History NiceJobBreakingItHero / LiveActionTV

* ''StarTrek:'' Kirk and company go to the MirrorUniverse, and Kirk gets Mirror Spock to try reforming TheEmpire. So he does. When next we visit it, it turns out that the reforms made weakened the empire to the point of being unable to defend against the Klingon/Cardassian {{Legion of Doom}}. Humans and Vulcans are now slaves. Way to go, Jim. (This gets {{Retcon}}ned into the Expanded Universe as [[spoiler: Spock playing out a ''really long'' BatmanGambit; he ''could'' have made reforms without weakening the Empire, but he didn't believe they'd last beyond his death.]])

* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "End of Days", Owen Harper's opening of the rift rescued his boss and his best friend from being trapped in the wrong decade forever, but it also caused a wave of anachronisms including ancient soldiers in the streets and an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Wales. This despite Ianto practically begging Owen not to open the rift, and even shooting him to try to prevent it. Instead of learning from this colossal mistake, the rest of the team eventually side with Owen and do the exact same thing, again, to flush out the results of the prior opening. Which works, but unleashes Abaddon. Predictably, things get worse before they get better.
** Generally speaking, the problem in a ''Torchwood'' episode was probably caused by them at some point:
*** The entire team play UnwittingPawn in "They Keep Killing Suzie".
*** Jack's [[spoiler: resurrecting Owen]] led him to a [[AndIMustScream much worse fate]] in "Exit Wounds."
*** Not to mention how it [[spoiler: nearly]] killed everybody in "Dead Man Walking" and did kill [[spoiler: 12]] people.
*** All those problems with Captain John Hart would have been avoided if it weren't for Jack simply being there.
*** Two people were killed and the whole planet was put in danger because Ianto secretly stashed his Cyberman girlfriend in the basement.
*** In ''Children of Earth'', Jack and Ianto have gone storming into the alien's base guns blazing in order to, erm... [[spoiler: threaten it, pissing it off enough to release a deadly virus, killing everyone in the building, including Ianto.]]
*** On Gwen's very first day on the job, she tossed a screwdriver, accidentally breaking open an alien meteor and leading to the deaths of Carys' friend and ex-boyfriend as well as an entire sperm donation centre.

* {{Monk}}: A boy rides his bike into a pothole, flipping himself over the handlebars. Natalie goes to help him up, and fixes his bike chain. Then the owner of the bike comes running out of a nearby building. Good job, Natalie.

* The episode "Coyote Piper" of ''{{Charmed}}'' revolves around a spirit escaping from her demonic scientist creator. She eventually possesses Piper, and uses Piper's body to get her sisters to kill the demonic scientist when he comes to look for his creation...making it significantly harder to deal with the spirit. The demon's final words "You fools! She will destroy you!", are somewhat apt.

* In ''{{Lexx}}'', the destruction of Fire at the end of Season 3 leads directly to the destruction of Water, and then the subsequent flooding of Earth with the reincarnations of everyone who had been sent to Fire (Hell).

* In ''{{Angel}}'', the crew defeat the fallen power Jasmine, who took over the world through mind control and was eating people on a daily basis... and are later rewarded by the demonic law firm Wolfram and Hart for "Ending world peace" because during the short time Jasmine was in control, there was no war or fighting or hatred anywhere within her influence.

** At the end of Season 6 [[spoiler: Castiel absorbs Purgatory's souls]]. Then Season seven reveals that doing so [[spoiler: allowed the [[EldritchAbomination Leviathans]] to escape and take control of his body]].

* In ''{{Supernatural}}'', at the end of season four, Sam [[spoiler:kills Lilith to stop her from breaking the final seal and freeing Lucifer. In actuality, Lilith '''was''' the final seal, and by killing her he causes the release of Lucifer and kick-starts the Apocalypse. Oops.]]
** To an extent, Dean as well, not only for [[spoiler: breaking the first seal]] between seasons three and four, but also for [[spoiler: revealing to Azazel that his plans were going to work before he'd even put them in place. Okay, so Azazel was possessing his grandfather at the time and Dean thought he was going to save his grandparents and possibly even his mother. Ironically this [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast caused]] the death of his grandparents, the death of his father and the resulting deal that in 10 years Mary would allow Azazel into her house for her son in exchange for resurrecting John.]]
** At the end of Season six, [[spoiler: Castiel absorbs the souls of Purgatory]] to defeat Raphael, who wanted to restart the Apocalypse. But in doing so, he [[spoiler: unleashes [[EldritchAbomination the Leviathans]], creatures that God locked away to stop them from killing everything else]]. Nice job, Cas.

*** Two people were people were killed and the whole planet was put in danger because Ianto secretly stashed his Cyberman girlfriend in the basement.

** At the end of Season six, [[spoiler: Castiel absorbs the souls of Purgatory]]. But in doing so, he [[spoiler: unleashes [[EldritchAbomination the Leviathans]], creatures that God locked away to stop them from killing everything else]]. Nice job, Cas.

