History Main / NegativeSpaceWedgie

[[caption-width-right:320:Not even the Enterprise crew ever encountered space tornadoes.[[note]]But the ''Voyager'' crew [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E21RealLife did]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:320:Not even the Enterprise crew ever encountered space tornadoes.]]

* ''Star Drek'', a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' parody by [[MonsterMash Bobby Pickett]] & Peter Ferrara, is the TropeNamer.

--> Candace’s fingers dance over the controls. “It’s the comet, Captain,” she says. “It’s [[HollywoodHacking spamming our navigation servers with a denial of service attack!]]”
--> “Damn it!” snaps Captain Bart. “Throw up a firewall and take course alpha!”

--> '''Smithers:'''...And Ozzie Smith seems to have vanished off the face of the earth...
--> *Cut to Ozzie Smith in a red void* "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- *Sees a floating E=MC[[superscript:2]]* Cool! *Takes picture* AHHHHHHHHHH-"

Not to be confused with {{Wedgie}}.

* Episode 1 of ''Radio/SpacePatrol'' dealt with a portal to another dimension surrounded by magnetic flux, which dragged any unlucky space ships into itself. It's stopped by [[spoiler: catching it with a ring of supercobductive metal, then applying a "like" charge to crush it back to quantum size.]]

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' was prone to this in early seasons, since the Stargate would take them to any number of dangerous worlds without having to make expensive spaceship set pieces. However, it was hinted that most of their missions outside the episodes were quite mundane, and later seasons, having exhausted the obvious space wedgies, turned to more plot arcs and original episode themes.

Except for the superficial details, one Negative Space Wedgie is very much like another — it's just a random threat, the third this month. It's a bit absurd to call them "an anomaly" (the usual term used on ''Franchise/StarTrek'') when they happen on a very regular basis.

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, this is the result of certain types of FasterThanLightTravel being used too frequently--mainly that such FTL engines are causing breaches between parallel universes. This ends up letting in [[spoiler:the Flood, who have mixed with Reapers]], which for obvious reasons poses problems.

* Another weird object that might exist in the universe are naked singularities, which basically is a core of a black hole, but without the black hole around it. If such an object is possible, physicists would be very interested in finding them because they could answer questions about how the universe works since they would be easier to study than a black hole.

* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8749227/1/Through-The-Looking-Glass Through the Looking Glass]]" features ''Battlestar Galacica''- both the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 reimagined series]] versions- finding one that causes two characters to essentially 'swap' universes; a Number Eight Cylon ends up in the original series, while Athena Adama is displaced into the reimagined universe and is subsequently enlisted into the fleet (interestingly, although Commander Adama and Lee Adama don't ''look'' like their counterparts in Athena's world, their DNA still matches up enough for Doc Cottle to confirm that Athena should be considered another Adama).

* Often parodied in ''Series/RedDwarf'':

*** "Where No Man Has Gone Before": an energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy gives humans godlike powers.

** Season 3 of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' takes place in a region filled with anomalies that rewrite the laws of physics. It turns out that a network of spheres is responsible.

The outer space equivalent of the MonsterOfTheWeek, except it isn't necessarily a creature — it can be the nebula that conveniently zaps your stardrive, or the planet with the radiation that makes you age too fast, or, well, any of a hundred similar things from ''Franchise/StarTrek''. It's [[UnknownPhenomenon unexpected, unexplainable]], and puts the cast in an artificially-heightened state of crisis for 25 minutes plus commercials — until they find or invent the [[ReversePolarity necessary cure, solution, fix or repellent spray]].

* EVERY ''Franchise/StarTrek'' show has featured Negative Space Wedgies when they were not featuring a new MonsterOfTheWeek or PlanetOfHats. ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' started the tradition with several:
** "Where No Man Has Gone Before": an energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy gives humans godlike powers.
** "The Menagerie/The Cage": psychic aliens capable of creating illusions that pleases every want of their captor.
** "The Squire of Gothos": Trelane, who uses his RealityWarper powers to bedevil the Enterprise crew.
** "Who Mourns For Adonais?": The alien who was the Greek god Apollo tries to force the Enterprise crew to worship him by grabbing the ship with a giant glowing green hand.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was often at its best messing with these.

** "Who Mourns For Adonais?": The alien who was the Greek god Apollo tries to force the Enterprise crew to worship him.
** EVERY ''Franchise/StarTrek'' show has featured Negative Space Wedgie when they were not featuring a new MonsterOfTheWeek or PlanetOfHats. ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' ended its TV run with an extra special one, in fact: an anti-time disruption that threatens to completely undo the entire universe, necessitating three different Captain Picards from three different periods in time to try and fix it.

** W-Space (the systems found beyond unstable wormholes) fits the trope too. Every single W-Space system has a special trait that messes with ships' systems. These effects are always a mix of positive and negative (a pulsar boosts shields but weakens armor, for example), and exploiting these environments is a major part of W-Space strategy.

* A terrestrial version[[note]]A Negative Space Wedgie, [[InvertedTrope but]] [[RecycledInSpace ON EARTH!!!]][[/note]] teleports the USS ''Nimitz'' back to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in ''Film/TheFinalCountdown''. And then, somewhat anticlimactically, [[spoiler: it returns the carrier to its present day just as its air group is about to engage the Japanese fleet and prevent Pearl Harbor.]]

* ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' may be LowFantasy, but it has its own Negative Space Wedgies in form of witch rings. They form naturally in random places and are usually dormant power sources. If the proper rite is made, though, they become portals into another world, and most of those other worlds they connect to are filled up to brim with [[OurMonstersAreDifferent darklings]]. They can be opened from ''both'' sides, which is why people prefer to stay away from them.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has The Scourge. It messes up ships that come into contact with it, it disrupts the orbits and weather of planets it comes near ("near" in this case being within a few [=AUs=]), it kills anything that touches it, it reacts to any Remnant tech that comes near it. Worst of all, it [[EarthShatteringKaboom completely destroyed]] what was to become the new turian homeworld, leaving them with no place to settle, and it is implied that the [[AsteroidThicket Asteroid Thickets]] found throughout the cluster are the debris left behind by Scourge's destruction of other planets. It's spread across the entire Heleus cluster with no obvious spawn point and no means of getting rid of it (not that anyone seems to be trying), screws up basic physics, and is just generally bad news. [[spoiler:It's a weapon released and aimed at the [[{{Precursors}} jaardan]] for an as yet unknown reason.]]

* Extremely literal example in [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3084.html this]] ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'': a thin, triangular rent in space-time that's pulling dimensions together. It comes complete with Swirly Energy Thingy.