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9[[quoteright:320:[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hyperspace_is_a_scary_place_1.jpg]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:320:Proudly inflicting PoliceBrutality on people who break the laws of physics since [[Film/EventHorizon 047.M3]].]]
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12->''"Between the stars the ancient unseen enemies of mankind wait and hunger. Every voyage into the nothing is a confrontation with horror, with the implacable things of the warp, and with man's own innermost fear."''
13-->-- '''Codex Imperialis''', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''
14
15There are very few things about space that are not freaky. Contemporary space shuttles ride pillars of fire and launching one involves spraying 1100 cubic meters of water on the pad as a muffler to keep the craft from being damaged by the ''noise''. Works such as Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' and Creator/LarryNiven's short stories have pointed out that, barring FasterThanLightTravel, convenient real-space travel between planets has energy requirements on the same order as [[WeaponizedExhaust making significant holes in them]]. And let's not even get started on the whole 'infinite void of nothingness between the stars' [[SpaceMadness aspect]]. Anything with the power to thrust people across light-years rightly should scare their [[SpaceClothes astropants]] off.
16
17[[SubspaceOrHyperspace Hyperspace]], being AnotherDimension or close, sets aside the natural laws that our universe and biologies need. It's sure to be [[AlienGeometries mind-bendingly different]] and hostile to conventional life — even more so than the void of space itself. [[HyperspaceLanes Clearly marked paths]] may be [[StayOnThePath slightly safer]], or ships may generate a safe field around themselves while travelling.
18
19Should something go wrong during hyperspace travel, results vary. If the crew are lucky, the ship will simply be returned to normal space, or be destroyed instantly and relatively painlessly. If they're not, the [[NothingIsScarier ship won't come back at all.]] Sometimes, it will, [[CameBackWrong and you'll]] [[GhostShip wish it]] [[EldritchStarship hadn't.]]
20
21In settings where this trope applies, authors will often take the time to point out that hyperspace or subspace is hazardous and fraught with peril, both for the characters and the ships that have to make passage through it. Long dissertations on it are sometimes inadequate for establishing this, however. As such, to [[ShowDontTell really make a point about how dangerous and scary hyperspace is,]] they throw some really weird, scary stuff into their vision of it.
22
23It might cause those who look upon it directly to GoMadFromTheRevelation (so keep those view ports shuttered ''tight''), and/or infested by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that would have even Creator/HPLovecraft [[INeedAFreakingDrink reaching for the absinthe]]. If SpaceIsAnOcean, Hyperspace is that part of the map marked HereThereBeDragons.
24
25See also VoidBetweenTheWorlds, EldritchLocation, AlienGeometries, AcidTripDimension, LudicrousSpeed, FTLTravelSickness, and TimeIsDangerous.
26----
27!!Examples:
28[[index]]
29* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace/{{Literature}}
30[[/index]]
31[[foldercontrol]]
32
33[[folder:Multimedia Franchises]]
34* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
35** In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', [[LoveableRogue Han Solo]] invokes this trope by explaining to [[FarmBoy Luke Skywalker]] why it's impossible to just blast into hyperspace and avoid Imperial ships: it's too dangerous due to the risk of accidentally hitting something or going off course. See the [[Quotes/HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Quotes]] page. As described in Literature, however, the dangers are more mundane and along the lines of "Planets and stars are still in the way, and traveling fast enough to cross the galaxy in hours means that you can easily smash into one and vaporize", something that is shown actually happening in ''Film/TheLastJedi'' when Admiral Holdo performs a SuicideAttack on a First Order warship by ramming it while going into hyperspace, cleaving it in half and obliterating the fleet behind it with debris thrown at relativistic velocity.
36** In the old ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' continuity, [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperspace/Legends Hyperspace]] is rather less dangerous than some of the other examples, but there are risks. A ship in hyperspace doesn't properly exist in realspace, but the gravity wells of celestial objects generate "mass shadows" in hyperspace, that will rip a ship back into realspace. In the case of planets and asteroids that means appearing in realspace in time to safely change direction and go into hyperspace again; in the case of stars, black holes, and powered-up Imperial Interdictors it doesn't. That's why it's considered dangerous to stray out of established hyperspace routes, and mapping new ones is hazardous.
37*** Going through a gravity well of sufficient size overloads your hyperdrive motivator (what you need to get in and out of hyperspace) and kicks you out of hyperspace; when you over load it, [[StuffBlowingUp it can explode]] possibly taking the ship with it, so there's actually a safety feature that kicks you out before you run the risk of exploding. That's how a fleet of ships got most of the way through a [[spoiler:system-wide interdiction field around Centerpoint station]] but still had to conduct repairs. One of the ships ended up damaged beyond repair because it tried to go a bit too long with the safety turned off.
38*** It's also noted that getting ThrownOutTheAirlock is instantly fatal when in hyperspace, unlike in realspace when it might take a bit. In ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'', [[spoiler:turncoat Torm]] is blown out an airlock into hyperspace. The victim's body is instantly and utterly destroyed.
39*** ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' goes into considerably more detail about this, when [[spoiler:Cronal has his ship disintegrate while in hyperspace... meaning there's no longer a hull separating him from it. This results in him being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath disintegrated on a subatomic level while fully conscious of every second of it]].]] The whole thing is described from the victim's perspective.
40*** One novel describes "Hyper-rapture", a form of madness caused by staring at hyperspace for too long; because of this, starships usually have windows that go opaque while in hyperspace. Staring into hyperspace for an extended period of time, if it doesn't give you "hyper-rapture", is said to make most people increasingly uneasy. It doesn't look "right". ''Literature/DeathStar'' quietly underlines Darth Vader's evil/otherness/disconnect from humanity by noting that he ''likes'' staring into hyperspace, and doesn't feel the usual relief when his ship comes out into realspace again; similarly, ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' has Cronal liking it. This is mentioned when one of the most evil villains in the ExpandedUniverse is given a FateWorseThanDeath: by being [[AndIMustScream locked in an escape pod and ejected into hyperspace]]. One escape pod has enough food and water to keep him alive for months, non-opaquing windows, and a ''very'' small area; he'd either go stir-crazy, get hyper-rapture, or survive those long enough to die from lack of supplies. Not to mention that rescue is literally impossible. Very, very bad indeed. As the person who inflicts this punishment on the villain puts it:
41---->''"I don't know how long you will survive there. I do know that you will die there.\
42Die slowly".''
43*** In the novelization for ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II'', while the ship, The Salvation, is going through hyperspace, the Terror Walker tries to sabotage the ship's navicomp. While Starkiller battles it, he muses in terror that if the navicomp is deactivated mid-jump, the ship could either be blown to atoms or never return to realspace. Eventually, Starkiller defeats the Terror Walker by puncturing the ship's hull, causing the droid to be sucked out into hyperspace. Starkiller takes a moment to pity his foe, horrified by the thought of what it must be experiencing, even if it's a droid.
44*** One comic shows that it's actually somehow possible to use hyperspace to go ''through'' a planet (though it's described as being more akin to essentially bypassing that section of space) but as the person who does so notes, it's '''really''' not recommended outside of extreme emergencies. Presumably has something to do with the fact that gravity wells can yank you out of hyperspace, so the result would be blasting out of hyperspeed within the planet's atmosphere (or worse, [[TeleFrag inside the planet itself]]) and blowing yourself to bits.
45*** ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'' introduced "otherspace", a dimension ''beyond'' hyperspace, a weird place with its own inhuman inhabitants; the effect is spoiled when said inhabitants are pretty much just big (read: Wookiee-sized) mean [[InsectoidAliens bugs]], who later turned out to have come from realspace to begin with.
46** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'':
47*** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS1E07GatheringForces "Gathering Forces"]] shows that a vessel without a functional hyperdrive cannot actually ''remain'' in hyperspace — when a hyperdrive-less shuttle detaches from its ship, it is shown immediately falling into normal space. The transition is fairly violent, and there's no guarantee you'll come out anywhere near somewhere inhabited, but it's better than the fate awaiting you in the old ''Legends'' continuity.
48*** In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E13TheCall "The Call"]], the dangers of unprotected hyperspace travel are retconned by the existence of an entire species of {{Space Whale}}s that can and do regularly travel through hyperspace unprotected.
49** ''[[Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic The High Republic]]'': The main villains are a group called the Nihil, who can do strange things with hyperspace. They have the "Paths," unique jump calculations that allow them to dodge and weave through hyperspace, jumping in or out from normally impossible spots too close to a planet's gravity well or doing short skips of just a few kilometers. They cause "the Great Disaster" when a freighter nearly crashes into a Nihil ship ''in hyperspace'' and destroys itself trying to avoid them. An entire chapter of ''[[Literature/StarWarsLightOfTheJedi Light of the Jedi]]'' with hyperspace experts explains how completely ''impossible'' this is; every time someone enters hyperspace they are essentially creating AnotherDimension empty of everything except themselves, meaning there is absolutely nothing to ever collide with. What the Nihil are doing is entering and exiting those hyperspace lanes at odd angles, which lets them move in ways no one else can. The Supreme Chancellor shuts down hyperspace travel for a significant portion of the Outer Rim for an extended period because it's too dangerous when terrorists could crash any freighter and cause a multi-system disaster at any time.
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
53* In ''Anime/GunBuster'', this trope is used as a joke to scare the younger space cadets by telling them that ghosts appear on ships during hyperspace travel.
54* The {{Precursors}} in ''Manga/{{Helck}}'' have unlocked access to hyperspace for easier transportation and cheap energy. [[spoiler:However it evolved into a HatePlague, made the Ancients kill each other, and remained till present day in various forms.]] Azudora drops the trope name almost word for word when Vamirio and Helck travel into it.
55* Not strictly hyperspace but the idea of dangerous extradimensional travel is in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''. No ship can safely pass through a Chulip Gate unless at least one member of the crew has a specific kind of nanite in them: the kind that allows this person to perform [[{{Teleportation}} Boson Jumps]], the technology behind the Chulip. The Jovians found LostTechnology that allowed them to infuse these nanites into volunteers, allowing them to use the technology. Which makes everyone scratch their heads when the titular ship, an Earth design, not only jumps through a Chulip Gate but jumps ''eight months forward in time''. [[spoiler:Then it's discovered that the same kind of technology is on Mars, only this one is mixed up with the nanite technology being used to terraform the planet. End result? Anyone born on Mars has a superior ability to the Jovians: able to traverse ''time'' as well as space(on two occasions, a jumper ended up arriving at their destination ''before'' they left). Then it makes sense since the ''Nadesico'' had at least three Mars-borns at the time.]]
56* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'':
57** The ''Yamato''[='=]s first "space warp" jump is portrayed as a psychedelic experience, with afterimages, [[{{Fanservice}} Yuki's (Nova's) clothes jumping about a meter to the right]], and visions of the Yamato passing over prehistoric Earth, among other things.
58** ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'' revisits this trope. This time around, while the ''Yamato'''s first warp jump is still a trippy experience, the trippiness is more subdued. The really scary stuff comes from traveling through a [[PortalNetwork subspace gate]], the inside of which looks like traveling through a very rough storm.
59* ''Anime/{{Macross}}''
60** In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''[=/=]the first arc of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', there is "space fold" technology. The invading Zentraedi armies have little trouble using it, but when humanity first attempted to use it to get the SDF-1 out of harm's way, it didn't quite go to plan: the energy field that enveloped the SDF-1 during the fold also cut out an island underneath the ship and took it into space with it, the SDF-1 wound up in orbit around Pluto instead of the moon, and the space fold device didn't return to normal space with the SDF-1, forcing the ship to take the long route back to Earth.
61** ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' sees this trope ''weaponized'' with "Fold Bombs", overloaded space fold devices that suck everything caught in its area of effect into Fold Space, where all teleported matter is obliterated.
62* Parodied in ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP'', when WrongGenreSavvy protagonist Seina feels cheated when his first jump into hyperspace features no light show of any kind; he specifically mentions [[ShoutOut some of the weirdness from]] ''Yamato'' when he describes what he expected.
63* In ''Manga/TheWorldOfNarue'', hyperspace used to be much scarier but has been somewhat "tamed" in recent centuries. Strange alien creatures known as Serpents live in the hyperspace network, and their mere presence can destroy a ship mid-transit. The Serpents are completely inscrutable, and nobody has ever been able to determine why they let some ships through and destroy others. It wasn't until the Avalonians (and later the United Stars) figured out how to fight the Serpents that hyperspace became safe and reliable.
