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Forgotten Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions
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Not to be confused with [[We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum]]. If they (finally!) remember to use it in the end, it's a [[Forgotten Superweapon]].
This trope does not necessarily denote bad writing. It can be (as noted in the ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' example) convenient writing instead. If the protagonists have some piece of phlebotinum that makes them invincible or at least very hard to so much as injure that is both reliable and accessible, [[Drama
[[Larry Niven]] is extremely critical of this trope, and coined Niven's Law, which states that once a technology or discovery has been introduced into a fictional setting, it must continue to exist in all chronologically later stories in that setting. The secret may be lost for a variety of reasons--society enters a dark age, the discoverer deliberately covers it up, or there really were [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]--but Niven would maintain that this smacks of lazy writing and is best avoided. At the very least, the precedent that such a machine is ''physically possible'' in the setting must be maintained--which makes it likely that older, [[Higher
When it's ''not'' forgotten and ''is'' used in a later episode because a writer wants to [[Continuity Nod|acknowledge continuity]], it is [[Chekhov's Boomerang]].
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* In ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', Zhaan is capable of camouflaging herself like a chameleon, but only uses this ability in one episode ("Bone to be Wild", Season 1). She is a plant and this ''is'' one of the few times she is in a forest, but one would think it would be ''harder'' for her to camouflage herself against something as complex as foliage, compared to the relatively uniform interior of ''Moya''.
** D'Argo's super-long tongue and anesthetic saliva gets forgotten every fifth episode or so. His arms and legs are bound, while a sole villain gloats nearby without a helmet, whatever shall he do? The funniest is when John asks him to knock him out in "A Prefect Murder", and D'Argo pistol whips him. And it doesn't work. John asks him to hit him again harder.
* ''[[
** 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 bet of times, it's entirely probable that these things literally don't work anymore.
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[[Category:Sturgeons Tropes]]
[[Category:Forgotten Phlebotinum]]
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