The Worf Effect / Live-Action TV

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• Angel
  • This is featured to some extent with Illyria. After a few episodes of her beating the everloving snot out of everyone and being nigh indestructible (although she does get toned down a bit right before this incident), Marcus Hamilton shows up and beats her to a bloody pulp, with as little effort as Neo put into defeating Smith at the end of The Matrix.
  • Marginally justified, in that Hamilton was sent in after Illyria had been depowered; in fact, he helps arrange for her depowering, and deliberately doesn't go anywhere near her until she is.
  • However, the writers did make a point of showing she remained extremely powerful. She went with Spike near the episode's beginning to fight a demon. Spike tried and failed to hurt the demon, getting hit hard himself (though the sense was Spike could have eventually prevailed), but then Illyria went after the same demon and killed it extremely easily with one blow.
  • The comics have a powerful demon easily rip off Angel's hands and feet with his bare hands. And Whistler rips Angel's stomach out.
• Arrowverse:
  • Arrow:
    • With this show's continued serial escalation, Oliver has just become outrageously skilled at just about everything he tries with such ludicrous speed that it makes you wonder if he isn't actually a metahuman. But, whenever necessary for the plot, he will take a hit from a random street gangster and be knocked out (when he has already been shown to dodge bullets with ease and get up unharmed when being hit by people with Super-Strength), stay burdened with small numbers that even real-life amateur fighters wouldn't have so much trouble dealing with, becoming less efficient at everything they try, etc. Then he gets a pep talk of "you're better than you think you are and you need to fight your own darkness" and instantly reverts to being the world's biggest badass.
    • Any new Big Bad on the show is usually introduced by kicking the crap out of Oliver (and in the case of Ra's al Ghul, actually killing him), and all have had significant advantages over him — Malcolm Merlyn and Ra's al Ghul had more training and experience, Slade was juiced up on Mirakuru, and Damien Darhk had magic.
    • Season 4 had Oliver curb-stomp Malcolm Merlyn to showcase how far he had come as a combatant (as, by that point, Oliver was more-or-less confirmed to be the World's Best Warrior). Oliver actually had to hold back during that fight so he wouldn't accidentally kill Malcolm, and ended up cutting off his hand instead.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • Likewise, a new (speedster) Big Bad is usually introduced by being faster than Barry and beating the crap out of him. Zoom is of particular note, as he utterly decimated Barry in their first fight, breaking his back and leaving him crippled for a few weeks.
    • In Season 2, to show how far he'd grown as a hero, Barry defeated the Reverse-Flash with relative ease. Admittedly, this was a younger, less-experienced Eobard Thawne, but one that was still faster than Barry by noticeable margin.
    • Savitar, who, in his first appearance, was so fast it looked like he was teleporting all over the city. He is by far and away the most powerful character to ever appear in the Arrowverse, and the fact that Future Barry sealed him away in the Speed Force suggests that Barry has the potential to surpass him. Then it turns out Savitar is a time remnant of Future Barry, meaning that Barry Allen truly is/will be the fastest man alive.
  • The Invasion! (2016) crossover shows the wide power/skill/experience gap between Oliver and Barry, and everyone else. Oliver is able to hold off the brainwashed Thea, Diggle, and Sara, with the latter being the only one even capable of challenging him. Barry dispatches the brainwashed Heatwave, Atom, and Firestorm in quick fashion, and the only one who really causes any problems for him is the brainwashed Supergirl, who he manipulates into taking out the Mind-Control Device. It's implied that Kara is the only real threat to them (being outside everyone but Barry's weight class) — the impending alien threat and their own close relationships with those brainwashed means that Barry and Oliver can't use faster but more harmful means to take the others out, otherwise the fight would've ended much sooner.
  • Speaking of Supergirl (2015), Kara was used as the standard during training for the aliens the Earth-1 heroes were going to face. She curb-stomped all of them except Barry at the same time without moving so much as an inch, just to show off how ridiculously strong she was compared to them. Barry was the only one on her general level, and he is unarguably the most powerful superhero on Earth-1, bar none.
    • J'onn J'onzz was first described as "the most dangerous man on Earth," something of an Informed Ability. Later, he shows his chops by crushing a Brainwashed and Crazy Kara and going toe-to-toe with Indigo in the series finale. Throughout Season 2, his skill levels fluctuate, doing well against the White Martians, but getting beaten by a guy with a robot arm. Then, in Season 3, he defeats one Worldkiller in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, but otherwise gets curb-stomped by the Worldkillers.
• Want to prove yourself as a real tough guy in The A-Team? Knock out living wall of muscle B.A. Baracus. Ironically, this happened in the series pilot.
• The Boys:
  • The Seven, especially Homelander fulfill this purpose for the first two seasons as we see them cut through armies and guerrilla forces like they’re nothing. Kimiko is initially the only one of the titular heroes who can fight them and even she is almost killed by Black Noir and A-Train. In the climax of Season 3 Homelander is able to kill Black Noir who almost killed Starlight and Kimiko by punching him through his chest and ripping his guts out.
  • Stormfront the Flying Brick Nazi of Season 2 does this with Kimiko and her brother Kenji, the latter of whom has powerful Telekinesis that can keep Homelander at bay but Storm kills Kenji near effortlessly. Though Stormfront gets on the receiving end of this herself in the finale as after she’s just blasted down the Main Characters with her lightning, Wonder Woman Wannabe Mauve arrives and gives Stormfront a "Hey, You!" Haymaker which along with several more blows floors her completely and when Starlight and Kimiko join in, Stormfront is so overwhelmed she has shoot out lightning to get them off her and fly away in panic.
  • Victoria Neuman and her Make Your Head Asplode powers, which puts the heroes on the run and completely ruins Congress. She’s even able to make Starlight have a Psychic Nosebleed.
  • Billy Butcher upon using Temp-V is delivers this to Powder (Soldier Boy’s sidekick) completely overpowering him before splitting him and the car he was laying against in two with Eye Beams.
  • Soldier Boy the douche Super-Soldier is probably one of the most effective case of this in the series. When the characters first get him out of his cyrostasis, he gives a nuclear Chest Blaster to Kimiko that burns the Compound V out of her body effectively depowering her. Then in “Herogasm” he’s the first character in the series to trade blows with Homelander in a outright fight (soon aided by a Temp-V enhanced Butcher and Hughie) and force him to ground. This particular Not So Invincible After All worfing actually rattles Homelander so much he hallucinates seeing Soldier Boy at a rally with Victoria Neuman having to tell him get a grip on himself.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This happens many times in general to Buffy and Angel. Although you occasionally have smart or crafty villains, it seems the writers' first choice is go with with someone who can smack these two around.
