"Project Carthage was a military program used to block enemy communications."
"June 6th, 1994, day 1265. Someone's watching me... Someone wants to get rid of me!"
— Franz Hopper, "The Key", episode 52, Code Lyoko
The Scientist's Video Journal trope unfolds as a recurring motif where a scientist meticulously documents their thoughts and experiences while engrossed in a groundbreaking project or experiment in video form.
Notably, these recordings often, but not always, chronicle a descent into madness, providing a gripping psychological element to the storyline. If not madness, the person documenting the project might show signs of exhaustion or dishevelment, see Time-Passage Beard.
These recorded tapes, typically coming from a past era, are later unveiled to other characters in the future, usually the main characters, revealing hidden secrets and shedding light on enigmatic aspects of the narrative. The revelation of these tapes can become a pivotal plot device, as they serve as a conduit for characters to explore the depths of the scientist's endeavors and unlock the mysteries embedded within the storyline.
Commonly doubles as an Apocalyptic Log.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Daltanious: Despite being his top scientist, Dr. Namil always anticipated that Emperor Dolmen would eventually murder him because he was one of the few people who knew the Awful Truth behind Kloppen's birth. He is proven right, as Dolmen orders Kloppen to take him out, something that the Prince himself hesitates since Namil was a surrogate father figure to him all his life. Though he does murder Namil, Namil publicizes a recording where he confesses that Kloppen was never the true Heliosian Prince and it was Harlin all along. He also reveals that Kloppen is actually a clone of the Prince, and Dolmen has been grooming him all his life to be his pawn. Namil's last words are the following:
Namil: "Now I will be watching from hell."
- Nobunagun: One episode shows videos shot by a team of researchers in the Arctic. At one point, they haze a newbie by making him think he had just eaten parts of an EIO. Said newbie gradually goes insane, thinking the EIO is taking over his body, and eventually murders the other researchers.
- Pokémon: The First Movie: Dr. Fuji keeps one, documenting his team's experiments to create Mewtwo. Fuji stays sane, but Mewtwo does not, and the last entry depicts the fully-awakened Mewtwo blowing up the lab, killing Fuji and the other scientists.
"We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon... and we succeeded."
- Voltes V: During the Time Warp Arc, it's revealed that Big Falcon is secretly a spaceship and was designed to eventually fly to Boazania and aid the slave rebellion. To activate its spaceship mode, Kentaro Go leaves one final video recording explaining how it works. By then, Kentaro has already been enslaved again on Boazan but cries tears of joy upon realizing that his plan worked and they're arriving to set him free.
Comic Books
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Dr Starline has a tendency to create vlogs documenting his life and plans, which has backfired in Bad Guys and Imposter Syndrome. In the former case, Mimic breaks into Starline's computer, allowing him and Zavok to learn that Starline intends to dispose of his team once he's successfully obtained Egg Base Sigma, causing them to preemptively betray him. In the latter case, we learn that Starline took being fired by Dr. Eggman badly, going on an unhinged rant about how he'd improve upon things and harboring a grudge against Metal Sonic before he'd start his plans seen in Bad Guys. The rest of the entries seen by Surge and Kit revolve around Starline's plan to end what he calls the "Sonic Cycle", all of which contributes to them turning on him.
Films — Animation
- Big Hero 6: As Baymax tries to comfort Hiro, he shows him a sequence of videos featuring his deceased brother, Tadashi, where you can see him documenting his progress as he builds Baymax through a camera that was inside the robot. In this case Tadashi, as the scientist, doesn't descend into madness but more like exhaustion after spending numerous tests trying to get Baymax working properly.
Films — Live-Action
- I Am Legend: Dr. Robert Neville keeps a record of his experiments on the serum to cure the Darkseeker virus in video. His professional approach to the experiments record differs from his personal record, which shows he is definitely going mad from the isolation.
- In The Fly (1986), as Seth Brundle's Slow Transformation into a grotesque fly monster really kicks in, the more that he — either out of genuine scientific fascination or an attempt to add levity before his impending doom — insists on documenting himself for future generations. Part of this involves him videotaping a demonstration of how he now eats by vomiting up digestive acids over his meal before re-consuming the dissolved slurry (which mercifully goes unseen to the audience). Seth presents this log like he's a charming children's show host, but Stathis is mortified watching the tape.
- Jurassic World Dominion: The movie explains through through video logs that Charlotte Lockwood did not die of a car crash as established in the previous movie, but suffered from a fatal genetic disorder, created a clone daughter of herself, Maisie, using Hammond's dinosaur cloning technology, and injected her clone-daughter with the cure to ensure Maisie would not later die of the same disease that would claim Charlotte's life soon after.
