Possession Burnout in Live-Action TV series.
- Angel:
- The demon in "Lonely Hearts" has to keep body-jumping because the bodies wear out and die.
- The Body Surfing human wizard Marcus from "Carpe Noctem" can only stay in his host bodies for a short time before they combust, killing the victim. He is pleased to discover that when he possesses an already-undead vampire (Angel), this kind of body is immune from the combustion.
- Illyria's initial infestation and death of Fred might count, but then there's also the aftermath — she's wearing out the body, and the team have to zap her with an Energy Weapon to drain some of her power away.
- In an episode of Blood Ties (2007), the disembodied spirit of a cop Vicki knows visits her and asks her to investigate his death. In fact, she finds out that his body is still walking around. Her assistant figures out that her friend's body has been taken over by an ancient entity that Body Surfs every few days because of this trope. By the time they force the entity out of the body and destroy it, the cop's body is too far gone, and he dies minutes later.
- Doctor Who:
- In the TV Movie, the Master's stolen human body decays rapidly. (This didn't happen to his previous Body Surf victim from the classic series; the Daleks' attempt at extermination early in the movie seems to have altered him.)
- In "New Earth", Lady Cassandra uses a psychograft to forcibly possess Rose Tyler's body. Upon finding out the truth, the Doctor mentions Cassandra's psychograft is an illegal device "banned on every civilized planet" and that she's "compressing Rose to death", suggesting the process is unstable. This is made clear from Rose's discombobulated state and increasing fatigue every time Cassandra stops possessing her. When Cassandra leaves her body for good at the end of the episode, Rose is so worn out she literally collapses in the Doctor's arms, but recovers shortly thereafter. Cassandra's manservant Chip isn't so lucky. Due to the ordeal of the day's events and his shortened clone lifespan, his heart is already under a lot of strain when Cassandra takes over his body, and he ends up becoming his mistress's final host.
- Exploited in "The Doctor's Wife", wherein the "soul" of the TARDIS is forcibly transferred to a human body — which is reported by its new occupant to be fast falling apart due to its inability to long hold the energy of the TARDIS. This will kill her and leave House unopposed in her true body.
- The alien leader Mabus from First Wave is able to possess humans, but the process is often fatal, sometimes within seconds. He eventually realizes that the host's physical health is unimportant, but rather high intelligence is the key to prolonged survival. The aliens knew that from the start, which is why they initially grew a husk from Cade's DNA, figuring that someone like Cade would definitely be able to contain Mabus's consciousness. His final body is that of Cade and Jordan's son, whose growth was artificially accelerated.
- In The Flash (2014), when the Thinker starts Body Surfing through the bus metas, it turns out that his incredible intelligence starts doing the same kind of damage to these bodies as it did to his original one, which isn't helped by him constantly adding new powers to his repertoire. He seeks out Ralph Dibny to become his final host, as the elastic hero can shapeshift into an undamaged form no matter what harm he suffers.
- In an episode of Lois & Clark, a man switches bodies with Clark. Soon after, the Kryptonian's body starts becoming vulnerable.
- The Outer Limits (1995): In "Ripper" and "Better Luck Next Time", the Energy Beings can only stay in each host body for about a day before they decay and become useless to them.
- In Smallville, any host for a particular escaped Phantom Zone criminal dies in 24 hours. Naturally, a Kryptonian body can withstand it much better, but somehow, trying to possess Clark results in the creation of a new, cloned body (with the same clothes Clark is wearing, too, though the color of his jacket becomes the color of his shirt and vice versa.) He becomes the series' version of Bizarro.
- Happens in Stargate SG-1 when Anubis possesses a host. The host develops sores and various ailments, eventually dying, forcing him to look for a new host. This is because he's not an ordinary Goa'uld (who normally can make their hosts last for centuries) but partially ascended. This is why Anubis used a containment suit instead of a conventional host, until its destruction in the 7th season finale.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series: In "Return to Tomorrow", when the consciousness of Sargon and the other two aliens take over the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Mulhall, their metabolic and heart rates shoot up to dangerous levels.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- After the Trill humanoid host in "The Host" dies after the shuttle he was on was attacked, Riker volunteers to take on the Odan symbiont to carry out the negotiations Odan was hosting and keep Odan alive until a new Trill humanoid host can arrive. While Dr. Crusher is able to implant Odan into Riker's body it causes a significant amount of damage to Riker's body to the point that after a final conference session Odan insists on being removed even though a new host has not yet arrived.
- In "Man of the People", the Lumerian Ambassador Ves Alkar discovered that he could use other telepaths to serve as dumping grounds for his negative emotions. However, doing so would cause the victims to rapidly age and die within a short period of time. Most of his victims lived for a few years, however Deanna Troi rapidly aged within a matter of a few days.
- Supernatural:
- Demons are the premier example in the series as they can possess people against their will. Any normal wound they receive while possessed is ignored, but once exorcised the wounds take their toll on the host, frequently killing them. It is unclear if there would be any burnout from an injury-free, long-term possession as no such cases arise.
- Angels are so powerful that they will do this to any host that isn't specifically suited to them, doubly so for Archangels. Sam and Dean are the result of generations of breeding to produce viable hosts for Lucifer and Michael. Satan is forced to settle for his "second choice", and as the page quote shows, his raw power caused the host to slowly decay/burn despite the large amount of demon blood he was drinking. The implication is that any other host would be vaporized outright. Even Sam isn't fully immune to this, and has to drink a couple of gallons of demon blood to survive Satan first possessing him. Whether or not he had to keep drinking it is never made clear, as the issue is resolved before long. Even Raphael's true vessel is left catatonic after being his possession. It may just be he didn't care to heal him, as Michael promises Dean he wouldn't leave him a "drooling mess" after possessing him. Bloodline are also important, and can help avert this. Michael's chosen host was Dean, but he at one point possess John Winchester, and later uses Adam (Dean's half brother) when it becomes apparent he can't use Dean.
- The Leviathans' combined power is too much for their first host Jimmy after they booted out/killed Castiel forcing them to disperse.
- Ultra Series: Though this is usually not in play for the Ultras. A few of them and other beings throughout the franchise play it straight.
- Ultraman Nexus: One of the reasons the titular Ultra had to switch hosts often was because the injuries of battles kept piling up and taking a strain on his host's bodies.
- Ultraman Z: The space parasite, Celebro can take over the bodies of other living beings but the longer he stays on one the more he and his host weaken, forcing him to seek out new ones to take over after a while.
- Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: After losing Utsusemimaru as a host, Animated Armor villain Dogold is forced to use Cambrimas. Unfortunately for him, they only last a month, forcing him to keep moving on to a new Cambrima when the current one perishes. They melt when he leaves them. His goal for some time is getting Utchy back, then it's finding a new host. Eventually, the new general Endolf makes an ass out of Dogold once too often, and so once weakened by King's Super Mode, Dogold kills two birds with one stone, getting rid of him and getting an even stronger host than Utsusemimaru. Unfortunately for Dogold, he eventually gets a case of Demonic Possession himself due to Endolf influencing his personality to the point where it becomes too much for him to handle, resulting in Endolf breaking free of Dogold and making an ass out of him once more.