  • Buffy first meets Glory in Season 5's "No Place Like Home". The episode opens with Buffy defeating a large vampire with her usual Casual Danger Dialogue. When Buffy first confronts Glory, it's the latter who's making the quips while Buffy is punching her in the face. Buffy only gets out alive because Glory accidentally knocks down the building in a fit of petulance. For the first time, Buffy expresses doubt that she can beat an enemy.
    • Also used to emphasize Willow's newfound magical strength. Glory effortlessly knocks Buffy, the resident badass, around week after week; until the finale only Willow manages to make her feel pain.
  • Used to establish The Dragon of Season 7:
  Caleb: So, you're the Slayer. The Slayer. The strongest, the fastest, the most aflame with that most precious invention of all mankind — the notion of goodness. The Slayer must indeed be powerful. [Knocks Buffy out with one punch] So, what else you got?
  • Adam is another villain to casually see off Buffy at their first encounter.
  • The first time Buffy tries to take down a Turok-Han in "Bring on the Night", it beats her unconscious.
    • That was mostly because she was sleep deprived though, once she finally slept (like her premonition told her to do) she beat it rather easily.
    • Depends upon your definition of "easy". She gets her butt handed to her the first 90% of the fight before somehow turning the fight around and killing the guy (with help).
  • Spike is semi-vulnerable to this. His fights tend to start with him being beaten almost unconscious by whatever man/woman/fluffy rabbit he's fighting, then proceeding to destroy his opponent in the span of a few seconds. Of course, he likes fighting, so it's possible he doesn't go all out at first to avoid the fight ending too quickly.
  • Angel suffered this in Seasons 2 (prior to his Face–Heel Turn) and 3, regularly getting his ass kicked or being the first member of the good guys' side to get taken out. He received much less of this treatment after moving to his own series.
  • We've never seen Whistler fight in the series, but when he meets up with Angel again in Season 9, he is able to literally punch out Angel's stomach without breaking a sweat. He decides to spare him, though.
  • Slayers in general get this treatment. If the audience needs to know a new vampire/demon/whatever is badass, someone will mention said monster killing at least one Slayer prior to their appearance.
• On Castle, Esposito occasionally suffers from this. As a former special forces soldier he should be the most tactically effective member of the team. As a result while he often is shown as the most effective in this regard, he is still fairly often defeated by tougher opponents. In one notable case Action Girl Beckett is much more successful in unarmed combat than he was. Though in general, it is often justified in that he is the first target because he is a bigger threat.
• Cobra Kai: Daniel returns to Okinawa in Season 3 and loses spectacularly in a rematch to his old nemesis Chozen, mainly to show how superior his rival has now become to him and how much more the Miyagi-Do ways of fighting have to offer than what Daniel was taught by his mentor.
  • Hawk is Cobra Kai's second most dangerous fighter, but has lost three key fights in the series due to being The Berserker. The first two were against Robby, who is just as skilled but has a far more balanced style, and the third was a characteristic outbreak of Suicidal Overconfidence.
  • Kyler was the school bully in the first season and his ego never really diminishes but pretty much every character bests Kyler as they mature.
• Criminal Minds:
  • Derek Morgan is the "tough guy" in the series, however, while in earlier seasons you see him winning his fights, in later seasons he's often the beaten party. It leads to Reid joking in the season finale of Season 6 (where Morgan was tackled by a member of the Un-Sub's team) that he needed to work out more.
  • Garcia, in a sense. Although she's not known for her physical skills, she's known — and renowned — for her computer hacking skills and wizardry. However, more often that not, when Garcia is actually tasked to outsmart a tech-savvy Un-Sub, the Un-Sub trips her up, usually by way of "one million proxy servers", forcing the team to locate the Un-Sub the old fashioned way.
    • Subverted in "The Internet Is Forever", where Garcia does manage to outsmart an Un-Sub (for once). Since the Un-Sub routes his connection through the same order of proxy servers, it became an easy trace, leading to Garcia terminating the transmission before the Un-Sub can kill his latest victim, becoming a Moment of Awesome for Garcia.
• In EastEnders, Dennis Rickman's introductory episode had him knock resident hardman Phil Mitchell to the ground with a single punch to establish how tough he was.
• Ka D'argo is the Worf of Farscape, in this aspect as well. The Alien of the week usually manhandles him, and D'argo ends up choking up black, poisonous blood, leaving it up to Crichton or Aeryn to save his life. This appears to have been mitigated by the writers by late Season 2, however, as D'argo seems to win EVERY fight with relative ease, even with multiple, credible non-mook opponents.
  • A bit of Fridge Brilliance here. D'Argo had been chained to a wall for many years at the start and would not be nearly as strong or able as when he was originally a warrior. However, after a year and a half of being on the run and facing monsters on a weekly basis, it's not surprising he got back in shape. He also emotionally matures significantly in that time, and his fighting style becomes much more controlled and disciplined; many of his early defeats were due to foes exploiting the vulnerabilities of his berserker tactics.
• An interesting example from Firefly. In "Out of Gas", Mal has to rough up his pilot to get him on the bridge (It Makes Sense in Context), and Jayne, resident Dumb Muscle tough guy, seems to be visibly scared of Mal, calling for them both to stop fighting during the crisis, but it's then immediately revealed he's actually panicking about how they may soon run out of air and doesn't want them using it up any faster.
  • Jayne is also easily knocked out by River during her rampage in the Maidenhead bar in Serenity. Though to his credit, he did at least manage to get her into a grapple for a while, which is better than anyone else in that fight did. The real problem was that having caught her in a bear hug, Jayne then tried to talk her down, not knowing that River had been hit with something like a Trigger Phrase, and thus could not be talked down; while Jayne tried to snap her out of it she simply went straight for the groin and then when he eventually released her she grabbed the nearest heavy item to hit him with.
    Wash: Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90-pound girl 'cause... I don't think that's ever getting old.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Meera is introduced ambushing Osha while Osha herself is ambushing Jojen.
  • Jaime is defeated with almost contemptuous ease by Brienne in the second episode of Season 3, demonstrating just how incredibly good she is (although admittedly he's heavily handicapped at the time).
  • After five seasons of taking names, dodging death, and shooting up the social ladder, Bronn is nearly killed by Tyene Sand, in a show of just how cunning and dangerous the girl is. In Season 7, to emphasize how deadly and terrifying Drogon is, Bronn drops his cool and spends most of the battle in mortal fear for his life.
  • Barristan Selmy is one of the best fighters that Westeros has ever seen, being the superior of Jaime Lannister when he was younger. Despite that, Barristan is defeated by the Sons of the Harpy, merely to show how dangerous this sect is, though he died fighting unarmored and in close quarters against enemies that outnumbered him fifteen to one. Lesser fighters would have died in more favorable conditions.
