SF Debris



"Don't look at me though, I'm just a viewer with an opinion."

- SF Debris' Opinionated (Voyager / Enterprise / TNG / Deep Space Nine) Guide

SF Debris, once known as Sci-Fi Debris, is a website run by Chuck Sonnenburg, a long-time member of various Star Trek and Star Wars online fan communities as well as a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. What he and the website are mostly known for these days are his "Opinionated Star Trek Episode Guides", snarky reviews of the Star Trek franchise.

Since 2008, he's taken his reviews onto a video format on YouTube and Blip.tv, growing in popularity. His style, a mixture of serious analysis peppered with deadpan humour played over clips from the show, has begun to catch on with other reviewers (including Linkara, who borrowed one of his ideas). His site also features a few essays (including a history of how Spider-Man has declined in quality) and his (two trilogy, 250 chapter) crossover Fan Fiction, The Unity Saga.

Often compared (and paired) with Confused Matthew. Rather than having his own forum, CM has been kind enough to give him a dedicated sub-forum; particularly useful as the two have a similar fanbase anyway.

On May 12, 2011, all of his Star Trek reviews were removed from Youtube, as a pre-emptive measure when CBS (which has been cracking down severely on other Star Trek fan channels as well) filed a claim against his "Trials and Tribble-ations" review. As the BBC has already done the same with his Red Dwarf reviews, under the Youtube "three strikes" policy, he now has only one strike remaining. As with Red Dwarf and other non-Trek reviews, they will now be uploaded exclusively to his blip.tv account, though he will continue to use his Youtube for trailers.

Trope Namer for:

 * Voodoo Shark: Quoted in his review of VOY's "The Cloud."

Tropes A-C
"Aeryn Sun: "Compassion"? What is compassion?"
 * A-Team Firing: Remarked that if Riker ever tried to shoot Kennedy, he'd hit Lincoln.
 * Accentuate the Negative: But only when it actually is negative. He reviews plenty of good episodes too, and is quite fair to the parts that work in the bad ones.
 * This is particularly noticeable in his First Contact review, which is almost entirely pointing out plot holes and snarking, yet ends with a score of 8/10.
 * And also in the Voyager 30th Trek anniversary episode "Flashback". He repeatedly points out, while tearing bits of it to shreds that it's not actually a bad episode, it's actually a really good episode of Voyager, compared to the others and it does do its job to entertain the Voyager fans. But he makes a point that even Brannon Braga, the writer of said episode, agreed that it was a poor contest when compared to Deep Space Nine's 30th Trek anniversary episode "Trials and Tribble-ations".
 * He addresses this tendency when he reviews the TOS episode "The Conscience of the King"; ironically, despite affirming his "nothing is sacred" attitude and insisting that it applies even to TOS, he then goes on to give it a glowing review.
 * All of the scores are relative to the series, so things like displaying badly dated values don't affect the score.
 * Acronym Confusion: POTC: The Passion of the Christ or Pirates of the Caribbean?
 * He really wanted to see Jesus battling a Kraken.
 * Acting for Two: Comments on this a few times where Robert Picardo is concerned: he liked "Life Line" for having twice as much Picardo as usual (since Picardo plays both the Doctor and Lewis Zimmerman), and in "Author, Author", he facetiously suggests that maybe the reason that Zimmerman doesn't appear is that they couldn't get the actor on short notice.
 * Actor Allusion: All the time! For example, when Picard meets Romulan Commander Tomalak, he mentions that Picard must be wary of pissing off both the Romulans and the Narn.
 * Several more to Babylon 5 e.g. "Man Lyta, those Vorlons can't stop messing with you can they?'
 * Nine times out of ten, he refers to Michael Jonas as "Carth Onassi".
 * After Shran calls Archer 'pinkskin', Chuck says that if he tried calling Sisko 'brownskin', Sisko would hit him so hard that Weyoun would get dizzy.
 * His comment on the characters Tim Russ has played on various Trek shows prior to Russ playing Tuvok in Star Trek Voyager, for example in the review of the TNG episode "Starship Mine" where Russ' Maquis character was knocked out by Picard with a Vulcan nerve pinch.
 * When Malcolm McDowell is kicking Picard's ass in Generations he is singing "I'm singing in the rain."
 * He also refers to him as "President Eden."
 * When Archer approaches a round metal door with an "X" on it, Picard barks, "Unless you're a mutant, you stay the hell outta there!"
 * Similarly, in "Code of Honor" Picard admires a transporter pad. "Mm, I like that symbol. Must remember that when I start my School For Gifted Mutants."
 * His reasoning for the Bird of Prey from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home being time travel capable? The previous owner was Christopher Lloyd.
 * Mentions he wishes Pulaski would fall down an elevator shaft again.
 * John Sheridan fights for the Users.
 * Janeway was Aeryn Sun's mother in Dragon Age. Not that you'd notice.

""Night of the Lepus. Check it out, lil' lady, it's much better than that crappy Kingdom of the Spiders with what's-his-face in it.""
 * In the Star Trek IV the Voyage Home review, when Admiral Cartwright (Brock Peters) makes his first appearance, Chuck comments that Starfleet has its best Creole chef on the job.
 * In his Star Trek VI review, when the "Klingon" assassin turns out to be Colonel West (Rene Auberjonois) in disguise, he says that the disguise is so good that West must be a shapeshifter.
 * In the recap of Fellowship of the Ring at the start of his The Two Towers review he comments on Boromir's death with 'Ha! Dodge that, Sharpe!'.
 * And if there's one thing Commander Gaff hates, it's skinjobs!
 * Deckard drunkenly plinking out the Indiana Jones theme on his piano. Also, the obligatory "Snakeskin? Why did it have to be snakeskin?"
 * Stoned Seth Green: "For a minute I thought I'd turned into a werewolf!"
 * Bashir and O'Brien find Hannibal Barca to be very familiar looking.
 * In the 2009 movie review he has Kirk claim there was a lightning storm in space during his conception as well as his birth, but that's to be expected, as his father was Thor.
 * A LOT of Data references crop up for Brent Spiner in his Threshold review.
 * John's shrink is still a bit testy over being canned from Initech.
 * During the Flash Gordon review, he refers to Dr. Zarkoff's assistant only as Porkins.
 * McCoy might not know who the hell Clark Gable is, but he knows a little something about quality cinema.

""Soon, Doctor Piper pops a peck of pasty pills, and Kirk is awakened. He prevents Piper's plan to prescribe his pal a pill, postponing the prescription to pursue the potent people to prevent their perverse plan to propagate such portentious progeny, then pass the pasty pill that Piper picks.""
 * The USS Bozeman is captained by Frasier Crane.
 * "Jake Sisko got married, started his writing career, starred in Candyman..."
 * Captain Braxon ended up stranded in the 21st century thanks to Janeway's recklessness. "I could only survive by acting as the comic relief pilot on MacGyver."
 * Where do you expect Ash to go on this spaceship? It's not like he has an invisibility ring or something.
 * Added Alliterative Appeal: This bit from his "Where No Man Has Gone Before" review:

""Considering the strategic significance should Sisko's station surrender, Sisko suggests shitting off. Sure, Sisko's station suffering some surprise sortie certainly signifies Starfleet's strategic softness, but surrender signifies Starfleet's slump, stagnation: a slippery slope signaling systems should ship out should some sovereign suggest cessesion. Such steps Sisko surely shan't sanction. I'm sorry. I can't read anymore. I seem to have spit all over the script.""
 * And this selection from By Inferno's Light, when Dukat is trying to convince Sisko to convince the Federation to join the Dominion:

""See him headed up that corridor on-duty? This could be reality OR a nightmare, and there's no way to tell. Because for Harry Kim, the two are one and the same.""
 * Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Prime Directive has been torn apart piece by piece for what it turned into as Star Trek progressed, pointing out that it was conceived as a guideline put in place to prevent undeveloped civilizations from being taken advantage of. In a few of the episodes he covers, it was basically treated as an all-knowing, unquestionable entity in itself that was almost only ever used to justify genocide through deliberate inaction.
 * In Voyager's pilot, he points out that the one time Janeway has no trouble ignoring the Prime Directive to actually prevent genocide, it's to save the Ocampa, a civilization whose people live lives only barely more enviable (or longer) than that of goldfish, which causes him to wonder what makes them so special.
 * All for Nothing: At the end of his "Macrocosm" review, he made a point to explain that he would be taking a break for various reasons. Many fans didn't watch till the end of video and flooded the comments section asking where he was.
 * When he said he was taking requests for other series via his donation system, and posted a link to the instructions on how to make a request via donations, fans ignored the bit where they have to give money and flooded the comments with demands for reviews without reading that they need to pay first.
 * Chuck seems very exasperated in later reviews when he has to continuously remind viewers how the rating system works by comparing it to episodes of the same series, and not the franchise as a whole.
 * All There in the Manual: He's really not a fan: "You don't get credit for stuff you don't put in the movie because, now try to follow this because it's a pretty big leap, you didn't put it in the movie. I shouldn't have to wait months and watch all your deleted scenes to say 'Oh, this finally makes sense!' or pore through some non-canon books to say 'Oh, so this isn't a pile of nonsensical horseshit after all!'"
 * When it turned out he was a teacher, this makes even more sense; teachers can't in good faith give students credit for things not actually in their report.
 * Also shows up when he discusses the infamous reams of supplemental material for the film Sunshine.
 * He has referenced the Star Trek Deep Space Nine tech manual however.
 * In his review of ''Star Trek 2009," though, he references all the backstory materials for Captain Nero and laments that if any of that had made it into the movie proper, Nero would have gone from "random bald emo Romulan" to "possibly the strongest villain the franchise has ever seen since Khan."
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Many characters, especially Janeway and Archer, have all their actions viewed through the lens of the kind of characters they would be if the writers knew what they were doing. In the case of those two, it's genocidal tyrant and complete lunatic respectively. His interpretation of Janeway, in particular, has become so popular he's taken to lampshading it in more recent videos.
 * This does have the fortunate side effect of making Janeway a Memetic Badass almost on par with Sisko. In SF Debris' Gag Dub of 'Splashdown' she's willing to shoot down an entire fleet just to protect her stash of Romulan Marijuana.
 * In the coda for the Tuvix review, Janeway is overtly compared to another crazy female:
 * Outside of the VOY reviews, Janeway is portrayed as the omnipresent, over-arching Big Bad of the entire franchise, responsible for everything from Shinzon to Lore (she once worked as Dr. Soong's code monkey).
 * This has also led to jokes about Harry being Janeway's Chew Toy.

"Reed: Look at this, I asked for plasma coils and they've sent a case of valve sealant.
 * Due to the show wildly swinging his characterization between a Butt Monkey and The Ace, SF Debris' Tom Paris frequently portrays him as a sort of Great Teacher Onizuka IN SPACE!!
 * As Chief Engineer Torres has the highest amounts of justifying the Critical Research Failures that pass for plot, SF Debris often jokes that the only reason she got this spot was by sleeping with the captain.
 * Neelix claimed to be a survival expert, even though, as Chuck points out, his actions have led to the deaths of other crew members as well as getting his own lungs ripped out. So in later scenes, he justifies Neelix's presence on away teams as "Neelix has conned the rest of them into thinking he's a survival expert."
 * That Harry Kim is a whole heap of sexual confusion, torn between his duty to be the perfect starfleet officer and his inner neurotic, sexually confused, fetish filled subconscious, that will only find peace when he gets back to his one true love... Tom Pa- Libby! That and his constant being ground under Janeway's heel has led him to smoke copious amounts of Weed just to get himself through the day.
 * Archer (or "Duchess") is a Crazy Homeless Person living in a box who Starfleet abducted and put in charge of a starship.
 * Earth is a Marxist dystopia overrun with emotionally-stunted pod people. (DS9: "In the Cards", TNG: "The Bonding")
 * The Federation is a xenophobic and pseudo-Darwinist society that routinely allows entire planets to perish. (TNG: "Pen Pals", ENT: "Dear Doctor")
 * Starfleet is an insanely incompetent organization run by utter lunatics. (Any given Enterprise episode)

Sf Debris: What is the matter with Starfleet? You have only one ship to prep, on its most important mission, and you can't even fill out a frikkin' work order form without screwing it up!"

""Just as soon as Worf finishes picking bits of alien out of my grill.""
 * The Borg Queen's plans in Dark Frontier are reminiscent of Dr Evil. He then jokes that Seven would be more like Scott Evil, suggesting instead of highly convoluted plans involving probes that SLOWLY assimilate humanity, they could just to they could just take 20 ships to Earth and assimilate the whole QUADRANT while they're there.
 * The Borg collective themselves are often portrayed less like being a hive mind and more like being an insanely large collection of bored and apathetic office workers.
 * Picard's kill-crazy behavior in the TNG movies is explained by Janeway spiking his Earl Grey with testosterone.
 * Picard doctors the Enterprise's sensor logs in secret, so as not to let on that his long speeches about the sanctity of the Prime Directive are bullshit.

"Janeway: Mind bomb? That sounds cool! I'm changing my answer to his!
 * His interpretation of all the Trek captains (and their respective series) is laid out in a nutshell in a "scene" from his "Call to Arms" review, where Sisko gathers the "League of Starship Captains" to offer advice on how to stop the Dominion. Kirk suggests giving a Kirk Summation followed by hitting them, Picard gives some Techno Babble solutions, Janeway suggests genocide, and Archer just mutters nonsense to himself.
 * Janeway then amends her suggestion to include a portion of Archer's nonsensical ramblings that she liked.

Sisko: We can't--

Janeway: That's two votes for "Mind Bomb," we win!"

""Equestria is afraid of me, I've seen its true face. The mare in the moon is coming and when the night foams around their waist, all the horses and politicians will look up and shout, "Save us!" And I'll look down and whisper, Neigh.""
 * Twilight Sparkle as an Expy of Rorschach.

