History Main / DilatingDoor

* RobertHeinlein's ''Beyond This Horizon'' had a dilating door. There was probably one in ''Friday'' as well (it said "the door contracted").

* Ships in ''{{Animorphs}}'' are 'living metal'.

*** This design was homaged/copied on ''Torchwood''.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has far, far too many "dilating doors" to list here, but special mention goes to a door in "Day of the Daleks" which ''curls up toward the ceiling in a slow, sinister fashion. "The Ark in Space" also features a sliding door that almost takes the Fourth Doctor's arm off. "I'm rather attached to it," he said.

* Although ''[[{{Game/ptitlelpt9xvh0}} GoldenEye]]'' usually does fine with normal sliding doors, the Cavern level features iris doors. And yes, it ''is'' a pain in the ass when the door takes 5 seconds to open while you're fighting a horde of 20 enemies in your back...

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* In one episode of ''CyberChase'', the kids go to Symmetria to find Ada. The building they encounter has a round door with four holes in it, mounted into a wall with four holes in it. By default, the holes don't align, but every once in a while, the door rotates so that they do align briefly. The trick to getting through is to jump through ''while it's moving''. Nobody gets stuck in it, but it's just asking to happen. Good thing those kids are fairly nimble...

* ''DoctorWho'' has far, far too many "dilating doors" to list here, but special mention goes to a door in "Day of the Daleks" which ''curls up toward the ceiling in a slow, sinister fashion. "The Ark in Space" also features a sliding door that almost takes the Fourth Doctor's arm off. "I'm rather attached to it," he said.

* The defensive iris used in the ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' gate room. Apparently just having a big sheet of metal slide over the gate didn't look cool enough. By ''StargateAtlantis'', they just had a more prop-friendly generally-invisible ForceField that prevented invasion via "Unscheduled Off-World Activation."

** By which point you realize they ''really'' don't want you in there.

** The later series increased the budget. Of note are the doors on ''DeepSpaceNine'', which roll sideways.

* A bizarre aversion in TronLegacy. The interior of [[spoiler:Flynn's]] house in the Grid has obviously visible hinges and door knobs on all of the doors, such that they wouldn't be out of place in a regular modern house. This, of course, is taking place in the entirely virtual world where CoolButInefficient is king. Even stranger when compared with the AsceticAesthetic design of the rest of the house. In particular, the windows stand out, as they are not made of a solid substance, but instead seem to be SomeKindOfForceField, marking a pretty stark contrast with the doors.

* G Martynov's ''Starfarers'', a fairly average late day InterplanetaryVoyage novel, features [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Sufficiently Advanced]] HumanoidAliens from the [[ScienceMarchesOn planet Phaeton]], who used the disintegrating-and-rematerializing doors in their spaceship.

* Doors in MassEffect are usually controlled by a keypad next to the door, or a holographic interface in the center of the door, and they all slide into an adjacent wall.

As you might know, a "dilating door" is science fiction FanSpeak for the trope that we call "CoolButInefficient". This trope refers exclusively to Cool But Inefficient doors and hatches - doors that slide up into the ceiling, doors that dilate like an iris, doors that ''dissolve'' and rematerialise... Apparently, plain old hinges are extinct in the future, which brings up the question of how they get from room to room during a power cut.

* Doors in MassEffect are usually controlled by a keypad next to the door, or a holographic interface in the center of the door.

* {{Played for laughs}} in the film of ''Barbarella'', when Jane Fonda is wearing (little more than) an animal-skin suit with a long tail and the tail gets trapped in the closing iris.

* In ''{{Firefly}}'', on ''Serenity'', the doors to the crew quarters were these elaborate swinging ladder/door combination things. Quite space-efficient, if a bit easy to lock from the wrong side. (And not wheelchair-accessible, although the guest quarters were.)

* The doors on the industrial ship in ''GhostInTheShell: Innocence'' don't make any sense. They consists of four squared panels fixed to two hinges on each side of the doorframe at middle height which are tilted sideways and into the walls. However, it [[RuleOfCool looks quite cool]] when Batou charges through the coridors and every 15 meters one of these opens just a slit second before he reaches it.

* The defensive iris used in the ''{{Stargate SG1}}'' gate room. Apparently just having a big sheet of metal slide over the gate didn't look cool enough. By StargateAtlantis, they just had a more prop-friendly generally-invisible ForceField that prevented invasion via "Unscheduled Off-World Activation."
* On the original ''Star Trek'' they did everything possible to make the doors interesting; except for having it descend into the floor. That was too expensive.
** The later series increased the budget. Of note are the doors on DeepSpaceNine, which roll sideways.
** On the StarTrekTheNextGeneration episode "The First Duty", the Academy dorms have doorknobs and hinges.
* In {{Firefly}}, on ''Serenity'', the doors to the crew quarters were these elaborate swinging ladder/door combination things. The future is not wheelchair accessible.
** Maybe advanced medicine makes wheelchairs unnecessary in the future? As far as the doors themselves go, it probably has to do with packing all the necessary rooms into the available space.
** In fairness, it is primarily a cargo ship. The crew quarters weren't wheelchair-accessible, but guest quarters were. Still not ADA-friendly, but it makes sense within the world. Quite space-efficient, if a bit easy to lock from the wrong side.
* In ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', the main characters are compelled through an elaborate series of variously opening doors and into the screening room.

* Although ''Goldeneye 007'' usually does fine with normal sliding doors, the Cavern level features iris doors. And yes, it ''is'' a pain in the ass when the door takes 5 seconds to open while you're fighting a horde of 20 enemies in your back...

** Parodied in ''{{Fallout}} 3'' in the Mechanist's Lair where the main entrance is a ridiculously complex set of doors that take easily couple of minutes to open entirely.
*** Actually, the Mechanist's door is a shout out to GetSmart and/or MST3K (its the EXACT same as one of the doors in both those series famous door sequences)
* ''HalfLife'' - quote a lot of the doors in the Black Mesa Complex do this vertically and horizontally.

* KnightsOfTheOldRepublic features a variety of oddly opening doors, ranging from the relatively boring two part doors that slide sideways to ridiculously complex systems of interlocking bars that unlatch and slide apart.

* Spoofed, of course, in Season 3 of Sam and Max, where the doors on Skun'kape's ship dilate, slide in, and even tilt in -- from opposite sides!

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As you might know, a "dilating door" is science fiction FanSpeak for the trope that we call "CoolButInefficient". This trope refers exclusively to Cool But Inefficient doors and hatches - doors that slide up into the ceiling, doors that dilate like an iris, doors that ''dissolve'' and rematerialise... Apparently, plain old hinges are extinct in the future.