  • Stannis is frequently talked up as one of the finest tacticians in Westeros, and the prospect of fighting him is always treated as a serious threat. Despite this, the on-screen battles he's personally commanded have all ended in his total defeat. While he came close to winning in Blackwater, the Battle of Winterfell was an utterly underwhelming Curb-Stomp Battle in favor of the Boltons.
  • The Dothraki are frequently held up throughout the series as a frightening example of a force whose mastery of horsemanship and shock tactics make them unbeatable in open combat, but their tactics hold no value when they charge the Army of the Dead, and the entire horde is wiped out nearly to a man in mere seconds.
• In Heroes, Adam Monroe, the Big Bad of Volume 2, is immortal, and Hiro can only defeat him by burying him alive. Not long after he is released in Volume 3, he encounters Arthur Petrelli, and although Arthur is in a very weak state, Adam is terrified of what he will do to him. Moments later, we find out why; Arthur steals Adam's immortality, causing Adam to age into dust, and making Arthur the next Big Bad, adding immortality to his growing collection of powers. He only becomes more powerful after absorbing Peter's many powers.
• Played for laughs in Jekyll, where one episode starts with an introduction to the world's best mercenary, who's capable of breaking necks one handed while blindfolded and taking out a room of armed men bare handed, and spends years training himself and his team to be able to defeat Hyde. Hyde throws him off a roof before he finishes introducing himself. Turns out it doesn't matter how well trained a human you are, trying to fist fight someone who can Flash Step and toss a fully grown lion thirty feet isn't going to go well. Ironically a much less badass team of mercenaries does kill Hyde, by the Boring, but Practical method of getting him into a long exposed hallway and shooting him a lot.
• In Justified, both Boyd Crowder and Daryl Crowe beat up Mikey, both by outsmarting him in order to make sure it's not a fair fight. The fact that Daryl is able to outsmart Mikey illustrates that it isn't difficult.
• The Kamen Rider fandom even has its own unique term for Worfing: "getting rolled", referring to how characters who take a particularly strong hit will roll on the ground, usually getting knocked out of their transformations in the process. More than demonstrating a character's strength, fans tend to consider characters weak the more they get rolled.
  • Kamen Rider Decade gets this accusation in spades; check its individual page for details. The short version is that Decade is a crossover series and, while Decade himself is understood to be quite powerful, he often demonstrates this by defeating other shows' boss-level enemies with stunning ease^note One instance that particularly got on fans' nerves involved Decade outright destroying multiple Undead from Kamen Rider Blade — something that series implied to be impossible. Decade is on the giving end of many of these, but that only makes it worse when someone he should be able to beat starts bashing him around. Also, the alternate version of Kamen Rider Kuuga who appears in this series rarely transforms and when he does, he usually gets smacked around, which does not make Yusuke already a point of contention, any more palatable to the fans of the original Kuuga.
  • In general, Kamen Rider does this a lot with villains in crossovers/specials/movies for other series — outside of Decade, Lord Baron, the Final Boss of Kamen Rider Gaim, was defeated in less than 3 minutes by Kamen Rider Ghost in a web special; the Luna Dopant, who was only defeated by a passing-by Kamen Rider OOO in The Movie for Kamen Rider Double, gets taken out rather uncerimoneously by Kamen Rider Ryugen in the crossover between Gaim and Kamen Rider Wizard; and the Sagittarius Zodiarts from Kamen Rider Fourze, who was defeated by the titular rider using all of his forms, finds himself defeated by one of Zeronos's finishing moves in Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider #3, just to name a few examples.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O has a rather dramatic instance of this in its final episode: After spending the entire series doing his best to avoid it, Sougo becomes the Evil Overlord Ohma Zi-O after his friends are killed by the Big Bad Swartz/Another Decade. He then demonstrates his power by killing the Final Bosses of several other Rider shows with single punches and kicks, including a couple who are Planet Killers. This example is a bit more understandable than most since Ohma Zi-O is shown to possess the power of every single Kamen Rider, including the ones who took those villains down the first time.
• Quite a few Worfings happen in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. When Kit becomes Dragon Knight for the first time, Wing Knight is in the process of getting Worfed by a Spider monster so Dragon Knight can defeat the monster and show off his powers. The very next episode Kit is training with Wing Knight and gets curb-stomped.
  • Wing Knight gets Worfed again when Thrust is introduced, then Thrust and Torque get Worfed in the same episode when Strike (the Big Bad's dragon) makes his debut.
  • Strike himself gets a solid Worfing late-series to demonstrate how powerful Survive Mode Wing Knight is.
• In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Det. Stabler's a pretty tough guy who's known for working over perps in the interview room. Frequently he gets knocked around, racked in the nuts, etc.
• Sayid, as the toughest of the crash survivors, suffers from this to some extent in Lost, and has been taken down by Rousseau, Mikhail Bakunin and Keamy, the first two in their introductory episodes. He usually puts up a creditable fight, though.
  • He does manage to take Mikhail down later in the same episode.
  • Luckily, for many this doesn't threaten Sayid's legitimacy as a badass because Lost is often less about combat prowess and more about overall competence. Furthermore, there will usually be moments of awesome sprinkled around with regards to this character; many people pointed out that "only Sayid would put his forks and knives pointy-side up in the dishwasher, just in case" after an awesome fight in which Sayid kills some assailants by opening up the dishwasher and throwing them on the deadly silverware.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Galadriel's combat skill is established when she effortlessly dispatches an Ice Troll, a creature that was trouncing her party and the kind of foe that would give more than pause to the Fellowship, composed of some the best combatants of the third age.
  • After Galadriel has been spending much of the series easily defeating anyone who tries to fight her, when she finally confronts Sauron, he renders her utterly helpless, easily stopping her from stabbing him, warping reality around them to trap her in illusions, and pushing her into the ocean without Galadriel being able to put up a fight against him. Justified in that while she was stated to be capable of opposing him, that's when he was weakened due to not having the One Ring, and since Sauron hasn't created the One Ring and is at full power, as a Maia at full strength, even a powerful Elf like her wouldn't have a chance.
• To show how tough and dangerous the villain Bushmaster is during the second season of Luke Cage (2016), the man picks a fight with Luke Cage out in public and wins. And it's caught on camera for all of New York to see.
• One Piece (2023):
  • Much like the source material Mihawk displays this in his first appearance with him killing all the Krieg Pirates and splitting their battleship in half with his BFS — signifying how many leagues above the Main Characters he is in terms of strength. Zoro (who we’ve seen effortlessly cut men in two) learns the hard way challenging him was Suicidal Overconfidence.