"Sisko: What are you doing up?
 * Admiral Ross is a corrupt bureaucrat who likes to have a good time with his secretary, and orders sex toys with Starfleet funds.

Ross: I was just on my way to get a piece of...water."

""I have waited a quarter of a century for that joke to come naturally, and it was so worth it.""
 * That in the more miltaristic post-Wolf 359 Starfleet, the lower decks are filled with pissed off or extremely apathetic scientists who want nothing more than to study botany and comets, dammit!
 * Bones' remedies for problems seems to revolve around giving his patients a perscription of heavy drugs, booze, or taking them to strip clubs. He is either insane, a drug addict or the best damn Doctor in Starfleet!
 * Likewise with Scotty, who he jokes is frequently either drunk or high during most of the Original Series.
 * Always Wanted to Say That: "Code of Honor:" Now it's time for...YAR'S REVENGE!

"[cue banjo-playing hoedown]
 * Angst? What Angst?: In-universe, wonders why in "Waltz" Dukat barely reacts to the hallucination of Damar showing up, considering that Damar both killed his daughter and is reponsible for driving Dukat so insane, he's the reason why he's hallucinating?!
 * Anything But That: Part 2 of of the VOY premiere. "Now, where were we?"

"No, no, no! It's wasn't that painful!"

[cut to Harry shrieking as a spike impales his chest]

"Ahhh, much better. Like the crash of waves and the call of seagulls...""

"How sad is it that the master villain's name is derived from sarcasm!"
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From the "Death Wish" review, Q orates about Quinn's achievements. Specifically: advancing science and mathematics, preventing the conquest of worlds by the Borg, and... Woodstock.
 * He goes one further to say that the sequence could have been better if the Woodstock incident was replaced with someone finding the same glitch at the Lincoln Memorial right before Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream!" speech.
 * Artistic License Biology: "Threshold", "Genesis" and "Dear Doctor".
 * Ascended Meme: In his text review of the Enterprise pilot he referred to the ominous figure giving the villains orders as "Future Guy." This was adopted by the fandom and later by the Enterprise team as the name for the figure who was never given an official name. When he made the video version of the review he mocked this development...

""Ceti Alpha VI just blew up one day. I really have no idea how that just happened. Best guess, Khan took his shirt off, and his genetically enhanced Latin body was just too much for it to take.""
 * Author Filibuster: Multi-part video reviews are usually reserved for the films and for the series' worst episodes, like "A Night In Sickbay" and "Code of Honor" (and of course, multi-part episodes).
 * Certain characters voted "most annoying" also get filibusters against them, such as Okona, Lwaxana Troi and Lutan.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Calls the Defiant "Benjamin Sisko's Motherfucking Pimp Hand".
 * 'THRUST BARCODE AND HIS LEAGUE OF G-MEN!'
 * Bruce Maddox.
 * 'EXTRA-MAN with his super-duper EXTRA powers!'
 * From his Wrath of Khan review: "Khan Noonien Pecs"
 * Awesomeness Is Volatile: Assumes this about Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan:

"'My computer -- Ruby -- shutdown, and I noticed a wet spot under her processor.'"
 * When Sisko, Spock and Kirk are on the screen at the same time, his computer shut down for *ahem* ...personal, reasons...

"Chuck: Spaz! S-P-A-3!"
 * The Backwards R: In "The Naked Now", after Wesley states he doesn't understand.

""Because you may be bigger, smarter, stronger, faster, but you will never! Ever! Be crazier.... Than meeeeeeeeeee. ""
 * Backstory of the Day: Spoofing Chakotay having differing interests.
 * Badass Boast: Janeway's parting shot at the Borg ("Unimatrix Zero").

"Sfdebris: Look, the Borg's standard hail is not said because it is their catchphrase. Everything the Borg do is supposed to be because it's logical. They say what they say so that you realise that resistance really is futile, because "We are the Borg. We don't lose". By not identifying themselves, by just giving the play-by-play, it's pointless. Archer is not filled with dread or fear, he's confused!"
 * Badass Decay: One of the major problems he has in-universe with "Q and the Grey", and to a slightly lesser extent "Q2", is how the Q were subjected to this.
 * He also examined this phenomena with the treatment of the Borg between TNG and Voyager.
 * Likewise, in order to maintain continuity in "Regeneration", the Borg's standard hail is drastically shortened as not to identify themselves.

"Chuck: Klingon vengeance is best served convoluted."
 * Bait and Switch Comment: He has one complaint about Picard confronting Sarek, which is that it makes him want to see them have more scenes together.
 * Berserk Button: He REALLY hates Pulaski, due to her smug condescending nature and utter cruelty towards Data.
 * Out of the Star Trek universe, he reserves special hatred for early TNG writer Maurice Hurley, whom he considers not only the worst writer ever to have worked on Trek, but a loathsome human being as well . Although plenty of other writers have drawn his ire over the years (Rick Berman and Kenneth Biller for their generally very poor track records, Brannon Braga for his science abuse, Jeri Taylor for her Janeway worship, and even Gene Roddenberry himself for a number of reasons), he says that Hurley is the only one he truly detests.
 * He admits to really hating the character of Lwaxana Troi, who in his opinion is nothing more than an insufferable, egotistical bully, who treats everyone around her like garbage, thinks the entire universe centres around her and who never knows when to shut the hell up.
 * Being a family man, his anger is really apparent in his review of the episode "Real Life" of Voyager wherein B'elanna's idea of a "realistic" family is a Dysfunctional Family, with the implication that well-adjusted families are too "perfect" to be real. He is especially enraged, however, at the clumsy use of a dying child as a plot device for the Doctor's Character Development as he himself lived through the pain and anguish of watching his premature-born twin sons having to go through several medical treatments without knowing that they'd live through it or or not (they do, but the possibility that he might have lost them has left a profound effect on him).
 * Best Served Cold: In "Trials and Tribble-ations", Darvin aims to even the score with James T. Kirk. To that end, he bides his time for 100 years, swipes an ancient Bajoran artifact, travels back in time, plants a bomb inside a tribble, stashes it inside a grain silo, and waits for Kirk to walk directly under it.

"Opinionated Deep Space Nine Episode Guide looks at the season seven episode that dares to stand up and say that in war, people die. In order to help defend a strategic installation, Sisko beams down with a recent academy graduate, a counselor, and a doctor to hold off against an army of super-soldiers. Also starring the boy who could just wish the Jem'Hadar into the cornfield."
 * Better Than It Sounds: He always does this style of synopsis for his Youtube videos, dwelling on minor incidents that sound boring or awful. Of course, sometimes the episode in question IS boring and awful, but he does the same kind of synopsis even for good episodes. For example, the episode "The Siege of AR-558", which he greatly praised in the actual review, got this synopsis:

""...And naturally there'd be no shortage of volunteers [From red-shirted black men for bridge positions]. People who've seen Science Fiction know the black dude dies first. And people who've seen the original series know the guy who beams down in a red shirt dies. So, black dude pluse red shirt equals get a bridge job as fast as you can and hope an alien doesn't show up on the view screen looking to kill people for no reason.""
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Thinks that it'd have been hilarious if Worf went back to the smooth forehead of the TOS Klingons once in the past, only to have ridges again in the Deep Space Nine future, and have no-one comment on it at all.
 * Bilingual Bonus: In keeping with the theme in "Darmok" of overcoming language barriers, the opening credits appropriately is the original german version of "99 Luftballons".
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: Often makes fun of this when it gets really out of hand. Of note is "Elogium", in which he spends a lot of time pointing out how ridiculous, contrived, and utterly contradictory to basic survival Ocampan reproduction is, and that by all rights, the entire species should have gone extinct a long time ago.
 * The biggest is that, at maximum possible birthrate, their numbers would halve every generation. Combined with the fact that they give birth standing up (to a child gestated on their back), achieve sexual maturity in less then a year, and look youthful until the last few months of their death, Chuck thinks it's more likely that the Ocampa were created as sex slaves or toys (which he mentions in Before & After).
 * The aliens encountered in Unexpected are even odder. They reproduce by having the male and female put their hands in pebbles which lets them read each others thoughts, the males grow nipples to feed the child (despite the females having breasts), and the child only has DNA from the mother. It's like Berman and Braga deliberately set out to make the most implausible and unrealistic species possibles.
 * The aliens from "Macrocosm" who have a ridge running from the forehead, down their nose that then seperated from their face over their mouth before reconnecting back to their chin; meaning that evolution gave them something that actually hinders the simple act of eating. As Chuck points out, the only way this species exists is "to prove God likes fucking with Atheists."
 * Black and White Morality: While this comes up a lot, he notes that the Voyager episode "Nothing Human" stands out as actually reversing this. The major conflict in the episode revolves around whether to use the medical knowledge gathered by Cardassian doctor Krell, who was supposedly inspired by Nazi Doctor Mengele. However, Krell's actions are, while still horrible, not nearly as bad as those of the real Mengele, and Krell's experiments actually produced useful scientific data, as opposed to Mengele, who simply tortured for the sake of morbid curiosity. This, as Chuck points out, actually takes a black and white situation and gives it varying, perfectly defensible viewpoints.
 * Black Dude Dies First: Discussed and turned into a running gag in the review of Star Trek Enterprise: "Where Silence Has Lease".

"Negilum: "Now would be a good time to learn about death by killing one of you."
 * and later. He does the voices of the various cast members to summarize the scene:

Riker: "Oh, no!"

Picard: "Oh, no!"

Troi: "Oh, no!"

Data: "Oh, no!"

Black Red-Shirt: "MOTHER FUCKER!" *dies*

Picard: "Send another red-shirted black fellow to the bridge."

Geordi: *leaves*."

""Oh come on, it's a Jeri Taylor script. You know that even in an episode where Janeway's been going nuts, she's gonna have the strongest will there is, don't be silly.""
 * Black Eyes of Evil: Points out with eyes like that, how is anyone on Voyager even suprised that Suder is revealed to be an unstable sociopath?
 * Black Hole Sue/Canon Sue: Often points out that most of Jeri Taylor's episodes are dedicated to how amazing and infallible Captain Janeway is, and how much everyone loves her.

""You might be saying, 'Y'know, you may pretend you're fair, Chuck, but how come you'll bend over backwards trying to justify that stupid "Darmok" shish-koom-bah language, but you never turn out that kind of thinking to defend VOY. Why is that, and why is there blood on your clothes?'""
 * Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Chekov asking about the "Nuclear Wessels" was noted by Chuck to have the extra humor of an obvious Russian asking about those in the middle of the Cold War. Then he said "I am not Russian spy! I am American as apple cake!"
 * Brain Bleach: Kate Mulgrew Fan Service has Chuck reaching for the ammonia. ("Damn my eyes!") A well-wishing fan emailed him some nude Janeway photoshops just to see his reaction.
 * Neelix can do "some wonderful things with vegetables!" ("Do not want.")
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "Human Error":

"As you can imagine, such a being is either going to be a half-mad animal, or the most disciplined and calculating mind in the Uncharted Territories, on a first-name basis with pain, and the will to travel from A to B in a straight line, no matter how many unfortunate people might be standing in that path. And guess what, Crichton? You now have his undivided attention. Under the circumstances, bladder release is permissible and, indeed, encouraged."
 * Brick Joke: His signature technique. Almost happens often enough to be Once an Episode. Early on, he'll make an offhand joke or aside about some minor story element, and later on he'll make another joke that ties into it.
 * The best example of this probably occurred in his "In Purgatory's Shadow" review where he stumbles over an Added Alliterative Appeal, only to have the following review of "In Inferno's Light" feature an insanely long alliterative discourse detailing the backstory of the events up to this point.
 * Yet another great one: In his redone review of "Caretaker", he makes a throw away joke at the fact that Janeway supposedly had plans on Earth while picking up Tom Paris which included "screwing with the replicators" and "installing [a] computer virus". Cut to Part 2 of his review of Star Trek Nemesis 3 weeks later(!) where Picard is contacted by Janeway. Chuck proceeds to parody the scene by having Janeway explain that the events in the movie were all apart of her plan to take over the galaxy. Among the steps of her plan are to screw with the replicators on the Enterprise-E so that Picard's Earl Grey would be drugged, and creating a program that would make it so that whenever Picard was up for promotion, it would get rerouted to Janeway's file.
 * Points out that Blade Runner operates in the realm of, as the French say, mise-en-scène. Likewise, Deckard's rathole apartment speaks of a man who is, as the French say, "no-geev-è-crap."
 * The League of Captains and the Mindbomb during the Dominion war arc.
 * The "Turnip of Mass Destruction" in the Insurrection review.
 * Calls back to "Unimatrix Zero" in his review of "Ensign Ro" where Picard can't get involved in helping the Bajoran rebellion. Janeway pops up and claims that they should have called it a resistance.
 * Bring My Brown Pants: Invoked in his introduction of Scorpius in one of his Farscape reviews.

