheEvulz. Over time the first characterisation became dominant.
%%* FourStarBadass: Was formerly an admiral.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Aimed at both the Devourer of Worlds and Doctor What (the latter case because he believes he abandoned him while fighting the Devourer).
%% * ShellShockedVeteran
%% * GeneralRipper
!!Grimm Reaper
Second-in-command and professional sadist. Dresses up as TheGrimReaper.
%% * Magnificent Bastard: At least, talks the talk.
%% * PetTheDog: Or cat, rather.
%% * RightHandCat: His cat Pumpkin, occasionally.
%% * SinisterScythe
!![=MerryPrankster=]
Third-in-command, perpetually trying to take over.
%% * HerCodeNameWasMarySue
%% * TheStarscream
%% * [[spoiler:DuelToTheDeath and YouHaveFailedMe]]
!!Kilngirl
Chief engineer.
%% * TheSmurfettePrinciple
%% * WrenchWench
!!Fortyseven
Engineer and teleporter operator.
%% * ZenSurvivor
!!Romulus Augustulus
Security officer.
%% * TheStoic
%% * TeensAreMonsters
!!Dominusnovus
Weapons officer.
%% * TheCasanova (or CasanovaWannabe, DependingOnTheWriter)
!!Faeelin
Ship's operations and communications.
%% * StraightGay
!!Midgard
Assault leader.
%% * MusicalAssassin
!!Bulgaroktonos
Assault goon.
%% * TheBigGuy
!!Darkslavik
Genetic weapons specialist.
%% * GoneHorriblyWrong
%% * MadScientist
'''Other recurring characters and groups'''
!!The Mirror Crew
Mirror Universe counterparts of the AH.commers.
%% * AxCrazy: Luakel in his second appearance (the result of trauma at the hands of Mirror Kit).
* BeardOfEvil: In an obvious reference to ''Franchise/StarTrek'', all the mirror crew have goatees - except Doctor What, because his primary-universe version has one.
%% * DarkerAndEdgier
%% * EvilCounterpart
%% * GenderBender: For one episode, and continuing for Doctor What.
%% * ManIFeelLikeAWoman Probably the most disturbing version ''ever''.
!!The Germans
A group of German mercenaries, obsessed with politics and perpetually arguing.
* ATeamFiring and ATeamMontage: Due to them being compared to the A-Team, with a Panzer as their van.
* BackFromTheDead: Steffen has a HeroicSacrifice, but his essence survives as the main computer.
* BerserkButton: Susano has several, such as people using "Teutonic" to mean "German", disunited Germanies, people praising King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, and more. Of course, [[UnstoppableRage when somebody presses them all at once]]...
%% * CoolTank: The Panzer.
%% * FunetikAksent
%% * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Oberdada is an exaggerated stereotype of this played for laughs.
%% * HotBlooded: Susano.
%% * TheStarscream: Alayta, though on the one occasion he did manage to take over, it didn't go well.
%% * VitriolicBestBuds
!!The Pole Trolls
Enemies of the Germans, who infest the Wiki World (based on Wiki/TheOtherWiki) and seek to change reality to fit their views. Based on the large number of Polish trolls who have been known to spam alternatehistory.com's message board.
* {{Anime}} FanBoy: The Wikimasters, the incompetent rulers of the Wiki World, are universally of this type.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Human237, who steals [=IronYuppie=]'s sex toys to use as weapons.
* JizzedInMyPants: Molobo continuously does this after talking about the glories of Poland, constantly requiring a new pair of underwear from Hurgan. When the Germans show up with all their firepower, he asks for [[BringMyBrownPants the brown pair]] for a change.
%% * RewritingReality
* VerbalTic: Their Armenian ally, Rafi, is unable to speak a sentence without the word "genocide".
!!The Lesbian Space Marines
Originating from a planet where all the men were killed by a virus. After acquiring shift-drive technology from the AH.commers, began expanding into other timelines.
%% * GodSaveUsFromTheQueen
%% * PsychoLesbian
!!The Administratum of Bankind
A GrimDark civilisation perpetually at war and consisting of countless hellish hive worlds and huge warships like gothic cathedrals, presided over by a dark religion dedicated to a a dead leader upon a great golden chair. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
%% * ChurchMilitant
%% * PstandardPsychicPstance: Evil [=MrP=].
* {{Retcon}}: They were originally a more straightforward reference to ''Warhammer 40K'', but were later reworked to incorporate references from the forum's AH.com-ised fan variant, ''Banhammer 40K''. This change was explained in-universe as being the result of ASB interference.