64[[/folder]]
65
66[[folder:Card Games]]
67* In the cosmology of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the space between planes (sometimes called the Blind Eternities) will instantly kill anyone other than a [[DimensionalTraveler planeswalker]] or someone without serious magical protection (either fundamentally transforming the nature of the traveler, or bringing along a pocket or tunnel of normal space to ride in or pass through). The constantly-shifting currents of metaphysical energy look pretty bizarre, but at least they don't drive people insane... of course, that could only be because even Planeswalkers will be killed by it before they have a chance to go nuts. The ''Zendikar'' block introduced the Eldrazi, [[EldritchAbomination otherworldly horrors]] that originated from and live in the Blind Eternities. As denizens of the Blind Eternities, the Eldrazi are suitably maddening to mortals. In the conclusion of ''War of the Spark'', we see what happens when a non-planeswalker travels through the Eternities without suitable protection. [[spoiler:The de-sparked Nicol Bolas is utterly ravaged by the ordeal even while his brother Ugin does his best to shield him with his wings.]]
68[[/folder]]
69
70[[folder:Comic Books]]
71* The 1976 short comic "Approche Sur Centauri” from the French magazine ''Metal Hurlant'' (translated as [[http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/post/17976485394/snakebomb-approaching-centauri-philippe "Approaching Centauri"]] when published in the American version of the magazine, ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'', in July 1977), scripted by Philippe Druillet and illustrated by Creator/{{Moebius}}, featured a hyperspace pilot who briefly experienced a hellish dimension when the generator overloaded and he was "thrown outside the T/S continuum". Upon return, he insisted "I saw nothing...nothing..."
72* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
73** This [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]], between [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Fourth World]], the [[EnergyBeings Anti-Monitor]], and [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Mr. Mind]], is a scary enough place as-is (assuming [[ReplacementArtifact it even exists]]). But then it was officially stated that the ''Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'' universe was set there too, which brought in "The Bleed", the red gap between worlds (named for the space outside the panels of a comic book, of course).
74** The PhantomZone, also known as the Still Zone or the Ghost Zone. It's complete whiteness in which you can get lost forever. Zauriel, an angel, even called it "limbo" once. And, according to Steve Gerber's early 80's ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'' miniseries, it's the physical manifestation of the mind of an EldritchAbomination. A perfectly safe place unless you [[SchmuckBait go trying to attract the creature's attention.]]
75** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'' reveals that ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s father Zor-El discovered a similar pocket dimension resembling an endless white void. He called it the Survival Zone.
76** The entire DC Multiverse is basically contained by an enormous wall at the end of everything called the Source Wall. It is an enormous mass of petrified living beings, possibly composed of everyone who's ever tried and failed to discover the secrets hidden on its other side. Exactly what it looked like at the start is a good question, then.
77** And just for fun, ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}, [[ExiledFromContinuity who may or may not be in the DCU]], once opened a gate into the Void, stated as being beyond the Multiverse. It was completely white, which doesn't sound that worrying until one considers that it goes on forever and literally the only landmark is the gate, which is going to get harder and harder to see... Note: the Void and the Source are definitely not the same thing. Lucifer also once got to the Source... and ignored it as completely irrelevant.
78* When facing off against a shadow-wielding enemy, ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' and his foe get dragged into the shadow dimension. He is warned that there are unseen, horrifying things lurking in there and they make their escape as soon as possible. (These things are likely why the enemy, formerly the sidekick of one of Invincible's father's friends, went insane.)
79* In ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'', a rare type of ''BagOfHolding'' opens not into extradimensional space but into "Bag Wurld," an endless desert that connects all ''bags of holding'' of that type. It's not much good for storage, but with a very good map and a decent-sized caravan you can use it to travel to and out of any other open bag. Of course, if you ''don't'' have a very good map, or someone closes your destination bag, you may be there a long time -- entire cities and fortresses have sprung up around adventurers' caches.
80* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' has the Negative Zone, inhabited and usually ruled by Annihilus, as well as recently introduced dimensions such as the Neutral Zone, the last point before the edge of all existence. Home to eldritch abominations and predatory concepts, and completely hostile to any living thing that enters. ComicBook/TheUltimates2015, present to get a good look at the outside of the multiverse, need to super-boost their quinjet just to survive a few minutes out there.
81** And beyond that is the nothingness, a completely dark space which is even more hostile. The quintjet breaks apart in a matter of seconds, and according to Galactus -- dispatched to bail them out by Eternity -- even he couldn't survive there very long.
82* Fleetway's ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' treats the Special Zone in a similar manner as the literature example below. It's a weird place where physics don't really apply, and a planet and an asteroid belt and some swirly things can comfortably be the same place. The characters originally considered it to be some kind of insane 'other place' you really didn't want to spend too long in, and are shocked to later discover [[spoiler:it's inhabited. Of course, the locals aren't exactly ''normal'', either.]]
83* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''
84** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'': There's at least one instance of [[EldritchAbomination monsters]] living in the void between dimensions used as transport medium. When they got their hands on Ramjet, they tortured, unmade, and remade him until they got bored and tossed him back. The result: a not-all-there Ramjet who is simultaneously CursedWithAwesome and BlessedWithSuck: Being "tormented" at the hands of these creatures resulted in his becoming Unicron-class powerful, and keeping a connection to the void that gives him all kinds of RealityWarper tricks (above and beyond what he had during his time as an agent of Unicron). Thanks, evil extradimensional god dudes! On the other hand, he ''isn't'' quite sane, and it's all he can do to hold his own atoms together. His presence is poisonous to reality around him. Not much fun.
85** In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' "Infestation 2" crossover arc, ''[[OhCrap they get loose]]'' and are every bit as horrible as they sound. And are apparently the inspiration for the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. It doesn't seem especially clear that the creatures from this IDW megacrossover are the same as the ones from the much earlier ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' based story, but Website/TFWikiDotNet seems to be sure about it.
86** Later, by the [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Beast Era]], they use the [[SarcasmMode much safer]] Transwarp technology. Which has a chance of dropping you off anywhere, anywhen if you go off course. Fan convention comics reveal that "anywhere" used to include parallel universes and, presumably, ''void'', until a group from one dimension was nice enough to build a safety net. They keep everyone they catch imprisoned in a single large city, able to move freely about it but not leave.
87** The IDW G1 continuity is largely an aversion; quantum jumping is surprisingly safe even though a certified scientist goes on the record about how it completely flaunts the known laws of physics. Just don't [[BodyHorror stand too]] [[{{Telefrag}} close]] [[NightmareFuel to the engines]] during a jump.
88*** Quantum jumping later turns out to have another big danger; if a malfunction occurs and your ship's computer tells the quantum engines to take the ship to two places at once they solve the error by [[spoiler:creating a ''second'' ship, literally duplicating the ship in every single way as it was when the jump was made. This is not inherently dangerous unless the two ships approach each other. If ''that'' happens, it creates a spatial paradox and one ship will start to overwrite the other.]]
89*** Also, it's a good idea not to let the quantum engines get damaged. If they're hit bad enough, they start forming [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_foam quantum foam.]] That's a good thing only if you enjoy being obliterated by a quantum force strong enough to destroy a planet.
90* ''ComicBook/TheWildstorm:'' Adrianna Tereskhova was part of an experimental flight, trying to get a ship through The Bleed, the underlying part of all reality. The instant the ship turned on, it was crushed like a tin can, and everyone died. Then ''[[EldritchAbomination something]]'' rebuilt Adrianna. Now, she's able to teleport through the Bleed at will, something that gives Cole Cash a screaming case of the do-not-wants. Adrianna, for her part, actually enjoys looking at it.
91* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The times we've seen the dimension Nightcrawler passes through, it resembles hell. This plot was also used in the comics with Illyana Rasputin's "stepping-discs", which moved the users through the demon-filled Limbo.
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:Fan Works]]
95* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Nevernever]], a very large and very strange dimension made of almost pure Magic, which is many dozens of times larger than Earth. The most ''normal'' parts of it, which are closest to Earth, are the Kingdoms of Faerie, where time, space, and the laws of physics are more flexible than they are on Earth - you can step in, walk five steps, and step out thousands of miles away. Or, you can spend an hour in there, and come out a century later. Oh, and its inhabited by all sorts of creatures which physiologically sometimes have only a passing relationship to the Laws of Physics, while Faerie is ruled by the Sidhe, a subspecies of humanity which was altered by hundreds of millennia of normal time (and who knows how long of relative time) living there to not merely channel magic but be one with it. And what makes it even worse is that reality is much more suggestible there, meaning that [[RealityWarper beings of sufficient power can bend time and space to their will]], which results in a WorldGoneMad when Harry and [[spoiler:Maddie]] throw down in part of the Nevernever in the sequel.
96* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauConquerTheStars'': Despite being uninhabited, hyperspace is very freaky on several levels. To the naked eye, it's a black void completely devoid of light. Radar gives constant false readings of things that accelerate ''way'' too fast and occasionally pass through the ships. Thaumic sensors go completely berserk. LIDAR... [[NoodleIncident forget about LIDAR]]. It's also full of hydrogen, enough to transmit a sound that exists in frequencies beyond normal hearing. The only time that someone managed to translate it into something audible, [[BrownNote all those who heard it committed suicide and several more were murdered by the one person who didn't]]. It's standard protocol for ships to have no contact with anything outside the ship during transit. The only good thing is that [[MundaneUtility the hydrogen can be scooped as fuel]].
97* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': Euron Greyjoy gets to experience the joys of unprotected Warp travel firsthand, being tied to the prow of a ship as it sails through the Warp to go from King's Landing to the Iron Islands in less than a day. Various horrible things keep trying to eat him and are driven off at the last second by [[spoiler:Theon Greyjoy]], [[PayEvilUntoEvil who you'd better believe is enjoying every minute of it]].
98* ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'': Discussed but ultimately averted. The inside of a warp bubble created by an AlcubierreDrive is actually kind of boring to look at. Jeb finds this vaguely anticlimatic. Although they ''do'' have the issue mentioned in the Real Life section below, with [[SphereOfDestruction a huge wave of energetic particles being launched away from the ship at lightspeed]] every time they turn it off, which the Kerbin Space Agency learned the hard way when they [[PlutoIsExpendable accidentally obliterated a dwarf planet.]] [[spoiler:And they're not above playing this fact up for subtle GunboatDiplomacy when they make FirstContact.]]
99* ''Fanfic/OutOfTheDark'': The Federation is using an alternate FTL travel domain called phase space. It's a set of multiple layers, each faster than the other, full of storms, reefs, flocks of some local wildlife, is extremely unpleasant for organics when transiting from layer to layer... and yet it's still preferable to the traditional ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' method. At least phase space doesn't have sapient superentities actively trying to gobble you up.
100* ''Star Trek'' usually plays subspace as safe, but there are some ways in which it can go really really wrong. The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084541/chapters/66133225 Something Wicked This Way Comes]]'' shows the aftermath of a ship that used an AnotherDimension to get back home -- problems began with cases of space sickness and suicides, and only went downhill from there. By the time the ship returns to normal space, there're only corpses (and an EldritchAbomination from the hell dimension) aboard, which is what the ''Enterprise'' team finds and has to deal with. The Hyperspace itself is described as a nauseating mixture of swirling, thinking light.
101* ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'': Warpspace is re-imagined as basically a LighterAndSofter version of [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 the Warp]]. It's a mind-shattering dimension of pure Chaos Energy and (according to Maledict) [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the "template" or "blueprint" of the universe itself]]. It also happens to be the birthplace of [[EldritchAbomination Lovecraftian horrors]] like Dark Tails [[spoiler:and the [[SealedEvilInACan Can]] of the [[AbusivePrecursors Forerunners]]]]. However, Demon-made FTL technology has advanced and become so ubiquitous across the universe that it's typically safe to travel. If anything goes wrong, though...
102* ''Fanfic/UnderTheNorthernLights'': Teleportation takes those who use it through a distinctly alien region during jumps. For most people, this isn't strictly an issue. Reindeer, whose magic allows them to see things with supernatural clarity, find witnessing the true nature of this space to be a supremely unpleasant experience.
103-->''"There were... things there!" [Vidar] panted. "They... looked at me!"''
104[[/folder]]
105
106[[folder:Films — Animation]]
107%%* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'': [[spoiler:Hiro and Baymax enter what can only be described as hyperspace in attempt to rescue a stranded pilot -- it's both beautiful and haunting all at once.]]%%Why "cant it only be described as hyperspace" and how is it a "Scary Place?"
108* ''Anime/Interstella5555'': Hyperspace is a very funky and psychedelic place with big shiny objects that can heavily damage your ship. And, during the protagonists' return trip, it's where the BigBad attacks them as an {{Energy Being|s}}.
109* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'': Passage through the Stairgate is a harrowing experience. First things are warped dramatically, then, if one can make it through the glassteroid field, there is further warping that makes things a shifting coloring book scribble interspersed with psychedelic visions of the real world.