""You can seize the moment and make whatever dreams you have come true, whether it is flying a fighter starship or crowning yourself the head of an empire! ...So long as you sleep with the right man, first.""
 * Broke the Rating Scale: Type 1. He's handed no more than one zero score for Voyager, Enterprise, and Next Gen respectively, on a scale of one to ten, reserving them only for the absolute worst episodes of each series: "Threshold" for Voyager, "A Night in Sickbay" for Enterprise, and "Code of Honor" for TNG. Chuck has made it clear that "Profit and Lace" is also on that list. No word yet on The Original Series. 0s are supposedly reserved for episodes that make the entire franchise worse by association; indeed, he did not even assign a "0" score to any of the movies, instead giving two "1" scores (though he admitted he was strongly tempted to give a "0" to Star Trek V the Final Frontier, and would probably have done so if not for the flashback involving McCoy's father). On the other hand we have the TNG episode "Family" which no score was given on account of being too different from the series as a whole.
 * "My Way or JANEWAY" - Chuck measures how his own Parody!Janeway would handle each scene, then sees how VOY's Janeway measures up. He gives up halfway after the real Captain's actions are more extreme than her parody's.
 * Broken Aesop: Hope you girls have learned something between "The Way We Weren't" and "In a Mirror, Darkly":

"Chuck: The whole point of "Death Wish" was that the Q had become stagnant, that Q was being mischevious out of boredom, and ironically became an agent to enforce the Q's status quo, even though he inspired the rebellious antics of Quinn that lead to him being sentenced to eternal imprisonment in unpleasant conditions. Then we had that idiotic Civil War where Q's side of freedom and individuality wins! And the result of this uprising? Is that Q is once again an Agent enforcing the status quo on his rebellious son and prepared to sentence to him to eternal imprisonment in unpleasant conditions!"
 * The Q arc in Voyager where the Q learn the value of freedom and individuality... for all of five minutes.

""Because by God, nobody comes into Sick bay and leaves without a neck thingy!""
 * The Bonding (TNG) gives us an interesting example that may be a form of Writer Revolt. The original draft of the story was about a boy who loses his Starfleet mother in an accident and tries to cope with a hologram copy of her. Gene Rodenberry flatly declared "humans in the 24th century do not grieve! Not even the children!" So it was modified, but the end result was subversive: a boy loses his mother and does his best to not grieve, but it's shown as being emotionally unhealthy and just plain wrong to not feel bad about losing someone and cover it up.
 * Buffy-Speak: Uses the term "Native American-y" to describe Chakotay's medicine bundle, which includes the requisite bird feathers.
 * Referring to a specific medical device (known in canon as a "cortical monitor") as a "neck thingy".

""Quick, bring me the thingy! No, the other thingy! What med school did you go to?""
 * The medicalticians in Night of the Comet:

""Is there a medication for what you're on, Archer?""
 * Even the Alien's mouth has a mouth. Thats how mouthy it is!
 * Butt Monkey: Harry Kim, of course. Chuck points out he's been killed, tortured, made the Chew Toy of the series and is seemingly horrified of being in an actual relationship. (For comedic emphasis, he showed Harry Kim having a dream about being aggressively smooched by Seven and waking up screaming. Sure, he omitted the part where Seven turned into an alien, but everyone else in that episode was having nightmares, so that implies he's still terribly uncomfortable around Seven.)
 * According to SF Debris, the various incarnations of the USS Saratoga serve strictly as Starfleet's bitch.
 * Archer seems to have demoted Hoshi to be the Enterprise's delivery girl for the jobs that the others can't be arsed to do. Moments after launching a Subspace Communications Amplifier, which needed to be checked was working properly so that Enterprise could maintain their link to Earth, he asked Hoshi to find out Reed's favorite food for his birthday, choosing her over any other random crewman, and told her to make it her top priority. It's not as though Hoshi is the damned Communications Officer!

"Neelix walked into a room and handed the Doctor a pad. This offended me."
 * Neelix himself is something of a butt monkey for SF Debris. He dislikes Neelix so much that even the mere sight of him is annoying, culminating in this Stupid Neelix Moment:

""To say our heroes are cursed would be underselling it- at least curses usually have a chance of being lifted in some way.""
 * John Crichton and the crew of Moya have no luck whatsoever, as Chuck explores in the Farscape episode reviews- "Premier" and "Nerve" being the most obvious examples.

"Chuck: Ball's in your court, CBS!"
 * Buxom Is Better/Gag Boobs: His two-part review of "The Outrageous Okona" is interspersed with (mostly comedic) references to breasts, including a point when he stops the review cold to conduct a "Battle of the Wikis" between Memory Alpha and Wookiepedia as regards the topic of breasts.
 * He actually conducts this "battle" twice: once with the original YouTube review in November 2009, and then he revisits it for the Blip reupload in May 2011. In both cases, Wookieepedia is the clear winner. In fact, he gives the Star Wars wiki higher marks the second time around, noting the addition of George Lucas-approved art in which a popular Expanded Universe character bares her breast.

"Picard: Commander, signal the following in all languages and on all frequencies -- "We surrender."
 * Catch Phrase: "I'm just a viewer with an opinion."
 * Initially it was "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the idiocy that is Voyager / Enterprise." This was changed when he started doing reviews of the other three Star Trek TV shows, which he considers far better than Voyager or Enterprise.
 * His earlier reviews heavily used "Too good for 'em, I say!" (when something bad happens to the crews of Voyager or Enterprise) but he hasn't used this for a while.
 * For Admiral Ross "I don't have to explain myself to you captain."
 * Everytime Picard gets into a fight, "Argh! Not the face!"
 * Mayweather constantly reminding everyone, "Hey, did you know I've been in space!"
 * Caustic Critic: Though he is quite happy to point out when the shows he's watching do something right, he still tears bad points of everything, even with episodes he likes.
 * Celebrity Resemblance: "Federation President Terry Pratchett" in Star Trek IV the Voyage Home.
 * Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: At exactly 18 minutes and 45 seconds into the pilot episode, the French captain says:

Chuck: Make of that what you will."

"At this point the turbolift opens, revealing a cop-on-the-edge who doesn't play by the rules, a greedy corporate big-wig looking to get rich by poisoning the water supply, and a skinny black guy whose job it is to say "Dayymn!" and refer to "My black ass!""
 * Chew Bubblegum: "I'm here to measure soil toxicity and kick ass! And I'm all out of samples!"
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Surmises that the writers of Voyager somehow got it into their heads that they had killed off Lt. Carey because after Series One, he simply disappeared from the show and from then on only ever showed up again in episodes set in the past. Then when the writers realised that Carey was in fact still alive, they were forced to bring him back for "Friendship One" in order to actually make sure they'd killed him off this time.
 * Cliché Storm: Mocked and invoked in his review of "Twisted", which he considers this.

"Data [to Picard]: I believe you will also de-evolve, into an earlier form of primate. Possibly similar to a Lemur, or Pygmy Marmoset.
 * Additionally, in "Our Man Bashir," he notes that it starts off as a combination of a shuttle/runabout accident, transporter malfunction with a holodeck malfunction, so the episode was not only delving into every James Bond cliché, but every Star Trek cliché. He warns the goldshirt to change his uniform because "he's playing with fire!"
 * It happens again in his review of "The Royale," which was supposed to be a Cliché Storm: Sufficiently Advanced Aliens have recreated a hack novel about gansters in a casino. However the episode itself features so many Star Trek clichés that, as Chuck puts it, it's a perfect case of irony.
 * Clown Car Base: Compares the Maquis vessel in the VOY premiere to one of these. As we'll soon discover, they've got room for fifty additional people back there, plus Chakotay's medicine wheel.
 * Cold Open: Of sorts. Many reviews begin with a short scene or moment from later in the episode/movie - no context is given. Then Chuck chimes in with a comment or joke that culminates with his Catch Phrase. Often the viewer is expected to already know the context of the scene anyway.
 * The "Genesis" TNG review starts like this:

Chuck: Poor guy. Not only is he turning into an animal, he's turning into one that sucks. But then, I'm no special breed either, I'm just a viewer with an opinion.""

"Chuck: Gesticulate and turn around as much as possible. Then get up out of the chair and walk around."
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Pretty much the entire point of Chucks alternate character interpretation of Janeway.
 * Sisko has a few lesser moments as well, particularly when, in Chucks imaginings, Sisko solves problems by punching them, even when said problems really shouldn't be solved that way.
 * Completely Missing the Point: Notes that Neelix constantly does this, barging in when people clearly don't want him there.
 * In his review of "Tuvix", he believes it's Neelix's influence that causes Tuvix understands "Remain still" to mean

"Archer: (raving) Me, too! He was killed by the Vulcans! They crept out from under his bed and choked him to death with a heart attack!
 * Continuity Lock Out: In "The End of Time" review, he notes that one of the problems with the episode is the sheer volume of references to past episodes being thrown in, meaning that casual viewers would be completely lost to understand whats going on.
 * Continuity Nod: Gives DS9's "Defiant" props that a Maquis character from TNG's "Preemptive Strike", where Ro Laren joined the Maquis cause, was probably the same person that recruited Tom Riker into the Maquis.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Pointed out in "Basics".
 * The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: In "The Visitor", Jake looks to the Captain's Room for help in disproving his father's death. Bad idea.

Janeway: My father died, too, and I totally had an alibi and everything."

"SF Debris: Seven's extremely upset that this idiotic human showed such disregard for their lives for a piece of obsolete junk... and obviously she's considering one day humping his brains out."
 * Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: Invoked by name in the Cowboy Bebop review. (He was just kidding)
 * Credits Gag: Playing "99 Luftballoons" (the German language version) over the credits for "Darmok", which is an episode about language.
 * Crack Pairing: When Deckard has the "unicorn vision" in the director's cut of Blade Runner, Chuck says that Deckard has a thing for Rarity.
 * Invoked in his review of "One Small Step" where Seven and Chakotay are continually at loggerheads over his stupid command decisions and his irritation at her attitude.

"SF Debris: Both are creative, intelligent, problem solvers, take pleasure in solitude, are interested in self-aware holograms and by alien influence, had experiences, though different, of a larger kind of consciousness integrated with technology, that they eventually had to give up. I think they'd gel quite well."
 * Suggests one in "A Look at Reg Barclay" which came out the same day as his review of "Human Error", noting several plausible reasons why, out of everyone in Star Trek, Reg Barclay is the person Seven would probably be the most compatable with.


 * Curse Cut Short / Country Matters: The introduction of Dr. Pulaski. "YOU'RE A COMPLETE CUN--!! ..temptible person. "
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: A Real Life example, courtesy a Loony Fan (or a Fan Hater, take your pick): According to Chuck, one lunatic Trek fan threatened him with a toy bat'leth. He refuses to mention other incidents for fear of people trying to one-up them.
 * In "Unimatrix Zero", Janeway offers to detach Borg Queen's head to make her ass easier to kiss.

Tropes D-F
"Narrator: In the rest cubicle, Ben was fast asleep, while Jamie was tossing restlessly.
 * Damned By Faint Praise: ST: Insurrection does have one distinct advantage over the other TNG films. "It's the shortest."
 * "Human Error", an improvement over "Unimatrix Zero." ("But then, so's a test pattern.")
 * "Did you know that (TNG: "Haven") was nominated for Outstanding Hair Styling?"
 * A Date with Rosie Palms/Accidental Innuendo: In his "Lost in Time" review of "The Macra Terror".

Chuck: Now we know why he wears that kilt."

""I know about the budget issues. I know about the effects issues. I know there was a teamster strike. Yes, I did read Shatner's movie memoirs book, and the one about this film itself that his daughter did. Yes, I watched the special features, and the commentary. Unless you actually are William Shatner, there is pretty much nothing new to add.""
 * Deadpan Snarker: Anyone who can say 'blowing up the ship with Janeway Pie' without even a hint of laughter has to be a master at this.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Thoroughly averted. He does tons of research for his reviews, especially for the big named reviews like the movies and controversial episodes. Lampshaded in the beginning of his Star Trek V review:

"He needs to, oh, find the nearest Chief Engineer and "tap her warp core".
 * Digital Piracy Is Evil: Or at least it's inferior to real piracy, due to how great they look in puffy shirts.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Speculates that Worf actually has named his balls "Honour" and his dick "Courage", which other Klingons then copied. Cue one hilarious montage...
 * A cyclops in a pintriped suit with waggling face-dicks, "like it was ripped from the nightmares of Betty Friedan." ("Daleks of Manhattan")
 * Don't Explain the Joke: You wouldn't think Whoopi Goldberg would need this advice. But then, "The Outrageous Okona", an episode where Data attempts to learn humor, "is where jokes go to die".
 * A Real Life example: Chuck referred to Twilight Sparkle as "Sparkle, Twilight" throughout his My Little Pony review, but failed to indicate that this was a reference to Film Noir protagonists (he had to insert subtitles explaining this, even admitting that the joke was lame). It didn't help that the 'comma' was silent, making it sound like he was calling her 'Sparkle Twilight', instead of 'Sparkle, Twilight'. Needless to say, especially given the show's notoriously passionate fanbase, it all went over like a lead balloon.
 * Double Entendre: An absolute master of this, often utilizing either Star Trek jargon, Catchphrases, or Call Backs.

That time every seven years when Tuvok needs to... "taste his wife's false rice".

He would like to bend her over his desk and "make it so".

He wants to, y'know, "service the Collective".

Incidentally, we see Dukat playing more and more with Sisko's ball. (Ahem)

If you feel Rainbow Dash likes other girls to....y'know, 'taste the rainbow?' Knock yourselves out.

Riker blissfully watching a hologram of two women playing with their harps.

We see Crichton with Aeryn, and figure that he really, really wants to bond with her naturally."

""Tom's impressed, quickly taking hold of Harry's instrument - er, I mean, complimenting Harry on his...showing his appreciation of...Tom has a clarinet. Tom gives it back and wants to hear something. Harry's a little hesitant, but Tom insists that Harry slip that instrument between his lips... use proper tongue technique... supplemented by careful finger manipulation along the long shaft of hard wood...to make beautiful music and...I give up, I award this scene the Congressional Medal of Gay"."
 * Repeatedly tries to avoid this (without success) in a scene with Tom and Harry from "Parturition":

"Neelix: But we have to make sure they match the carpet!
 * Neelix just can't stop talking about Seven's curtains. ("Human Error")

Sfdebris: A dozen ways to phrase that, and you had to go with that one."

