History ReassignedToAntarctica / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': After the conclusion of the case in "Secrets and Spies", one of the characters, an ObstructiveBureaucrat, is sent to the Arctic to monitor shipping traffic in the Northwest Passage.

*** When contemplating his return to power, Gul Dukat decides to transfer the younger officer who stole his wife to the Cardassian embassy on Breen, even adding "I hear it's bitter cold on Breen."

** In Season 3, Michael meet Diego Garza, a CIA agent who's been assigned to working undercover at the Miami Airport overseeing an import/export business. Unlike most spies, who would view it as this trope, Diego ''[[InvertedTrope loves]]'' it because it means he isn't getting shot at in some foreign country and is practically paid retirement. As he tells Michael, he does ''not'' want to rock the boat and potentially be reassigned somewhere [[JustForPun much hotter]].

* One ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode combines this with JusticeByOtherLegalMeans when a HateSink murderer who works at the Russian embassy claims diplomatic immunity. His superiors go along with this to avoid a scandal, but make it clear to Castle and Beckett that they do ''not'' condone what he did. The killer is "reassigned" for life to a lonely town located in the coldest location on the entire planet, where it takes four days of bonfires just to defrost the ground enough to dig a grave.

* In ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'', after it becomes public knowledge that the Deep forced Starlight to blow him on her first day on the job, Vought Industries makes him issue a public apology, before transferring him from their flagship SuperTeam "the Seven" to Sandusky, Ohio, which he quickly realizes is a dead-end posting in a small apartment with a $50 per diem. He assumes it's temporary until the whole thing blows over, but eventually realizes no one wants him back.

* One ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode combines this with JusticeByOtherLegalMeans when a HateSink murderer who works at the Russian embassy claims DiplomaticImmunity. His superiors go along with this to avoid a scandal, but make it clear to Castle and Beckett that they do ''not'' condone what he did. The killer is "reassigned" for life to a lonely town located in the coldest location on the entire planet, where it takes four days of bonfires just to defrost the ground enough to dig a grave.

** InvertedTrope, where a useless, obstreperous person is sent to a distant place to get him out of the way and preserve the [[SecretIdentity Secret Identities]] - but the place he's sent off to isn't Alaska or Antarctica, it's Hawaii. Harry Tang, assistant manager of the Buy More at the time, stumbles on Team Chuck in the middle of a teleconference with one of the generals. With aplomb rarely seen from this character, Casey convinces him that Casey thinks Tang has always been aware of spies operating out of the store, the CIA is impressed by Tang's analytical skill, and the transfer to Hawaii is a chance for Tang to have his own career as a spy. In reality, Tang stumbled on them by accident, Casey is the sort of person who would gladly kill Tang if he thought it was easiest, and he still doesn't know the ''really'' important secret.

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'': Combined this with DroppedABridgeOnHim when Dan Woods left the show - Raditch was reassigned after the school shooting.

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': After crossing the line against the city's corruption one too many times, Jim Gordon sent to be a security guard at the newly opened Arkham.

* ''Series/NightCourt''. In one episode, Assistant DA Dan Fielding- who was in the US Army Reserves - was called into duty, told only that he was being sent into a war zone. Dan was prepared with fake medical records and crutches to prove he was unfit for combat duty. His tune changed when his commanding officer showed up with his orders - said commanding officer being an ActionGirl and said orders involving going undercover with her, posing as a couple, doing reconnaissance in some tropical paradise turned BananaRepublic. When Dan's BumblingSidekick Phil shows up pretending to be Dan's boyfriend (Plan B) and Dan's plan to disobey orders is exposed, he is reassigned to the Arctic Circle to help give physicals to polar bears. This is probably an ActorAllusion to Laroquette's previous role as Captain Stillman in ''Film/{{Stripes}}'', who ended up suffering this trope as well.

*** Dukat ''himself'' fell victim to this after he rescued his half-Bajoran daughter Ziyal - he went from a high-ranking military advisor to the Cardassian government to the commander of an insignificant cargo hauler due to the political scandal.

** "The Writing on the Wall" sees the department threatened with closure, with Hacker rumoured to be a candidate for Minister for Industrial Harmony - thus being responsible for every single strike that takes place in the UK, at a time when strikes were frequent enough to be a spectator sport.

* ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'': In series two, when Gene Hunt stands up against [[TheAce Ace]] cop "Super" Mac, he almost gets transferred to Plymouth because of it.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Command of the Battlestar Galactica was Adama's punishment for screwing up a covert mission for the Admiralty: it's an aging bucket assigned to the armpit of space, crewed by a RagtagBandOfMisfits. The irony, of course, is that it's these very facts that spare it when the Colonies fall; it's too old and too far away to be a primary target.

--> '''Russian official:''' In Russia, there are far worse places than prisons.

* John Curtis[[spoiler:, A.K.A. The Replicator,]] of Season 8 of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' turns out to be a FBI agent who took the fall for the failings of the Amerithrax case of 2001 along with Alex Blake for Erin Strauss. It's revealed that part of his punishment was a reassignment to the field office in [[FlyoverCountry Kansas]].

* In the ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' episode "This Woman's Work", after Pottinger fails to secure the promised energy source, Viceroy Mercado has him sent to North Dakota and tells him that's he's lucky not to be sent to the front to die.
** Ironically, Antartica has become a tropical paradise due to improper activation of terraforming equipment (or so the rumors claim), so in the world of Defiance, it's actually a nice place to go.