  • The Arlong Pirates specifically Arlong and Kuroobi deliver a worfing to Luffy and Sanji (both of whom are superhumanly strong) at the Baratie with the only reason Luffy isn’t killed due to Nami convincing Arlong to throw him into the water instead. The Fishmen aren’t as lucky in round two however, thanks to some Let's Get Dangerous! from Luffy and Sanji. Not to mention the collective Arlong pirates getting decimated just prior by Zoro and Sanji complete with Casual Danger Dialogue.
  • Garp does this to Luffy in the final episode of Season 1. The latter is fresh off stomping Arlong the greatest threat in East Blue yet when he tries doing a Gum-Gum Slingshot to his quite old grandpa, Garp clotheslines Luffy out of the air effortlessly and proceeds to punch his grandson around. He only stops after conceding he can’t stop Luffy pursuing his dream and lets his grandson get a headstart.
• The Originals:
  • Regularly, the Witches of the series will display just how much more powerful they are than the ones the Originals faced before in the Vampire Diaries by being able to easily bring them to their knees or cause them a hell lot of trouble, which is something that previously took the power of 300 witches from Bonnie and then the power of the so-called most powerful witch, Esther. Most notably includes Davina, who beat Klaus so badly that he was forced to transform while Elijah had to choke on rivers of the blood he drank from others, and Papa Tunde, who actually physically beats Klaus...
    • But even they pale in comparison to the two "super-witches" of the series, Dahlia and the Hollow, main antagonists of the second and fourth season. Virtually nothing the Originals and their allies try against them work, Dahlia even curb-stomping the infamously unstoppable Mikael along with Klaus and managing to casually render the White Oak Stake, which was bound to be indestructable, into ashes and then use it to nearly kill Klaus, Rebekah, and Elijah, while also casually almost killing Freya, the Mikaelsons most prominent witch ally, with her utterly helpless before her aunt. The only reason Freya and the others aren't a corpse is because Esther had a change of heart and helped them by emotionally reaching out to Dahlia, as straight-up defeating her was impossible. The Hollow meanwhile is so strong Vincent, who is up there, if not even more so, with Freya, can't do anything against her directly, and even Marcel, now a super-vampire who's only slightly weaker than Mikael at best, proved utterly powerless against her.
  • Mikael displays just how right Klaus was to fear him in his time looming over his children. His first appearance has him utterly overpower Elijah, who even Klaus as a Hybrid struggled, and he swiftly incapacitates Klaus and Rebekah too. In the second season, Mikael, in a weakened state due to not being properly fed, easily massacres a group of Werewolves using Moonlight Rings and even after being bitten, handily overpowers Elijah. It's only Davina stopping him that keeps him from killing Elijah. And then, after having only had a few days to recover, Mikael overpowers Klaus in a fair fight! Even after getting stabbed by Papa Tunde's blade, which he removes himself to display just how much stronger he is than Klaus and Elijah, who were rendered helpless by the blade, he still gives Klaus a hell of a fight. Finally, while Klaus is utterly helpless before Dahlia when she attacks him, Mikael was able to actually injure her, a feat that no one else was ever able to achieve without some kind of misdirection. He's never actually defeated in a physical fight, and only dies because he let Klaus kill him.
• Interesting variation in Parks and Recreation: Made of Iron Ron has a man-eater second ex-wife whom everyone learns to fear and loathe, especially Ron himself. When she as much as catches a glimpse of his first ex-wife — who is not even revealed to the audience that episode — she bolts and runs.
• This is a staple in Power Rangers and its original Japanese counterpart Super Sentai. Basically, whenever the show needs to introduce a new ranger, weapon, upgrade or robot, the rangers will face an insanely strong monster who wipes the floor with them, until one of the aforementioned things is introduced, after which the monster will be easily defeated.
  • In Power Rangers Mystic Force, Daggeron was unstoppable in his first two or three appearances, but after that, he suffered The Worf Effect often. Mystic Force did have tougher monsters than other seasons, and anyone who could beat on Daggeron could maul the main five, but he was always the first one in and the first one down.
  • This "Sixth Ranger Syndrome" can be seen in almost every season of Power Rangers — the new, super powerful extra Ranger debuts, defeats the enemy in a few hits, and two episodes later is jobbing out to anything thrown his way.
    • It tends to be more of a case of Can't Catch Up. The villains gradually get more powerful over the course of the show, and the team gets upgrades to compensate for their ever more threatening foes. The main team, that is. Sixth Rangers generally aren't given Super Modes or extra mecha to stay competitive, so they fall behind.
    • It's demonstrated especially well with poor Daggeron: he can only stand by and watch the Rangers in their new Legend Mode easily take out the guys who beat him up. Then we take it to mecha level, and the new Megazord that comes with it does the same to the machine that Daggeron's own couldn't stand up to.
    • From their third battle onwards, Sixth Ranger mecha are pretty useless unless they can combine with the primary gattai robo into a super gattai robo (which has no equivalent Power Rangers term) — fortunately for Sixth Rangers, that's common. However, the really dangerous enemies usually prove themselves by defeating a super gattai robo.
    • Another recurring thing is that often a monster will show and effortlessly defeat the team, then the team gets some powerup and beats the shit out of it in round two. The same applies to the Zords. These new toys easily take out the monster that the old ones were nothing against. Three episodes later, the new weapon/mech is no tougher than the one it replaced at best, constantly getting thrashed at worst. Especially once something badder replaces it. At that point, it will only exist to get hit once so the Rangers can say "Whoa! Even the Super Megazord isn't enough! We need the Super Duper Megazord!"
  • Even this is experienced by you-know-who. Daggeron can take on a non-Ranger morphed form, previously seen only in flashbacks until one day he just starts using it in the present. It is quite powerful, so his Ranger suit serves the same purpose as the Megazord before last: morphed Daggeron gets Worf'd, oh noes, and then out of the flames bursts Ancient Mystic Daggeron! You start to wonder why he ever bothered with the spande...uh, tights.
  • This is also subverted as well. Most obviously in Power Rangers S.P.D. with the Shadow Ranger. He rarely fights (as he doesn't want the Rangers to rely on him) and when he does, he normally completely mops the floor with his opponents.
  • Tommy also suffers this to the White Ranger in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. Despite having consistently beaten everything that came at him, including a Once per Episode battle with one of the season's Dragons, The White Ranger takes him out without breaking a sweat. Trent would go on to suffer this himself, being himself a Sixth Ranger. As the Green Ranger, Tommy got this a lot, losing his powers twice, turning evil a second time, and constantly being under spells that that made it impossible for him and Jason to work together.
    • It wasn't even just being the Green Ranger; after becoming the White Ranger and the team's leader he usually managed to get taken out by the monster of the week fairly early in constant Season 2 episodes, and in damn near every Season 3 episode.