%% * ShoutOut and LawyerFriendlyCameo (for ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40K]]'')
%% * StalkerWithACrush: Evil [=MrP=] has one for Keira Knightley.
!!The Guild of Cartographers
Or the Mappist Cabal, a group of elite mapmakers crewing the ship ''Mercator''.
%% * BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats
%% * GadgeteerGenius: Magnificate.
%% * NoManOfWomanBorn
!!The King
Saviour, religious icon and ruler of a planet. Wears white suit, eats cheeseburgers, plays guitar, has quiff. Reminds me of someone, but can't quite think who...
%% * [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]
%% * MusicalAssassin
%% * RightfulKingReturns
!!Mike Collins
Powerful enemy of the Hub.
%% * BigBad: In early seasons.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Whether he has powers of his own or if they are just the result of technology. The former view eventually won out.
%% * EnemyMine: [[spoiler:during the ASB War]].
%% * TheStarscream: In any episode involving him working for or teaming up with others.
* TakeOverTheWorld: His goal in many episodes is to take over the Hub. He actually has taken over several versions of Earth in the past, including Dave Howery's origin timeline.
!!The AlienSpaceBats (ASB)
Enemies of the Hub, embodiments of chaos, and have been interfering with various timelines since at least Season 2.
%% * MassTeleportation
%% * MedievalStasis: ASB interference reduces many timelines to this state.
%% * OrderVersusChaos: The Chaos to the Hub's Order.
%% * SufficientlyAdvancedAlien
!!The Hub of the Multiverse
A vast complex in its own dimension, a place where timelines intersect. The Pub in the Hub, Ouroboros, often features - it can be accessed from any bar in the multiverse through the door labelled 'Authorised Staff Only'. The Hub also contains docks for ships, huge shopping malls, and so on.
%% * TheBartender: Ian, who is also possibly the most powerful being in the Multiverse.
%% * OrderVersusChaos: The Order to the Alien Space Bats' Chaos.
%% * CityOfAdventure
%% * HeterosexualLifePartners: Chingo and Alt-Luakel, who are also [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] with GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity.
%% * ICouldaBeenAContender: Hermanubis, jealous of [=Super55=].
%% * InnBetweenTheWorlds
%% * TakeOverTheWorld / TakeOverTheCity: A common plot involves a villain wanting to take over the Hub.
%% * ThoseTwoGuys: Hermanubis and Imajin.
%% * WretchedHive: In places.
----
!!Drinking Game
Drinking game for [[Script/AHDotComTheSeries alternatehistory.com]]:
* Every time Creator/HarryTurtledove mentions that Sam Carsten sunburns easily, take a shot.
* Take a shot whenever Jake Featherston flirts with Clarence Potter over the phone
* Take a shot whenever you encounter the phrase "better--but not a whole lot better".
* Take a shot whenever US soldiers discuss the differing qualities of Yankee and Confederate tobacco.
----
!!YMMV
* GrowingTheBeard: Generally acknowledged to have happened around the start of the second season, due to two factors: the writers now had a clearer idea of the series' setting and their depictions of the crew synched up better, and the first season finale had helped provide useful background and {{origin stor|y}}ies for the AH.com/CF.net vendetta. Nothing at all to do with Dave Howery's infamous beard.
* {{Squick}}: So much. Oh, so much. Highlight if you dare: [[spoiler:A teenager loses his virginity with the {{Gender Bender}}ed evil MirrorUniverse counterpart of a gay crewmember; that same gay crewmember is forced into a porn shoot with ten women; the details of Landshark and Iron Yuppie's relationship are so wrong that they can only be alluded to obliquely; and many more]]. A squick-worthy moment is usually denoted by most crewmen crying for 'the forks!' (to [[BrainBleach stab into their eyes and erase the memory]] of having seen the act), except Doctor What, who will muse that he finds it [[CatchPhrase strangely arousing]].
** Even worse. In "The Narcissus Syndrome", Doctor What drinks a virus that changes his personality into something similar to [[{{Narcissist}} DominusNovus]] and [=Super55=]. The result is a Doctor What that thinks himself as the most attractive person in the multiverse. [[spoiler:He goes find the Mirror [=AH.com=] ship and [[SelfCest has sex with his mirror]] {{Gender Bender}}ed [[SelfCest counterpart]]. When he "wakes" from the virus influence, he cleans himself using several gallons of bleach, an entire toothpaste tube and a bucket full of medicinal alcohol.]]
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