"Sisko: Yes, the Admiral has a speech impediment. He says "two" whenever he means "four."
 * Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)/Black Comedy Rape: When Enterprises "Unexpected" pulls these two tropes with the 'Trip Tucker is now pregnant' routine, this is probably the only time so far in which Chuck loses his usual sang froid.
 * Invoked in DS9 after the characters cite the Eugenics War, and gets the date wrong by two centuries.

Daddy Bashir: [hopefully] So, my prison sentence is four years?

Sisko: ...Yes. And "minimum security" means "pound me in the ass.""

"Picard: Well what exactly are you capable of doing?
 * Drinking Game: He suggests one in his review of "Spock's Brain": Drink for every Title Drop. He is even courteous enough to inform us how many times it happens.
 * Driven To Phaser The Warp Core: Suggests that given the treatment the Maquis crewmen recieve in "Learning Curve" for not following Starfleet rules, considering they never wanted to be part of Starfleet in the first place, would drive anyone to pull a phaser and shoot the Warp Core in frustration.
 * Particularly given how Dolby noticed a problem with the gel-packs, went to fix it and was disciplined for not getting proper authorisation first. Then when the rest of the crew realise the problem has spread to more gel-packs (possibly because Dolby was stopped from trying to find the problem), Dolby is then immediately ordered to go fix them.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Invoked in his review of Star Trek Nemesis as a reason Troi is kept around;

Troi: I know how smash the ship into things...

Picard: Yeah, I figured that when they were pulling a pine-tree off the Enterprise-D bridge. Still, if there's ever a time when your sole ability, smacking my ship into something else, is needed, I'll let you know!"

"SF Debris: "I hereby award this scene the congressional medal of gay.""
 * Not that Picard is any better, considering his love of callously violating the Prime Directive whilst driving a Dune-Buggy.
 * Dude, Not Funny: His reaction to the Enterprise episode Unexpected, where Tucker became impregnated by an alien who told him that her species reproductive process was a game. He's completely pissed off at the episode and Berman and Braga for playing this up as comedy because they seem to think Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)/Double Standard Rape (Sci Fi).
 * Dying Dream: Invoked as an alternative to the fan hypothesis that Picard never leaves the Nexus in Star Trek Generations, and all the remaining TNG films are his fantasies. It's pointed out that if you want to go down that route, it would actually make far more sense for the ending of Generations (and the subsequent three films) to be hallucinations induced by a mixture of sunstroke and concussion, which Picard experiences during the fifteen minutes it would actually take until Veridian III is obliterated by the explosion of its sun. Though, as he points out elsewhere, neither theory makes any real sense because it would mean the Enterprise-D crew died in that film, making Worf's joining of the DS9 crew along with Troi and Barclay's Voyager appearances impossible.
 * Dysfunction Junction: His interpretation of the Voyager crew.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: In-universe, Robert Picardo as the Doctor.
 * Also Tom Paris, the most competent man on Voyager.
 * Reed, practically the Only Sane Man aboard the NX-01, inventor of the forcefield, supercharging phase-cannons, and possibly the original "Reed-Alert"... (though the name needs work).
 * Harrin from Voyager's episode "Good Shepherd", a one-shot Lower Decks character, who is unafraid to tell Janeway what a goddamn idiot she's been half the time, especially that it's taken seven years to notice, "On a ship meant to explore the wonders of the universe, you've put Carl Sagan in charge of shoveling coal".
 * Reg Barclay. His imagination, personality flaws and fallibility set him apart from most characters in Trek who often are presented as perfect, enlightened individuals. Chuck posits this as one of the reasons why he became a recurring character in TNG, was so easily transplanted to Voyager and even showed up in Star Trek First Contact, as well as have his work even mentioned in "The Best of Both Worlds", in which he didn't actually appear.
 * Erotic Eating: He repeatedly tries to avoid the awkwardness of this in a Ho Yay-laden scene with Tom Paris and Harry Kim playing his clarinet, and eventually just gives up. "Because damn it, there's nothing gay about this!"

"Uhh, "The Chute" is about a chute, "Flashback" is about a flashback, "Sacred Ground" is about some sacred ground and "Warlord" is about a warlord."
 * The Everyman: Lister from Red Dwarf. Chuck points out that over time Lister's progression from someone who's concerned with his own imminent horror in the early episodes, to eventually stepping up and actually giving a damn, is actually a more hopeful version of Star Trek's message that anyone in such a difficult circumstance could rise to become a better person.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: While reviewing "Latent Image," Chuck keeps track of how his parody Complete Monster Janeway would act in every situation compared to how Janeway actually acts in the episode...and is shocked to discover that canon Janeway actually has a more evil way of dealing with the episode's central conflict.
 * Even Nerds Have Standards: A few reviews, like the "QPid" episode. There, he mispronounces Mxyzptlk's name, but then says "Okay, before anyone gets ready to correct my pronunciation, I'd like to point out, this is a YouTube review of a Star Trek episode, based on Robin Hood, that is now referring to a Superman villain. Let's just leave Mr. Mxyzptlk's name alone, before we hit nerd critical mass and blow up the internet, okay? Sometimes you gotta ratchet down the dork for the sake of the straights."
 * "Wes, I gave a fifteen minute lecture on the nuances of the Prime Directive, and even I think you're a spaz..."
 * Everyone Has Standards: He's not a feminist, and still gets offended as extremely sexist parts of some episodes.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Chuck notes in his review of "The Swarm" that season 3 Voyager titles are extremely direct.

"Spock: Perhaps your new name could be something like "Butterfingers on the Edge of Whoopsie, Did I Do That?"
 * Exact Words: The audience's sentiment that "Kirk should die on The Bridge!" is met with a hearty "No problem!"
 * Executive Meddling: He's made fun of Executive Meddling many times, but in Insurrection's review, he points out that the executives actually sent a memo pointing out the plot holes in the script and wondering why they weren't better addressed.
 * Face Palm: Picard's 'reaction' to Archer addressing T'Pol ("I'm doing the breast--best!-- I can.") Riker joins in when the joke drags on for too long.
 * "Yeah...sorry, I couldn't find a Farscape facepalm, so you'll just have to settle for another Henson employee."
 * ~Fail O'Suckyname~: He reflects on this in "Trials and Tribble-ations", given that Arne Darvin apparently chose the name "Barry Waddle" to live under for decades.
 * He notes that Bruce Maddox isn't nearly as awesome as his name entails, with something like Douche van Weasel or Irving McFucktard being far more fitting.
 * Obviously the last thing we should have expected from the Guardian of Forever is to actually... guard forever. Not let some crazy guy jump into the time portal and tamper with history in untold ways.

Guardian: I've succeeded! Just in a way far beyond your comprehension!

Spock: Yeah, that's not working anymore.

Guardian: ...Shit."

"Janeway: Make it so, dickhead!"
 * Fan Nickname: See Alternate Character Interpretation and Catch Phrase.
 * He coined "Future Guy" as well.
 * Something that has received scorn from Chuck due to its sarcastic nature being misinterpreted by the producers, who have used it as an actual name for the character.
 * The "Magic Off-Button Hypospray" for every instance of Instant Sedation.
 * The Magic Meeting Room, for whenever a Star Trek crew (usually Voyager's) gets together in the conference room to discuss how they can destroy the threat of the week.
 * He dubbed Q's son "Harry Potter".
 * Pulaski is "The Gorgon".
 * Neelix is often referred to as a "hedgehog," due to his spiny hair. Or simply Shithead.
 * Der scheissekopf.
 * "The Andorian Incident" gave us "Vulcan Bitch" and "Colin the Andorian" (so called because of his resemblance to Colin Mochrie).
 * Dr. Phlox has been dubbed "Dr. Zoidberg" as of the "Vox Sola" review, because of his long string of inaccurate judgement calls ("These assimilated people are harmless!" "Patient confidentiality? What's that?").
 * FemShep is "Shiva", and with good reason.
 * Refers to Voyager's resident sociopath crew member as "Suder the Psychotic Hamster".
 * "Unimatrix Zero" is referred to as "The Worst of Both Worlds", as he says it is the exact opposite of acclaimed "The Best of Both Worlds".
 * Failsafe Failure: Really tore into this in "Learning Curve", when a manual override was still shut out by broken systems, which would defeat the purpose of being a manual override.
 * Fatal Attractor: Chuck points out that whenever Harry does have a relationship, it all goes to hell in a handbasket. Plus we've seen at least once that actually making out with Seven is something that causes him to have screaming nightmares.
 * Flanderization: A few character traits for running jokes, like Picard's dislike of children, Janeway's love of coffee and Sisko's of baseball.
 * Janeway's alternate character interpretation itself has been this. As the reviews go on Janeway becomes more and more evil, culminating in the Nemesis review, where she reveals her plot to take over the Alpha Quadrant, and that will result in the deaths of about half of its inhabitants.
 * Taken to even more extreme heights now that he is redoing the old reviews. Whole sections of former jokes have been completely rewritten to accommodate an Evil Janeway or (even more pronounced) a Picard Can't Fight line.
 * Follow Up Failure: "Unimatrix Zero" is accused of being a pretty major example of this next to the show's first two Borg two-parters, "Scorpion" and "Dark Frontier." Those two stories are both given the top score of 10, while "Unimatrix Zero" ends up with just 1.
 * Foreshadowing: In his re-release of the Caretaker review, he mentions that rumors are that Janeway was on Earth for other reasons that just recruiting Tom, mentioning a computer virus and tampered replicators. Cut to his Star Trek Nemesis review, and as part of an Evil Janeway comedic segment he reveals how those are part of Janeway's plan to take over the Federation and the Romulan empire through masterminding the events of Nemesis.
 * For Want of a Nail: In his review of the Farscape episode "A Bug's Life", Chuck notes that the future of the show and the Farsape universe in general was determined by Chiana getting curious about the cargo that the Peacekeeper commandoes had brought aboard: it resulted in Aeryn getting near-fatally stabbed, Crichton having to infiltrate the Gammak base for medical supplies, and getting caught by Scorpius. In Chuck's own summary of the video, "the future of the galaxy is decided by a girl looking for something she can sell at a pawn shop."
 * Four Point Scale: Utterly averted. Rather than using an arbitrary rating system, he gives every episode a grade from 1-10 relative to all other episodes in the same series, and not in any other. He'll give a "10" to the best the series had to offer; due to the bell-curve rating system, there are only a few per series (when giving a "9", he'll often lament that, while it was very good, it just wasn't the best of the best). He gives out one "0" per series, always to the episode that is most damaging to the reputation of the franchise as a whole, not just the particular series, and deserves the Canon Discontinuity treatment. (This actually did happen to "Threshold"). He does have opinions about the relative quality of each series to all the others, and they become obvious if you watch enough reviews: An Enterprise "5", for example, is clearly an inferior episode to a Deep Space Nine "5", as the Enterprise "5" is generic schlock, while the Deep Space Nine "5" may be a simple but enjoyable episode.
 * Chuck himself admits he was indulging in this trope a bit with his early Deep Space Nine reviews, pegging "7" instead of "5" as an average (using the 7.5 he originally gave "Our Man Bashir" as a specific example, downgrading it to a "4" when he re-uploaded it). Without a doubt, his more recent DS9 reviews, such as "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace", strongly avert this trope; he praises them profusely and offers no substantial criticism, but still only gives them a "5" and a "6" respectively because, as noted above, the bar for DS9 is set so high.
 * For his non-Star Trek reviews, he gives descriptive recommendations instead of numerical ratings; he might rate a Doctor Who episode as "Watchable" or "Must-See".
 * Franchise Zombie: On Star Trek: Enterprise during the infamous "A Night In Sickbay," Chuck temporarily loses it and says "And yet it's still coming! It won't stop! How do you kill a Star Trek show that's already dead?!"
 * Freudian Slippery Slope: "Catherine Tit-- Tate!" "Donna Nipple-- Noble!" "Substantial shift in boobies!--dynamic."
 * Fun with Subtitles: His later reviews have fun riffing with this.
 * The "translations" of the whale songs in his review of Star Trek IV are by far his funniest use of this trope.
 * His coda to "Tuvix" gives us this gem:


 * See also Translation Train Wreck below.

Tropes G-I
"Riker: Gaze upon me, the world's biggest douchebag!"
 * Genius Ditz: Notes that Tucker was often written this way and how it's at odds with the fact that a man who is supposedly a talented engineer in charge of maintaining a Warp Reactor, seemingly can't figure out simple high-school level algebraic equations, the sort of things that he'd had to have studied in order to know how it actually works.
 * Genre Blindness: Accuses Dukat of this when chiding him for celebrating his victory prematurely in "Sacrifice of Angels", pointing out that the Genre Savvy Weyoun is much more worried about their so-called "inevitable" triumph.
 * The Ghost: "Lieutenant Nobody" in Star Trek First Contact, the Enterprise-E's presumed tactical officer before Worf came aboard, who Chuck invents to mock the fact that no such character appears in the film. Over the course of the review he then becomes a Hypercompetent Sidekick who is utterly ignored by Picard and the others.
 * Larry the Invisible Interior Decorator from Sarek.
 * Repeated with Janeway eying her past self. "Damn, I have a fine ass. I wonder if the universe would explode if I..."
 * A God Am I: The interpretation Chuck gives to Kirk's statement at the end of Star Trek V that "Maybe God isn't out there; maybe's he's right here [points to self]". It's obviously meant to imply that if God exists he could be in all of us, but coupled with Kirk and Shatner's ego it does give the impression that he's declaring himself God.
 * Riker after temporarily gaining the power of the Q in Hide and Q.