  • How's this for irony? In the first series, Rita's brother Rito Revolto likely handed the Rangers their worst defeat to date when he destroyed both the Thunder Megazord and the Tigerzord. Unfortunately for him, when they came back with the Ninja Megazord and challenged him again, he got his ass handed to him. In other words, the Rangers were Worfed by him, and then he, in turn, was Worfed by them.
  • Happens in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai when the Big Bad decides to take action. Even the rangers' most powerful BFG couldnt even dent the guy. To add insult to injury; this happened past the point in the show where the rangers would normally receive more gadgets, which meant shit just got real...
  • Dobutsu Sentai Zyuohger plays with the usual effect with its Sixth Ranger, Misao, who like several sixths starts out as an enemy who can beat the entire core five at once before turning good and suddenly being not that much better than the rest. Misao is presented as being physically superior to the rest of the team combined for the entire run of the show, but he's also insane and prone to fits of depression, which didn't matter when he was a villain because he was under mind control.
  • It should be noted that Uchu Sentai Kyuranger subverts if not outright averts this trope. The Kyurangers are a force of nine warriors brought together from across the galaxy and are said to overcome any foe when they're all together. The only times the Kyurangers have been on on the losing side of battle to demonstrate a monster's power or introduce a new member has been when they're separated, meaning a team of five can be overpowered but still not adhere to the trope since it's not the entire team.
  • Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger is easily the biggest example in the history of the show, as the first scene depicts the worlds of every single previous Super Sentai team being trapped by the main antagonists in small gears, rendering them unable to do anything against the invaders as The Multiverse gets conquered, with the universe the series takes in being the only one not trapped yet.
• This becomes a plot point on Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon with regards to Sailor Venus. In the episode that she debuted, she was able to effortlessly defeat Zoisite with her standard attack. This made sense as she had the most experience as a Sailor Soldier compared to the other girls. Later on, though, as the rest of the girls awakened their full power, it became clear that Venus hadn't awakened hers yet since she was regularly getting overpowered by the standard Mooks. Sailor Mars even calls her out on it. Venus finally receives her Mid-Season Upgrade towards the end of the series, but she died of a terminal illness the next episode.
• The first time a "future predator" appeared on Primeval, it broke into an enclosure at a zoo to kill and eat a full-grown lion.
  • And in subsequent episodes, the future predator itself would fall victim to this trope as it was killed by various other animals.
• Red Dwarf:
  • The titular Mile-Long Ship Red Dwarf and Starbug are frequent victims of this with the amount times they’ve gotten destroyed or in the case of Starbug collided with something or shot down over and over again. Thankully a Timey-Wimey Ball can usually restore Red Dwarf while Starbug requires elbow grease to keep on trucking.
  • Hudzen 10 from “The Last Day” being a Knight of Cerebus Killer Robot in a comedy sci-fi show worfs the Boys from the Dwarf pretty hard with him no selling Lister shooting him at point blank range with a sawn off before throwing him across the corridor one-handed. They only manage to win thanks to Kryten making Hudzen 10 have a metaphysical crisis, by claiming to his replacement there’s no such thing as Silcon Heaven, causing the mechanoid to shut down.
  • The Simulants similar to Hudzen serve this purpose, as it’s always a Oh, Crap! for the Dwarfers when they show up to unleash smeg e.g “Justice”. Subverted in “Gunmen of the Apocalypse” while the Simulants do effortlessly take down all four of the boys with a stun ray, they ultimately end up on the receiving end of the twatting as they decide to upgrade Starbug with a laser cannon to make it more sporting — which gets them destroyed as Dwarfers quickly make use of their new toy before their quarry can react.
  • The eponymous villain of “Inquisitor” of Season 5 is the most extreme example of this in the series, being The Dreaded. He’s a time traveling, reality warping, self repairing and history changing super Simulant who’s a cross between the Terminator and Darth Vader. His first action is casually taking over Starbug and making the crew return to Red Dwarf where he judges all four of the boys and gets them to justify their existence. He’s the first villain to kill two of the crew (Rimmer and Cat, though they get better) and Lister and Kryten have to pull off a Batman Gambit by reprogramming Inquisitor gauntlet so he erases himself instead of Lister, after the latter made Inquisitor think he had won.
  • Red Dwarf: The Promised Land has a two-fold example. The antagonists the Felis Sapiens (cat humanoids) their leader Rodon being Cat’s brother do this to crew especially Cat who is “domesticated” compared to them with a deleted scene showing while they have proper claws, Cat’s claws have been ridiculously manicured down. However in the climax Diamond Light Rimmer effortlessly takes down their battlecruiser with one laser pointer from his finger which makes them crash.
• Resurrection: Ertuğrul:
  • In Season 4, this happens to Ares (Who served as one of the primary antagonists at the beginning of the season, now named Ahmet after a Faith–Heel Turn) after Tekfur Kritos figures out his current affiliation and sends the Traveler, Aka Noyan (The villain from Season 2), to kill him off.
• Used to rather shocking effect in Stargate SG-1. The episode "Camelot" has the humans, Free Jaffa, and Asgard, the three most advanced races in the Milky Way, try to stop the Ori from invading through the Supergate. There are about sixteen ships there, later bolstered by reinforcements from the Lucian Alliance (procured by Teal'c by holding Netan at gunpoint). This still doesn't help, as while the Asgard ship is able to survive, a ha'tak can't survive even one hit from the Ori ship's main weapon, and a human 304 is only able to take two. Until "Unending" only one Ori ship had been destroyed, and that was by a clever trick. Things get better at the season finale when they get Asgard beam weaponry, but it still takes the Big Damn Movie for the war to finally be won.
  • SG-1 used this trope constantly throughout the series whenever a new force was introduced. The Goa'uld, the original antagonists for example were seen as all powerful...until the Asgard show up and can utterly dominate them. Then the Replicators appear, and can manhandle Asgard ships with ease. The Tolan also first appear to easily dispatch Goa'uld ships. Then Anubis comes onto the scene and obliterates them and is a credible threat to the Asgard who in turn get better ships and scare *him* off and then finally Ancient tech is revealed to be able to crush Anubis easily. About the only ones who haven't been Worf Effected in this manner are the Replicators, where their every defeat comes down to tricks, luck and Deus ex Machina.
  • Teal'c could be said to be SG-1's Worf. However he usually prevailed, and his defeats were mostly non-gratuitous serving to better develop his character.
    • Noticably, Teal'c tends to fare badly in any hand-to-hand combat with a Goa'uld, reinforcing that even an unarmed Goa'uld is a serious threat.
• Amped to ridiculous levels in the Stargate Atlantis finale where the human 304s armed with the same Asgard beam weapons that could destroy Ori ships in one shot cannot even scratch a Wraith ZPM powered hive ship and it only ends up being destroyed by a bomb in its fighter bay, because apparently internal security is an alien concept to the Wraith.
