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9->'''Kim:''' I've never seen anything like it!\
10'''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.\
11''[later]''\
12'''Janeway:''' What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?\
13'''Tuvok:''' I am unable to offer identification, Captain.\
14'''Kim:''' In other words, ''you've'' never seen anything like it. Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.
15-->-- ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E5TheCloud The Cloud]]"
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17Space explorers never run into familiar or predictable things, only weirdnesses that are completely unanticipated by current theory. This is, of course, largely attributable to the fact that SpaceIsMagic.
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19The obvious result is that with every new planet or nebula, the science officer ''must'' report that he has never encountered this "energy/temporal distortion/ancient alien vessel" before. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is notable for vigorously abusing this trope (and indeed, in one ''Star Trek'' novel, a minor character [[LampshadeHanging comments]] that the Enterprise makes such encounters an everyday event). Of course, the science officer can still give a detailed report on the phenomenon, provided via his EverythingSensor.
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21Unknown 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. Someone will, inevitably, say "IveNeverSeenAnythingLikeThisBefore" at some point.
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23----
24!!Examples:
25[[foldercontrol]]
26
27[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
28* In ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'', the heroes encounter a mysterious energy source known only as '''THE POWER''' that seems to boost natural abilities greatly. It resides in the planet Jupiter.
29[[/folder]]
30
31[[folder:Literature]]
32* 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.
33* In the book and film ''Literature/{{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".
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
37* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E13Terminal 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.
38* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Even the Doctor has encountered a couple of thingies that he'd never encountered before. The most notable are the Devil (perhaps) in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]", and especially the unnamed creature from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight 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 "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]" when the Eleventh Doctor laments "I don't know! Why does everyone always expect me to know everything?"
39* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Every series, several times per season.
40[[/folder]]
41
42[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
43* In the universe of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', 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.
44[[/folder]]
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46[[folder:Video Games]]
47* 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.
48* 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]].
49* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' uses this a lot in the span of its three games.
50-->''"I AM RECORDING A SPACE TIME ANOMALY!!!"''
51[[/folder]]
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