-->'''Bud''': ''[After Tim mentions being "tired"]'' Did my wife tell you what happened to the vice president who threw the game?
-->'''Tim''': Wearing a turban?
-->'''Bud''': Fez.

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'' has the seldom seen character Richmond. When he's introduced he has the job, that even he doesn't know what it is, of sitting alone in the company's server tower room. The episode goes on to reveal that he used to be a corporate exec and Denholm's right hand name, until he turned into a goth - looking like a member of Kiss in board meetings and mortifying Denholm at his father's funeral. "Antarctica" being the basement with the IT nerds.
** In the series finale Douglas reassigns himself to the "IT Antarctica" to hide from various legal troubles. Handing off the reigns of the company to the IT Team.

-->''Lieutenant [=JGs=] don't joke with admirals, son, it could get him transferred to a supply ship in the Aleutians. Joking is strictly an admiral's privilege only.''

'''Lois''': Nice.
* ''{{Series/Lost}}'': In Season 5, Dr. Chang threatens Hurley with reassignment to HYDRA Island, shoveling polar bear turds, if he mentions the corpse he saw to anyone.

-->'''Hugh''': I've been living in these woods for three weeks now. But that's what happens if you're married to the Home Secretary [[WomanScorned and she catches you watching porn]].

--> '''Gibbs''': "You two finished playing grabass, or do I need to transfer [=McGee=] to a weather station in Antarctica?"

** Struan Loy made unflattering, insensitive jokes about the First Desk of MI5 using his official Service email.

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** Could be the TropeNamer. After disobeying orders in Afghanistan, Major Sheppard is ''literally'' reassigned to Antarctica: sent to [=McMurdo=] as a helicopter taxi driver. Of course, he's TheHero of the show. ReassignmentBackfire within the first half of the show's pilot and a one-way ticket to the lost city of Atlantis.
** And [=McKay=], who later became Atlantis' chief science officer, appeared on ''SG-1'' and was reassigned to Siberia to work on a Naquadah generator they were developing because [=McKay=] fails at empathy and tact (and for thinking he was better than Sam Carter). He's gotten better (comparatively) at those things since he got to Atlantis.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E12Aquiel Aquiel]]" the title character Aquiel Uhnari was transferred to Relay Station [[RunningGag 47]] because her CO thought she was argumentative, easily offended, and was hampering Starfleet's efforts.

* ''Series/Utopia2014'': In "The Buck Stops Where?", a cabinet reshuffle lands NBA with an Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, who has been demoted from Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Nat and Ashan spend the entire episode attempting to brief him on NBA's priorities, but cannot get his attention for more than three minutes. At the end of the episode, another reshuffle removes him; leading the characters to comment that he can't have been moved somewhere less important than Assistant Minister for Infrastructure. Then the final scene shows he is now Assistant Minister to the Minister for Territories and Regions, and is giving a press conference from Norfolk Island, and still can't make it through the conference without being distracted.[[note]]There is an additional level to the joke to those who know UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics, as Minister for Veteran's Affairs is considered the worst cabinet position and is essentially a political death sentence. So he was too incompetent to even hold the worst ministry.[[/note]]
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': Being assigned to the Warehouse is considered to be this by Secret Service personnel not in on the secret; Pete and Myka at first think they've done something wrong to get placed there. This is confirmed with a later episode, when they meet two colleagues and learn that they've acquired a reputation as a couple of misfit weirdos.

* ''Series/WhiteCollar'': This show does this with Burke, who after rescuing Neal at the beginning of Season 4 is investigated by the higher-ups and assigned to the evidence locker--a.k.a "the Cave"--pending the results.

** Mulder's office is in the basement and has no windows and no heat. He lacks respect for what he does and is the Bureau's laughing stock, being called "Spooky" Mulder, though that nickname was originally given for his uncanny profiling skills. However, he is there by his own choice, happy that he can do as much and feeling angsty only because he thinks the threats he’s investigating (things like genetically changed mutant serial killers and upcoming alien invasion) should be taken a little more seriously.

** In the season 1 finale, the X-Files division is shut down and the season 2 opener has Mulder put on a regular, tedious assignment, transcribing surveillance tapes, while Scully returned to teach at the Quantico Academy. AD Skinner managed to assign him on a weird case in "Host" ([=s02e02=]) involving a fluke man. Mulder thought working in a sewer was meant to be even more humiliating and more of a punishment, but Skinner later admitted that “it should have been an X-File”.

--->'''Sir Humphrey''': Long time, no See.

* ''Series/Utopia2014'': In "The Buck Stops Where?", a cabinet reshuffle lands NBA with an Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, who has been demoted from Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Nat and Ashan spend the entire episode attempting to brief him on NBA's priorities, but cannot get his attention for more than three minutes. At the end of the episode, another reshuffle removes him; leading the characters to comment that he can't have been moved somewhere less important than Assistant Minister for Infrastructure. Then the final scene shows he is now Assistant Minister to the Minister for Territories and Regions, and is giving a press conference from Norfolk Island, and still can't make it through the conference without being distracted.[[note]]There is an additional level to the joke to those who know Australian politics, as Minister for Veteran's Affairs is considered the worst cabinet position and is essentially a political death sentence. So he was too incompetent to even hold the worst ministry.[[/note]]