  • In the tradition of Worf and Proud Warrior Race Guys everywhere, Stargate Atlantis has Ronon, who suffers the Worf Effect once every several episodes, but actually manages to be a legitimate badass the rest of the time.
  • There's a whole crossover episode subverting this with Teal'c and Ronon teaming up to stop a Wraith invasion of Earth.
• Stranger Things:
  • Eleven being the Psychic Powers Little Miss Badass among an Action Survivor cast unavoidably gets worfed hard whenever the plot needs to drastically raise the stakes.
    • Mind Flayer possessed Billy is able to No-Sell Eleven’s telekinesis body paralysis and give her a Neck Lift that almost strangles her to death.
    • The goretastic Body of Bodies Mind Flayer is able to critically wound Eleven and De-power her with a poison that it pumps into her bloodstream.
    • Henry aka Vecna or One, Eleven’s psychic progenitor of course gives her this treatment in their Battle in the Center of the Mind. Though Eleven has a Big Damn Heroes early on holding Vecna suspended in the air before smashing him into the bleachers, Henry quickly regains the upper hand by out Mind over Matter-ring El with his own telekinesis. It takes The Power of Love and the combined effects of the rest of the heroes for Eleven to overpower Henry again — but not before he’s accomplished his goal.
  • Eleven herself worfs the Demogorgan the mass murdering antagonist of Season 1 in the final episode, with it being as helpless as a baby when in El’s power.
  • On a more grounded level Steve the Jerk Jock turned Lovable Jock is generally the go to guy for getting the shit kicked out of him. It got to the point where Dustin in Season 3 makes note of it and applauds him for finally winning a fight when he knocks out a Russian soldier. Steve still hasn’t quite escaped this in Season 4 as Eddie is able to force him against a wall and nearly stab him with a broken bottle after Steve startles Eddie from his hiding place but Steve also gets dragged into the Upside Down by some of Vecna’s Combat Tentacles and savaged by the Demobats — forcing Nancy, Robin and Eddie to save him.
  • In fairness to Steve, Hopper the Team Dad and The Big Guy gets a fair amount of this as well, he’s just gets to pull out a win more often by being quick witted and lucky. He manages to worf the Demogorgan (a creature which can plow through regular men) in Season 4 and behead it. Though this was only possible due to Murray scorching it with a flamethrower prior.
• On the video commentary for the episode "Errand of Mercy" on the Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 Blu-Ray, the Worf Effect is very clearly referred to by VFX designer David Rossi. He notes that the production staff consciously used Worf as the "measuring stick" by which the strength and badassery of villains was determined. This was obviously not true for the Original Series itself, however, which predates Worf's creation by twenty years, making it peculiar that he would choose to bring up Worf in that context.
  • Although at times Spock would serve as a proto-Worf when it came to getting beaten up by foes (however, unlike the Klingon the half-Vulcan usually wasn't KO'd, allowing him to strike back).
  • Interestingly Kirk The Captain himself more so than Spock was typically the one in the original series who would get the complete shit kicked out of him by the Villain of the Week in a fight to raise the stakes. The difference being Kirk would inevitably get a Heroic Second Wind whereas Worf in TNG would just be out for the count. Funnily enough Kirk would get this from the aforementioned Spock in a fight, with the half-Vulcan nearly killing him in “Amok Time”.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
  • While Worf suffered enough to be the Trope Namer, it should be noted that his getting beaten up served a purpose at first: It was usually used to show that the threat could not be resolved by sheer force, but needed either diplomacy or technology to defeat or pacify. (Later, it became a matter of sheer habit on the part of the writers, though.) In fact, Michael Dorn apparently got so sick of it that one of his conditions for joining the cast of Deep Space 9 in Season 4 was that the writers would knock it off!
  • The second season Next Generation episode "Contagion" has the USS Yamato - one of the other Galaxy-class starships aside from the Enterprise in operation - destroyed by an Iconian computer program just to show how dangerous the Iconians could be.
  • One episode has the crew held hostage by Ferengi so that the crew members who've been de-aged can save the day via "Home Alone" Antics. Worf gets taken out not in a physical fight but with a phaser, missing his shot.
  • In short, the number of characters Worf has beaten in a fight is easily overshadowed by the number of characters who have curb-stomped, one-punched or otherwise overwhelmed him, despite that he is consistently said to be the ship's resident bad-ass. To be fair, it certainly is true that if something could overwhelm him physically, the other crew members weren't likely to beat it in a fight either.
  • A downplayed version of the trope showed up more than once. Step one: a task requiring superhuman strength appears. Step two: Worf at least partially accomplishes the task, with much grunting and straining, showing off said superhuman strength. Step three: Commander Data steps in and effortlessly completes the task and/or another like it.
  • On the subject of Data, it is interesting to note that he was unequivocally stronger than Worf, effortlessly overpowering enemies that even Worf could not stand up to on several occasions. In fact, he and his brothers may be the physically strongest humanoids in the franchise, edging out even the Borg. This comes up in one instance of this trope, during the episode "Clues", in which the crew is mysteriously suffering from Missing Time. When Dr. Crusher learns that someone broke Worf's wrist during that time, she notes that Data, already under suspicion for not being forthcoming about his knowledge of the event, is one of the few people with that level of Super-Strength.
  • Interestingly, Worf's predecessor as head of security, Tasha Yar, was killed by a monster purely as a demonstration of power. Seems Worf inherited it. If she'd stuck around longer, this trope might've have been called the Yar Effect. (One of Denise Crosby's reasons for leaving the show was not seeing enough action; seems the writers weren't comfortable with smacking a woman around each week).
  • In "Conspiracy", an adversary casually tosses around Riker, LaForge and Worf before Dr. Crusher calmly walks in and phasers his ass. Multiple shots at high setting were required, though, one lasting as long as three to four seconds.
    • The phaser itself is subject to the Worf Effect due to the normally one-shot KO of the Stun setting having no effect whatsoever and even the Kill setting only being enough to incapacitate or kill the host body and forcing the parasite to abandon it and flee. Dr Crusher helpfully explains this to Picard (for the sake of the audience) when she informs him "Set your phaser on Kill. Stun has no effect."
  • In one episode of Deep Space Nine, Worf himself deliberately utilizes this trope by letting Martok defeat him in a duel so as to restore the crew's confidence in Martok. This scene echos the TNG episode A Matter of Honor, in which Commander Riker, on detached duty to the Klingon warship Pagh, intentionally provokes the Pagh's captain into backhanding him so the man could take back his command with honor. The episode also proves that a Klingon Promotion isn't always fatal.
