History Main / ExcessiveSteamSyndrome

*** The same can also be said of, though not on a spaceship, the converter on LBV-426 towards the end of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' when she goes to look for Newt. Notice those pipes she passes that are glowing a dull red, yeah, that's the coolant pipes trying to compensate a reactor that's about to pop. The light you see on the bottom floors is the residual radiation of the core...neat sound effect too!

See also SelfDestructMechanism. Compare to ImpressivePyrotechnics and MadeOfExplodium. Has nothing to do with fanservice anime that overdo CensorSteam nor addiction to buying far too many games at 20% off on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

%%* This is often used in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', though that was when the Titans were TrappedInTVLand. All other interstellar ships were steam-free.

*** This is specifically for super-critical water, aka 'live steam'. This is water heated to a temperature above the critical point, where the difference between liquid and gas disappears. It's invisible because it's physically impossible for the water droplets that make normal steam visible to form at such temperatures. This also makes it phenomenally dangerous, since it can cook the flesh right off your bones if it hits you. Potentially before you drop to the floor, since the only reason to use this insanely nasty phase of water is to drive high-speed steam turbines, which means very high pressure as well.

* And how can anyone forget the scenes in ''Franchise/StarWars'', where Darth Vader walks dramatically through steam exhausts that for some reason are set around the ship's main entrance. Made even weirder, though more badass, in the [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends novelizations]], which claim that the steam is burning hot and that normal people won't exit until it's evaporated. This is actually {{lampshade|Hanging}}d as a security feature to prevent assaults or sabotage when docking.
** The ''Millennium Falcon'' also vents steam/coolant/whatever after setting down on the Cloud City landing platform on Bespin. Nobody tries to walk through it.

* Possibly exaggerated in a story by Brazilian author Creator/LuisFernandoVerissimo, where an InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien race built a wood-powered spaceship, with chimney and such, when they were trying to build a nautical ship instead.

[[folder:Film]]

* This is often used in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.

** One proposal is to use what's called a 'flash cube reactor', in which the fuel is uranium hexaflouride contained in a quartz tube, with a movable beryllium neutron mirror outside it that can be moved to surround however much of the reactor vessel is desired, with power increasing as more is covered. The heat produced would be used to boil water, which would then provide steam for a steam rocket, which could easily provide 0.25g of thrust for up to an hour at a time, which is a ''huge'' thrust for very long time for a ship in open space. This is proposed for the battle drive for a space warship, which needs lots of thrust for the short periods of battle (which would tend to end as soon as someone got a telling blow in, since space is a tremendously unforgiving environment).

*** ''Partly'' justified, since there are surely better places for the coolant system to try and dump excess heat than into crew spaces. (It's interesting that in ''[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001]]'' the ''Discovery'' was originally going to have radiator fins jutting out from the engine block; they were dropped from the design to avoid people asking why the ship needed wings).

Because SpaceIsAnOcean, this may have started as an homage to classic cinema depicting naval life. On a submarine or steamship, streams of thick steam were ubiquitous. It's an easy and cheap way to make an area look industrial, damaged, dangerous, gritty, or any combination thereof.

-->'''Computer:''' Warning. Hydrazene gas levels at one hundred twelve parts per million. [[AbandonShip Begin evacuation procedures.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:TheChosenOne bringing balance to the [[{{Pun}} fog]]]]