""Oh my god, that's... I didn't know Yeoman Chambers could that! ..And I really didn't know Legion could do THAT. Well, no wonder he's dancing all the time.""
 * Good Is Dumb: Actually, because the Mirror Universe inverts everything, it becomes "evil is dumb".
 * Good Ol' Boy: He interprets Trip Trucker as a stereotypical Deep South redneck turned Up to Eleven.
 * It seems the Enterprise writers may have been (ill-advisedly) going for this. See SF Debris's mocking Tucker's stereotypical love of catfish in the review of "Unexpected" and the baffling revelation in "Shuttlepod One" that Tucker, a chief engineer on a starship, supposedly has difficulty with basic pseudo-algebraic word problems. It seems as though the writers forgot he was supposed to be a talented technician and just wrote him as a sort of 'George Bush in Space'.
 * Government Agency of Fiction: Frederic Lance, from the Ministry of Important Bearded Guys. ("The Fall of Night")
 * Granola Girl: His idea of what Mirror Janeway is like.
 * Gretzky Has the Ball: This is one of his favorite metaphors for how to describe bad technobabble. "You know it sounds like crap, and the more you know about it, the worse it is!"
 * Gushing About Characters You Like: Has a tendency to do this with THE Sisko. Generally, he gushes over characters he finds well-written and/or well-acted.
 * In earlier reviews, he had a minor tendency to do this with The Doctor, though it was usually because he was the Ensemble Darkhorse of the Voyager crew.
 * Seems to be heading in this direction with Scorpius. 'Imagine Spock if were a villain; sprinkle with some charisma and cunning, add a dash of Admiral Thrawn.'
 * In his re-upload of In the Pale Moonlight, he acknowledges that he loves making Sisko is a badass jokes.
 * Head-Tiltingly Kinky: His guess as to what the hell Joker's watching on his private monitor.

"Janeway: Sooo... you're in the cargo bay! You know who else likes cargo bays? HITLER!!
 * Heroes Want Redheads: His alt interpretation of Picard is that he is willing to put up with Wesley Crusher just because he wants Beverly that much.
 * Heroic BSOD: During the review for "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy," a Fan Disservice scene involving The Doctor imagining that he's playing grab-ass with Janeway causes Chuck to shut down like HAL from  ~2001: A Space Odyssey~ . He has to reboot in the same manner as RoboCop to resume the review.
 * Hey, Its Mark Sheppard!: Invoked Trope in his review of the Firefly episode "Shindig" when he notes that Mark Sheppard has appeared in pretty much every sci-fi series he reviews.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Defied Trope in his review of Star Trek IV the Voyage Home. Sulu said he was born in San Francisco, but Chuck said it was just too easy.
 * In the Show Within a Show of "Author, Author," the Doctor has made his own holo-novel with silly characterizations loosely based off the crew, and most of them are dead-accurate to Chuck's Alternate Character Interpretation invoked for everyone, including Janeway as a ruthless, gun-polishing tyrant named Jenkins. Chuck says it's as if somebody tried to write a Voyager episode based only off his reviews.
 * In the My Little Pony review, Rainbow Dash asks if Twilight is a spy, prompting Chuck to say that they should do a blood test to check if any of them are changelings. Cue the season 2 finale...
 * Hit You So Hard Your X Will Feel It: See Jeffrey Combs, under "Actor Allusion."
 * Scotty couldn't care less if you insult Kirk. But if any Klingon talks shit about the Enterprise, "he's gonna get hit in the face so hard, his whole race will lose their forehead ridges."
 * Hitler Ate Sugar: Ever-so-subtly implies that Janeway and Chakotay need to work on hiding their suspicions of each other. (VOY: "Conspiracy")

Chakotay: Hmmmmmmmm... that's just the KIND OF THING HITLER WOULD SAY!!"

"Janeway: Let me make this clear, we all have a job to do. My job is to pointlessly put the ship into criminally hazardous situations on a whim. Yours is to bail us out if something goes wrong during that!"
 * Hitler Cam: Chuck notes the show's tendency to make Janeway and/or Kate Mulgrew seem taller than she really is in his review of the episode "Parallax", showing a montage of such shots as the song "Big in Japan" plays.
 * Hold Your Hippogriffs: He criticises Voyager's use of these, such as "I didn't want to be a third nacelle", arguing that we still use phrases now such as "putting the cart before the horse" out of habit even though technology has moved on.
 * Then, several months later, Chuck himself uses the phrase "taking the short starship to school".
 * Comes up again in "Before and After", in which the Doctor sings a version of "Rock-a-bye-baby" in which the cradle falling is replaced with a shuttle crash. "After all, the version we sing nowadays is about an ambulance crash, isn't it?"
 * "Into my office walked a dame with million-latinum legs and a swing to her hips that could unphase a tacheon beam. She had trouble stuck to her like stink on Klingon, but the way she set my phaser to stun, I knew I'd be taking the case..." (VOY: "Ex Post Facto")
 * Hope Spot: Occasionally happens with Neelix. A great example is "Author, Author", in which Neelix actually manages to get through to the Doctor on the issues his holonovel is causing in a subtle, non-annoying way... and then he brings up another one of his "Talaxian Sayings".
 * Hypocrisy Nod: Overdubbing "Cotton Eye Joe" during Picard's dune buggy chase. Boy, what a bunch of schlock that was. Now stay tuned for the 2009 Star Trek review, "obviously a movie very, very different from this one!" [cut to Kirk fishtailing in his corvette to the same song]
 * Notes that Riker acts like a douchebag while confiscating Ro Laren's Bajoran earing, even berating her because it's not proper Starfleet uniform, only to then take her to a briefing where she sits next to Troi wearing a non-standard, low-cut top and across the table, Worf is proudly wearing his Klingon baldric.
 * In "Human Error", points out the hypocrisy of Janeway berating Seven for not stopping missiles from striking Voyager, while failing to realise the only reason they were in that situation was because she ordered them into a region that was filled with ship debris and deadly radiation, which turned out to be a Weapons Testing Area.

"Picard "We will not allow anyone to take you away from your homes, your village, your way of life! [crowd cheers] Now pack your shit up. We're leaving.""
 * Hypocritical Humour: ST: Insurrection: - the Cliff Notes version:

""...And remember, you're not really dead as long as we all remember you. Now purge all records of her existence.""
 * Janeway eulogizing Ensign Jetal ("Latent Image"):

"Chuck: Poor people. Having to put up with this hobby taking over-- [shouts at family] Get Out!! I told you, I am not "playing," I. AM. WORKING! Now get out! [comes back] Where was I?"
 * Joked about the tedious overabundance of "Lol-cats" you see posted on the internet... then did one a Sight Gag in his "Genesis" review.
 * On his Mass Effect 2 review where he talks about Jennifer Hale losing a video game voice acting award to Tricia Helfer (who won for Starcraft II) and stating that having Tricia Helfer in a game does not make it better. A few minutes later the review shows a scene with EDI leading Chuck to state that he loves games featuring Tricia Helfer.
 * The conspiracy nut in "Rose" who runs a Doctor-sighting website out of his suburban home.

""Some of Jon Pertwee's best stories were action-adventure technical thrillers. Tom Baker's best stories were often gothic horrors. Doctor Who is large enough to have room for all of these. --except for the pig men, YOU GO TO HELL!!"
 * In "The Eleventh Hour", a plea for tolerance.

"...which considering the Borg love technology, is like thinking you can warn off a date rapist by saying you're wearing crotchless panties. You might say that's a tasteless metaphor. But you'd be completely wrong...it's a simile."
 * "The Doctor's not terribly happy that someone would burn his favorite planet... well, his favorite planet now that Gallifrey is gone, ever since he-- he burned it. "
 * I Call Him "Mister Happy": Worf even named his balls 'honor.' He's that into it. "He also named his dick "Courage," but most Klingons do that."
 * I Call It Vera: Chuck let slip he refers to his laptop as "Ruby".
 * I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: The intro to the Captain's Holiday review features the scene where Picard casually tosses a hand-held energy weapon into some bushes. This is followed by an amusing voice-over where a kid finds the weapon, vaporizes his own face with it while his mother screams in horror and all manner of chaos ensues. Well done, Captain.
 * I Just Want to Be Badass: Posits in "Defiant", that one of the motives of Thomas Riker that caused him to join the Maquis cause was a desire to differentiate himself from Commander Riker. In comparison, Will Riker is considered as a hero in the Federation, offered commands and who got all the breaks; while due to a transporter accident duplicating him, the other Riker then spent 8 years alone on a barren planet, only to finally be rescued but find himself now living in his own shadow.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: In "The Best of Both Worlds" Part 1.

"SF Debris: That sounds about right, on a scale of 1 to you have no idea what IQ is, do you?"
 * Improbably High IQ: In his review of ''The Nth Degree" after Barclay claims to have an IQ of 1200-1450:

"(as Picard) You know, number one, in your country, you send ships into space, but in Soviet Russia, ship sends YOU into space!... Hey, where are you all going?
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: Referenced in relation to the Soviet-built Tsiolkovsky in "The Naked Now".

Well, looks like they're screwed; unable to muck with the tractor beam that can only pull things...it looks like that ship seeking boulder is going to take out the Enterprise and Tsiolkovsky, which won't make them happy back in Soviet Russia. Wait, that's it! In Soviet Russia, tractor beam will PUSH!"

""Where the hell did THAT come from? The casting sheet? How would you know, Riker? Did you read Wes' biography on Wikipedia? Cause I got two words for ya, pal: CITATION NEEDED."
 * In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: Or one culture, anyway. Chuck has taken TNG to task for its apparent belief that the ostensibly multicultural Federation thinks that Earth only follows Western conventions, namely weddings and family names.
 * Informed Attribute: His irritation with Captain Okona being ladled with reverence by the Enterprise's crew for supposedly being a tough rebellious Han Solo-type rogue, when we see absolutely no evidence of this, drives him to Unstoppable Rage.
 * And Neelix... well, just about any skill he claims to have, don't expect the plot to actually show him making good on it.
 * Also points in the Voyager episode "The 37s" that this makes the conflict in the latter half of the episode impossible to empathize with. As much as we're told that the cities built by the native humans are incredible, breathtaking achievements, we never actually see them. Thus, we simply cannot care about the crew's dilemma on whether to stay or keep heading toward Earth because we can't see why they would want to stay so badly that they'd abandon the goal they'd spent the entire show working toward.
 * Chakotay, because he's always been a... [sound of dice roll] [insert profession here]!
 * Torres is put in charge of a rock-climbing mission because of her vast scientific experience - "You know, the fact that she doesn't know that space is three dimensions, and that she can't identify crap even with a tricorder."
 * Riker's valentine to Okona - that he's a "man who lives by his own rules. He does what he does by choice. His choice."

"Kirk: It seems impossible. A Star Captain's most solemn oath, is that he will he give his life, even his entire crew... rather than violate the Prime Directive."
 * The Doctor showing off his snaps from last year, taken with the camera he got this season. "He was quite a shutterbug back in that day!"
 * Insult to Rocks: To Counselor Troi. "Why don't you hold that lamp up, so the table isn't out-performing you in terms of helpfulness?"
 * Ironic Echo: In the Star Trek Nemesis review, while Picard and company are joyriding on the clearly pre-Warp planet and making a total spectacle of themselves, he dubs in some thoughts from a different Starfleet Captain:

""Yeah? Well, my fist is an instrument of shut the hell up. And if you wanna find out, just keep talking. It's ever ready for a knockdown blow."
 * Star Trek: Insurrection: "This village is a sanctuary of life."

"Chuck: Hey Riker, "if there is a cosmic plan, is it not the height of hubris to think that you should interfere"? Funny that you'll calmly argue about letting a whole world die, but you'll unleash all hell when it comes to your cock."
 * Riker wants to save his newfound love interest. Picard notes it's against the Prime Directive, but Riker remains angry. Chuck throws back the same words Riker said in "Pen Pals" to justify doing nothing to save an alien race:

""Who am I? I am His Grace, Sir SFDebris, Duke of the People Who Don't Give a Rat's Ass, and Knight of the Order of Go Fuck Yourself.""
 * His response to Lwaxana Troi's list of credentials. (TNG: Haven)

"'Picard: Do you honestly believe he would be happy in this...total fiction''?
 * "The Bonding" (TNG) comes off as hilarious when paired beside "The Menagerie" (TOS)

'Captain Pike: (beeps "YES")

Picard: Quiet! No one asked you!"

""Quick, someone get them to the Doc--! ...oh, wait, I forgot. Our Doctor's running around the mountain to firm up her tits.""
 * Is There a Doctor In the House?: Oh great. Immolated goldshirts. Where's Crusher when you need her? (ST: Insurrection)

"Torres: I've never found your twisted sense of humour funny, Cha-KOT-ay
 * It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": Pulaski's insistence on mispronouncing "Day-ta" as "Da-tuh". Chuck notes this is akin to calling the ship the USS Enter-prez-say.
 * He's infuriated with the stories that Stuart Baird kept mispronouncing Levar Burton's name on the set of Nemesis, especially since Burton was far more qualified to direct the movie than him.
 * Pokes fun at the early attempts to highlight Chakotay as an Native American with an ethnic pronunciation of his name.

Chuck: Did she just call him "Chocolate Day"?"

Tropes J-L
"Chuck: "You're a complete cun. . . temptable person.""
 * Kicked Upstairs: Unsurprisingly, he tends to agree with Fanon on the reason for Janeway's promotion to Vice-Admiral, name-checking this trope almost as soon as she's onscreen in Star Trek Nemesis.
 * Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Chuck feels this, especially since Plot Armor kicks in whenever it feels like on energy-based weapons. He mentions the TR-116 from the episode "Field of Fire," and says it was abandoned "because it actually worked."
 * Large Ham: Points out the bizarreness of how Worf utters "Laaaasers!" in "The Outrageous Okona".
 * Last-Second Word Swap: In Unexpected, Chuck barely comes out of his rant about the episode's insensitive treatment of what amounts to rape when T'Pol makes a joke about how it's really Tucker's fault.

""This is my doing! My arrogance! My vanity!!""
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jokingly used in-universe. Sybok seems to be echoing Director William Shatner's panicked thoughts during his movie premiere.