- The Martian: Mark Watney talks to a camera throughout his time on Mars. Justified, both in-universe (because he would be very lonely otherwise) and from a storytelling standpoint (to communicate things that would normally be communicated through dialogue).
Video Games
- A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Solomon, head scientist of saecelium research, uses saecelium to store what's basically videos of him talking about his research because it can store information. Actually, it's a window into the past, but not a door. It also serves to document society's progressive weaponization of the material, and Solomon's sadness that it happened.
- In Control, littered throughout The Oldest House are various videos hosted by Head of the FBC Research Dr. Casper Darling, done in the form of in-universe Educational Shorts as he gives lighthearted, quirky exposition of core topics of the Federal Bureau of Control, from the paranatural phenomena they seek to research to the practices done to maintain and control them. In videos recorded closer to the main events of the game, the tone shifts to increasing anxiety as Darling realizes something vague but horrible is about to happen (by the time the game starts, the Oldest House had indeed become invaded and overrun by The Hiss), with one of his last public video logs warning all faculty members to suit up on Hedron Resonance Amplifiers that they will need to stay safe. Darling's chronologically final videos were done in private, with him visibly haggard and almost in a trance, but revealing that just before the Hiss' invasion, he had come into direct contact with Hedron, and shortly thereafter, it showed him something that caused him to transcend physical reality.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: In episode 20 of the 3rd season, "Holly Jolly Secrets Part 2", we see that in one of the tapes that were to be hidden by the Ice King, there were multiple recordings of himself before he succumbed to the power of the crown. In these recordings, Simon Petrikov documents his discoveries about the magic crown he got in Northern Scandinavia. As the video goes on, you can see him losing his sanity more and more, he even grows a beard.
- Code Lyoko: In episode 52 "The Key", Jeremie shows to his crew the video journal of Franz Hopper. He documents in his journal how he initially created the AI "XANA" to counter the military program Carthage. Later on, Franz Hopper hides himself in the world of Lyoko as they are after him, Hopper loses control of XANA, leading to it becoming a threat, as chronicled in Hopper's video log. Hidden in Lyoko, Franz Hopper is not able to return to the real world, thus making the journal a vestige of his existence, waiting for someone in the future to find it.
- Craig of the Creek: "The Cardboard Identity" sees Craig, Kelsey, and J.P. investigating an abandoned cardboard laboratory that Carter set up. Inside are cardboard computer terminals where Carter explains how his research into cardboard slowly descends into madness until he tries to replace his brain with cardboard to become a monstrosity. Since everything is just pretend, Carter has to sneak around from terminal to terminal for the next log, and carefully only scratches his nose when the trio are turned away.
- Lilo & Stitch: The Series: In the episode "Frenchfry" Lilo and Stitch find one made by Jumba documenting his first few weeks with the titular experiment. It ends on a surprisingly horrific cliffhanger, as the experiment deliberately feeds people the most unhealthy, fattening food possible so it can eat them.
- Gravity Falls: In "Society of the Blind Eye", the characters discover Old Man McGucket's past through memory logs, showing his descent from a genius scientist, who invented a mind-wiping ray to forget seeing things man was not meant to know, to a deranged hobo as he used the ray on himself way too much.
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Mid Season 3 Brooklyn and Sammie discover a series of videos on Dr. Wu's laptop in a hidden lab, documenting his work on E705, aka, the Scorpious Rex. The videos show Wu first triumphant about the success of creating the first "hybrid" dinosaur, then concern as the dinosaur's mind "is as twisted and fractured as its body". Then the videos show Wu being attacked by E705, then receiving treatment with anti-venom, remarking that Mr. Masrani told him to destroy E705, but he had instead frozen it to study what had gone wrong. The videos conclude, only for Sammie and Brooklyn to notice the shattered cryogenic tube in the corner of the room.
- Alluded to in Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Envoys," when Boimler suffers a crisis of confidence.
Boimler: I guess I'm just not cut out for Starfleet! [...] I should just turn in my uniform and go work on a research asteroid!
Mariner: [Gasps] No, absolutely not! Do not even joke about that! That is the lamest thing you could do!
Boimler: [Crying] I should just study bugs on a far-off planet and then eventually get eaten and no one will even know until they stumble across my distress call, but it'll be way too late, and then they'll have to spend a bunch of time deciphering how things went wrong based on my final shaky video logs!