* In ''{{Supernatural}}'', Sam [[spoiler:kills Lilith to stop her from breaking the final seal and freeing Lucifer. In actuality, Lilith '''was''' the final seal, and by killing her he causes the release of Lucifer and kick-starts the Apocalypse. Oops.]]
** To an extent Dean as well, not only for [[spoiler: breaking the first seal]] but for [[spoiler: revealing to Azazel that his plans were going to work before he'd even put them in place. Okay so Azazel was possessing his grandfather at the time and Dean thought he was going to save his grandparents and possibly even his mother. Ironically this caused the death of his grandparents, the death of his father and the resulting deal that in 10 years Mary would allow Azazel into her house for resurrecting John.]]
** At the end of Season 6 [[spoiler: Castiel absorbs the souls of Purgatory]]. But in doing so, he [[spoiler: unleashes [[EldritchAbomination the Leviathans]], creatures that God locked away to stop them from killing everything else]]. Nice job, Cas.

*** Two people were people were killed and the whole city was put in danger because Ianto secretly stashed in Cyberman girlfriend in the basement.

* Oh, well done, [[{{House}} Dr. House and his team:]] by trying to [[AppliedPhlebotinum cure the patient with this treatment]] you may have gotten rid of his stomach cramps, but now he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero can't move his legs]], has a cerebral hemorrhage and [[TheColbertReport minor heart explosions]].

* ''StarTrek:'' Kirk and company go to the MirrorUniverse, and Kirk gets Mirror Spock to try reforming TheEmpire. So he does. When next we visit it, it turns out that the reforms made weakened the empire to the point of being unable to defend against the Klingon/Cardassian {{Legion of Doom}}. Humans and Vulcans are now slaves. Way to go, Jim.

** And let us not forget that in "Tooth And Claw", the Tenth Doctor and Rose save [[QueenVicky Queen Victoria]] from a werewolf, but because they (quite understandably) have more modern values (Rose wearing pants, etc) Queen Victoria decides to found the Torchwood Institute to protect the British Empire against extraterrestrial threats, and they spend a good century robbing and murdering innocent alien passers-by, and nearly destroying the human race several times ForScience.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'': Owen Harper's opening of the rift rescued his boss and his best friend from being trapped in the wrong decade forever, but it also caused a wave of anachronisms including ancient soldiers in the streets and an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Wales. This despite Ianto practically begging Owen not to open the rift, and even shooting him to try to prevent it. Instead of learning from this colossal mistake, the rest of the team eventually side with Owen and do the exact same thing, again, to flush out the results of the prior opening. Which works, but unleashes Abaddon. Predictably, things get worse before they get better.
** Generally speaking, the problem in a {{Torchwood}} episode was probably caused by them at some point:

*** In Children of Earth Jack and Ianto have gone storming into the alien's base guns blazing in order to, erm... [[spoiler: threaten it, pissing it off enough to release a deadly virus, killing everyone in the building, including Ianto.]]
*** On Gwen's very first day on the job, she tossed a screwdriver, accidentally breaking open an alien meteor and leading to the deaths of at least one or two people.

*** It also allowed the Prime Minister seen in ''{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth'' to come to power. Perhaps Harriet Jones would have had stricter morals about dealing with the 456.

** In TheMovie, the Doctor is rushed to hospital after being shot, where the cardiologist on duty, Grace, begins to operate on him, despite the Doctor repeatedly trying to get her to stop due to his BizarreAlienBiology (finally being silenced by being pumped full of anesthetics). During the operation Grace gets lost and freaks out due to the Doctor's different biology, a medical probe breaks off inside the Doctor, and he has a seizure and dies. [[ItGotWorse It Gets Worse]] however, as when his regeneration finally kicks in it's botched up due to the ton of anasthetics, and the Doctor ends up wandering around the hospital confused and with amnesia. [[WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis All this could have been avoided]] if Grace simply ''hadn't operated'' on the Doctor.

** Also from the comic continuity, Faith is torn between Buffy and a rogue Slayer she went undercover to assassinate. So ingratiated she is, when Buffy is poised to do Faith's job for her she tackles her out a window, then after Buffy attacks her she snaps, thinking if Faith kills her she'd be a hero. Yeah, nice job Faith. And nice job Giles for hiring her in the first place.

* Nice job [[spoiler: turning your back on Management in one finale and shooting Strickler in another]], [[BurnNotice Michael]]. You now have even less of a clue about what's going on, and you almost got yourself into even hotter water.

** And let us not forget that in "Tooth And Claw", the Tenth Doctor and Rose save [[QueenVicky Queen Victoria]] from a werewolf, but behave like utter arseholes in so doing and convince her that they're selfish, dangerous adrenaline junkies. As a result Queen Victoria founds the Torchwood Institute to protect the British Empire against extraterrestrial threats, and they spend a good century robbing and murdering innocent alien passers-by, and nearly destroying the human race several times ForScience.

* ''StargateAtlantis'', as a whole, is one massive exercise in NiceJobBreakingItHero:

* Then there is ''{{Stargate}}'' and ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''. Every time they defeated a Goa'uld, another, even more ambitious one rose to take his place in the resulting EvilPowerVacuum. This only stopped when the Goa'uld were overthrown as a whole.

* The ''StargateUniverse'' crew avoided making a mess for nearly a full season. Then after learning of a potential spy, they along with SG-1 alum launch a poorly-planned undercover mission that ends with Rush in the [[spoiler:Lucian Alliance's]] hands. As a result of gaining his knowledge, they are able to [[spoiler: connect the Stargate]] and there is now [[spoiler: an entire enemy force on ''Destiny''.]]