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
113* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': The "Stargate" sequence after making contact with the Jovian monolith. The montage is interspersed with quick cuts of the astronaut's various horrifying facial contortions, just to drive the point home. When the sequence is done and the astronaut is in the "hotel", his face is covered in wrinkles, and he looks as if he's going insane. In the [[AllThereInTheManual novel]], the latter effect is explained as the result of Dave being kept in a kind of "alien zoo" until he falls asleep, and then they run his memories backwards while transforming him into the Starchild. It's only in the movie that he goes through the process of aging a couple of decades every time the camera pans around to show him looking at an older version of himself in the next room, then becoming that older self when in the next shot. (Yes, it's just as surreal as it sounds.) If anyone was being weird in the movie, it was Kubrick.
114* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'': The Oscillation Overthruster allows vehicles to pass through solid matter, through a [[AcidTripDimension bizarre dimension filled with weird creatures]]. One of the first scientists to experiment with it ends up with his head phased into a wall, and gets possessed by an 8th-dimensional nasty, turning him into the [[BigBad main villain of the film]].
115* ''Film/TheBlackHole'' features a scene in which using a black hole to travel at right angles to reality sends the characters into Hell. Literally.
116* ''Film/EventHorizon'': The experimental hyperdrive on the eponymous ship takes it to [[spoiler:a dimension of "pure chaos and evil"]], according to one of the people who winds up spending a short while there. What's worse, [[spoiler:''something'' comes back to ''our'' world as the [[EldritchStarship ship]] itself]]. It's a recurring joke among some ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' fans that ''Event Horizon'' is a prequel (one of the film's writers [[WordOfGod even stating]] ''40K'' as a main influence for the film helps a lot), while other fans point to [[spoiler:Weir]] as an unnamed [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobite]]. At any rate, there's certainly a lot of similarity to both.
117* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': Both the wormhole and [[spoiler:the interior of the black hole]] are incredibly freaky. Both places cause the spaceship's internal electronics to go haywire, and both render the ship's maneuvering thrusters completely useless due to both places ''not being physical space.'' [[spoiler:The black hole has the Tesseract, a three-dimensional construct at the center that manages to represent all instants of time for a given location ''simultaneously''.]]
118* ''Film/LostInSpace'': Hyperspace travel requires a stable conduit or passage to keep ships on-route, it's impossible to determine where you're going to come out. [[{{Foreshadowing}} "There's a lot of space to get lost in out there".]] The reason the Robinson family went to space was to help supervise construction of a route to Alpha Centauri, via Hypergates, which would provide that route. But terrorists sabotage the mission and send their craft hurtling into the sun, forcing the crew to use the hyperdrive to the other side of the galaxy.
119* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
120** In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', travelling through the Bifrost is usually safe (although, as shown in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', getting thrown out of the Bifrost in mid-transit is not a pleasant experience). The danger comes from the fact that the Bifrost causes a buildup of energy when used continuously that can potentially tear planets apart. Loki tries to essentially use the Bifrost as a planet-busting WaveMotionGun to destroy Jotunheim in the film's climax.
121** Creator/TomHiddleston has implied that this is part of what pushes Loki from TheResenter of ''Film/{{Thor}}'' to the full-blown BigBad of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': his previous FreakOut was exacerbated by [[spoiler:things he saw between universes after trying to commit suicide by wormhole at the end of ''Thor'']].
122** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' introduces the concept of "jumps", which are essentially wormholes that connect to otherwise distant locations. In moderation, they're fine -- doing 50 at a time is about the limit a human body can take, and most locations are never more than a few jumps away -- but when you do 700 at once (like Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin do), things get [[BodyHorror really weird]].
123** The Quantum Realm, as shown in ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', is a psychedelic EldritchLocation that can only be accessed by shrinking down below the atomic level, which is a one-way trip, if Hank Pym's lost wife is any indication. [[spoiler:Thankfully, she emerges from it with Scott's help by the end of the movie, only for Scott to be trapped in it with no way out when his friends and crew in the real world get [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar snapped]]. He emerges from it by complete happenstance thanks to a stray rat in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', and discovers that he barely sensed the passage of time in the Quantum Realm while five years passed outside, leading to the realization that the Quantum Realm can be used to travel through time. While the first test-jumps through time go a bit weird, eventually it becomes safe.]]
124* In ''Film/MonsterHunter2020'', the process of being thrown from Earth into the New World is ''very'' unpleasant for Artemis and her team, as they get thrown around in their vehicles as it tumbles through a nasty-looking storm with weird glyphs.
125* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', usually the [[FasterThanLightTravel warp drive]] either works or doesn't work. But in ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', a malfunctioning drive creates a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent Wormhole]] that, in addition to being difficult to shut down, also sucks dangerous debris into the ship's path instead of deflecting it away.
126* Downplayed in ''Franchise/StarWars'': using hyperdrives is relatively safe if you know what you're doing. If you ''don't'' know what you're doing, you're liable to crash into something at relativistic velocities and die horribly. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', Vice Admiral Holdo actually uses her ship's hyperdrive as a weapon, pulling off a SuicideAttack by [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming into a giant battleship at FTL speed and cleaving it in half while ripping the fleet behind it to shreds]]. In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' it's mentioned that this tactic could be used to [[ColonyDrop destroy planets]] (and ''has been'' [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Destruction_of_Pammant on one occasion]]), and as such all hyperdrives normally have built-in failsafes to prevent this kind of abuse but damage can disable them.
127** [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Supplementary materials]] show that most people get nauseous from staring into hyperspace too long while a ship is in transit, as [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm their minds can't quite comprehend the empty dimension]]. There's an old superstition claiming that this can also drive people insane, which has persisted for millennia despite lacking real evidence (although TheEmpire tinted their ship windows just to be safe). Though on a slightly more concerning note, [[NightmareFetishist a number of Sith or other dark-siders actually find the nothingness of hyperspace relaxing]].
128* In the film ''Film/{{Supernova}}'', hyperspace travel is visually terrifying. It's easy to imagine the energies involved destroying the ships and everybody in them. And [[BodyHorror what hyperspace does to living tissue]] if your suspension pod is not functioning perfectly [[FateWorseThanDeath is not something you want to think about]].
129* In ''Film/WarCraft2016'', the journey from Draenor to Azeroth can only be described as floating helplessly through water-like, black void between two points of light, with nothing but trees falling as they crash into the portal from Azeroth's side, and orcs rising upwards from Draenor. The experience almost kills Draka's unborn child.
130* While the infamous boat scene from Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory isn't set in hyperspace, it certainly follows the trope to a T: the boat gradually gets faster and faster (to the guests' dismay), psychedelic flashing colors over disturbing images, [[HellIsThatNoise strange noises]], and Wonka singing like [[SanitySlippage he's losing what little grip he has on reality.]]
131[[/folder]]
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133[[folder:Gamebooks]]
134* In the ''Literature/LoneWolf'' series, the Shadowgates allow travel between other dimensions and other planets. However, actually traveling through a Shadowgate is completely inimical to mortals, ravaging body and soul alike. The two times Lone Wolf travels through a Shadowgate in the Magnakai series rob him of Endurance points. In the Grandmaster series, Lone Wolf can eventually learn how to shield his body from the worst effects of Shadowgate travel.
135[[/folder]]
136
137[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
138* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'s'' Slipstream network isn't particularly scary, but it's like an ever-shifting maze that requires insane amounts of intuition to take the right path and incredible reflexes to steer in. Which is why computer systems cannot fly in it; they have no intuition, so they always only have a 50:50 chance of picking the right path at each branch (and your average trip through Slipstream involves a lot of these branches, so the odds slip with each turn), while lifeforms have between 70% and 99% success rate.\
139An early episode showed what happens when you put a being who can predict probable futures into the pilot's seat. Trance ends up screwing up so bad, that it throws the ship 300 years back in time. Later on, though, she can be seen piloting without problems. Given what is revealed about Trance's nature later on, it's entirely possible she meant for the time jump to happen. Another episode involves a probe sent centuries before in order to prowl slipstream and map it out. Supposedly, a complete map of the network would allow efficient, safe passage to any ship, whether piloted by a living being or not.
140-->'''Dylan Hunt:''' Slipstream - it's not the ''best'' way to travel faster than light, it's just the ''only'' way.
141** When ''Andromeda'' lost her original crew [[spoiler:during the first encounter with the Magog]], it took her thirteen months to get back to Commonwealth space by making {{blind jump}}s without an organic pilot--a trip which ordinarily would have taken days.
142** The [[AIIsACrapshoot Consensus of Parts]] uses BrainInAJar in order to navigate Slipstream.
143** Series canon states that the very act of choosing a Slipstream path by an organic being means that their choice is usually the correct one (kind of like the "Observer Effect" fallacy sometimes used to link Quantum Mechanics to pseudoscience), explaining why organics are so "good" at it and [=AIs=] can't do it.
144* Hyperspace in ''Series/BabylonFive'', while less scary than most hyperspaces in this entry, is still rather nasty. It has random currents that can throw you off course rather quickly if you have a navigational failure, no landmarks to navigate by other than the artificial beacons placed by the various races, and there's even some rumors about things living in it. [[spoiler:They're true, and though some of them are just annoying, there are ''lots'' of things that are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil far from nice]].]] And then there's the eponymous ''Thirdspace'', a deeper level of which almost nothing is known because the only known attempt to access it (one device, opened twice) created a portal to the territory of an extremely powerful (enough to scare the Vorlons) and aggressive race that instantly attacks through it. Other less nasty but still dangerous problems include freak storms and vortexes that are capable of altering the currents and eddies and throwing ships off course, something that can normally prove fatal. Also, if you try to open a jump point within an already active gate, this will result in a very large explosion.
145** Hyperspace is in actuality a shadow of Realspace. Gravity wells from normal space create the vortices in Hyperspace, and the drift effect is due to the galaxy being constantly in motion. Hyperspace compresses the space-time continuum so everything is exaggerated while travelling through it. Hyperspace beacons constantly need to be readjusted and hyperspace lanes tend to change over the years. Another unnatural effect of Hyperspace is that it boosts the telepathic abilities of any telepath. Travel beyond the galaxy is said to be the hardest thing any one race can accomplish, and only the ancient First Ones have travelled beyond the galactic rim.
146** The First Ones have learned to use hyperspace rather well, with the Vorlons folding a pocket of hyperspace in on itself to hide a frigging enormous armada! The Shadows are even worse, being completely at home in the chaotic hyperspace. They never get lost and don't even need to open jump gates, simply phasing between hyperspace and normal space. In essence, the Shadows are true {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who have made hyperspace their plaything.
147** And in the ExpandedUniverse there's the Starshards; weapons from a long-ago war, made up of small pieces of neutronium that literally tear hyperspace apart as they travel through it, leaving a trail of realspace behind it like a comet's tail while at the same time warping the eddies in front of it.
148* ''Series/DoctorWho''
149** The [[TimeTravel Time Vortex]] in the [[TheVerse Whoniverse]] has been shown to be hazardous to objects that travel through it without proper transport, even killing companion Jack Harkness. It also hosts a few creatures, such as the Chronovores and other [[EldritchAbomination beings]], and, as of ''New Who'', [[ClockRoaches Reapers]]. The Vortex is viewable directly from a special window on the Doctor's homeworld called the "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast untempered schism]]" where one could actually stare at the raw power of time and space, as the Doctor described it. He said that all Time Lord children were instructed to stare at it until they either became inspired, went insane, or ran away. The Doctor of course, ran away. (Although there's an argument to be made for all three.) TheMaster, [[AxCrazy on the]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds other hand...]]
150** Travel between {{Alternate Universe}}s requires travelling through [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds the Void]], a realm which the Doctor describes as containing ''[[NothingIsScarier absolutely nothing]]''. "No up, no down, no light, no dark, no ''time''". Someone using a specialist "[[EldritchStarship void ship]]" can sit in the Void through the end of the universe and the start of the next, and while the Time Lords called it the Void and [[HumanoidAbomination the Eternals]] called it the Howling, some just call it Hell.
151* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''
152** Wormholes are treacherous and difficult to navigate, and cause all sorts of tricky problems with time and space and turning into liquid when you don't quite understand them, and are inhabited by bizarre and dangerous creatures- ranging from gigantic phase-shifting serpents to sentient "Pathfinders" of dubious morality. On the other hand, one episode dealt with the dangers of Starburst, which is a short-range emergency FTL technology that works by temporarily slipping into another dimension and coming out pretty quickly. Somehow, the ship Moya gets stuck and splayed out in other dimensions -- one of which causes mind-splitting noise, another which causes visual pain, and a third which causes elation and euphoria, in addition to the normal one -- and has to be reassembled by moving all four ships in unison through the dimension while avoiding the interdimensional gatekeeper monster... thing. [[spoiler:Luckily the Gatekeeper turned out to be friendly and helped them escape.]] The problem with that particular starburst involved Moya's pregnancy cumulated with other labor complications. As of some time after [[spoiler:Talyn's birth]], it is still said him starbursting would be dangerous. [[spoiler:He does it even before properly learning to fly, though.]]