  • In Deep Space 9, the Jem'Hadar were first introduced in a season finale that culminated in the destruction of the Odyssey, a Galaxy class starship and The Big Guy of Starfleet ships, sister to the USS Enterprise-D — also having a balding captain, interestingly enough — with the only Jem'Hadar ship lost in the engagement being the one that intentionally rammed it. One of the writers later admitted that he had drawn this parallel between the two ships to showcase the Dominion as a credible threat. Later episodes would have the Federation come up with successful countermeasures, though there is a period in which the Dominion ships are looked at with some apprehension.
    • The Defiant herself suffered this, in her first outing no less. While going through the Gamma Quadrant to meet the Founders, the Defiant was attacked and quickly captured by the Jem'Hadar, showing that they still had a ways to go before countering the Dominion. And she suffered this again, this time fatally, in Season 7. In the first major battle with the Breen, the Defiant and over 300 other ships were destroyed to show how deadly the Dominion's new allies were.
    • After the Breen joined the Dominion, their first contribution to the war effort was a successful raid on Earth, a planet so heavily fortified that the Klingons had never even dreamed of attacking it. While none of the Breen ships survived the raid, their point had certainly been made.
  • Worf getting his butt kicked on the phaser range by Guinan who mentions she was using her other hand. Though at least he had a couple good excuses — he was distracted by his personal problems, number one, and number two—
    Guinan: Don't feel bad. I was doing this long before you were born.
  • Interestingly, in Enterprise's first encounter with The Borg, Picard orders Worf to stop a drone from interfering with the ship's systems, and Worf delegates the task to a subordinate... who the drone effortlessly throws across Engineering.
  • Speaking of the Borg, a blink-and-you-miss-it shot shows that one of the victims of the Battle of Wolf 359 was a Constitution-class refit ship. Similar to the destruction of the Odyssey, the creators wanted to subtly show that, had Kirk participated in the battle, the Borg would have killed him, no questions asked.
  • Worf is rarely a victim of this trope in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as he went from tactical to command, but after he is captured by Jem'Hadar and forced to fight one after another, we see an interesting twist when their commander steps in as his final opponent: The commander is shown to be pretty badass when he beats Worf after all his subordinates have failed. But the real badass is Worf himself, who despite getting beaten to a pulp refuses to stop fighting. Leave it to the Trope Namer to use the Worf Effect to cement his place as a warrior of legend.
    "I yield! I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him, and that no longer holds my interest."
  • Finally subverted when Worf kills Chancellor Gowron near the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
  • And completely averted in Star Trek: Picard: in the third season Worf seemingly loses only one fight and appears to be dead, only to get up a few minutes later and slaughter 90% of a criminal gang. (It was a setup.) The rest of the time, the best an enemy can do against him is hold his ground. Hell Worf’s very first scene was really him “worfing” other characters.
    • Season Three has Starfleet being used as The Worf. The gathering of the fleet at Frontier Day is just so the ships can be taken over by an AI and have its ass kicked to prove the situation is dire. Exactly the same thing which happened in Star Trek: Prodigys finale, and twice in Star Trek: Lower Deckss run too. Starfleet is itself The Worf.
  • Star Trek: Voyager had at least one episode where this trope was used brilliantly. In the opening teaser for the episode Scorpion, we see two Borg vessels approaching the camera with their standard Badass Boast. Then the unseen ship opens fire and blows both of them away effortlessly. As Paris says later in the episode, summing up the reactions of everyone who watched the opening, "Who could do that to the Borg?
  • In the Trek universe, the Romulans' Tal Shiar and the Cardassians' Obsidian Order are the two deadliest, most intimidating State Secs. In the DS9 two-part story, "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast", the two agencies join forces to launch a preemptive strike against the Dominion, only to be Out-Gambitted as they discover that they'd been Lured into a Trap and their fleets are swiftly annihilated by Dominion forces.
• Castiel in Supernatural. Despite being an angel, he's usually the one getting his head kicked in.
  • Ironically, Castiel actually got more effective in combat as he got weaker. In Season 5, he gradually loses his angelic powers as a result of being cut off from Heaven. Despite this, he still mows down angel mooks by the truckload, when the best Sam and Dean can ever manage is to temporarily banish them. Even after becoming completely human, he still defeats the Horseman Pestilence and manages to sucker punch Michael, who was pretty much untouchable up until that point. Compare this to Season 4, where he's at full strength but still manages to lose just about every fight he gets in to onscreen.
  • Crowley is generally a powerful demon and a competent threat, however if the writers want to show how powerful a new villain or character is, chances are Crowley will cower in fear of them or be made a fool of by said character.
  • Demons and angels in general. Any time an extremely powerful weapon or creature is introduced, it will usually demonstrate its power by killing a demon; if the writers want to show that it's really dangerous, it'll kill an angel instead.
• In Teen Wolf, the quickest way to show that a bad guy/antagonist means trouble is to have them beat up or harass Derek. Poor guy...
  • Derek spent the whole first season being outclassed by the alpha and harassed by hunters that he couldn't harm for fear they would declare all out war on him. Even after he became alpha, the kanima easily disabled him. He can barely control his own pack. He once got taken out by Lydia. He was never pitched as the best or most trained, it's just the newly bitten wolves and most humans that can't match him. Worf could totally take Derek.
• Bobby Flay invokes this in his Food Network show Throwdown, where he finds a chef, trains in their specialty, and then challenges them to a cook-off. Despite being an Iron Chef, Flay loses most of the time; however, he's said that he wants to lose, since the whole point of the show is to give props to all the awesome chefs out there (he's trying to do something after a week of training that they've been doing for years). On Iron Chef America, though, he plays to win. And he still does win throwdowns on occasion.
• The Umbrella Academy:
  • Poor Luther as The Big Guy is a constant victim of this to the point where it’s more difficult to list the fights where he’s actually won. He’s got Super-Strength and Super-Toughness compared to his physically weaker siblings but the majority of battles he’s involved in such as against Hazel, Vanya/Viktor, Lila and Marcus consist of him getting bodied. His asshole alien foster father Reginald Hargreaves outright kills him to raise the stakes in Season 3 though thanks to Klaus it’s not permanent and Luther is able to have a Big Damn Heroes saving his newly wedded bride Sloan from the Guardians.
  • Whenever Luther isn’t there, Diego gets delivered this. He’s a very cool Vigilante Man with Neo-esque Bullet Dodges You and knife throwing powers but if there’s a serious fight more often than not he’s getting Punched Across the Room or wounded in some way. In Season 3 Diego he is defeated by Christopher, a floating cube and takes it very personally. He’s also used to big up the threat of the Guardians, with Diego losing two fingers when first encountering them.
  • Vanya now Viktor though they’re the most powerful sibling (or maybe precisely because of it), tends to get this in the later seasons. It serves as a Oh, Crap! for the Umbrellas when Lila who has Power Copying is able down Super Mode Vanya in the finale. In Season 3, a powered up and twisted Allison almost kills Viktor when enraged.
