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Forgotten Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions
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* A very subtle version of this happens in L. E. Modesitt's ''Spellsong Sorceress'' cycle. In the first chapters of the first book, a spell is cast that teleports the main character in from Earth. It's implied that although the lady casting this spell isn't a very strong sorceress, she can still send people to locations halfway across the continent with a bit of help. This use of magic is never mentioned again, despite the fact that it would be tremendously useful in a variety of circumstances.
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'': Sirius' two-way mirror, which is basically a magical walkie-talkie. In Harry's defense, he was never told exactly what it was, and swore never to use it for fear it would cause Sirius to come to Hogwarts and get arrested and/or killed. It still qualifies as forgotten phlebotinum, however, because even after Harry has gone through great risk to speak to Sirius through Umbridge's fire, it didn't occur to Sirius to tell him "Next time, use the mirror I gave you." which would have {{spoiler|saved his life}}.
** In ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
* Science Fiction author [[Larry Niven]] coined "Niven's Law," which states that once a technology is introduced into a setting, it must continue to be present in all later stories in that same setting.
** Civilization-wide Forgotten Phlebotinum can be somewhat justified if there are [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]], or if the civilization enters a Dark Age when lots of stuff is forgotten, but Niven's Law is still a good rule of thumb. At any event, once the technology has been proven to work once, then the natural laws which permitted it to happen must remain consistent from then on, regardless of whether the tech is ever rediscovered.
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*** They did actually try to send down heaters; Spock mentions that they duplicated just like the Captain and were useless. No explanation for why a coat or a blanket sent the same way would be adversely affected by the process, though.
** The original series did this many other times with Scalosian water ("Wink of an Eye"), spores that can regenerate lost body parts, restore the human body to perfect health and give immunity to radiation ("This Side of Paradise") and Warp 11+ speed without strain ("By Any Other Name").
** The movies introduce the Genesis device (a form of instant terraforming that may bring people back to life as a side effect), which is so much further advanced than anything the Federation possesses before or since that [[Clarke's Third Law|it might as well be magic]]. The planet it creates disintegrates within a couple weeks, but surely there would be a way to work the kinks out within the next century, and the research that went into it could at least be applied to other projects. But in ''The Next Generation'' and ''Deep Space Nine'' terraforming is a long and arduous process that yields modest results. Not to mention it would have made a handy-dandy anti-Borg weapon.
*** A Justified example of [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]. The research facility developing the Genesis Device deliberately destroyed all copies of their notes in an attempt to avoid capture when their facility was raided by Khan. Khan then killed most of the research team and used up the only existing Genesis prototype model in his attempt to kill Kirk. In the immediately following movie, the one surviving scientist capable of recreating the Genesis device is killed before he has a chance to write down the formula. And so, lost technology.
** A major problem with ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' being considered canon is that the enormously useful life support belts never appear in any later Trek works. The belt surrounded the wearer with a glowing forcefield within which breathable air was provided. The real reason, of course, was that it was cheaper to animate a glowing outline than it was to draw spacesuits on everyone.
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* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', both Classic and New Series, did this a ''lot''.
** At the end of the first Christmas special of the new series, the vast alien starship that had been menacing the whole planet is utterly destroyed by a colossal laser fired from beneath London. This fantastic weapon devised by Torchwood London from captured alien technology for the defense of the kingdom from extraterrestrial perils is never again mentioned, despite London being menaced by aliens so frequently that its citizens get into the habit of evacuating over Christmas so as not to be there when the monsters turn up. However, the same technology (or, at least, similar special effects) seems to now be incorporated into {{spoiler|the ''Valiant'', as seen in "The Poison Sky"}} so even if the main weapon was destroyed, it's not all gone to waste. At least, until "The Stolen Earth", when {{spoiler|the ''Valiant'' is overwhelmed and destroyed by the Daleks off-screen}}.
** The TARDIS has had many features used over the decades that were completely forgotten soon afterwards; drifting back to its owner if separated from them in time ("Revenge of the Cybermen"), The Space-Time Visualiser ("The Space Museum" and "The Chase"), the Hostile Action Displacement System ("The Krotons"), the macro-kinetic extrapolator ("Boom Town" and "The Parting of the Ways"), among others. Considering that the TARDIS was a museum piece even before the Doctor stole it almost a millennium ago and is highly temperamental even at the
** Companions sometimes call the Doctor out on this in relation to the TARDIS. But it's conveniently stolen, missing, or can't be used due to the danger of crossing their own timestreams, which is [[Timey-Wimey Ball|apparently]] very bad.
** In "Partners in Crime" the Doctor obtains a sonic pen which can open deadlock seals one of only two types of locks his sonic screwdriver can't deal with. At the end of the episode he simply
** A machine that creates candy-bar-shaped [[Food Pills]] appears once in the 1963 season and is never seen again.
** The Chula, first mentioned in "The Empty Child", produced nanobots capable of healing any injury and even reviving the dead, and in enough numbers to work over whole planets worth of people. Why hasn't the Doctor simply gone to Chula and got some for himself?
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* The Colt in ''[[Supernatural]]'' seems to have become this. Sam and Dean spend the first part of season 5 trying to recover it, only to discover that {{spoiler|it doesn't work on Lucifer. They never use it again, despite the fact that it would still work on lots of the other things they fight (read: monsters, demons and most angels, at ''least'', if not the Four Horsemen and the Gods in Hammer of the Gods).}} Some fans believe this is because Dean dropped it when Lucifer threw him, but since he wasn't shown to have dropped it and neither brother mentions losing it afterward, it's a bit of a stretch.
** They do use it when they [[Time Travel|travel back in time]] to kill a phoenix in season 6, though, so it's not ''completely'' forgotten.
* From [[Battlestar Galactica
** Supposedly [[Voodoo Shark|they tried it again offscreen. It just didn't work]].
** The Blackbird would be another example. Admittedly, they have to scrounge up a lot of supplies and spares to assemble it together but considering that Pegasus had Viper production facilities, it would not be impossible to construct additional stealth ships once the original was destroyed. It would have come in handy during New Caprica or the battle of The Hub.
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* ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]''. The "life support belts" were clearly introduced to save on animation costs, but they're certainly a handy device. They never show up in the rest of ''Trek''.
* [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]: In the ''Fast Forward'' season, the Turtles and Splinter are stranded a hundred years in the future with no way of returning to their own time... not one mention is made of their time-traveling friend Renet, who is supposed to keep an eye on the time stream and would almost certainly have noticed if the Turtles were suddenly in a different time period than they were supposed to. Possibly justified if the Turtles and Splinter ''were'' supposed to spend some time in the future.
* Season 1 of ''[[My Little Pony:
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