153** However, the normal mode of FTL travel for all ships, including Moya, is the Hetch Drive. It appears to move the ship through normal space at FTL speeds, isn't brought up all that much, and appears to be entirely safe.
154* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "In the Blood", explorers on a spaceship are trapped in "trans-space," a hyperspace-like dimension that turns out to be the literal bloodstream of the universe, which is actually a living being. The "scary" part comes from the universe's defense mechanisms being similar to those of humans and actively [[SeekerWhiteBloodCells seeking to destroy foreign bodies]].
155* ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'':
156** Played with in the pilot of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': Lt. Ford hazes the New Guy (Sheppard) by telling him that Gate travel is horribly painful... then drops the act and throws himself backward through the event horizon like it's a carnival ride.
157** Played straighter in the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie and the first episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', where travel through the Stargate was disorientating, made some people feel sick and everyone came through the other side freezing cold, no matter what the temperature on either side of the gate was. Oh, and it threw you out the receiving gate, no matter how fast you entered it. After the pilot of [=SG1=], ''Children of the Gods'', this was all dropped. This was later explained as being due to Earth's lack of the "Dial Home Device," or DHD, which is what they call the control panels the gates were built with. Normally, these regularly "update" the Stargates in the Gate Network to compensate for stellar drift. Since Earth's Stargate didn't have one, it was slightly out of sync with the rest of the network until they learned to compensate for it. This resulted in the rough ride. After this, there was only such a rough ride to the home territory of the Asgard (the first eight-symbol super-distant address) and to the ''Destiny'' at the beginning of ''Series/StargateUniverse'' (even farther than that!)
158*** Other episodes with a rough ride include "Red Sky", due to safety protocols being disabled.
159* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' normally doesn't treat subspace as a bad thing. There are some exceptions, though:
160** Subspace containing aliens who like vivisecting humans.
161** Then there's the problem when subspace extrudes into normal space. Basically, being caught in such a flux means trouble. The energies and particles coming from them are generally not healthy, and stresses can tear starships apart. And you can forget about trying to use Warp Drive (indeed, one ''TNG'' episode showed that excessive warp usage was fraying the boundary between space and subspace like a well-trodden carpet). Thus the laser-like focus of the Federation when it comes to Omega molecules (seen in ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]''): just one of them will rip the space/subspace barrier for a radius of several light years. Get too many of these kinds of holes popping up and you can kiss galactic civilization as you know it goodbye.
162** One episode of ''The Next Generation'' deals with a terrorist group who use a "folded-space transporter" in their attacks. There's a good reason such technology is not widely used: prolonged use causes humanoid tissue to break down.
163** The ''TNG'' episode "New Ground" deals with an alien race experimenting with travel via soliton waves, essentially using energy projected from a planetary surface to propel a ship to warp speeds without the need for a warp drive. Unfortunately, the test goes awry as the wave becomes a NegativeSpaceWedgie that damages the ''Enterprise'', destroys a test vessel, and threatens to obliterate another planet in its path.
164** The Season 7 TNG episode "Force of Nature" introduces a potential danger from the use of warp drives: according to some scientists on one of the worlds the ''Enterprise'' visits, extended use of warp drives carries the danger of fraying the fabric of space until it finally rips, creating a "subspace rift" that can be potentially destructive to nearby worlds. When Captain Picard rebuffs their concerns due to a lack of hard evidence, one of the scientists, a WellIntentionedExtremist, sabotages her ship's own warp core to explode in a region of nearby space that creates a rift, forcing the ''Enterprise'' to avoid going into warp to prevent the rift from spreading. Afterwards, Starfleet completely forbids warp travel through that particular part of space. In addition, with the risk of similar rifts appearing over the next several years, Starfleet imposes a warp speed limit of warp 5 for all starships (except in emergencies) for the remainder of the season.
165** Wormholes containing {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s the Bajorans thought of as the prophets. Averted in that they're actually quite nice and keep the wormhole open and stable (just so long as you don't go pestering them, lest you end up brainwashed...or wiped from existence). The [[EvilTwin Pah]]-[[EldritchAbomination Wraiths]], on the other hand...
166*** Other wormholes aren't as safe to use. The Bajoran wormhole is noteworthy because it's the ''only'' stable wormhole known to exist: the entrance and exit will never change position. In one episode of ''TNG'', two Ferengi who hoped to cash in on a wormhole to the delta quadrant learned this the hard way when the wormhole collapsed and left them stranded.
167** The ''Voyager'' episode "Threshold" almost treated Warp 10 like this, but the actual results were mind-boggling from a logical, biological, and narrative standpoint. Namely, Paris, the one to reach Warp 10, "evolved" into a giant salamander.
168** Experimental interphase [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking devices]] (largely different from the regular, completely safe cloaking devices) seem to operate by taking a ship and crew outside of the normal realm of matter and reality, which allows them not only invisibility but the ability to do things such as phase through solid matter. This can go horribly wrong in two different ways. The first is if a person is exposed to the radiation of a damaged device. ''They'' become cloaked. Not only will they be invisible, unable to be seen, they will lack coherence and slip through walls. On a ship, this could mean a sudden jarring motion could send a [[ThrownOutTheAirlock person into space]]. The second is if the cloaking device suddenly stops working as the ship phases through solid matter. [[BodyHorror If a crewmember is lucky, getting stuck in a wall will kill them instantly]]. (Both scenarios were explored in "The Next Phase" and "The Pegasus", respectively: Geordi and Ro are able to fend off a Romulan in the same phase by throwing him out of the ship and into space; and the final resting place of the ''Pegasus'' is inside of an asteroid, half-phased into the rock after the device finally failed.)
169** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' adds "the Mycelial Network," which is essentially hyperspace accessed via the spores of a fungus that bridges the gap between our reality and the Network. ''Discovery''[='=]s Spore Drive allows it to travel the Network, basically teleporting anywhere in the universe nearly instantaneously, though this requires ''Prototaxites stellaviatori'' spores as fuel, a navigator who can intuit the Network, and a giant metal spaceship popping in and out of two different dimensions wreaks havoc on at least one of those dimensions. It's not explained particularly well in the series itself, but ''Discovery''[='=]s core premise is basically "what if hyperspace was a gigantic fungal ecosystem?" The Network is also home to some really weird StarfishAliens who [[InvertedTrope invert this trope]]; to them, normal space is an incredibly hostile DeathWorld and HumansAreCthulhu.
170* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople1973'' were presumably safe when [[{{Teleportation}} jaunting]] through hyperspace. If they jaunted into hyperspace without protective gear, their bodies would be annihilated. Additionally, hyperspace was seen as a place where time had no meaning, but you'd return to your own time upon leaving. That is, unless some major temporal screw-up had occurred, which ran the possibility of freezing time temporarily.
171** Note that hyperspace was not instantly lethal. When breaking out, Elizabeth accidentally became stranded in hyperspace. While she was in deadly danger, there was a reasonable amount of time to deduce what had happened to her and mount a rescue.
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174[[folder:Music]]
175* Music/BlueOysterCult used this idea on the track ''Heavy Metal(Black and Silver)'' on the ''Music/FireOfUnknownOrigin'' album.
176-->''Into the whirlpool, where matter vanishes!''
177* Music/{{Hawkwind}} used this concept in their space rock; tracks like ''Space is Deep, Lighthouse'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK5wYYPnePM The Golden Void]]'' are about deep space and hyperspace travel. ''Lighthouse'' is the nexus, a navigation beacon, where ships come back into real space and get a bearing fix.
178* Music/PinkFloyd, back in TheSixties, returned frequently to this concept, quite possibly using hyperspace and interstellar travel as a metaphor for the psychedelic experience. ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zuEfmmCA5s Set The Controls For The Heart of the Sun]]'' and the crazily discordant ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2xIGTbtwE Interstellar Overdrive]]''[[note]]This was intended as backing music for the band's light show at live performances[[/note]] illustrate this.
179* Music/VanDerGraafGenerator goes with the NothingIsScarier version in "Pioneers Over C". A group of astronauts attempt to use FasterThanLightTravel to explore the cosmos, and when they finally break the light barrier, they enter infinite nothingness, losing all sense of time and awareness, unable to return to reality as we know it.
180[[/folder]]
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182[[folder:Radio]]
183* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'': In the Primary Phase, Ford Prefect describes going into hyperspace as "unpleasantly like being drunk". He and Arthur Dent are aboard a Vogon ship, and as it goes into hyperspace:
184-->'''Arthur:''' Ugh... I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again!
185[[/folder]]
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187[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
188* ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'': While not used for space travel, Porté sorcery involves tearing a bleeding hole in reality, stepping through into an hyperspace-like dimension, and tearing open another hole to get back. No-one knows what this dimension is like, because Porté sorcerers keep their eyes closed while inside it. Within this dimension, voices try to persuade or trick the sorcerer into opening their eyes. It's assumed that the sorcerers who never came back made the mistake of opening their eyes. It's not at all related that the country where most Porté sorcerers live also has [[spoiler:ghosts without eyes or hands that appear in its mirrors]]. No, surely not. In later supplemental material, it is revealed that [[spoiler:nearly all magic in the world of Theah weakens a barrier in a shadowy world that keeps an army of eldritch abominations at bay, and that every use of Porté magic to rip a hole in reality also rips a corresponding hole in the barrier.]]
189* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': Given a nod. The Kearny-Fuchida jump drive is occasionally poorly looked upon. This is, of course, thanks to a long track record of damn near epic foul-ups that have happened. Time-lost ships, ships that have emerged with massive holes that look like they've been bitten, ships emerging without crew, ships that jumped too close to another ship and were fused, ships where the same happened and the still-living crew were found literally embedded in the bulkheads, and some ships just plain disappearing. Never mind the fact that the [[ChurchMilitant Word of Blake]] apparently figured out a way to keep a ship in hyperspace so their recruits have a more [[EverythingTryingToKillYou interesting]] environment to learn in. And it has already been established that looking out a porthole during a jump is just plain stupid...
190** The things listed above are the exceptions to the rule -- K-F Drives are 98% safe, as long as the capacitors don't blow. However, the understood mechanics of jump travel are almost as bad as the parts that aren't understood. Every single time a ship jumps, heat is manifested at the destination prior to the ship showing up. The more mass being jumped, the longer and hotter. It basically builds from the time the ship starts its jump to the point it emerges. Contrary to popular belief, jumping isn't instantaneous. Although still faster than light speed there ''is'' a lag depending on the distance and mass involved. A huge, fully-loaded battleship jumping the maximum (about 30 light-years) needs about 6 minutes to complete the jump. Problem is, due to all the LostTechnology from centuries of warfare, jump knowledge is either sketchy or kept secret. It's said there are two type of Jump Scientists. One who can recite the theory backwards and forth but make little headway in it... And those who are completely insane but in-between their ramblings they make discoveries.
191** One of the most dangerous things about the KF drive is what happens when a ship jumps: Any other ship within a radius of about one hundred kilometers will be shredded, at various levels of completeness from "kind of intact" to "on a molecular level" with the higher end being the norm. Though the process is instant, it's been noted that on occasion a destroyed ship will continue to transmit for several seconds after the jump flash ends. Also, because of the physics involved, you can't jump in the presence of two jump cores, whether active or not. If you want to transport a jump core, you have to either use the core itself to make the jump or painstakingly break it down into basically gravel and then reforge it (at great expense) once it gets to the destination.
192** The SLDF discovered that any trip via K-F Drive made all of their attempts at drone warship AI suffer what is described as a "paranoid psychotic break" in which they would lock out all communications and see everything that moved as a hostile that was actively attacking them. Any K-F deployment of drones had to be conducted with the AI powered down, then reactivated by a caretaker crew on arrival.
193* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': The Hedge can serve as a means of more expedient travel between long distances, provided one is willing to enter an ever-shifting maze and brave the dangers therein. True to the warped logic of [[TheFairFolk its owners]], the time it takes to get somewhere depends more on [[TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot what happens along the way]] than on actual distance, meaning that getting from Miami to Tucson might require more time (and bloodshed) than from Miami to London. In the Infinite Macabre setting, it's made explicit that yes, the Hedge can be used for interstellar travel, though the base time for navigation is longer. Oh, and getting a ship back out requires finding a portal that said ship can fit through, which is implied to be a rare occurance.
194* ''TabletopGame/ColdAndDark'' is, for a horror game, a bit of a surprising majority aversion of this. Despite some weirdness (Visible color switching to greyscale, shadows taking a couple seconds to fade), ghostline jumps don't carry any odd risks in and of themselves beyond the usual risks in scifi works. Repeated jumps in a short time, however, increase the risk for Void Psychosis Syndrome.
