History Main / UnknownPhenomenon

'''Tuvok:''' Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers nervous.
-->''[later]''
->'''Janeway:''' What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?\\
'''Tuvok:''' I am unable to offer identification, Captain.
->'''Kim:''' In other words, ''you've'' never seen anything like it. Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.
-->-- ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "The Cloud"

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'', the heroes encounter a mysterious energy source known only as '''[[color:orange: THE POWER]]''' that seems to boost your natural abilities greatly. It resides ''in the planet Jupiter.''

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* Many threats in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' tend towards this, to the point where it overlaps with FlatEarthAtheist from time to time. ''The Doomsday Ship'' has a phenomenon that's almost unheard of ''there'' -- the intelligent and perfectly functioning but [[AIIsACrapshoot evil AI]] -- treated as completely mystifying and confusing.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* Even ''Series/DoctorWho'' has encountered a couple of thingies that he'd never encountered before. The most notable are the Devil (perhaps) in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", and especially the unnamed creature from "Midnight". The latter is especially Nightmare Fuel-y because no-one ever finds out what it is -- not the victims, not the Doctor, not the viewers, no-one. Lampshaded in "Amy's Choice", where the Eleventh Doctor laments "I don't know! Why does everyone always expect me to know everything?"
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Every series, several times per season.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "Terminal", Zen detects one in their path and, seeing as they don't know what it is, wisely suggests going around it. Avon doesn't listen and takes the Liberator through, causing its destruction from a substance that eats away at the Liberator's hull, overwhelming its ability to self-repair.

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' uses this a lot in the span of its three games. I AM RECORDING A SPACE TIME ANOMALY!!!
* In the universe of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', if you don't already know what's behind the local NegativeSpaceWedgie, you probably don't wanna know. And quite often if you ''do'' know, you'll wish you didn't.
* In the ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'' games, these are the space equivalents of [[InexplicableTreasureChests Goody Huts]]. Investigating one can give you extra money or a new bonus, advance your research, or [[ChestMonster cause the investigating ship to vanish]]. Quite a number of them (especially in the first game) enhanced the ship that found the anomaly. This could lead to the absurdity of your initially-unarmed survey ship becoming your most powerful battleship by simply finding the right anomalies. The sequel tried to avert this by the anomalies only enhancing existing weapons on the ship, but there's nothing stopping you from designing a survey ship with weapons once you research the appropriate technology.
* Anomalies in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}''; oddities, mostly planetary, for your science ship to investigate for extra yields, new tech, empire effects, or occasionally things going horribly wrong. Most of them are the result of the galaxy's ''myriad'' [[{{Precursors}} predecessor races]], and never fully explained; [[{{Tagline}} the galaxy is old and full of wonders]].

->'''Kim:''' I've never seen anything like it!
->'''Tuvok:''' Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers nervous.

->'''Janeway:''' What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?
->'''Tuvok:''' I am unable to offer identification, Captain.

* Anomalies in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}''; oddities, mostly planetary, for your science ship to investigate for extra yields, new tech, empire effects, or occasionally things going horribly wrong. Most of them are the result of the galaxy's ''myriad'' [[{{Precursor}} predecessor races]], and never fully explained; [[{{Tagline}} the galaxy is old and full of wonders]].

On the other hand, people have complained that the Doctor in the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' '''never''' encounters creatures or concepts he doesn't know. An exception being the BottleEpisode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]], in which they complained ''[[NothingIsScarier he knew too little.]]'' But what do you expect from a {{time travel}}er with somewhere around 900 years of experience?

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has in fact encountered a couple of thingies that he'd never encountered before. The most notable are the Devil (perhaps) in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", and especially the unnamed creature from "Midnight". The latter is especially Nightmare Fuel-y because no-one ever finds out what it is -- not the victims, not the Doctor, not the viewers, no-one. Lampshaded in "Amy's Choice", where the Eleventh Doctor laments "I don't know! Why does everyone always expect me to know everything?"

* Many threats in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' tend towards this, to the point where it overlaps with FlatEarthAtheist from time to time. ''The Doomsday Ship'' has a phenomenon that's almost unheard of ''there'' - the intelligent and perfectly functioning but [[AIIsACrapshoot evil AI]] - treated as completely mystifying and confusing.

* The new ''Series/DoctorWho'' has in fact encountered a couple of thingies that he'd never encountered before. The most notable are the Devil (perhaps) in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", and especially the unnamed creature from "Midnight". The latter is especially Nightmare Fuel-y because no-one ever finds out what it is - not the victims, not the Doctor, not the viewers, no-one.
** Lampshaded in "Amy's Choice", where the Eleventh Doctor laments, "I don't know! Why does everyone always expect me to know everything?"

* In the universe of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', if you don't already know what's behind the local NegativeSpaceWedgie, you probably don't wanna know.
** And quite often if you ''do'' know, you'll wish you didn't.
* In the ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'' games, these are the space equivalents of [[InexplicableTreasureChests Goody Huts]]. Investigating one can give you extra money or a new bonus, advance your research, or [[ChestMonster cause the investigating ship to vanish]].
** Quite a number of them (especially in the first game) enhanced the ship that found the anomaly. This could lead to the absurdity of your initially-unarmed survey ship becoming your most powerful battleship by simply finding the right anomalies. The sequel tried to avert this by the anomalies only enhancing existing weapons on the ship, but there's nothing stopping you from designing a survey ship with weapons once you research the appropriate technology.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' uses this one way too much in the span of its three games. I AM RECORDING A SPACE TIME ANOMALY!!!

* Spoofed in ''Series/{{Quark}}''
-->'''Quark:''' What do you make of that?
-->'''[[TheSpock Ficus]]:''' A most fascinating phenomenon, but one which leaves the mind facing a myriad of possibilities, alternatives and conclusions that are at best strictly hypothetical with no sound basis in fact.
-->'''Quark:''' In other words, you don't know.
-->'''Ficus:''' That's what I said.

* In the book and film ''{{Sphere}}'', a long-buried spaceship is revealed to have originated in the distant future and fallen into a black hole, recording this in the last entry of its log as "UNKNOWN (ENTRY) EVENT". Harry takes this to mean that the crew of the Habitat are fated to die, because if they lived to report this phenomonen, it wouldn't be "unknown".

Unknown Phenomena are usually an example of AppliedPhlebotinum, as any "energy ribbon", "subspace inversion" or "temporal anomaly" allows the writers of a given show to [[NegativeSpaceWedgie hinder, confuse or otherwise generally mess with the characters' heads]] for an episode.

* In ''GaoGaiGar'', the heroes encounter a mysterious energy source known only as '''[[color:orange: THE POWER]]''' that seems to boost your natural abilities greatly. It resides ''in the planet Jupiter.''

* In the ''GalacticCivilizations'' games, these are the space equivalents of [[InexplicableTreasureChests Goody Huts]]. Investigating one can give you extra money or a new bonus, advance your research, or [[ChestMonster cause the investigating ship to vanish]].

->''[later]''

-->'''Kim:''' I've never seen anything like it!
-->'''Tuvok:''' Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers nervous.

-->'''Janeway:''' What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?
-->'''Tuvok:''' I am unable to offer identification, Captain.
-->'''Kim:''' In other words, ''you've'' never seen anything like it. Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.

On the other hand, people have complained that the Doctor in the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' ''never'' encounters creatures or concepts he doesn't know. An exception being the BottleEpisode [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E10Midnight Midnight]], in which they complained ''[[NothingIsScarier he knew too little.]]'' But what do you expect from a {{time travel}}er with somewhere around 900 years of experience?