Flawed Prototype: Difference between revisions

* [[Knight Rider]] has KARR, the prototype for KITT. The design flaw being that KARR was programmed to place self-survival over everything else.

** In the new series, however, KARR can transform from a robot into a car, while KITT can only transform into various cars. Also, it is revealed that the military always intended to go with KARR, once KITT's AI was "mature" enough. KITT was a temporary necessity.

* The ''Defiant'' from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''. Stuffing the equivalent abilities of a ''Galaxy''-class ship into something barely a quarter of that size made it ''extremely'' overpowered, engine-wise, to the point where it nearly tore itself to pieces on its shakedown cruise. It was also, due to the combat-exclusive focus of its design, poorly suited for everything else (in stark contrast to every other Federation starship), with the worst of these shortcomings being the criminally under-equipped medical facilities.<ref>Since it was meant to fight the Borg, the expectation was that either the Borg ship would be destroyed, in which case any injured could be treated on another ship, or the Federation fleet would be wiped out. Against a Borg invasion, there's no middle ground and no long-term sustained fighting.</ref> It took the better part of a season and [[Mr. Fixit|O'Brien]] replacing just about everything to make the blasted machine work as it was expected to.

** Comes up again when Nog and Jake run into the elite cadet group [[Meaningful Name|Red Squad]], who are piloting another ''Defiant''-class vessel. It has the same problems, only they can't fix them. Luckily, Nog has spent enough time paying attention to O'Brien that he ''does know'', and thus he makes the ship work in a few minutes.

* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles II]]'': The V0 [[Power Armor]]. While it's extremely powerful, it destroyed {{spoiler|Leon Hardins}}, reducing him into a shadow of his former self, who people then know as Dirk Gassenarl. Attempts to create Artifical Valkyria power generally result in this trope.

* Very tragic example in ''[[Professor Layton and the Unwound Future]]''. Two aspiring scientists actually managed to construct a prototype time machine. One of them noticed a flaw in its design and tried to postpone the first test. This was in vain, as the other made a deal with a wealthy company for the power source, and wanted to demonstrate its viability as soon as possible. The result? '''''[[Explosive Overclocking|BOOM]].''''' {{spoiler|The greedy scientist miraculously survived, and used the money from the deal to cover up the explosion and become Prime Minister of Britain. The explosion took out a neighboring block of flats, and killed the test subject... but the time machine temporarily sent her ten years forward in time, then dragged her back to the time of the explosion.}}

* [[Truth in Television]]: This trope is the very ''reason'' why beta testing a new unreleased game is an absolute necessity!

 

* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'': In the episode "The Plague of the Prototypes!" [[Batman]] must use his bumbling beta-test robot "Proto" to combat his Bat-Robots that have been taken over by Black Mask.

* Like the Video Game example above, Protoman in the [[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]] cartoon, when first activated, suffers from just a slight [[Crush! Kill! Destroy!|flaw]].

* Mr. Sheepman from [[Clone High]]. His name says it all.

* In ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', Superboy's predecessor Match was Cadmus' first attempt to clone [[Superman]]. They had trouble cloning Kryptonian genetic material, and the missing sequences in the DNA created a clone that had all of Superman's powers and clinical insanity. Superboy was created with human DNA {{spoiler|specifically Lex Luthor's}} filling in the missing sequences. He doesn't have all of Superman's powers (no flight or heat vision), but he's sane.

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]