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Phlebotinum Analogy: Difference between revisions

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Phlebotinum Analogy (view source)

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== [[Film]] ==
* There was such an analogy in ''[[Apollo 13]]'', spoken in Mission Control. In this case what it referred to wasn't totally made up. (That part of the script was written by John Sayles, to raise money for his own projects.)
* ''[[Event Horizon]]'' (1997): The eponymous ship features a prototype graviton drive, a kind of [[Faster -Than -Light Travel|jump drive]], which bends space to eliminate the distance between two points anywhere in the universe, thus enabling instant travel from a to b (jumping). Dr. William Weir visualizes this by folding a sheet of paper, creating the synonymous term [[Faster -Than -Light Travel|fold drive]].
** Nearly the same analogy (using the edge of a skirt rather than a sheet of paper) is used to describe tessering in [[Madeleine L Engle]]'s ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]''.
*** Another similar example in ''[[A Happy Accident]]'', using a leg bending to explain a way that time travel is possible.
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** One of the few times it fit was in a ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation|Next Generation]]'' episode, where a [[Space Whale|larva space creature]] is feeding on the Enterprise, both because the ship's energy is compatible, and because it thinks the Enterprise is its mother. So they change the form of the energy to something incompatible, which they call, "sour the milk".
*** Later, when LaForge is retelling this incident to Scotty, Scotty uses the exact that phrase, despite LaForge (presumably) using only [[Techno Babble]] in his explanation.
* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' is also riddled with this trope. A fine example occurs when the Fourth Doctor attempts to explain the transdimensional TARDIS to Leela by showing her two boxes and explaining that if the bigger box (which has been placed farther away and looks smaller than the actual smaller box) could be kept where it was and yet located where the small box is, it would fit inside the small box.
** This was subverted in the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episodes "The Runaway Bride", in which the explainee resolutely fails to understand what The Doctor's talking about ("I'm a pencil inside a mug?"), and "Blink", where The Doctor's inability to explain the way time works led to the [[Trope Namer]] example for [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].
** The novel ''The Pirate Loop'' includes a great one of these (paraphrased):
{{quote| '''Martha:''' So, it's like a stone skipping across the surface of a lake?<br />
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[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:Phlebotinum Analogy]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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