195* ''TabletopGame/CoriolisTheThirdHorizon'' plays it straight twice over. While on the surface it inverts it in the same manner as ''Fading Suns'', it turns out that just because the Portals are the less dangerous route doesn't mean they're automatically ''safer''. In fact, Portal jumps require the crew to be in hypersleep as whatever makes the Portals work isn't exactly compatible with human perception or biology. The book makes it clear that, if the jump doesn't kill you outright, you'll need a new character as your old one will now be too crazy and maimed to be playable.
196* ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'': The Hunting Grounds (the astral plane or the afterlife) double as hyperspace; the one and only human starship designed by Dr. Hellstromme used it for interstellar travel. If you are thinking Warhammer 40K or Event Horizon, you are right. The ship, unlike the Event Horizon, did have some form of Gellar field, but shabby and inefficient, which makes a trip aboard it terrible but survivable. Except for [[spoiler:the poor sod sacrificed to activate the demon-powered warp drive.]]
197* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
198** ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'': Going astral or ethereal in the Tomb is not advisable. At all. [[spoiler:It's an excellent way to get set upon and flayed alive by Type I-IV Demons.]]
199** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'': The space between the Crystal Spheres is called the Phlogiston. While not as disturbing as other examples on this page, it's still dangerous. Besides some nasty creatures living in "The Flow", the multicolored "matter" that pervades it is extremely inflammable. Even a candle will cause a small fireball; any form of fire magic is extremely unadvised there. It also has some weird effects on living beings, like putting asphyxiating creatures into a coma rather than dying. Some travelers have tried using this property to spare resources while cruising the Phlogiston's currents, but there's no guarantee that the subjects would wake up.
200* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'': The [[PortalNetwork Pandora Gates]] created by the [=TITANs=] can be... unpredictable. Stable connections will sometimes spontaneously [[PortalCut shut down mid-transit]], objects and gatecrashers occasionally disappear and never come out the other side, and exposure to the gates themselves can cause [[SanitySlippage hallucinations and psychological side effects]]. And while according to transhumanity's understanding of their function, transit should be instantaneous, travelers sometimes report experiencing subjective hours or even days in a [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds black void]]. Some gatecrashers say they heard whispering in the darkness, some recount terrifying experiences of encountering monstrous presences, and an unlucky few even come out the other side of the gate as a gibbering heap, their sanity ripped away by the transport.
201* ''TabletopGame/EldritchSkies'' lives and breaths this trope. As it turns out, the reason why people tend to go mad in the future of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos is ''not'' because of [[GoMadFromTheRevelation secrets man was not meant to know]]. Rather, it's due to exposure to the [[EldritchAbomination hyperspatial entities]], and hyperspace itself is TheCorruption. As per ''[[LovecraftLite Eldritch Skies]]'', however, the [[CosmicHorrorStory expected role]] this would play is averted: the mental effects don't get really bad until Level 4 exposure, Level 1 gives you PsychicPowers and anything lower than [[WasOnceAMan Level 5]] is treatable.
202* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The canal network in Heaven's Reach, one of the alternate settings in ''Shards of the Exalted Dream'', is a sufficiently nasty place that it contains TheFairFolk, who dwell in the crazy-world that is the Wyld in the core setting, and all ships come with anima circuits to keep them from meeting horrific and bizarre fates. While most of the heavily travelled routes have had the evil kicked out of them over the years, the routes that were forgotten after the Malfean War have not.
203* ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' uses an inversion: hyperspace (what is between the Stargates) actually is the ''safe'' way. The real problem is that interstellar space (the traditional boundary is the orbit of system's Stargate) is filled with shapeless Cthulhoid monstrosities going by the lovely name of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Void]] [[SpaceIsAnOcean Kraken]]. (Something about the star, at least for some part of the star's life cycle repels the Void Krakens. The size of this safe zone varies with each system.) Still, spaceships jumping through hyperspace need to be protected by special shields, because otherwise people experience a strongly addictive quasi-religious epiphany. And fun stuff: before the discovery of Sol System's gate, there were several [[HumanPopsicle sleeper ships]] sent out. One of them was referenced in canon. The rest... Well, the general assumption is [[FridgeHorror it's better not to think of what could have happened to the passengers]].
204* ''TabletopGame/RenegadeLegion'': Fasa's old setting was an interesting example. Tachyon Space wasn't scary per se, but normal matter wasn't capable of coping with it. If a jump lasted too long, you'd melt into a puddle of base elements before exploding into a shower of tachyons.
205* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': Regular FTL travel is fairly simple and straightforward, if somewhat anemic as regards speed. Phase drives, however, are derived from the same technology and magic that the Prometheans use. They use this technology to shut portals and gates down on top of ships that are coming in, a fairly horrific action. But then there are the Rift drives. Though they normally travel through a dimension called the Flux Dimension, anyone who has played Rifts know that they're prone to all sorts of horrible things happening...
206* ''TabletopGame/SpaceQuest'': N-Space is filled to the bursting with Voidsharks, "Temblons" (think kraken with tractor-beam tentacles) and other horrors that all seem to find carbon-based life a tasty treat.
207* ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'': Interstellar travel relies on traveling through a dimension called the Drift. Technically the Drift isn't that bad, apart from a few native critters, being completely empty. The scary part is that, every time someone uses the Drift, a chunk is torn out of another plane and added to the Drift. As a result, travelling through the drift now means your ship might run into fragments from every nasty plane there is, the most inhospitable parts of the good and neutral planes, or even hazards from the Material Plane itself.
208* ''TabletopGame/StarsWithoutNumber'': trying to use a spike drive without someone on duty at all times is a ''really bad idea''. In the sense that you will likely never be seen again.
209* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': Different cultures have different customs and/or superstitions about it. Among them, Vilani dim their lights (from when having enough power to go into jump was an issue), Aslan clans light a sacramental candle, Vargr, as the [[ChaoticNeutral violent types]], beat up one of their crewmates chosen for the honor, and the Droyne use special coins. Jump space is not so much feared as it is weird. If a jump works wrong one could be misjumped to a random point, which could mean anywhere. If it works really wrong, one stays in jumpspace, and no one knows what happens. Technically, one only stays in Jumpspace for a few trillion (subjective) years. Long enough for protons, stable as they are, to decay and, 168 objective hours or so later, all that emerges is a flash of hard radiation.
210* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is very explicit about the "scary" part.
211** The most common way of FTL travels utilize a kind of hyperspace known as the Warp. It is a parallel dimension where there is no time as we understand it (so one can reach destination hundreds years into the future -- or into the past), but more importantly, it is actually the collective unconscious of all life in the galaxy, the sink for all their emotions, ideas and souls. Guess what? The mix isn't very nice, it is downright nasty. Traveling through the Warp means traveling through a very literal hell, complete with [[TheLegionsOfHell demons]], [[EldritchAbomination dark gods]] and so on. Gellar Fields maintain a pocket of "normal" space in and around the ship, but sometimes natives leak through. In the setting the Warp also fuels magic, so local mages (psykers) are always under risk of being possessed and often hear voices, offering... things.
212** For bonus logical headaches, there's a story about accidental time-travelers who were responding to a distress signal (also sent through the Warp) from a ship that was surrounded by enemy vessels... when they popped out, the ship they were aiding was nowhere to be seen, but they were in the middle of an enemy fleet, so they sent out a distress signal...
213** It was mentioned a few times that Gellar Fields can only protect from small predators. The only thing that saves the ship from bigger fish is that they don't notice or don't care about puny humans. Occasionally they do take notice, and then a lifeless husk will join thousands ships that were lost in the warp.
214** The Tau, due to lacking a strong Warp presence, don't have psykers, and thus no analogues for the Imperial Astropaths and Navigators. This leaves them with very limited access to the Warp, and next to no way to explore its nature and applications. Despite having advanced technology otherwise, the Tau are very primitive when it comes to psychic and warp-based technology, including their FTL drives. The Tau are restricted to the "shallows" of the Warp, "skimming" it instead of immersing their vessels any "deeper" (apparently SpaceIsAnOcean metaphors are plentiful when describing the Warp, but metaphors are the only effective method of describing a realm of illogical thought). While this means painfully slow FTL travel, even by the standards of the setting, it's a much safer and more reliable method of travel, although it still has its dangers. Unfortunately this also means that the Tau have less understanding about the ''dangers'' of the Warp than just about every other faction too, and even less understanding about the forces in it. Supposedly, they tried to duplicate the Imperium's Warp technology, but eventually decided "Screw this. Too many tentacles".
215** Even staying out of the Warp doesn't mean escaping this trope. Sometimes, a [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Warpspace/realspace overlap]] (known as a Warp Storm or Warp Rift) is generated that can swallow planets, star systems, or even entire sectors of space: the largest, the Eye of Terror, is roughly the size and shape of a dwarf spiral galaxy, meaning it's ''thousands of light years'' in diameter. It's never a good idea to be on any planet caught anywhere near one of these. While the exact effects [[GreenRocks vary on a case-by-case basis]], the gist of it is that the rules of physics [[RealityIsOutToLunch take an extended vacation]], creating a lovely little WorldOfChaos in which denizens of the Warp can freely manifest, leaving them with plenty of time for -- to quote many ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' players -- [[UnusualEuphemism Fun]]. As luck would have it, warp storms sometimes have beneficial effects as well. At one point the Imperium of Man found a Stone-Age alien species on an uncharted world, and as per normal procedure tasked forces to exterminate them. A warp storm blew up and rendered the star system off limits for about 6,000 years. Then the storm dissipated and the Imperium tried again, only to discover that in the interim the aliens in question, the previously mentioned Tau, had become a spacefaring culture more technologically advanced than the Imperium and fended off the incursion quite handily.
216** The Eldar Webway is a labyrinthine set of tunnels and passages through what is essentially an artificial dimension between Realspace and the Warp. While the Webway is nicer than the Warp, it's still quite nasty and host to its own brand of weirdness. Whereas the Warp is pure chaos, the Webway is more akin to AlienGeometries; rational and internally consistent, yet utterly alien. One of the Primarchs was lost trying to navigate it, and Commorragh, capital city of the Dark Eldar hidden deep within the webway, is an EldritchLocation with architecture that makes ''Film/{{Inception}}'' look reasonable (and, more's to the point, denizens that make D&D's Drow look like a children's tea party).
217** Of course, being ''40K'', some factions just don't care about the mind-breaking horrors inherent to the Warp. The Orks coat their vessels in "teef" to scare off daemons (which works [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because Orks believe it should]]), but even if that doesn't work, daemonic incursions are treated as a way of [[BloodKnight breaking up the tedium of long trips]]. Chaos followers have a much easier time navigating the home realm of their patron deities, but they still need Gellar fields to prevent daemons from coming to [[DealWithTheDevil collect on their pacts]]. And the sheer might of the Tyranid HiveMind plays havoc with the Warp and its denizens, meaning only the most powerful daemons can go anywhere near them, and they can't fight an entire hive fleet by themselves anyway.
218** Last but not least, the Necrons utilize impossibly advanced technology so they can simply ignore the Warp. Their take on FTL works by ''actually'' going faster than light rather than taking a short-cut, plus as a civilisation whose people are soulless and made of living metal, they have much less problems related to warp sickness. Of note are their attempts to get the warp to influence their bodies and flawlessly combine metal and flesh (something only Chaos has managed yet) which seldomly go lucky. However, it seems easier for them to just use the Webway. In older lore, the Necrons were {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s... because the only way to get rid of the Warp for good is to [[FinalSolution exterminate all biological life]].
219** The Warp used to be a relatively peaceful afterlife dimension called the Realm of Souls. The cataclysmic war involving the Old Ones + Eldar + Krorks (Orks) vs the Necrons and C'tan left behind so much devastation, bloodshed, and ill will that it permanently corrupted the Realm of Souls into the nightmarish Warp. The birth of Slaanesh sealed the deal and led to the creation of the aforementioned Eye of Terror, a ''permanent'' Warp/realspace overlap, in the process. A somewhat niche wild guess is that humans also had some influence, and if they didn't, they definitely did as the 40th millennium came to a close. Nobody fed the Dark Gods like humanity did, and the 13th Black Crusade proved this. Abbadon's destruction of Cadia produced so much chaos that what was once a few pockets of concentrated chaos turned into a Great Rift tearing across the entire Milky Way from one end to the other, spawning a new age dubbed ''Noctis Aeterna''.[[note]]Though not stated explicitly in canon, it's pretty safe to assume it means "eternal night".[[/note]]
220** Ships aren't the only thing traveling through the Warp. Any teleporter in the 40k universe works by essentially ''firing people and things through Hell and hoping they're still sane/intact when they come out again''. The Orks' Shokk Attack Gun weaponizes this, firing a Snotling through a short Warp tunnel to drive it irrevocably mad before it rematerializes.
