History Main / PhlebotinumBreakDown

* In the PC game ''StarWars: EmpireAtWar - Forces of Corruption'', during the last mission, Tyber Zann captures the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer. The game then allows you to use its [[WaveMotionGun superlaser]], capable of smashing a capital ship instantly. Predictably, it breaks down just as a Super Star Destroyer enters the area.

The thinking is this: the [[TransportersAndTeleporters transporter]] does something really amazing and miraculous when it's ''working.'' Just imagine how amazing and miraculous a thing it could do if it were ''broken''. Never mind that this is no more logical a line of thought than, say, "A functioning toaster makes toast, but a broken one might start suddenly making [[LiteralGenie ''French'' toast!]] Or maybe even [[SerialEscalation sausage links!!]]"

* EndOfEvangelion. Asuka. Final fight. Power shortage.

* Parodied on ''BobAndGeorge'', specifically the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' "holodeck malfunction". After the training simulator breaks and traps someone inside a deadly simulation, they ask if this happens often. They learn that this has happened '''every single time they use it'''. [[LampshadeHanging And they keep doing it anyway.]]

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The origin story behind the Delightful Children From Down the Lane goes that Father's first Delightfulization Chamber malfunctioned and [[TimTaylorTechnology overloaded]] when he put the five of them inside, turning them into a kid-hating zombie hive-mind rather than "the perfect children."

* ''{{Futurama}}'' spoofed this by having a holodeck malfunction bring the greatest villains of history to life: Attila the Hun, Professor Moriarty, Mr. Hyde, and "Evil Lincoln". In an homage to ''Star Trek'', Moriarty declares, "Righto gents, it's another simulation gone mad, murder and mayhem, standard procedure."

*** ''DarthsAndDroids'' actually [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0105.html points this out]] regarding the "warp speed limit" and links this Trope's page.

* Discussed about in [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0105.html this]] ''DarthsAndDroids'' strip, with link to this page.

* ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'' has the Earth Current, which can protect the humans from the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of the titular Night Land. However the exact date in which it will fail has been calculated for eons, which will eventually culminate in the exy=tinction of mankind.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' the ''water chip'' of your home vault breaks (replacements were shipped to another vault, of course), starting your quest for a new one. Although ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' reveals the cause of the ''water chip'' failure: [[spoiler: It was your own grandchild (the sequels hero), who travelled back in time, fiddling with the controls of vault 13s main computer, [[StableTimeLoop thus breaking the ''water chip'']].]]
** The above is an easter egg, one of many. The actual reason is a sinister one, [[spoiler: the designers of the vaults intending them to be social experiments, each designed to be a trial to live in one way or another]].

** Recently in ''Stargate Atlantis'' the Stargate managed to send Colonel John Sheppard 48000 years in the future by the same problem that sent SG-1 to the past, considerably increasing the bar for Atlantis' Stargate malfunctions.
*** It wasn't an actual malfunction on the part of the stargate, just an unlucky (or lucky given the outcome) event, and a rare one at that (it took 800 years or so for another event to occur). The ancients' seem to be noticeably lacking in their forethought on such issue.
*** Also, in one try at making a power source more powerful than the Zero Point Module (a device that draws energy from an artificially created micro-universe) in ''Stargate Atlantis'' they ended up almost destroying a parallel universe (although they knew something as such would happen, they only didn't knew the other universe would be populated, much less that it would be a parallel one). The incredible part is that the machine became an actual extra-dimensional portal.

*** And the holodecks. And Data. Both of them should have tossed off of the 1701D at their first sign of major trouble... which happened for both of them in TNG's first season. As we have PlotDrivenBreakdown (wherein the breakdown is part of the plot developement) I wonder if these cases shouldn't be under a new category: BreakdownDrivenPlot, cases where the breakdown isn't simply a plot complication, it creates the plot from whole cloth.

** ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s holodeck is also a prime example. So much so that HolodeckMalfunction is a trope in its own right. The most common "simple" breakdown is to lock the senior officers inside and turn off the safety protocols. Why these features would always be the [[FailsafeFailure first to break]] defies explanation. However, the holodeck too can malfunction more extravagantly, say, by giving a simulation of [[SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]] full sentience and complete control of the ship's computer.
*** Strictly speaking Moriarty wasn't a malfunction; the holodeck was working entirely correctly when it created him. The problem was incompetence on the part of the user, Geordi [=LaForge=]; a 24th-century PEBKAC, if you will.
**** Well, if a misspoken phrase causes the holodeck to create a fully sentient criminal mastermind who also has command override privileges for the ship's main computer, it is fair to say there are also some serious ''design'' problems.

[[caption-width-right:350:Is something making funny noises and smoking ''ever'' a good thing?[[note]]Well, maybe if the something is [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]][[/note]]]]

** ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s holodeck is also a prime example. The most common "simple" breakdown is to lock the senior officers inside and turn off the safety protocols. Why these features would always be the [[FailsafeFailure first to break]] defies explanation. However, the holodeck too can malfunction more extravagantly, say, by giving a simulation of [[SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]] full sentience and complete control of the ship's computer.

**** Well, if a misspoken word causes the holodeck to create a fully sentient criminal mastermind, it is fair to say there are also some serious ''design'' problems.

Fortunately, if it's TimTaylorTechnology, you can usually fix it by applying more power. Unless it's vulnerable to PhlebotinumOverload, that is... then something will GoHorriblyWrong. If you're really unlucky, it'll work fine up until when [[PlotDrivenBreakdown you need it most]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Is something making funny noises and smoking ''ever'' a good thing?[[note]]Well, maybe if the something is [[CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]][[/note]]]]

* In ''{{Voyagers}}'', the boy visits the time of Thomas Edison and finds to his horror that the curious inventor has disassembled his time machine, the handheld device called the Omni. The inventor insists he is confident he can reassemble it, and by the end of the story, he proves it, as he presents the boy with a fully intact Omni; the operation even ''repairs'' an intermitent malfunction in the device.

[[caption-width-right:350:Is something making funny noises and smoking ''ever'' a good thing?[[hottip:*:Well, maybe if the something is [[CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]]]]

** In a more down-played fashion, the communicators more than once had to be kept from working properly for the reasons mentioned in the CellPhonesAreUseless trope[[hottip:*:That trope specifically points to this one for futuristic communications not working]].

* Kurau in ''KurauPhantomMemory'' suffers from bouts of weakness since the arrival of her "pair", Christmas--usually when being chased or having to fight. Of course, when Christmas is around it only [[ThePowerOfLove adds to her strength]].

** In a more down-played fashion, the communicators more than once had to be kept from working properly for the reasons mentioned in the CanYouHearMeNow trope[[hottip:*:That trope specifically points to this one for futuristic communications not working]].

* The entire purpose of the Millennium Falcon in StarWars?
** Not really, it only actually breaks down in ''Empire Strikes Back'', the rest of the time it just 'looks' like it's going to happen.
** Quite the opposite, actually. According to every standard, a ship ''that'' tampered should be very fragile, but actually, she has negligible problems when blasted.
** The only reason the Falcon was having problems in the 2nd film is because Han had taken the opportunity of landing in a secure hidden stronghold to take the ship apart for maintenance. The arrival of the Imperials forced him and Chewie to put it all back together as best they could.

* At the end of 'VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', the firing of the replacement Halo causes the slipspace gate to collapse prematurely, dropping MC and Cortana near a Forerunner planet in an unknown location.