"Chuck: Self-indulgent? Yeah... but cut me some slack, man, I will never get a chance to do this again!"
 * Patrick Stewart gets his first looks at the Star Trek XI Script: "No! WRONG! It Is WROOOONG!!"
 * The Viceroy kindly speaks for the audience. "...This was a mistake. We're wasting time."
 * Les Yay Shipping: In his review of the Doctor Who episode "Gridlock" he mentions that, as far as he's concerned, Nyssa and Tegan are the first homosexual couple in DW history. He considers them having sex for the first time (in Fanfic) equally as groundbreaking and important as the Face of Boe's final words to the Doctor.
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Said word for word after his exposition song at the beginning of the Star Trek: Generations review.
 * Logic Bomb: Tried researching to see if Lieutenants are actually allowed to give orders to a Lt. Commander. But the question was so nonsensical, "Google justs breaks and starts showing pictures of porn." (Insurrection)
 * Love to Hate: It's become obvious that this is how he feels about Janeway. He interrupts his review of Star Trek Nemesis to go an almost three-minute tirade enacting a hypothetical scenario about Janeway unveiling an especially convoluted plan that would give her total control of the Alpha Quadrant.

"Chuck: It's probably obvious that I don't care for Janeway one bit - at least, as the protagonist. Nothing confuses Janeway fans quite like telling them, "I love Janeway! She's my favorite villain!""
 * He finally admits this in his re-upload of "The Cloud" :


 * Contrast his vitriolic loathing for Neelix, Pulaski, Okona, or pretty much anyone from Enterprise.

Tropes M-O
""All I ask is that you be consistent with your bullshit.""
 * Mad Libs Catchphrase: "But I'm no X/not an X, I'm just a viewer with an opinion."
 * Mad Scientist: His interpretation that Janeway clearly is one.
 * Magic A Is Magic A: He gets annoyed when this gets averted.

"Chuck: ... Eventually sending just about everyone to go searching. So that leaves Beverly in command of the Enterprise with the Z-List crew members."
 * The Main Characters Do Everything: He points this trope out often, especially given that Star Trek uses it so frequently, with Enterprise taking it to the extreme of having no B cast for the first two years, and only three recurring characters.
 * From "The Descent" (TNG) review:

"Chuck: Meanwhile, all the senior officers of the station have crammed themselves into one tiny little Runabout, after pissing off the Klingons, the Cardassians and the Dominion. Surprisingly, someone actually gets the idea into their head that this would make a convenient target. [...] They try an emergency beam-out, but the explosion blows out the transporter, leaving Eddington now in command."
 * In the review about the episode "The Naked Now" he points out a scene where the Chief Engineer and her assistant are both called away from Engineering. The assistant refuses to leave his post, as he's reluctant to leave Engineering without any supervisor. But then Wesley Crusher convinces the assistant to just leave him in charge... Instead of one of the dozen qualified Engineering personnel seen milling about in the background.
 * From the review of "Our Man Bashir" (DS9):

"Chuck: So Tom Paris not only flies the ship, the most important shuttle missions, is the field-medic-slash-assistant-to-the-doctor, has 24th century lockpicking ability... he's also a commando. Oh, and let's not forget he once designed an engine that went to infinity.
 * From the review of "Resistance" (VOY):

[Later in the same review...]

Chuck: Since this is an important engineering matter, it's quickly handed off to Harry to take care of, instead of one of the actual engineers.

[Still in the same review, this time regarding a multi-purpose villain]

Chuck: Because this is a television show, Augris will be the face of these people in all situations: whether communicating to off-world aliens, performing interrogations, or searching the streets for criminals. What a micro-manager."

"Chuck: ... With all the radiation, they have to move in close to beam them out, but Harry is working to beam through it, since he's the Transporter Chief and all that. Or, actually, NOT, but why leave it in the hands of a specialist when you can assign it to the guy who never held that position in his life?"
 * From "Warlord" (VOY):

"Chuck: Meanwhile Archer pilots a shuttlepod down, with Reed alongside him. At this point it means that Hoshi is in command - who is terrified of Enterprise and all of its contents.
 * From "Strange New World" (ENT):

[Later in the same review...]

Chuck: The transporter is new technology, just approved for use on human-beings in the last two months, and is designed to break them down and put them back together again. This is all done by highly-trained experts, who know how to handle this thing precisely, to avoid any problems... and who are all apparently on a coffee break, because we see Reed down there instead. After all, he's already the tactical officer, security officer, deliverer of weather reports, and the guy who rides shotgun whenever Archer takes the shuttlepod out, so why shouldn't he operate the transporter too? I mean, how hard can it be? [Cue horrific transporter accident]"

"Chuck: Is there a medication for what you're on, Archer?"
 * Archer seems to have demoted Hoshi to be the Enterprise's delivery girl for the jobs that the others can't be arsed to do. Moments after launching a Subspace Communications Amplifier, which needed to be checked was working properly so that Enterprise could maintain their link to Earth, he asked Hoshi to find out Reed's favourite food for his birthday, choosing her over any other random crewman, and told her to make it her top priority. It's not as though Hoshi is the damned Communications Officer!

""We believe that if you deny a man to beat his wife, you take something away from the man!""
 * Likewise, in "Regeneration", Hoshi has been demoted once again, and is now in charge of delivering food to Dr Phlox, who declines as it'd speed up the Borg nanoprobes in his system and thus the assimilation process. Phlox then asks for her to look after his menegarie of critters, effectively demoting her to the ships zookeeper.
 * Malcolm Xerox: "And when the black pony tries to get ahead, there's the white pony keepin' her down!"
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: A variant; "Lousy Character, Good Actor." Chuck has repeatedly pointed out he appreciates almost everyone in Voyager as actors, even Ethan Philips, who plays Neelix. He just hates the character that Philips has to play. Similar to how most people differentiate between the in-universe Creators Pet Wesley and Wil Wheaton.
 * Likewise, he thinks Majel Barrett was a wonderful actress. He just really hates Lwaxana Troi.
 * Meaningless Meaningful Words: One particular "burr up [Chuck's] ass" is the nebulous anti-technology philosophy of the Ba'ku (ST: Insurrection).

"Chuck: You have no idea what the consequences will be for this new procedure, do you? You didn't come out here to play God. Maybe you should just let nature take its course...CAPTAIN."
 * Picard's denunciation of Starfleet for relocating a couple hundred colonists ("How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? A THOUSAND? A MILLION???") kinda falls flat when you realize how many billions he's indirectly killed by denying them revolutionary medicine. Chuck concludes that Picard might want to ask that same question of himself.
 * Still fuming over "Dear Doctor", in which Archer asserts that curing an alien epidemic is akin to meddling with their evolutionary path ("We didn't come out here to play God!"). Flash-forward to "A Night In Sickbay", in which Archer demands that Phlox invent a new medical procedure to...save his beagle.

""Bitch, you think that's it? The list of ways I'm awesome is so long, the only surface large enough to write 'em on is my dick!""
 * Memetic Badass: In-Universe. "Yeah, I love the Sisko is a Badass jokes."

""Shran's just lucky Sisko's not here. If he tried calling him Brownskin he'd bitch slap him so hard he'd make Weyoun'd feel dizzy""
 * Not to mention...

"''...while Sisko is probably content to ride on a Tyranosaurus.""
 * When talking about Picard's love of horseback riding, and how it showcases his "Officer and a Gentleman" style compared to Sisko's more "Line Officer" style:

""(A Jem'Hadar) manages to disarm Sisko, unaware that this puts him in reach of the mighty Sisko fist. Given the chance to punch someone, Sisko takes it. Then shoots a few more Jem'Hadar, before just beating some with his gun. Sadly, even Sisko can take on only 15 or so genetically engineered Supersoldiers, before even he gets overwhelmed.""
 * Sisko fighting Jem'Hadars:

""Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on the bridge coming up with new ways of being awesome our scientists haven't even thought of yet.""
 * Sisko designing Starfleet's most advanced warship and name it the "Defiant" JUST so that one day he might get his chance at revenge with the Borg. And according to Chuck, the reason why Sisko wasn't in Star Trek First Contact was that the Borg knew of his awesomeness and waited until he was preoccupied on the other side of federation space before attacking.
 * Janeway as well, but also see Alternate Character Interpretation.
 * And, above all, Captain James Tiberius Kirk himself. When reviewing "Trials and Tribble-ations", he notes that Sisko thinks so highly of him, and since Sisko is a man's man, that makes Kirk a man's man's man. It's also obvious that Chuck thinks very highly of him too - whenever he's given the chance, he'll gush about all of Kirk's accomplishments, canonical and memetic alike.

"Quark: So how's that whole Dominion War thing going huh? They still control Troi's homeworld? See you're all on top of that..."
 * Inverted with Picard, when it comes to fights ("Not in the face!"), but played straight when it comes to his speeches (even the sanctimonious ones).
 * Mood Whiplash: The crew of Deep Space Nine powerwalk into Vic's club to pull off an Oceans 11 heist, it's awesome... then he has Quark snarkingly comment:

""Come gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all the unkindness, but alas, haters gonna hate.""
 * In his review of Star Trek (2009), he goes into a full-blown monologue for Nero when explaining his motives as shown in the Countdown comic, and after that, casually says that in the film, Nero is just an emo with a trident.
 * Mondegreen: Goliath getting bounced out of a banquet by his human masters. It's as the great playwright said:

"Data: "Ladies and gentlemen, and invited transgendered species..."
 * Moral Dissonance: Save for the Straw Man Has a Point trope, this particular provides Chuck the majority of his Snark Bait. It's not all fun and games, however, sometimes he offers some genuine heartfelt criticism of the moral lapses in judgments of characters. See the 'case for genocide against Archer and Phlox' rant on his website for more details.
 * He hates all "The Prime Directive says we should leave these people to die," episodes with a passion. The reason he hates Dear Doctor the most is because the characters never try to find a way around, despite it not even existing yet.
 * MST3K Mantra: Chuck completely deconstructs this trope a new one in-universe in the preface towards his "Threshold" Voyager review. While he doesn't outright discredit the mantra (using the "nuke the fridge" scene from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as an example of when you shouldn't let one moment of stupidity ruin an otherwise enjoyable piece), he points to the "it's just fiction, so there's no point in giving a damn about whether any of it makes sense" attitude of both the Star Trek producers and a certain segment of fans as a major reason as to why the franchise's popularity plummeted during the Voyager and Enterprise era.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg: This little nugget from Star Trek Nemesis:

Chuck: "And Wesley, wherever you are.""

""Everybody knows that tentacles and Japanese girls are natural enemies.""
 * Narm: Too many specific (in-universe) examples to list, but he makes a blanket statement in his review of "Phage". "That's pretty much Voyager in a nutshell: drama provokes laughter."
 * Naughty Tentacles: Hilariously invoked during the "Vox Sola" review.

""You can spend years of studying to be experts in your field, in the hope that one day maybe you too can have the joy of needing to answer to some teenager who failed the Academy entrace exam, but who happens to be the son of a woman the Captain wants to ride bare-back.""
 * Neologism: "Daleks in Manhatan," best summed up as Incrazulicious.
 * As for "Evolution of the Daleks", that's ridicudumb.
 * Nepotism: Jokes that the only reason Picard tolerates Wesley is because he wants to get into Beverley's pants.

"SF Debris: "We'll need handcuffs, vibrating golf balls and a funnel. I'm sorry that's the best I can do; I'm no Slash Fic expert, I'm just a viewer with an opinion.""
 * Nerds Are Virgins: A few jokes about that.
 * In his special video about the Prime Directive, he reflects that discussing the Prime Directive would still be nerdy even if he did it while having sex with a girl on top of the corpse of a T-rex he'd just killed with his bare hands.
 * Never Live It Down: In-universe, Troi crashing the Enterprise-D makes her the butt of many jokes.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Before and After" notes that Doctor Van Gogh, the future iteration of Voyager's Doctor, developed a radical new procedure to extend Kes' life so she could have a few more years with her husband Tom, her daughter Linnis, and her grandson Andrew. In doing so, he accidentally caused her to Mental Time Travel into the past, undoing the best years of her life, half of the people she loves to be erased from history, and the man she loves into the arms of another woman (Torres).
 * Also uses this exact phrase at the end of his Star Trek Nemesis review, referring to how the creators of that movie effectively killed the Trek movie franchise for the better part of a decade.
 * An almighty instance of this is pointed out in the review of "Fight or Flight," as a result of Archer getting pissy at T'Pol and insisting on going back to a ship whose occupants have been killed by a highly advanced race who siphon chemicals from their victims. Enterprise gets disabled by a ship from the race in question, and they have to be saved by another ship from the dead crew's race. It's noted that if not for the other ship showing up in time and Hoshi managing to work out their language on the fly, in the best case Archer would have gotten his crew killed, and in the worst case his actions would have led to Earth being conquered by hostile aliens, and the human race being reduced to cattle and slaughtered en masse for their chemicals.
 * His (rather plausible) theory that the Breen and the Pakleds are the direct result of Doctor Phlox and Archer committing genocide in "Dear Doctor".
 * In Threshold, everything the team does ends up going horribly wrong. One of the best examples is their plan to round up one of the seven escaped Infectees by beaming out the signal that mutated him. After they succeed in recapturing him, they go outside to discover dozens of random civilians showing up who've been exposed thanks to them.
 * In his review of Mass Effect 2, nearly everything Shiva Shepard does, intentional or otherwise, usually ends up leading to a massive body count following in her wake.
 * Noodle Implements: In "The Game".

