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When visiting alien or foreign cultures, some amount of [[Culture Clash]] is inevitable. In fiction, writers are able to take this to almost ridiculous extremes and milk the resulting dramatic tension.
 
Here's the basic formula: take a society. Give them, as one of their [[Planet of Hats|hats]], a [[Useful Notes/Japan|rigid]] and/or [[Useful Notes/Britain|complex]] code of manners or tradition they adhere to. Make the consequence of breaking that code dire: death, slavery, imprisonment, declaration of war, loss of a desperately needed supply or alliance they have. Insert the protagonists, usually well meaning but likely to have difficulty complying. If they can get away with asking why the punishment is so severe, the response will often be "[[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]" Or if the custom is particularly lacking in good sense from the outside point of view, well, "[[Nobody Ever Complained Before]]." Shake well and watch your protagonists squirm.
 
If the members of the culture in question are hip to the fact that outsiders are prone to stumbling on the rules, they may be nice enough to give a warning or two before bringing the hammer down. Probable good ending: both cultures learn to understand each other better and [[An Aesop]] is learned about respecting other's differences. Probable bad ending: the crew has to rescue one of their own and make a break for it with the angry mob on their heels.
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