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Our Wormholes Are Different: Difference between revisions

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Our Wormholes Are Different (view source)

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* ''[[Donnie Darko]]'' involves one that {{spoiler|loops through time}}, [[Mind Screw|maybe possibly]].
* The Bifröst bridge in ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' is actually a traversable Einstein-Rosen Bridge (read: wormhole). The myth of it being a rainbow bridge is due to the fact that it causes atmospheric disturbances as it opens up on Earth. It also comes with [[Visual Effects of Awesome|a neat light show]].
** Apparently, if you keep it open longer than a few seconds, it can act as a [[Wave Motion Gun]] and destroy an entire planet... Which makes [[Justified Trope|a lot more sense]] when one considers the ludicrous energies required to make on of these things work in [[Real Life]].
* The [[Starfish Aliens|Mi-Go]] portal from Yuggoth (Pluto) to Earth in the 2011 [[Adaptation Expansion|adaptation]] of ''[[Lovecraft Onon Film|The Whisperer In Darkness]]'' seems to be mystical in nature, rather than technological. An elaborate ritual is required to open it, along with, you guessed it, [[Human Sacrifice]]. It is ''critical'' that a shaman or priest from Earth passes through first, before it can be used, lest it collapses. Oh, and it was probably left behind by [[Eldritch Abomination|Shub-Niggurath]].
* In ''[[Contact]]'', Dr. Arroway theorizes that the the alien machine transports its subject via an Einstein-Rosen bridge.
 
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** In "The Glove of Darth Vader", a wormhole created by the exploding reactor is responsible for transporting Darth Vader's indestructible glove from the exploding wreckage of the Death Star II to the oceans of Mon Calamari.
* ''[[Nights Dawn|The Night's Dawn Trilogy]]'' has humans using wormhole-generating ''ZTT'' drives to cross interstellar distances. The mechanical type requires the ship to be [http://images.wikia.com/nightsdawn/images/e/e3/Ladymac.jpg spherical] and is bound by orbital mechanics, while the ones used by the organic [[Living Ship|Voidhawks]] have no such limitations, but die after a few decades. The [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Kiint]] have refined the technology to the point where they use personal teleporters to jump between distant ''galaxies''.
* From the same author: In ''[[PandorasPandora's Star (Literature)|Pandoras Star]]'', two hipster Californian scientists invent a wormhole generator in mid-21st century, and reveal it to the world by transporting themselves to Mars to greet the NASA astronauts [http://psypher101.deviantart.com/art/Meeting-on-Mars-136595264 who were just landing there for the first time]. From that day on, the very notion of space travel becomes laughable, and an interstellar empire is created with [[Portal Network|wormholes linked by train lines]].
* Lois Mc Master Bujold's [[Vorkosigan Saga]] has an interstellar community, "the Nexus," linked together by "wormholes." Rather than being stellar-scale objects of massive gravity, these are subtle flaws in spacetime that you need special equipment to detect and use. They are natural features of some star systems. Earth only has one, way out in the Oort Cloud. Lucky systems have a handful. Barrayar, the heroes' home planet, was cut off from the Nexus for centuries when their one wormhole unexpectedly closed.
* The [[Time Scout (Literature)|Time Scout]] portals combine this with [[Portal to Thethe Past]].
 