"SF Debris: "They figure the first thing they should do is go ahead with that repeating the accident plan, and sure enough--there's an accident! (applauds) Yay science! But of course now we've got to duplicate the myth: we'll need twenty kilotons of TNT, a World War One aero-tank and 16,000 blue M&Ms"."
 * In "The Outcast," he keeps coming up with ridiculous items a gendered person would need to have sex with a non-gendered person.
 * In "Realm of Fear" (as part of a joke comparing the engineering crew's experiment to replicate an accident to Myth Busters):

"SF Debris: "Noam Chomsky won't return my calls since the incident with the rice pudding.""
 * The Telosian goes to great lengths to tailor his Gilded Cage to Captain Pike; like the thing with the naughty milkmaid and the three kittens and the strapping farmhand -- "Yeah, I GET it!"
 * Noodle Incident: In "Darmok Follow-up".

"SF Debris: A manual override is supposed to work if everything else is broken! This is like having an emergency light that plugs into the wall or a parachute with a rope that keeps it connected to the aeroplane. You're defeating the whole purpose of making a manual override! Even in a show where cheese is destroying the ship, that's stupid!"
 * No OSHA Compliance: Said almost word-for-word on the handrail's lack of safety in Enterprise's "Unexpected".
 * The fact that Voyager has a "manual override" that needs power in order to work.

""Yeah yeah, I know. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, sometimes a log is just a log, and sometimes a clarinet is just a long shaft of wood you wanna grab with both hands, wrap your lips around, and blow for all you're worth!""
 * Not Helping Your Case: Harry's nightmares make Priscilla Queen of the Desert look like Fight Club. (VOY: "The Thaw")

"Janeway: It's the Mind Bomb! It runs on the power of the human heart! [beat] I mean emotions. God! Why do you people always assume the worst?
 * "Sacrifice of Angels:" The Jem'Hadar weren't vaporized by The Prophets. Turns out that it was something even more destructive -- Janeway.

Sisko: So, it amplifies your emotions as a weapon?

Janeway: After it's sucked them out of you and left you mentally soulless, yes."

"Vreenak: "It's a FAAAAAKE!"
 * Not in the Face: SFDebris!Picard's standard cry whenever he takes a beating.
 * Not Making This Up Disclaimer: "Time-traveling space Nazis. Yes, really."
 * In "Death Wish" Q decides to summon important figures from human history. Sir Isaac Newton, Will Riker... and some guy from Woodstock.
 * Not Now, Kiddo: Gives this treatment to Janeway at the end of "Dark Frontier," ignoring Seven's requests to beam her father to safety until it's too late.
 * Not So Different: Points out the Bynars remove a baby's brain at birth and implant cybernetic relays so they have their individuality stripped away. No different than the Borg.
 * Also points out the ex-Borg from "Unity" want to forcibly strip away the individuality of the other ex-drones who are attacking their community, in order to create a unified harmony between themselves ones again... which he speculates might be how the Borg started in the first place.
 * His Coda for Tuvix draws hilarious comparisons between Janeway and GLaDOS from Portal.
 * Jokes about "Janeway of Borg" given her penchant for assimilating lowlifes into her motley collective of misfits.
 * Also points out how the Borg Queen attempting to control Seven in Dark Frontier is contrasted with Janeway giving her an direct order in the same scene, because Seven must decide now who she wants to boss her around for the rest of her life.
 * "Latent Image" gives us a segment called "My Way or Janeway", contrasting his Crazy!Janeway with the actions of the real Janeway in that episode. He stops doing this halfway through because he thinks Janeway actually went beyond even the realms of his parody when she ordered all evidence of Ensign Jetal to be erased from existence.
 * No True Scotsman / True Art: One of Chuck's Berserk Buttons are fans who sneer down at others for not sharing their own opinion as not being "true" fans as well as fans who dismiss any other opinion as automatically being because the others guys were too "stupid" to get it.
 * Obligatory Joke: From the In The Pale Moonlight intro:

Chuck: "OK, everybody got that out of our system now? No need to fall back on any hackneyed internet memes, right? Especially once we realize that every time you masturbate, God does indeed kill a kitten, and I for one welcome our Domo-Kun overlords, and remind my fellow earthlings that All Your Base Are Belong to Us because IT'S A TRAP!!!"

"Doctor: CAAAAAN!"
 * From Evolution of the Daleks upon Dalek Caan's escape via emegency temporal shift.

""Impossible. Nobody expects the Numerian Inqusition!""
 * Tuvix commenting that he feels like he's being dragged before the Numerian Inquisition.

"Chuck: Yes, in my world, all Scotsmen sound like pirates."
 * The pivotal scene in Alien: "My chest is just bursting with excitement!"
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: His attempt to replicate Lister's Scouser accent is...well, interesting. Perhaps wisely, with Captain Picard he only imitates his precise way of speaking rather than his accent.
 * And his attempts to do Scotty's accent are more Irish than anything else.
 * Although the British accent he sports for Reed and Bashir is actually fairly spot on in terms of their Received Pronunciation.
 * His take on Scottish accent is self-depreciatingly lampshaded in his review of "Enter Macbeth"

""Now I know what some of you probably want to say. Come on SF Debris. Give it a rest, you're reaching. To which I have two things to say: First, you can call me Chuck, we're all friends here. And I'm fully aware that as a personal name, SF Debris sounds like the secret identity of a Silver Age DC Comics villain.""
 * One of Us: Chuck is an avid Troper.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Subverted in the first part of his review of the Voyager episode "Disease". In response to a rhetorical statement he poses on behalf of the audience:

"Chuck: You know what these people are? They're elves. [They're] smarter, in tune with nature, have greater gifts, live forever, and are white."
 * Only Sane Man: Malcolm Reed on Enterprise, and Tom Paris on Voyager (see Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs? below).
 * The Doctor on Voyager, despite his raging ego frequently comes across this. Particularly his reaction in "Time and Again" to be the last person to know that Kes and Neelix came aboard. And there is now another crew. And Captain Janeway is missing.
 * Worf often served this role, particularly in "Where No One Has Gone Before" where he points out the crew is relying on the guy who got the Enterprise stranded at the edge of the galaxy in the first place to rescue them.
 * Taken further in "Darmok" where he has Worf berate everyone for constantly dismissing his suggestions to shoot the threat, in favour of some highly convoluted plan which only makes things worse, only for them to hypocritically solve the problem by ordering him to shoot them.
 * Operation Blank: Chakotay's plan, "Operation Common Sense". ("Scorpion")
 * He mocks Janeway naming a plan to break into a Borg ship "Operation Fort Knox," as it implies they'll fail. "What were your other choices, 'Operation Titanic,' or 'Operation Enterprise's Fifth Season?'"
 * Ben Sisko's counter-offensive is dubbed "Operation Hammertime".
 * Worf and Riker's "Operation Accomplish Nothing" ("Descent").
 * Opinion Myopia: Really calls this out in his introduction video for the Star Trek the Motion Picture review.
 * Orwellian Editor: Believes Janeway in "Latent Image" ordering all evidence of Ensign Jetal erased from existence actually makers her crazier than his parody of her.
 * After the infamous dune-buggy sequence in "Nemesis", he believes that Picard frequently doctors his official Log entries so that he can continue to make long-winded speeches about the sanctity of the Prime Directive, whilst secretly having Worf "pick dead bits of alien out of his grill".
 * Our Elves Are Better: Chuck references this trope in his review of Insurrection regarding the Ba'ku:


 * Out-of-Character Moment: Notes in "The Bonding", how strange it is that given Picard's long history of interest in archaeology (having almost chosen it as a career over Starfleet), he seemingly has no idea about the archaeological mission that his own ship is taking part in until it's half-underway, then acts completely disinterested when Data explains it to him.
 * In Nemesis, comments on the stupidity of Picard casually breaking the Prime Directive by driving a dune-buggy around on a Pre-Warp world, having Worf laser-gun down a bunch of the attacking locals, before escaping in a shuttle. All this leads him to believe that Picard doctors his Log entries.

Tropes P-R
""Don't bother flipping him over that, Dukat. He's not some nameless character, he's a Special Guest Star. He could survive a fall of at least five stories and get away with only a limp and a clever quip.""
 * Parallel Porn Titles: Deep Throat Nine.
 * Bi-Curious George Meets the Man with the Yellow Hat. (X-Files: "Beyond the Sea")
 * Periphery Demographic: His My Little Pony review mentions that it was requested several times before he realized they weren't kidding.
 * Perfect Pacifist People: Chuck rips into this trope for the Insurrection review, both the "rural perfection" version in the film as well as the older "technological perfection" espoused by Roddenberry. He wonders why the hell everything is so clean if they're so agrarian (technology is to thank for our current concept of "clean", even modern farm work is incredibly dirty); moreso, he wonders how they even managed to kick out the Son'a if they're so "pacifistic" and the Son'a aren't.
 * Pet the Dog: When asked to do a review of a good Voyager episode, he gushed over "The Thaw" - though still taking the time to snark at Harry Kim's questionable sexuality, of course.
 * He quite liked "Projections" from Voyager as well.
 * And he even answered the question of 'what would be a good Enterprise episode?'. The episode "Damage", apparently.
 * The earliest example of Chuck proving he has a soft side was in his review of "The Cloud", where, unprompted, he goes out of his way to praise the cast and director, noting that most of them tried their best and that the terrible writing wasn't their fault.
 * He spares Neelix a Stupid Neelix Moment in "Tattoo", partly because of the Chakotay-focused plot in the episode outdoes Neelix, but also because Neelix's eye was pretty badly hurt.
 * Even gives Braga some kudos in Dark Frontier pointing out that his introduction and handling of Seven's character was actually a very smart move as her character perfectly incorporates some of the best traits of Odo, Spock and Data as well as her own character arc, which is a stark contrast to the usual Static Character you find on Voyager.
 * He also defended Threshold (the short-lived show, not the Voyager episode) which many people had written off purely because Braga was involved with its production.
 * Plot Armor: Directly referenced in "Starship Mine," where a minor character is killed by a phaser blast but Geordi, shot by the same gun, will eventually be fine. "That's why character shields are the most important part of Starfleet's arsenal."
 * Also how we've seen people survive much worst blasts and be fine, whereas Nog got hit once and lost a friggin leg!
 * Plot Immunity: Lampshaded when Dukat threatens to pitch Garak over a railing in Quark's bar. ("In Purgatory's Shadow")

""So don't tell me it Builds. Fucking. Character.""
 * Psychic Nosebleed: From Voyager's episode, "Warlord": Kes, under Demonic Possession by an evil alien warlord, uses her psychic powers to attack one other alien. "As we know, immense psychic powers cause nosebleeds in either those using them or those on the receiving end, and since these guys have six nostrils, it's not a pretty sight."
 * Precision F-Strike: Delivers a rather chilling one at the end of his rant in "Real Life" about what it feels like to almost, or actually, loose a child.

""Jesus you're a complete cun-...-temptible person. (Heavy Breathing) Janeway was obviously a seven-year-long apology by this franchise for season 2, where the entire female gender is represented by someone who didn't get a uniform and had a haircut created created out of a hatred towards life itself.. And you, Doctor... Pulaski, Doctor Pulaski, Doctor Smug-ass Monkey-face Sack-o-Shit! I would try to beat some sense into you, but my parents taught me it was wrong to kick livestock! Your voice, is like the sound of 200lb housefly trying rape a cat! In fact, it's scientifically proven, that every time you open your fat gob a fairy slits its wrists! Your lack of basic humanity is so stunning, I bet polar bears flock to your panty drawer in the desperate hope of surviving global warming!! When Picard accidentally glimpsed you naked, he spent hours screaming there were Five Lights!!!""
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: "Code of Honor:" "Must...resist...urge...to...make sex joke in teaser!...urk...have whole review to make them!"
 * Rant-Inducing Slight: Being exposed to Pulaski's Establishing Character Moment in "The Child," (namely, being a needling, condescending harpy who repeatedly throws casual robot slurs at Data) drives Chuck completely up the wall.
 * Rape as Backstory: Wonders why Tasha Yar barely reacts to her abduction in "Code of Honor", which is completely at odds with the fact she spent most of her childhood dodging rape-gangs.
 * Really Dead Montage: Chuck, believing that Kirk deserved better than what happened to him in Generations, gives him a fitting sendoff -- courtesy of Journey.
 * Following his (latest) death in "Scorpion", we see a montage of Harry Kim's numerous beatings/deaths/humiliations throughout the show as Enya's "Only Time" plays. ...Epic.
 * Not satisfied with Data's rather flat death and lame wake in Nemesis, Chuck throws together a montage of Data dreaming and experiencing human things while the narration of Jor-El from Superman plays.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: From his The Child review, an absolutely epic one for Pulaski.

""Lutan, you understand honor like Neelix understands sex appeal. You've heard of it; you probably think you have it, but buddy, there's not a smidgen of it in your body. Your smile is as warm and inviting as an icewater enema, your so-called 'charm' is so forced and transparent, so clearly septic, I wouldn't be surprised if your voice leaves an oil slick. And your attempts to project authority are nothing of the kind, but of a spoiled child, who's been handed everything in life, expecting to constantly get, and annoyed when it's not given. You do not radiate authority; you ooze self-entitled smugness. A toxic barrage, scientifically proven to be the first, second and third cause of cancer in laboratory rats; which made the scientists cry, because they found the rats more personable than you. And your attempts to be sly? *disgusted laugh* Stop. It's so sickening it gives flu bugs nausea. So, please Harry Potter, wrap yourself in that magic cloak of yours and disappear already. Don't come back out, until you get the secret sign. If you want to know what it is, it's the sight of the sun, swallowing the world.""
 * And even the above was topped by the following for Lutan.

