History PowerIncontinence / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

** Also Willow after the development of her addiction to magic and especially after [[spoiler:Tara’s death]]. At certain point even a minor magic practice triggers personality changes in her and locks a “dark personality↔dark magic” feedback loop.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters "Love & Monsters"]], the Abzorbaloff seems to be unable to avoid absorbing whoever he touches: first off, he warns the members of LINDA never to touch him while in his human guise by claiming he has eczema[[labelnote:*]]or "ec''zee''ma", as he pronounces it[[/labelnote]], and when his cane is broken, the loss of the field it was projecting keeping him together causes him to fall apart and be absorbed into the ground.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]], Rose absorbs the Time Vortex and uses its power to destroy the Dalek fleet and bring Captain Jack Harkness back to life. Subsequently, when he becomes the lead of the spinoff ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', it turns out that she made him immortal. When Jack returns to ''Doctor Who'' in the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia "Utopia"]], the Doctor attributes that to this trope.
* A major problem that ''Series/{{Firefly}}'s'' River Tam suffers from is a complete inability to control her [[TheEmpath empathic]] PsychicPowers. Coupled with a physical inability to control her emotions thanks to her amygdala being stripped out, [[MindRape horrific mental scarring]] from what was done to her at the Academy, and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation mind-breaking secrets]] she picked up from government officials, [[TheWoobie the poor girl]] is more or less a complete mental wreck.

** A recurring plot point is that the Reverse-Flash's powers are in flux, sometimes disappearing at random and causing him to look very unstable when using them. It's later revealed that this is happening because [[spoiler: his connection to the Speedforce is failing and he's searching for a way to stabilize it so that he can use his powers all the time.]]

** When Wally first gets SuperSpeed powers in the episode [[Recap/TheFlash2014S3E7KillerFrost "Killer Frost"]], he suffers from this, not able to get his brain working as fast as his body.
** PlayedForLaughs of a [[BodyHorror grotesque]] sort in the episode [[Recap/TheFlash2014S4E4ElongatedJourneyIntoNight "Elongated Journey Into Night"]]: Ralph Dibny's RubberMan powers are initially not in his control, resulting in his limbs winding here and there around STAR Labs. And never mind when he ''[[FacialHorror sneezes]]...'' Fortunately this is fixed by episode's end.

* Pretty much all of the Cortexiphan kids on ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' have problems with this when they grow up. One has cell-regenerating powers that given everyone he meets cancer, another has uncontrollable magnetic powers and so can't be near anyone with metal fillings, etc. A later episode shows that those who have been taken into custody have been placed into a special institution where they are trained to control their abilities. There's still one guy who refuses to be near any {{Muggle}}, as he can't turn off his telepathy.

*** In the episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E2HeavyIsTheHead "Heavy is the Head"]], ElementalShapeshifter Carl Creel loses control of his powers after touching the Diviner, a device that kills ordinary humans by [[TakenForGranite turning them to stone]].

** Kitazaki from ''[[Series/KamenRiderFaiz Kamen Rider 555]]'' turns people to ash by touching them. Gaining this horrible power at such a young age (the actor was 15, Kitazaki presumably the same) is probably among the reasons why he has become such a raving madman.

** When Starlight gets angry electronics around her tend to start short-circuiting. She also accidentally cracked several TV screens when someone was sexually harassed her. Her eyes also light up when she [[spoiler: orgasms]].

* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had Esmeralda. When she sneezed, strange objects would temporarily appear, and [[HilarityEnsues hilarity would ensue]]. Also, when she became nervous (and she was nervous ''a lot''), she would become invisible.

* Power Incontinence is the whole premise driving ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero''. It's somewhat self-inflicted: the aliens who gave Ralph Hinkley his power-giving super suit also gave him the instruction manual for it, but he promptly lost it (because this is a comedy and [[HilarityEnsues hilarity must ensue]]). And when he got another copy of the manual, he almost immediately ''lost it again'' trying out one of the powers described. HilarityEnsues as he and his FBI agent side-kick make attempts to determine how to activate the suit's various abilities while fighting crime.

* Phoebe of ''Series/Charmed1998'' is practically the queen of this trope (not that the other sisters are entirely innocent): She doesn't have any sort of control over her premonitions until ~Season 6 (and even then she never learns how to turn it off), the flying power she accidentally stole from the dragon in Season 2 was unreliable to say the least. She also had a hard time controlling her empathy power at first, but soon got over that, though she didn't have nearly as much as a rough ride as Prue did when she [temporarily] became an empath. Also happened to Piper "Exit Strategy", where her ability to freeze time is upgraded to StuffBlowingUp too. Plus, Paige has struggled with this in her orbing ever since she was a high-schooler.

** Rowan has no control over [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] at first. She nearly kills her boss without even realizing what happened initially just by getting angry at him, which causes her to rupture a neural artery.

* Several of the Hargreeves siblings in ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' have a hard time controlling their powers. Luther's super strength occasionally leaves him breaking walls and tearing doors off of their hinges. Klaus's powers straight up do not have an "off" switch, leaving him faced with [[MortonsFork the choice]] of "seeing horrific ghosts screaming constantly around him and at him" or "drugging himself into oblivion with illegal substances". Five can time travel, but he's not very good at it. In other words, he frequently strands himself in various terrible circumstances. Ben's powers may well have killed him. [[spoiler:And poor Viktor causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt with his, unintentionally. He also just in general seems to have a hard time controlling them; in the FBI building, while drugged with LSD, he loses control completely.]] Only Diego seems to have avoided these issues -- he can control his powers just fine. Allison also is good at controlling her powers, but they are addictive, and she struggles to not misuse them. [[spoiler:Lila also seems to have complete control over her powers, all the powers she mimics.]]

** [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG: "Sarek"]] has the title character begin transmitting his emotions (yes, Vulcans ''do'' have them) onto the ''Enterprise'' crew due to the Vulcan equivalent of senior dementia, a condition called Bendii Syndrome. This jeopardizes negotiations Sarek has spent almost a century setting up. A mind-meld with Picard enables him to regain control long enough to finalize the treaty.
** [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9: "Fascination"]] has a less serious case where, due to a viral infection, Lwaxana Troi starts to make latent crushes and attractions between the regular cast crop up (Kira and Bashir start making out, Jake Sisko gets a crush on Kira, Kira's boyfriend Vedek Bareil pursues Jadzia who in turn pursues Sisko). Troi's crush on Odo, who wasn't affected at all, started it all.