== Live-Action TV ==
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* ''[[Sliders]]'' had wormholes that could only be opened at certain times, and transported people between parallel dimensions (alternate realities would be a better pair of words). A specific device was required to create said wormholes.
** In fact, each timer was unique in that each had its own cycle. Should the traveler miss his/her window, he/she would have to wait for the next one with the current timer for over 29 years - a number defined by [[Applied Phlebotinum]].
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' had a wormhole send the protagonist from our solar system into very unfamiliar space. Aliens (and thus hilarity) ensue.
** Later he turned wormholes into offensive weapons, learned how they could be used for travelling to different points in time as well as [[Alternate Timeline|"unrealised" realities"]], and eventually he learned how to make a "wormhole weapon" (essentially a black hole that doubles in size every few minutes).
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' has controlled wormholes created between the titular stargates, and as the means for spacecraft to enter hyperspace.
** In the Stargate 'Verse, wormholes operate in ''sub''space, rather than hyperspace. Atlantis (the city) used a wormhole drive (rather than a hyperspace drive) to get from the Pegasus Galaxy to Earth (in the Milky Way) in a split second, where Hyperspace was taking weeks. [[Our Wormholes Are Different]] indeed.
*** Atlantis used a ''hyperdrive'' to get from Pegasus to the Milky Way, and used its wormhole drive only after its hyperdrive broke down near the edge of the Milky Way. Also, in the first episode of SG-1's sixth season, a "hyperspace window" is referred to as a "wormhole," so wormholes ''are'' used to enter hyperspace.
*** Hyperspace is used by Stargates. Subspace is used by FTL travel. Various other dimensions/planes of existence are used by the Ascended, the [[Stargate SG -1|Abydonians]], and the [[Stargate Atlantis|occasional lost half-Ascended Replicator.]]
** This franchise also has the peculiar and arbitrary "time limit" rule. It's apparently a "law of wormhole physics" that it's impossible to maintain a wormhole for more than 38 minutes (unless it's plugged into a black hole or similar massive power source, which would suggest that it's more a limitation of the stargate's power systems than anything to do with physics). In effect, though, there seem to be more exceptions than cases of this rule being played straight.
*** The first time that the 38 minute rule was exceeded was because of time dilation, not energy expenditure: on the black hole planet, 38 minutes hadn't elapsed yet. This is why the wormhole remained open. Sadly, in later episodes it just became dumbed down to "black hole/energy = wormhole can stay open longer".
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*** Indeed, the rules for how wormholes behave under these conditions seem to be different in each and every appearance. Sometimes the wormhole "loops back" and travelers emerge from the gate they just entered, sometimes they come out of the gate they were trying to travel to, sometimes there is a visual effect associated with the disruption, sometimes not... There have been passing [[Hand Wave|Handwaves]] about how different external conditions result in the different effects, but yeah... Those wormholes are different.
*** At first, it's not the 'solar flares', the flares are just bending the wormholes somewhere else. The implication is that someone who understood, and had full control of, a Stargate could basically connect a wormhole to any point in time or space, and the lack of time travel was a deliberate technological limitation of the gate you had to 'hack' by using solar flares to bend the wormhole. Although that raises other questions, like why did the Ancients have to build an entire separate time travel system? Later, they seemed to have forgotten this explanation, and time travel started requiring solar flares.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has wormholes. For example, in ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture,'' an imbalance in the matter-antimatter ratio in the ship's engines can create a temporary wormhole that traps the ship and other nearby objects -- like asteroids. An episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' had Ferengi trying to buy the rights to a wormhole. ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' prominently featured a permanent wormhole as part of the premise of its show, created by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]; one episode featured a Federation scientist trying to duplicate this feat. And then there were the "micro-wormholes" used for communication between Earth and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]''.
* ''[[Terra Nova]]'' has a wormhole that exists in their universe 2149 and alternate timeline cretaceous period. It is still not explained if people can go back to 2149 or it is one way, but there are hints at it being the former.
* The fugitives in ''[[Tracker (TV)|Tracker]]'' came to Earth via a womrhole, and Cole used one in the final episode. The math apparently isn't easy to get, and he misjudged the timing, allowing him to come back to Earth in the very end. Zin apparently originated a lot of the wormhole stuff, then got laughed at by his fellow scientists for it.
 
== Tabletop Games ==
 
* Porte sorcerors in ''[[Seventh Sea]]'' have access to a rather bizarre version of portals. They can mark an object with their own blood, and then pull the object to them across a hand-sized portal, regardless of where it is. Later, they gain the ability to pull ''themselves'' to the object, regardless of where ''it'' is (rather handy if, for example, the object is in the pocket of a friend who's been imprisoned), and still later they can bring others with them. There are even rules for creating permanent Porte holes, though they cost an extreme version of [[Cast From Hit Points]] (as ''[[Seventh Sea]]'' doesn't have [[Hit Points]] per se, creating a permanent Porte hole will permanently cost a number of Sorcerors a point of the primary stat that determines when damage kills them). Porte has other restrictions, though; the dimension that the Sorceror (and any passengers) must cross is implied to one of a few cans holding [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]], either hell itself or the abode of the now-vanished [[Abusive Precursors]] (or possibly both). It is explicitly stated that anyone, sorceror or passenger, who opens his eyes during the trip will go mad--and that the denizens of this place will whisper sweet promises to any human making the trip, if only they'd open their eyes. All the sorceries but one in ''[[Seventh Sea]]'' are also {{spoiler|weakening the boundary between the real world and hell.}} Porte, as it tears holes in reality itself, is implied to be one of the worst about these. Lastly, Porte sorcerors are easy to spot--they have red hands as a consequence of frequently blooding objects for their art. As a result, gloves have become fashionable in Montaigne.
** The consequences of Porte are dire enough that at least one canon NPC has been executed by L'Empereur (an [[Expy]] of Louis XIV) by ''having his eyelids torn off and being cast into a Porte hole.''
 