  • The Sparrows do this to Umbrellas in the opening of Season 3 (in the fight, not the Dance-Off Diego hallucinates) royally kicking their asses, until Vanya is able to blow them all down with a blast. This rattles Smug Super Marcus who fully appreciates he’s not equipped to deal with such power and to keep his public image safe cuts a deal with Viktor though he dies from Kugelblitz anyway.
  • The Sparrows are on the receiving end of this when Harlan who is suffering Power Incontinence shows up and kills Jayme and Alphonso with one attack.
• Magnificent Bastard Klaus from The Vampire Diaries has been constantly hailed (by himself as much as anyone) as the most powerful and deadly being in the world, given that he's a thousand-year-old vampire/werewolf hybrid with the kind of strength and ability others could only dream of. Pretty much everyone is terrified of him, and his power is matched only by his arrogance. But with the introduction of Silas in Season 4, we see Klaus subjected to an unprecedented Humiliation Conga in which he is pulverized in combat, brutally Mind Raped into submission, and forced to dig into his own back with a pair of pliers. When Caroline sees what a quivering wreck he has been reduced to, she is both gratified that someone has finally managed to Break the Haughty, and terrified at the prospect of Silas and his obviously formidable powers.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Sergeant Abraham Ford ends up being Negan's first victim in the Season 7 premiere. It's implied that Negan knowingly invoked this trope by choosing the strongest of Rick's group to be made an example of.
  • Beta (The Dragon of the Whisperers) proves himself as a formidable foe by wiping the floor with Daryl in their fight.
• Several episodes of the BBC's Walking With... series follow the same pattern. As an opening a bad-ass dinosaur/scorpion/shark is shown hunting down some poor critter only for the real star of the episode to suddenly appear and bite them in half.
  • The episode that showed a massively oversized Liopleurodon jump out of the water and drag down an Eustreptospondylus (a European relative of Allosaurus) focused on prehistoric sea creatures.
• Whoniverse:
  • For Doctor Who-fans who are unfamiliar with the classic series, the Master's first proper episode is loaded with this. The Doctor has always beaten his enemies by playing it smart, and rarely loses the upper hand for long. Enter the Master, and suddenly the Doctor is no longer pulling the strings, as the Master has won before the fight has even begun. No place is safe, every plan ends in failure, and it's abundantly clear that the only reason the Doctor, Martha and Jack keep escaping is that the Master is toying with them. The episode ends with the Master as ruler of Earth, the TARDIS cannibalized into a Paradox Machine, the Doctor and Jack captured, Martha on the run with nothing but a Perception Filter Key and the clothes on her back and the Toclafane laying waste to the human race.
  • Arguably the entire purpose of U.N.I.T is to be this (overlapping with Red Shirt Army) as whenever a new threat would arise all their military firepower would prove to be as effective as throwing milk duds. It got to point where Brigadier snarked “Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!". New Who only continues the tradition with U.N.I.T getting infiltrated, overwhelmed or even completely destroyed in the majority of their appearances. Funnily enough the Brig himself manages to avert this being one of the most badass characters in the franchise (including KO’ing the aforementioned Master with a punch) it’s just his troops and successors aren’t nearly as fortunate.
  • The Weeping Angels in Blink though they suffered Villain Decay in subsequent appearances still provided a titanic example of this in first appearance having essentially defeated the Doctor stranding him and Martha in time and stolen the Tardis offscreen before the story even starts! The Weeping Angels were along with the Midnight entity and Reapers one of the few new-Who monsters whom Doctor was outright helpless against.
  • An earlier example comes from the 1960s, in the story The Chase, where the newly introduced Mechonoids fight a fiery battle with Daleks. These near-spherical robotic creatures with distorted voices and flamethrowers may well have been created with the intention of becoming the 'new Daleks' and indeed appeared later in the spin-off Daleks comic in TV Century 21 as a recurring enemy for the Daleks. However, they never made a repeat appearance on TV.
  • The Third Doctor era showed how Worfing could be used well without making Doctor look like a pushover. To wit, Third absolutely wasn’t afraid of throwing hands with Venusian aikido as the majority of weaker foes would get floored by him — however if the Monster of the Week would just No-Sell Doc’s blows and knock him down then it’s clear to the viewer that this isn’t a threat that could be dealt with using brute force and requires gizmos and out of the box thinking to be defeated.
  • The general purpose of “Dalek” and “Rise of the Cybermen” is to have said iconic villains do this to heroes, aiding their reintroduction into the modern era as well as avert any Narm left over from the classic Who. In “Dalek” we see the one Dalek in question plow an entire army (even making good use of the plunger) and when the fleeing Rose and co gets to some stairs they think they’ve bested the killer pepper pot… only for to have a Oh, Crap! when the Dalek elevates. In the Cybermen two-parter the Cybermen have the Doctor, Rose and Mickey constantly on the back foot by the time they show up and it takes instigating And I Must Scream on the Cybermen for the good guys to win. In “ Doomsday”, the Daleks worf the Cybermen so hard that they have to invoke a rare Enemy Mine with the Doctor and co to fight them.
  • The Weevils make three appearances in the Torchwood tie-in novels, and in all three cases are KO'd by the book's brand new foe.
  • A unique example comes from “The Impossible Planet”. The Tardis has Translator Microbes that turn any alien words into English… so it’s a serious moment to pause when the Doctor and Rose find ominous writing in that cannot be translated with Doctor claiming the symbols would have to be impossibly old for the Tardis to fail to transcribe them. This also foreshadows that they’re dealing with something truly terrible here Satan himself.
  • Similar to the Master, the Celestial Toymaker who returns in “The Giggle” delivers quite a lot of this. It’s quickly established he’s a very different kettle of fish from even the Time Lords being a Mr. Mxyzptlk-esque Reality Warper who casually mentions he “toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spin tops and gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box”. It’s also revealed the CT turned the Master (the Doctor’s foil and long standing nemesis) into a gold tooth in his mouth offscreen. While he is defeated by the bio-regenerated Doctors challenging him to the least complicated game: catch, it’s strongly inferred he’s just the “face” to a Cosmic Entity reaching into the world. This treatment isn’t too surprising given in the Celestial Toymaker first (mostly missing) appearance he could reduce the Doctor to a disembodied hand.
• The X-Files: In the episode "Pusher", we realize that Pusher's Compelling Voice is very, very dangerous when he gets Skinner. It's double-subverted in Skinner's case. Pusher already killed a sheriff deputy and one FBI agent by Psychic-Assisted Suicide. Skinner was the only one who could resist him, but he ended beaten up anyway, and by Holly the tiny secretary on top of that.

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