221** There's a location in the Warp, supposedly at the center of reality where time and space begin and end, called The Well of Eternity. Tzeentch had been trying and failing to gain knowledge of the future from it, despite the Greater Daemons he sent into it. Until Kairos was sent and miraculously survived, but aged into an old Daemon, among other things.[[note]]Growing another head, tells both the truth and an equally believable lie, and invariably insane from having knowledge of the future.[[/note]] ''Daemons are immortal and are not supposed to age.''
222* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' features the Paths of the Old Ones, a series of pocket dimension "hubs" connected to each other and to real-world gates by "tunnels" through the realm of magic. Since the Old Ones disappeared, the Paths have been tainted by Chaos. The tunnels are even worse, containing "reality bubbles" that travelers can be trapped in. These may vary from alternate timelines to a daemon's personal playroom. And if you take a wrong turn in the Paths, you may just end up in the Realms of Chaos. Or worse, what is heavily implied to be ''Warhammer 40,000''[='s=] Warp.
223[[/folder]]
224
225[[folder:Theatre]]
226* Subverted in Qui Nguyen's play ''Fight Girl Battle World'', in which [[spoiler:the Human is told to brace for hyperspace, which then turns out to be funky hip-hop music. Everyone bobs their head in time. The human eventually catches on.]]
227[[/folder]]
228
229[[folder:Video Games]]
230* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'': The Trail of Souls that links [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} Mira]] to the rest of the world. The "wavey" black void is liable to get you lost forever in a monster filed dimension if you get lost, and it even freaks out characters who regularly travel it. Creator/MotoiSakuraba's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy2nfKHNqMM music]] sets the tune perfectly.
231* ''VideoGame/TheBreach'' refers to this as "the Yellow". It's full of yellow fog, nasty monsters, and strange glowing glyphs, and it's [[PlaceBeyondTime apparently beyond time as well]]. The inhabitants are quite welcoming, but they tend to become [[AxeCrazy enraged]] at people who refuse to [[YouWillBeAssimilated join them]].
232* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': The Shadow Shard is like this, if only because almost all the monsters found in the place are DemonicSpiders. Of course, the landscape is trippy as hell, and that does a lot to turn it into one of the most unused zones in the game.
233* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': Although not technically hyperspace, the plot of the series revolves around teleporters that work by routing the teleported matter through another reality, which works well enough except for the tiny fact that the reality in question is literally Hell -- the demons eventually notice the unexpected entry and even less expected exits and come through the teleporters themselves. In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', it's specifically stated that the Martian civilization's use of this technology nearly drove them into extinction, and it took a HeroicSacrifice on the part of their entire species to send the demons back and close up the portals again before they could conquer the universe. And then humans came along and [[SealedEvilInACan Unsealed the Can]]. If the demonic invasion wasn't bad enough, even travelling through a portal to another place on Mars can cause paranoia and insanity. Makes sense, since the hyperspace tunnel appears to be a bloody vein-like tunnel, and you hear screaming as you move along it.
234* ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'' gives us the Abyss, which is intimately tied to translocation spells; there are translocation spells that send a target to the Abyss, and a translocation miscast can send the mage the same way. It's a constantly shifting branch of hell, filled with demons and ruled over by [[ChaoticEvil Lugonu the Unformed]], who grants powers of, naturally, translocation.
235* ''VideoGame/EarthAndBeyond'': Story design documents released after the game's servers were shut down revealed that protagonists of the game, the V'rix, originated from hyperspace. To the players they appeared as terrifying insectoid creatures and ships, but the design documents revealed that this was merely a perception that played on human's primal fears and not their actual forms. They were the guardians of The Ancient Gate System left behind by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence The Ancients]] and showed up and started attacking humans (and documents revealed they would have ended up [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up the Earth]]) because of our improper use of The Ancient Gates.
236* ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'': A trip into hyperspace (or witch-space, as the game calls it) puts you at risk from ambush from Thargoids, who have a technology which allows them to lurk there. In some versions of the game you can force a hyperdrive failure by holding full pitch and roll while jumping, but you'd have to be either suicidal or very well armed to attempt it.
237** In ''Frontier: Elite II'', mis-jumps sometimes occur, which usually just results in your ship emerging from Hyperspace too early but still with enough fuel to complete the jump. A severe mis-jump could have you emerge from Hyperspace in uncharted space thousands of light years from any inhabited system while simultaneously turning your hyperdrive into a pile of useless scrap metal. Fun.
238** In ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' Hyperspace works in such a way that you can't judge speed or direction in it, and you pass unidentifiable cloud structures and points of light while travelling in it. You can also hear some truly bizarre sounds in it, possibly coming from the Thargoids (mentioned above). Oh, and whatever you do, ''don't look behind you''. [[spoiler:And in case you think it's all just atmospheric, the Thargoids can still yank you out mid-jump.]]
239** ''The Dark Wheel'' TieInNovel says the hyperspace lanes are protected from the two dangers of hyperspace travel. You can be turned inside out, turned into a deformed blob or sent millions of years back in time, though the latter is treated as more of an in-universe urban legend.
240* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'': The expansion ''Apocrypha'' added star systems that are only accessible by wormholes and full of strange, sentient and AlwaysChaoticEvil machines called the Sleepers. This turned out to be a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation: the players found these systems less scary than intended, mapped them, colonized them and deciphered the Sleeper A.I. to safely farm them. {{Canon}}ically, just warping and jumping through stargates are mentally traumatic experiences, to the point where ship crews are either permanently juicing anti-psychotic medication to keep them sane, or else are kept sedated when they're not actually needed for anything. A capsuleer's control pod does grant them immunity to this phenomenon, but considering that it tends to drive the user insane anyway, this could be considered a mixed blessing.
241* ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'': FTL travel ([[AppliedPhlebotinum and a lot of the setting's technology in general]]) involves tapping into or outright entering Cherenkov Space using the [[FormulaicMagic Patterson Equations]], which describe FTL physics the same way one might describe gravity or relativity. The scary part? [[spoiler:Cherenkov Space is where [[EldritchAbomination the Monsters]] come from. It's a parallel dimension closely aligned with ours, and the use of Patterson tech in normal space has [[ToxicPhlebotinum the effect of a constantly exploding atomic bomb in Cherenkov Space]]. The Monsters are members of the ethereal natives of this dimension, given artificial bodies to manifest in our space and eliminate the threat to their world by destroying Patterson tech, its creators, and anything else they deem necessary, even if it means [[ApocalypseHow nucleating the entire dimension into an absolute vacuum]].]]
242* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'':
243** Fast-travel is accomplished via the Teleport and Return spells, which sends a person's body and aether through TheLifestream to an aetheryte. Travel via these spells, as well as between smaller shards making up an "aethernet" covering a short distance (such as within a city), is safe, but requires attuning to the destination aetheryte beforehand. There exists, however, another teleportation spell called "Flow", which allows one to enter and exit the Lifestream at any point in the physical world -- at least in theory. In practice, without aetherytes to serve as beacons, using "Flow" carries the risk of a person becoming lost in the Lifestream until their bodies and souls break down completely into aether. [[spoiler:Even in cases where people emerge from using Flow, they rarely ever do so unscathed: Thancred was rendered completely incapable of using magic after his time in the Lifestream, and Y'shtola -- who only even came back thanks to Gridanian conjurers managing to find her and pull her out of the Lifestream -- was rendered blind. While she can now see aether around her to compensate, doing so [[CastFromLifespan gradually reduces her remaining lifespan]]. There's also a more minor instance early in ''Endwalker'', where the player and a few allies teleport to a far-away land they've never been to before by way of a prototype aetheryte that can be attuned to other aetherytes, allowing individuals to teleport between them regardless of if they're attuned to the destination - or even capable of casting magic to teleport in the first place, in Thancred's case - but the end result is short-term but severe nausea (bad enough that the narration explicitly notes if the player character tried to talk to another member of the group, they would immediately re-familiarize themselves with what they last ate).]]
244** With the introduction of [[TheMultiverse parallel worlds]] in ''Shadowbringers'', there is also the [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds Interdimensional Rift]], a dark vacuum between the Source and its reflections. [[spoiler:When the Crystal Exarch tried to summon the PlayerCharacter from the Source to the First, he failed the first several times, his spell locking onto their companions and pulling their souls over, leaving their bodies in the Source comatose. Once the player is finally successfully summoned, though, the game quickly justifies a means by which they can travel freely between the parallel worlds. The Exarch, himself, intended to take the power of the [[EldritchAbomination Lightwardens]] after the player absorbs them, then go into the Rift to die so that all of the released Light aether wouldn't unbalance things on the First or any other shard, but the ArcVillain of the expansion thwarted that plan. The endgame story revolves around efforts to safely transport the player's companions' souls back to their bodies in the Source, with the danger coming from the fact that such a feat had never been attempted before, so there was no telling what could happen. Thankfully, the attempt to bring the companions' souls back to their homeworld succeeds, and Y'shtola dedicates herself in the endgame story of ''Endwalker'' to researching another means of safely traversing between parallel worlds. Late in ''Endwalker'', a means to transport someone else from the Source to the First is devised when the player transports Zero's soul into a SoulJar, travels to the First, and has Beq Lugg fashion for her a body for use in the First, then later safely transporting her soul back to the Source the same way. However, her nature as a Voidsent -- beings who have travelled from the Thirteenth to Source by similar means -- further mitigates any risk to her.]]
245* ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'': The scariness of subspace has less to do with subspace itself than the insinuation that using it for FTL travel will cause a horde of enraged StarfishAliens, who may or may not actually live in subspace, with NighInvulnerable spacecraft to come and wipe your species out for their "sin".
246* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':
247** ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' has a similar premise: Xen is a parallel dimension that looks as if bits of planet and atmosphere, as well as predatory xenofauna, were transported there at random. Teleporters need to pass their signal through a Xen relay in order to return their loads to normal space. The relay is initially (when the technology was first created) a big machine attached to a crystal on Xen, but is subsequently "compressed" all the way to nothing; ''Videogame/HalfLife2'' tells us that rag-tag Resistance teleporters simply swing around Xen like a dimensional sligshot, making teleportation cheaper and a bit safer.
248** On the other hand, Combine teleportation takes the hard way and rips a hole in the universe. It does have some advantages, like the Combine being able to go to any universe they choose and wherever in a given universe, but teleportation relying on Xen is cheaper and uses much less machinery, as well as able to perform intradimensional travel (as opposed to Combine teleportation which is only capable of travel between dimensions, leaving them reliant on local transportation to get around once they're in a dimension). Some factions can even use it without machinery at all, like the G-Man, who conveniently disappears through what is either teleportation or a crapload of hidden doors before you ever get close. Also, the Vortigaunts seem to like where/when/whatever plane of existence the G-Man keeps using and taking Gordon to, so much so as to wrench him and Alyx back into reality from it at the start of ''Episode One''.
249* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Hyperspace is known as slipspace. In the early days of FTL travel, technicians sometimes had to repair the drives while in mid-jump, exposing themselves to the "slipstream" and risking injury, death, or even being [[RetGone completely erased from existence]] in the process. Even when the engine isn't operating, there's still a tendency for tools and technicians to turn up missing after a shift. Sometimes ships entering hyperspace will simply never reappear. Time dilation effects are present, which can cause unpredictable delays. It's also implied that slipspace travel has adverse effects on your health, thus the cryopods present on all UNSC vessels. Being ThrownOutTheAirlock simply kicks you back into realspace, though you do get bathed in radiation in the process. Opening a slipspace rift while in an atmosphere creates a massive {{EMP}} pulse and shockwave that can knock down a SpaceElevator. Trying to transition from realspace to slipspace when the slipspace drive isn't fully charged (at least on human ships) causes the ship to be blown into atomized bits, and even hitching a ride by following a larger ship through slipspace as the ''In Amber Clad'' does early in ''VideoGame/Halo2'' leaves it with several of its systems offline. Slipspace is significantly less scary for more advanced species like the Covenant and Forerunners, but even for them it can still be treacherous without the proper precautions.
250* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'': In the sequel (of disputed canonicity), ''Homeworld: Cataclysm'', the central enemy came from Hyperspace. This was a little disturbing for everyone, as until then Hyperspace has been thought to be perfectly safe (assuming you had a safe way of getting in and out of it). The Naggarok, an alien exploration vessel using an experimental form of hyperdrive, essentially went 'too deep', or something similar, resulting in it picking up a passenger in the form of a sentient biomatter [[TheVirus virus]]. Although it's worth mentioning that this explanation for how The Beast came to enter our galaxy is explicitly guesswork based on fragmentary information; all we know for certain is that the Naggarok exited hyperspace covered in MeatMoss that had eaten most of the crew.\
251Interestingly, in an early script for ''Homeworld 2'', the radiation clouds from a damaged hyperspace core were instead written as an area of space in which ships would be sucked into fiery tentacled hyperspace gates. The script describes them as "looking like they lead straight into hell". This interpretation would fit well with all the other religious symbolism in the game, but you can see why they dropped it; The radiation shields the Hiigarans eventually implement are much more believable than "portal into hell" shields.