== Video Games ==
 
* The ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X-Universe]]'' has the Lost Technology [[Portal Network|Jump Gates]], which are needed to get between solar systems. None of the races know how to make them {{spoiler|except the Terrans (who developed the tech on their own) and the Paranid (because they were told how by one of the [[Precursors]])}}.
** [[All There in the Manual|According to the X-Superbox Encyclopedia]], the wormholes are different due to using exotic matter to power the wormhole, and by using magnetic forces to flatten the aperture. If those factors didn't occur, it would be the exact same as [[Real Life]]'s theoretical wormholes.
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has Jump Gates that are implied to work as controlled wormholes, as well as normal, hidden wormholes that are implied to be dangerous, but perfectly safe in practice.
* The portals in ''[[Prey]]'', much like those in ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'', show a clear view of the destination, and have zero internal length. They also have only [[Alien Geometries|two dimensions and one side]], and can be used to [[Mind Screw|shrink]] things and create spatial anomalies.
* The portals in ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'', though a bit more short ranged than most other examples.
** With [[Cloudcuckoolander|possible application]] as a [[Mundane Utility|shower curtain]].
** As of [[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]], they're not so short-ranged anymore; the portal gun is capable of generating wormholes at a distance of at least {{spoiler|356400 km (from Earth to the Moon)}}.
*** We'll, they can open portals between certain materials {{spoiler|Moon rocks. They don't do good things for your health.}}. So long as they have a line to the target with no other solids in the way, the portal works.
* ''[[Eve Online]]'': the most recent expansion pack - Apocrypha - caused numerous wormholes to open all over New Eden. They transport ships absurd distances instantly, either to elsewhere in New Eden (distances that would take an hour to travel via stargates) or to uncharted Sleeper space (which could conceivably be in an entire other galaxy). They are only open for a limited time, and will only allow a certain amount of mass through before collapsing.
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* The only mode of system-to-system travel in the ''[[Space Empires]]'' series, as there is no [[FTL Travel]]. Some of them can be [[Point of No Return|one-way only]], though most are two-way. Random wormhole events can also fling your ships (or even ''bases!'') hundreds of LY across the map, as a sort of... ''[[Blind Jump]]'' meets ''[[Negative Space Wedgie]]''.
* In ''[[Haegemonia]]'', wormholes are naturally-occurring space phenomena that allow rapid travel to other systems. The only other way to travel to other system is via an experimental technology that creates temporary one-way wormholes to "wormhole probes" which only becomes available in the latter stages. Wormholes can be blocked by Darzok-developed probes or natural events.
* In the second ''[[Master of Orion (Video Game)|Master of Orion]]'', some planets are connected by a wormhole that allows a ship to travel between the systems in a single turn regardless of the race's propulsion tech. The wormholes can span distances anywhere from a few parsecs to going from one side of the galactic map to the other.
** A one-time special event can also create a temporary wormhole for a ship/fleet in transit, letting them finish their trip at the start of the next turn, regardless of how long they would normally have had remaining.
* ''[[Space Rangers]]'' has "black holes" (though their name is just pilots' slang) that randomly appear on the edges of star systems, and hurl you into a random system (be it one hyper-jump away or 50 parsecs into enemy territory). They also contain [[Subspace or Hyperspace|hyperspace]] [[Pocket Dimension|pockets]] inhabited by unidentified ships.
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== Webcomics ==
 
* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', the "teraport" drive works by essentially sending every subatomic particle through its own wormhole. There are also "[[Cool Gate|wormgates]]", which theoretically produce a single wormhole big enough to pass entire starships. The wormgates can also output to multiple gates, acting as a duplicator; an entire arc centers around [[Ancient Conspiracy|what the gates' owners were doing with this capability]].
 
== Web Original ==
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* The ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "A Room With a Moose" had Zim attempt to send the rest of his class (but especially Dib) through a wormhole to the eponymous [[Cosmic Horror|room with a moose]]. It was not stated whether this was in their dimension or another.
* ''[[Interstella 5555 (Anime)|Interstella 5555]]'' features a wormhole located behind the moon that connects our solar system to another. It's particularly dangerous to use, and Shep's ship is badly damaged trying to navigate it.
* In ''[[Re Boot]]'', perfectly spherical "portals" connect different systems together. The "other side" is visible from all angles of viewing, distorted by the curvature of space around the opening--this is arguably the most realistic depiction of wormholes in any TV series, bar none. (Rather ironic, as ''[[Re Boot]]'' [[Cyberspace|doesn't take place in the physical world]] and so could have easily justified a wholly ''unrealistic'' depiction.)
 
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* ''[[Event Horizon]]'' uses black hole as wormhole, ''[[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|a wormhole that is connected to hell]]!''
** Technically, they use a "quantum singularity" (as in semi-controlled artificial black hole) to power the ENGINE which creates a wormhole. Somehow. Still goes to hell though.
* The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' features an [[Unrealistic Black Hole]] that functions exactly like a wormhole leading to the past...when it isn't instead acting like a black hole by destroying things [[Fridge Logic|with no explanation of what makes it act one way or another]]. Note that the [[Star Trek]] franchise has used both wormholes and black holes on many occasions, but never mixed them up before. On a couple of occasions, black holes were used for time travel not by flying through them but by a by-product of the black hole's gravity, or warping ''near'' a black hole, or some other technobabble. This is not a case of getting the terms mixed up; the black hole is explicitly created by a collapsing star, which is (roughly) how real black holes form.
** Except the black hole in that movie wasn't created by a collapsing star, the first one was created when Spock used the "red matter" to stop the "supernova" that was going to destroy the galaxy. Because that's what red matter is used for, creating black holes.
* ''[[The Giant Spider Invasion]]'' has a miniature black hole(that can be contained in a meteor and impact the Earth without compressing the whole thing) that apparently leads to the spider dimension. Also it can be closed off by filling it with [[Techno Babble|SCIENCE!]]
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* ''[[Black Hole High]]'' originally called it a black hole, though they later speculated that it was actually a wormhole and preferred that term, despite occasionally reverting to the less accurate term for its mnemonic transfer ("Black Hole" also sounds a lot like "Blake Holsey", the name of the school). Wormholes can do [[Green Rocks|just about anything]] in this show.
* A white hole appears in the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episode "[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|White Hole]]". It spat out the matter and ''time'' that a black hole swallowed up, leading to short time loops and similar disturbances.
* In ''[[First Wave (TV)|First Wave]]'', Joshua claims the Gua use "white holes" to transport objects from their planet.
 
== Music ==
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* ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'' has Tesseracts, which basically function as wormholes. [[wikipedia:Tesseract|Real Tesseracts]] have nothing to do with this, being a geometric concept related to cubes (basically, a Tesseract is to a cube what a cube is to a square). Wormholes were not topical at the time.
* ''[[Quantum Gravity]]'': There are portals between realms used to get from one to the other. Or into I-space.
* The [[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honorverse]] has several wormholes but rather than a tunnel in space they are described as points where extremely powerful standing grav-waves that normally exist in hyperspace overlap with real space and allow effectively instantaneous travel between their two ends. They all come in clusters of at least two and a large portion of Manticore's wealth comes from shipping fees of their own six, later seven, terminus wormhole junction, the largest in the known galaxy.
* In ''[[Necroscope]]'' a "white hole" crash landed on a [[Eldritch Location|Vampire World]] creating a small one-way wormhole that links it with ours (specifically [[Uberwald|Romania]]). A few millennia later a [[Phlebotinum Overload]] in [[Soviet Superscience|Russia]]'s ambitious continent-wide [[Deflector Shield]] creates a much bigger wormhole in the heart of the then U.S.S.R. The twist is that each wormhole is a one way trip, but by using both you can turn them into a superhighway.
* In the ''[[CarrerasCarrera's Legions (Literature)|Carreras Legions]]'' series, Earth and Terra Nova are connected by what's referred to as a rift that allows nearly instantaneous transition between the two star systems, the only [[FTL Travel]] option for humanity.
 
== Live-Action TV ==
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* Jumpgates and jump points in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' are very much wormhole-like on their ends, though the big expanse of hyperspace in between bears little resemblance to the theory.
* All the strange things in ''[[Black Hole High|Strange Days At Blake Holsey High]]'' are handwaved by the black hole/wormhole thing.
* Wormholes haven't actually appeared on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' (unless you count a few magic portals), but they have been mentioned. When [[Trickster Archetype|the Trickster]] is interrogated on where a missing skeptic is, he says smugly "He didn't believe in wormholes. So I dropped him in one."
* The dimensional portals in [[Angel]].
 
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== Video Games ==
 
* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Video Game)|King's Quest Mask of Eternity]]'' has portals that only go between two specified points, and operate on switches.
* Stormgates from [[Pirate 101]] are whirlpool like wormholes act like portals that allow pirates to sail to through the stars to different parts of the Spiral.
 
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