252* ''VideoGame/ImmortalDefense'': ''You'' are the reason hyperspace is a scary place, since you're an immortal disembodied spirit with god powers, and you tend to tear apart fleets.
253* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'': W-Corp runs what are known as warp trains, which can travel to any destination within 10 seconds. However in one instance, it begins to malfunction, and the train never seems to reach its destination. The people riding never feel hunger or thirst, and after several weeks of being stuck on the train, people start committing suicide...[[WhoWantsToLiveForever except they can't die]]. People continue to go insane, mutilating themselves and others [[AndIMustScream just to feel something over 2000 years]] until they're just throbbing piles of flesh. [[spoiler:It's then revealed that the train was never malfunctioning at all, and works exactly as intended. The train travels for 2000 some odd years in another dimension and arrives at its destination 10 seconds later in their original dimension. A cleanup crew puts these mutilated bodies back into their seats, their memories of the events are wiped, and their bodies are restored to normal, none the wiser of the millennia of anguish they just went through. This happens every single time. Rich people pay enormous costs to be put in stasis for these trips so they don't have to live through this hell.]]
254* ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'': You and a few other characters have the opportunity to tear open the very fabric of reality and go Outside. While it makes for convenient travel by going from tear to tear, it is very much not safe, as Outside is the dwellingplace of the dead, some of whom are not nice people at all. [[spoiler:The climax of the game, after the Rend weave has been used to open a portal to Outside, involves going Outside to find the way to keep it out of the hands of the local Death God, which has the unfortunate side effect of trapping it in normal reality. The game was supposed to be a trilogy, but sadly went unfinished.]]
255* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': The Mass Relays are not entirely mapped out by the species of the galaxy, since they were supposedly designed by the Protheans [[spoiler:"supposedly," because they were actually created by the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]]]] who did not really leave any complete maps as to where they all go, and an explorer has no idea what is really on the other side. Used to be, when a new Mass Relay was discovered the Citadel Council would immediately send out an explorer team to leap to the other side and map out the Relay's destination. This came to a stop however when one exploration team discovered the [[InsectoidAliens rachni]]. The ensuing [[BugWar war]] lasted a century, which was only won when the Council employed the use of the [[ProudWarriorRace krogan]], which in turn lead to Krogan Rebellions. When the turians came across humanity tinkering with an unexplored Relay, it started a small war.[[note]]The First Contact War by the humans as the turians were the humans' first contact with an alien race, and the Relay 314 Incident by the turians who felt they were stopping the humans from doing something stupid; fortunately, the Citadel stepped in to stop it before things got serious.[[/note]] On top of hostile unknown races being at the other side of a Mass Relay, there is also a chance you could run into other nasty things, like black holes or massive fields of space-junk.\
256Actually an inversion; using the relays by themselves is perfectly safe. Using the FTL drives on the ship is perfectly safe (provided you remembered to discharge the static buildup so it doesn't fry everyone on board). The real dangers come from the ''other'' people using these technologies, such as the aforementioned rachni or the [[spoiler:Reapers]]. The sole exception is the Omega relay, which has a reputation of being a one-way trip. Locals presume it's because it points at the galactic core which is full of black holes that pilots can easily get caught. Though really [[spoiler:the Relay was sabotaged to send any ship without the appropriate software into a killing field.]]
257* In ''VideoGame/MidnightSuns'', the heroes travel between the pocket dimension housing [[HubLevel the Abbey]] and the outside world via Limbo, which Illyana Rasputin -- AKA: Magik -- can create portals in and out of. Limbo is described as a nexus connecting all realities, and resembles an expanse of barren FloatingContinent[=s=] suspended over clouds with a foreboding amber sky above, and is impossible to navigate without Magik's help. It is also home to some particularly nasty demons [[spoiler:as well as Mephisto]]. Magik, herself, can [[WeaponizedTeleportation weaponize her Limbo portals]] in combat.
258* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''
259** The Halloween update in 2010 allows players to build a portal to "The Nether", a hellish underworld where every step you take translates to eight steps in the normal world (Notch explicitly compared using it for fast travel to ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''). Where the terrain isn't covered by lava it consists of either a red rock that readily catches on fire or a quicksand textured with ''screaming faces''. The entire dimension is inhabited by herds of zombie pigmen and flying jellyfish who spit exploding fireballs that tear up the landscape and set the rock on fire.
260** A later update adds another portal which leads players to another dimension called "The End", a dark world which consists entirely of a single FloatingContinent suspended over an endless void, inhabited solely by Endermen and a single Ender Dragon. If you travel out 1,000 blocks (either by making a bridge or after defeating the Ender Dragon) you can find the bizzare and endless Outer Islands.
261* ''VideoGame/{{Outcry}}'': There's the so-called Shimmering World, which certainly fits the bill when you get there. It's implied that this is only due to your brother’s damaged psyche, though, and that the Shimmering World might appear differently for healthier people.
262* ''VideoGame/RebelGalaxyOutlaw'': Jump gates connect the solar systems of the Dodge Sector together. Unfortunately, prolonged use causes jump gates to become unstable and ultimately collapse, creating all sorts of nasty abnormalities (which has also led to a terrorist group rising up attacking any ships that use jump gates to prevent the potential destruction of the sector). You can travel through most jump gates safely, although it is never a comfortable experience. Attempting to use an unstable gate, however, can damage your ship and throw you into a completely different part of the Sector than you intended.
263* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' has a location called the Abyss. It has been said that whenever teleportation magic is used, for just a split second that is too short to notice, your body exists in three locations at once, the point of departure, the point of arrival, and in the abyss. When you actually get to see what the abyss looks like, for the purpose of using it as a short cut to the runecrafting altars, it turns out to be BloodyBowelsOfHell and is filled with swarms of highly aggressive monsters than can very quickly kill players who are low level or are not prepared for them.
264* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse'': In the first episode, when Sam and Max first use the power of Teleportation (outside the tutorial flashback at the beginning), the two travel through a bizarre multicolored void where Max is a talking skeleton with a creepy voice.
265-->'''Max:''' ''Enjoying the ride, Sam? A-ha-ha-ha-ha!''\
266'''Sam:''' Note to self: when traveling through Max's brain, ''keep your eyes shut.''
267* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
268** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' has a very ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''-esque explanation for the sudden demonic invasion of Japan -- a blatant {{Expy}} of Creator/StephenHawking succeeded in inventing teleportation but it connected to the demon world, allowing demons to spill into Earth through his experimental terminals. He eventually fixed the system so [[WarpWhistle it was safe to use]], but not before it was too late to stop the invasion.
269** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' has the Amala Network, a series of Magatsuhi-flowing veins that stretch over the Vortex World that can be traversed via Terminals. Occasionally, travel through the network can get one trapped inside of it; as a result, you'll find the network infested with demons trying to gorge on the Magatsuhi in the network. It is also dangerous for humans to stay in the network for too long, lest they be subjected to BodyHorror, or worse.
270* ''VideoGame/StarControl''
271** In this universe, Hyperspace is quite nice. Quasispace (Hyperspace's Hyperspace) is even nicer! But God help you if you use "Dimensional Fatigue" technology wrongly. The Androsynth tried it, and they all disappeared overnight. There are no more Androsynth, only Orz. [[StarfishAliens Strange creatures]] who are [[StarfishLanguage difficult to understand]], implied to be merely projections of some greater being from Hyperspace's or Quasispace's MirrorUniverse, and will happily kill you if you persist in asking about the Androsynth. Merely trying to research the fate of the Androsynth is enough to attract the attentions of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.
272** Also of note is the fact that Hyperspace isn't a total walk in the park; according to the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], the shift between dimensions causes intense nausea, much like a hyperactive [[SpaceIsAnOcean space seasickness]]. The eerie background music playing while your ship travels through Quasispace really helps get the "scary place" feeling across. Some of it sounds like the screams or yells of... [[EldritchAbomination something]]. As some of the aliens describe it, Hyperspace is "above" regular space, and Quasi-space is "above" Hyperspace. The Orz come from "below".
273* ''VideoGame/StarFox1'': The first warp zone in the original game, the black hole, is kind of like the warp gates in the later ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', except you can choose where to go and it's a looping level. The second one, however, sends Fox into an alternate dimension filled with grinning moons, demonic paper airplanes, classical music, and giant slot machines. This would be a zany joke level if it weren't for the fact that General Pepper asks over the intercom where Fox and his team is, and the inability to complete the level. This implies that the entire Star Fox team is trapped in an alternative dimension, flying until they either run out of fuel or are shot out of the sky, while Corneria is obliterated by Andross and his army.
274* ''VideoGame/{{Starsector}}'': Hyperspace is relatively safe so long as you stick to the core worlds. Hyperspace storms can happen which damage ships and blow them off course, but that's the worst of it (aside from terrorists and pirates). Once you leave the core worlds, however, you start stumbling across other things. There's slipstreams that pull you in and drag you around, and sensor ghosts which are creepy and unexplained sensor anomalies, including long-abandoned ships that ''somehow'' perform independent manoeuvers, [[spoiler:Remnant]] fleets disguising themselves as ghosts, unknown contacts that swing around random points in hyperspace and flee upon approach, and large anomalies that fly off and leave a temporary slipstream behind them. Aside from your encounters with them (In which your crew express shock, fear and uncertainty), nobody so much as makes mention of whatever these things are.
275* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'':
276** The Shroud draws clear inspiration from ''Warhammer 40K''[='=]s Warp, though no strong ties with FTL is implied. Jump Drive technology, on the other hand, can be obtained by studying the remains of the Dimensional Horror, a very powerful space monster found inside a black hole, described as only partially existing in our universe. [[spoiler:However, even just researching Jump Drives, or in particular, Psi Jump Drives, puts the entire galaxy at risk of invasion by The Unbidden.]] Psi Jump drive technology can make the connection more overt; one way to discover it is for your explorers to be rather surprised when an alien ship of unknown design flies by in what they had previously thought was a purely mental realm.
277** One minor event has you discover a portal into a parallel universe and contact your own civilization in that universe. There, apparently travel via hyperlanes was never discovered, and all civilizations use Warp Drives (which may or may not be the same thing as Jump Drives in the primary universe) to get from one place to another. However, doing so has unleashed a plague of "Warp Beasts" on the galaxy, and the entire place is embroiled in an endless war against these things. Fortunately for you, there is no danger of the Warp Beasts coming through the portal you opened.
278** The Shroudwalkers can sell empires a Beacon allowing the creation of a wormhole linking one of the empire's stations to the Shroudwalker home system. Travel through the wormhole may cause admirals to mutate into a different species, gain a random personality trait, or accidentally unleash a hostile Psionic Avatar.
279* ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'': Hyperspace is relatively safe. Your engine is wrapped in a coat of Hours and accelerated down a relay with the use of Correspondence stones. Sometimes other creatures use these relays, though they don't do anything, and the Burrower Below will start paying attention to you if you use them too often. The reason the relays are needed, however, is that the area outside of the zones you can play in, known as the Graveyard of Stars, is incredibly unsafe. It's a sunless void devoid of light and laws, with freezing temperatures and unceasing winds. ''Things'' live there, it drives people insane, and entering the Graveyard of Stars readily attracts the attention of the Waste-Waif. It appears that other than whatever lives there, the only other things around are foolhardy explorers, ruins of past civilisations, and maybe-sentient, reality-warping Correspondence sigils.
280* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'': The humans and the Zuul use a specific dimension called "nodespace" to allow their ships to ignore the rules of physics. Unfortunately, nodespace is inhabited by EnergyBeings known as "specters", who do ''not'' appreciate the intrusion and will occasionally cross over into real space and eat the population of one of your colonies to display their displeasure. The Zuul are especially at risk because of their manner of accessing nodespace: for an analogy, the spectres' annoyance at humanity would be like if you were sitting at home and someone came streaking through your living room, entering your back door and leaving through your front door -- the Zuul would be the guy who entered your living room by drilling his way through the walls with a pneumatic drill, and exiting by drilling through the wall at the opposite end. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} In the nude.]]\
281In addition, looking directly into Node Space turns out to have really bad psychological side effects, and after a few unfortunate murder-suicides all human ships now shut all external views of their ships while performing node jumps. WordOfGod [[http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17929&view=unread#p279177 has said that Zuul find node travel]] ''delicious and deeply comforting'', like ''burrowing into live flesh''. The one and only time a Liir tried to enter nodespace on a human vessel, the second it felt the psychic emanations from nodespace it tore open the ship from the inside to avoid going through. Thankfully everyone onboard was fully suited. According to ''The Deacon's Tale'' book by Arinn Dembo, traveling through the Hiver [[PortalNetwork gates]] is ''extremely'' painful to a human and can even be fatal. Presumably, this applies to any species without an exoskeleton. There's a reason the races tend to stick to their method of interstellar travel.
282* ''[[VideoGame/ToeJamAndEarl ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron]]''[='=]s Hyperfunk Zone is a most totally ''jammin''' version of this.
283* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': The Twisting Nether is a realm that connects every world to one another. To those who know how to use its powers, it can act as a doorway between worlds. In its natural state it is the opposite of worlds, with mutable laws of physics defined by each individual and little sense of reason. Recently, however, it has become a major haven for the [[TheLegionsOfHell Burning Legion]], who use it to punch holes into new worlds or intercept travelers passing through it.
284* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Void is described by the Orokin as "...a blinding night. The hellspace where our science and reason failed," and it lives up to this description aptly. Void space seen through the windows of the vacant (kind of) Orokin installations is that of an inverted sky, the emptiness of space becoming blinding white and the stars pitch black. Noble gasses become solid and crystalline when exposed to Void energies, while people exposed to it that aren't killed outright are [[TheCorruption corrupted and broken in nightmarish ways]]. It's even worse for [[MechanicalAbomination the Sentients]]; some unknown property of the Void makes it lethal to them in the same way radiation is to humans, and even with heavy protection they can only survive for a short time in it and are rendered sterile. The Chains of Harrow quest makes it way worse; we find out that [[spoiler:Rell, an autistic child who was exposed to the Void (and ''should'' have become a Tenno, [[AllTheOtherReindeer but was cast out by the other children before he had a chance]]) discovered a "[[GeniusLoci great indifference]]" in the Void, an intelligence that finds life an annoyance that needs to be crushed and destroyed. It drives the poor kid completely insane, and when you manage to free Rell, the Void notices ''you'' and takes a personal interest. Not your character, ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you, the player]]''.]]
285* ''VideoGame/WildArms1'': It's not entirely clear where you go if you use your hammer on a teleporter and it malfunctions but it's called [[BonusLevelOfHell The Abyss]] and it's a very hard BonusDungeon filled with {{Superboss}}es.
286* ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein2009'' has the Black Sun Dimension, which is basically a small-ish pocket Universe being kept from collapsing by a source of unlimited power at its center, The Black Sun. The Veil is a barrier between our universe and the Black Sun dimension, through which Black Sun energy occasionally leaks in the form of energy pools. Oh, did we mention that the energy has the property of horrifically... ''altering'' whoever comes into contact with it, unless they use a precisely harmonized portal? There's even a sort of fauna, native to the Veil: the Geist, a species of monstrous insects that exist out-of-phase with our dimensions and can only be interacted with in the Veil... Unless you're really stupid and attract their attention, at which point all bets are off.
287* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'': The UMN, source of faster than light travel and communications, is also the source of the nightmarish creatures known as the Gnosis. This turns out to be because [[spoiler:[[DreamLand it is actually humanity's collective unconscious]].]]
288* ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': A a mild example in the setting's PortalNetwork. The gate pairs have a way of (from the younger races' perspective) randomly shifting around due to meddling {{Precursors}}. This sometimes causes colonies of one race to be disconnected from friendly territory and end up connected to that of enemies.
289[[/folder]]
290
291[[folder:Webcomics]]
292* ''Webcomic/BohemianDrive'': One of the characters talks about the rumors he heard about wormhole technology as he steps into the teleportation booth, describing how it's this twisting, freaky experience. Then he subverts it by admitting that it's actually supposed to be quite smooth, as the welcome guy on the other side greets them with nothing else changing to indicate the change. [[http://www.bohemiandrive.com/comics/npwil/18.html Link]]
293* ''Webcomic/{{Harbourmaster}}'': FTL travel involves the A-S drive, which surrounds ships with a field that allows them to slip into another "layer" of space called underspace. Time operates strangely in underspace; two minutes inside of it equals two-hundred light years of movement. Coincidentally, two minutes is also the maximum amount of time that can be spent in underspace before the ship and it's crew just... ''vanish''. Nobody knows what happens to them.
294** It's also apparently extremely difficult to navigate in underspace. The [[HyperspaceLanes Hub Beacons]] exist because without them pilots would be hopelessly lost, which risks either not exiting within the time limit or exiting a jump right next to a star or some other hazard. Even worse, it ''has'' to be a physical and sentient pilot; autopilots and drones sent into underspace are just fried, dooming any ships that try to use them.
295** It's mentioned that some people have tried to create land-based wormholes that tap into underspace. These actually work, in that [[GoneHorriblyRight they can potentially suck an entire landmass into underspace]].
296** One reason [[{{Precursors}} the Qohathoth]] are so mysterious is that their methods of space travel were utterly insane and bizarre. Their starships were somehow capable of ''creating sound and vibration in space'' (which basically breaks the laws of physics). What little writings they left behind claim they achieved FTL travel using [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter dark matter]] and that it warped space and time just by activating.
297* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'': Hyperspace is fine. It's ''hyper''-hyperspace that might [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3680.html drive people insane]].
298* ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'': The Void is where both angels and devils live, and is a cold place of ash in the shadow of the flame of Creation. Humans and Servants don't have bodies there, and instead exist only as shades -- shadows of their souls, pale imitations of the real thing. Distance is warped, so it is fully possible to ''walk'' to another world. However, those same warping effects can be extremely dangerous if you step off the road, assuming an unbound devil doesn't kill you first.
299* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': Faster-than-light travel involves jumping between solar systems' gravity wells. Miscalculating the jump can result in colliding with the star whose system you're targeting, bouncing off of real space until you eventually re-embed, being stranded in hyperspace, or being liberated into negative hyperspace. There's also the side effect (in non-Soia-Liron organisms, such as humans) of [[FTLTravelSickness bad dreams and nausea]] after a jump. The risk inherent in each jump tends to vary depending on the system you're jumping into -- dense celestial bodies have deep, "steep" gravity wells, which are very difficult to jump into safely without overshooting and diving right into the central body. In the comic, [[https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider129.html an Umiak force seems to deliberately attempt a deep jump into the Leido system,]] whose primary is a white dwarf; [[https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider130.html Talon can't believe they'd be dumb enough to try something that risky]].
300-->'''Talon''': Idiotic bloody husks! Deep jumping into a white dwarf system? I bet they lost half their ships!
301* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'': In a [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]-based comic series, the inside of a character's BagOfHolding exists in an infinite void haunted by titanic {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, but when you need to hide a baby, [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/04/16/the-dungeon-mistress-part-four you need to hide a baby.]]
302* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': Parodied in [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=113#comic a strip]] where the side effects of going faster than light are... growing an extra finger and finding candy. The AltText has the astronaut thanking Jesus, who replies that "the Universe was designed for you!"
303* ''Webcomic/{{Whither}}'': The space between worlds is crawling with worms. Then again, the worms are an important part of the multiversal ecosystem, eating the dead or rotting worlds. Then again, they're non-sapient and will eat anything, including travellers.
304[[/folder]]
305
306[[folder:Web Original]]
307* ''Literature/VoidDomain'' has a handful of methods for instant transportation. None are completely safe. Eva's literally slingshots her through {{Hell}}, while Zoe's is a shortcut into a frigid dead-white "Between" space that everybody but her finds profoundly disturbing.
308* Wormhole travel in ''WebSite/OrionsArm'' is a tricky experience. To start with, a spacecraft experiences tidal forces as it nears a wormhole. It must then pass through "a thin shell of exotic matter/energy" known as the Caustic, which disrupts communication and computation. Then it needs to pass through the wormhole's Throat, where tidal forces are most intense. If a spacecraft is unlikely enough to touch the walls of the Throat, it'll be shredded.
309[[/folder]]
310
311[[folder:Web Videos]]
312* Appears in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrVqD67zils this spoof ad]] for a medicine called Herpex, which treats the symptoms of genital herpes... and causes the person taking it to teleport. One guy notes that "that place you go to between places can be a little... intense", and as we see when he takes his camcorder with him as he teleports, said place is basically Hell. The SideEffectsInclude segment also warns that an overdose can result in TimeTravel and possibly the apocalypse.
313[[/folder]]
314
315[[folder:Western Animation]]
316* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': The Infinite Corridor is a magical tunnel that enables travel to several different worlds. We see during a flashback/dream sequence, a character from 15th-Century Europe manages to glimpse universes with spaceships, giant mechas, advanced Mayan societies and etc. However, the corridor is very fickle and it opens portals to these distant worlds at random, making very easy for them to be lost. During Season 3, one of the characters' quest is to find the corridor so they can reunite with their loved one who got lost inside it and [[spoiler:it's revealed that a Dracula-worshiping cult is trying to open a portal to Hell so they can bring the vampire lord back to life]].
317%%* Spoofed mercilessly in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuyPresentsLaughItUpFuzzball'', where it shows the [[Series/DoctorWho Fourth Doctor opening]].
318* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E15MobiusDick Möbius Dick]]", Leela's obsession with a fourth-dimensional SpaceWhale causes the Planet Express ship and its crew to be pulled into the fourth dimension (after Leela makes Amy harpoon the whale). Much MindScrew ensues:
319-->'''Hermes''': I can see sideways in time! !emit ni syawedis ees nac I\
320'''Amy''': Gee, I see CGI! !IGC ees I ,eeG\
321'''Fry''': Poop! Heheh! !heheh !pooP
322* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': The Web is a bizarre and disturbing level of Cyberspace that acts as a counterpart to the organized Net. There are no apparent separate systems in the Web; it is simply a continuous flow of energy and data, resulting in constant hurricane-like storms. It can only be accessed by portals and is filled with strange monsters, and exposure to the Web or its creatures [[TheCorruption is corrupting]] without protection. Nobody knows much about the place or how it works, but everyone in the Net fears it. It is the chaotic opposite of the Net and most believe that the Web would destroy the Net if a portal between the two realms was left open too long. In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler:Megabyte gets dragged into it by the Web Creature and, when [[CameBackWrong he comes back out]], he's been twisted into an insane borderline EldritchAbomination who can mimic other sprites]].
323* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': At one point this is applied, not to hyperspace, but to wormhole travel. During a fight, a shield is damaged that protects part of a starship from the crazier aspects of wormhole travel, meaning that everyone in proximity experiences a mindbending acid trip that, according to the characters, lasted "a thousand lifetimes".
324%%* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E14SB129KarateChoppers SB-129]]" has the white void where Squidward is all...'''alone.'''
325* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Homeworld starships travel at FTL speeds via "gravity engines". They create a gravitational singularity point (similar to a black hole) and use the massive gravitational pull to warp space-time, changing the definition of speed. The gravitational singularity is constantly created (and, presumably, evaporated in nanoseconds) in front of the ship, which basically causes it to "continuously fall" towards the singularity. It's freaky as hell; from inside the ship it basically looks like you're rocketing through a dark, multicolored void. The lighting is distorted and there's a weird 3D stereoscopic effect over everything. The GravityScrew is so extreme that the ship has to maintain a "containment field" to protect passengers from the effects; when the field gets temporarily turned off on the ship the Crystal Gems are using, the gravity suddenly becomes so intense that Steven is pinned to his chair and has to fight with all his strength to reach the control panel. One unique aspect is regarding the idea of FasterThanLightTravel: The bodies of Gems are just HardLight constructs projecting from their real "bodies", the small stones located on some part of their figure. This presents an obvious problem; if the ship is going faster than light, it is therefore traveling faster than ''the bodies of the crew''. The containment field isn't just there to protect against gravitational effects, it's also to make sure the the physical forms of the crew stay with the ship. When the field is turned off, their bodies lose pace with the ship and trail behind it, only "catching up" when it decelerates. According to Amethyst, experiencing this feels just as bizarre as it sounds.
326* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': Kup, a giant mechanical war veteran, is still given "the shivers" by hyperspace (known to the Autobots as "The Void").
327* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': The dimension that Nightcrawler teleports through is shown to be a [[FireAndBrimstoneHell hell-like place]] with lots of lava and monstrous red velociraptors dwell. Despite all this, Nightcrawler comments that it's "Not a place I'd vacation, but still wild". Of course, ''then'' the beasties got out...
328[[/folder]]
329
330[[folder:Real Life]]
331* Some interpretations and ideas for the AlcubierreDrive would result in a ship that [[WeaponizedExhaust incinerates anything in front of it when it decelerates from FTL]], due to the massive energy release it would produce. Needless to say, for physicists trying to think of a real FTL drive, fixing this issue is at the top of their to-do list.
332[[/folder]]
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