"Uh... What? How did you get from what he said to that? If my boss told me that part of my job required putting on clown shoes and banging cymbals together half an hour a week while running around the parking lot, I'd call it ridiculous and probable punishment too. Just because you find something annoying and stupid doesn't mean you're afraid of failing at it! Lord knows that never stopped the writers of this show from showing up every week to crank out something annoying and stupid. And who the hell is Torres to make that kind of comment? Even ignoring a the fact that she punched a fellow officer and they gave her a frickin' promotion over it, she... oh, what was it? Oh yeah... GOT HER SORRY ASS TOSSED OUT OF THE ACADEMY! Look, you trilobyte-foreheaded twerp, you don't go around accusing people of being afraid that they can't succeed while marinating in the filth of your own shame. Now run along; we want the opinion of someone who doesn't need a tricorder to identify a turd."
 * He delivers one to Torres in "Learning Curve," when she somehow comes to the conclusion that because Dolby finds Starfleet training annoying and dehumanising, he must be afraid of failing it. The explanation is a little longer than the actual "reason you suck" element, but it makes up for this shortness in sheer contempt.

"Oh for God's sakes! You know what? I was willing to cut you some degree of slack before, when you were just reacting to the image in front of you, and you had no time to really process it, but now... (laughs) now, you're just an utter bitch. (Tuts disapprovingly) You know, didn't want to have to do this, didn't want to drag this out and have it seem like I've got it out for you or something, but... I do have this little card I've been keeping in a safe place, with the label "In case of sanctimonious twat, break glass." Why are you on Moya in the first place? Huh? Do you remember that? Oh yeah- you killed a man! You murdered him in cold blood! The reason you're Reverend Treehugger Von Condescension is because, since then, you have changed! You have embraced a new path... WHICH AERYN HAS FRICKIN' DONE! The only difference between the two of you is she was a soldier following orders, and you just figured you'd kill somebody because you thought he'd done something wrong, so you figured you'd pass judgement on him- which I guess just goes to show you haven't changed all that much, have you?"
 * Another speech is deployed in the review of the Farscape episode, "The Way We Weren't", when Zhaan's hypocritical condemnation of Aeryn gets too much for Chuck:

"Well, if you insist...
 * A comparatively mild one for Lwaxana Troi, but still catty. (TNG: "Haven") Best of all, it's kicked off by Lwaxana insisting that humans should say what they think.

I've been with you for mere minutes and I'm already praying for your horrible death in a transporter accident to give you your just end, which I believe will result in a net increase in happiness on a universal level. I am convinced that 4 out of 5 doctors had you listed as the recommended treatment for curing joy, and that's only because the fifth one hanged himself! If I was trapped in a room with only you, Neelix and Okona and had only two bullets, I would shoot MYSELF. When the Bible says 'Love all people', there's an asterisk and a footnote that says " except Lwaxana Troi ." And speaking of Troy, if Helena had looked like you, it would've been the face that launched a thousand ships back home! In short, your philosophy that people should only say what they're thinking is undermined by the fact that you are completely loathsome, marinated in arrogance and heavily seasoned with self-absorbtion, so that the unfiltered slurry that gurgles from your gob unceasingly is a pollutant that I would like to see stopped, either voluntarily, or- by my preference- plugging the source with a grenade.

Thanks for asking."

"Pulaski: She had her baby yesterday. If I were to examine her now, I would not be able to tell she had a baby, or had ever had a baby. It was as if the incident never happened.
 * Reference Overdosed
 * Refuge in Audacity: He admits a grudging admiration for the Voyager episode "Relativity," for being so brazen in its defiance of all logic and sense that it warps around to being quite enjoyable.
 * Relax-O-Vision: For the grimmest parts of Blade Runner and Alien, he puts up a video of two cute kittens wrestling.
 * Reset Button: Voyager lives on this trope, so of course Chuck brings it up, and that's even what he calls it. "The creators of Voyager fear change," as he put it.
 * Spoofed again in "The Child."

Chuck (as Picard): Yes, well, it's your first Star Trek episode, you'll get used to it."

""You may have lost the ship, but at least you still have your dig-- (Picard turns, wearing a goofy faux-Aztec mask) ...ni...ty.""
 * Retcon: Whenever characters say something that demonstrates ignorance of the events of Enterprise, he will imagine the character proclaiming "Jonathan Archer is dead to me/us."
 * Rock Bottom: Ten minutes into reviewing the "Masks" (TNG) episode "Masks", Chuck consoles poor Picard.

"Chuck: [as Picard] What a day. I get beaten up by Soran, accidentally kill Starfleet's greatest hero... I can't imagine how could this day could possibly get any -- the hell?! WHAT THE GOD DAMN HELL HAPPENED WITH THE -- ] ...SHIT!!!"
 * Picard's reaction when he sees the wreckage of the Enterprise-D.

""It could be argued that the events to come would've had even more of an emotional impact if it had been Saavik and not Valeris in the role. However, this can be forgiven because...Valeris is hot.""
 * "It seems like Sisko's lost just about everything; I mean, his ship, his station, his hair...oh crap, and his son, too! Sisko, keep an eye on your pants, someone might try to steal those, too."
 * "Giving Neelix a Bridge station to manage, sigh. That's it, ("Unimatrix Zero") you have officially bottomed out. You can not get any more ridiculous. [Borg Klingon appears] That's it, I'm too old for this shit."
 * Rule of Sexy: Kim Cattrall's replacement of Kirstie Alley in Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country:

"Chuck: Because... because it's Claudia Black, for god's sake! The woman's a hottie with a voice that can cause a man's fly to open by itself!"
 * Why did Crichton decide to unlock Aeryn Sun's restraints and ask her to come with him in the premiere episode of Farscape:

"Chuck: As though it were an evolutionary feature just to prove that God loves fuckin' with atheists."
 * Role Association: Invoked often, usually for Actor Allusion jokes.
 * Rubber Forehead Aliens: Another snark-target that he consistently approaches. Neelix gets the worst of it, being continually referred to as a hedgehog, but the Forehead of the Week is often up for mockery. Such as people who have feathers for hair, guys with six extra nostrils going up their forehead (as in "Warlord"), aliens with "coat-hook" tusks sticking out of their chins, and the inexplicable feature of aliens with a bridge of flesh between their nose and their chin, obstructing their own mouth.

"Evil Clown: I'm afraid!
 * Running Gag: The Magic Meeting Room (name for Voyager's conference room, in which the problem of the week is solved by Ass Pull complete and utter fantasy)
 * "Torres, who cannot identify shit without a tricorder." Literally.
 * Corrected in later reviews. She actually failed to identify manure even with a tricorder.
 * At the end of all Voyager reviews, the final scene of "The Thaw" with the following exchange:

Janeway: I knooooow."

"Caption: No Neelix. Life is good."
 * His various "prizes" handed out at the end of each review, which include:
 * "Janeway Pie" (for when Voyager's autodestruct is used; a reference to her command code, "Janeway Pi-1-1-Alpha")
 * Star Trek III the Search For Spock ended up getting a "Kirk Pie" for the use of Enterprise's autodestruct.
 * "Prime Factors" (VOY) got an honorary prize when Janeway baked a pecan pie.
 * "Burn, Baby, Burn" (for when a shuttlecraft is lost)
 * "Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh?" for whenever they refer to something in Earth's history as "Ancient," regardless of what time period it took place in.
 * "Damn Dirty Mutant" (for when a crewman is subject to Lego Genetics)
 * "20 Dollar Bill" for ethnic cleansing In Space.
 * "Brahma of the Week" goes to creators of new life.
 * "Like Unto An Amoeba" goes to Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
 * "Smack the Hell Up," awarded whenever an annoying character (not necessarily the annoying character) gets what's coming to them.
 * "Unsafe at Any Speed" for stupidly-designed spacecraft.
 * "You CAN Go Home Again", whenever we encounter a place that looks like Earth, either by deliberate design or coincidence.
 * "Cosmic Face Plant" for episodes in which a once-threatening alien species officially becomes a joke.
 * "Lazarus of the Week" (for when a crewman, well, pulls a Lazarus)
 * Tom Paris gets a "Jesus of the Week" for actually managing to raise himself from the dead. Note that that this happened without Alien intervention, advanced technology, or Time Travel being involved. He was dead one minute, then alive the next all by his own doing, hence this exception.
 * Ilia got a "Damn Dirty Mutant Lazarus of the Week" in Star Trek the Motion Picture.
 * And, of course, "Stupid Neelix Moment" (in pretty much every review involving Voyager's resident Alien Scrappy).
 * As a companion gag, he gives a plus one bonus to his "Final Score" for any Voyager episode not featuring Neelix in the episode at all.


 * In a bit of a shocker (or a sign of the Apocalypse), he actually gave the episode "The Disease" (where Harry Kim catches an alien STD) a bonus point for featuring a Neelix moment which advanced the plot in a helpful, non-annoying manner. To paraphrase Chuck, "it was as if Harry had used up the supply of shame in this episode."
 * Since none of the other Trek shows feature a regular character as consistently annoying as Neelix, he resorts to "Annoying Character", for the person who's the most annoying in the episode. Amazingly, Wesley Crusher, the poster child for Creator's Pet, only got this award once so far.
 * '...because Chakotay has always been into (sound of dice rolling) [Insert Interest here]' Examples include 'Paleontology!' and 'a fervent... Anthropologist!'
 * The "Off Button Hypospray" used when Instant Sedation is called for (or even uncalled for), and "the Medical Phaser" for when the OBH isn't sufficient or fatal enough for some hapless soul.
 * In his Season One TNG reviews, he jokes that Picard keeps firing his Chief Engineers at the end of the episode since we rarely saw the same chief engineer twice until they settled on Geordi.
 * Alluding to Seven and Chakotay's Last-Minute Hookup in "Endgame" by noting sarcastically that she clearly wants to hump his brains out some day.
 * Neelix's cooking is entirely capable of destroying Voyager... and alludes to the incident where Neelix almost destroyed the ship with Cheese.
 * Picard's hatred of children, which are repeatedly referred to as his 'greatest nemesis'.
 * "Accidentally" calling the Remans "Orks" before catching himself. Undoubtedly, Chuck's mind was on another movie he'd rather be watching, instead of Star Trek Nemesis.
 * Chuck's overview of the plot of Mass Effect 2 is based mostly around whichever option lets the most people die all around Shepard. His running gag for this is saying, "[insert name]... is... now... DEAD."
 * My God... even Shepard's pet fish aren't safe!
 * FemShep as a frequent target of his Male Gaze. "Those teats, they have weight!"
 * Confabs between Sisko and the other Trek captains. Picard is a long-winded pacifist, Janeway is her typical dastardly self, and Archer is gibbering in a corner.
 * Inverted in "In a Mirror, Darkly": Archer's in charge, with Kirk, Picard, and Sisko all sporting Beards of Evil. In this universe, Janeway (also bearded) is a sweet-tempered hippie.
 * Jake Sisko and Chris Pine's Kirk get in on one of these in the review of "The Visitor". Pine's Kirk gets swiftly beaten up by Shatner's Kirk.
 * In his X-Files reviews, referencing stereotypes about the US state an episode is set in--such as Idaho and potatoes ("Deep Throat") or Wisconsin and cheese ("Fallen Angel").
 * Repeatedly confusing Captain Jack Harkness with "Captain Jack Sparrow."
 * On Voyager, no matter what the medical problem, no-one leaves Sickbay without a "Neck-Thingy".

Tropes S-U
"Dukat: "I suggest you stop this ultracrepidarianism, Weyoun, especially in front of that xanthippe we work for to avoid acting mendaciously."
 * Sanity Slippage Song: Uses Buddy Holly's "Everyday" for the scene in "Unimatrix Zero" where Janeway gets assimilated.
 * Schedule Slip: Magnificently averted. He hasn't missed a scheduled update in ages. Made even more impressive with the transfer of his videos from YouTube to blip.tv; he posts several videos per week, which are either brand new or are completely re-recorded (given the poor sound quality of his older videos), usually with new material added. In August 2011, he posted at the rate of almost one video per day. And the only breaks he takes are scheduled ones.
 * He's only missed two scheduled updates, both due to outside forces, the first from a tornado knocking out power to his house for a few days, the second from some unknown technical glitch on the blip server.
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: At the start of the Night of the Comet review.
 * Screwed by the Lawyers: He notes that his legal experience is basically limited to "not singing Ninety-nine [sic] Luftballons", (which was the dropped intro music of TNG on YouTube).
 * And now, this.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He tries to do this in the "Unimatrix Zero" review after the sight of Neelix running Voyager's science station is followed up by the revelation that two rebel Borg drones have somehow commandeered a Borg Sphere, which is supposed to have a crew of several hundred, if not thousand drones.
 * Screw Yourself: Two Sevens! "Clearly the only way to resolve this paradox is for the two of them to start making out! ..C'mon, right now." ("VOY: Relativity")
 * Serious Business: He reveals while reviewing "Real Life" that his twin sons were born premature, and overcame incredible odds to both be alive and healthy today. So he is quite upset at the episode's trivialization of that horrible situation, saying that people should go through it to build character (especially since the show forgot about it anyway).
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: When Dukat talks to Weyoun and calls him "anhedonic" . Chuck replies "Someone got a word-a-day calendar" then makes up this bit.

Weyoun: "Dukat."

Dukat: "Yes?"

Weyoun: "Your newfound logological hobby is leading to excessive magniloquence, so I assert you circumvent words of a hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian nature.""

"Neelix: This ship is the match of any vessel within a hundred light years, and what do they do with it? Well, uh, let's see if we can't find some space anomaly today that might rip it apart!
 * Shithead Has A Point: From the intro of "The Cloud" review.

Kes: I don't think the captain is an idiot. She cares a great deal about her crew.

Neelix: You don't care a great deal about your crew and introduce them to the specter of death at every opportunity!

Chuck: You know, he may be a shithead, but he's got a point."

"Chuck: We also see the reason for all of Neelix' behavior this episode: see, he thinks that when he stops being able to serve Janeway as a guide, she'll boot him off the ship. (to neelix): What, you mean, just use you until you can no longer serve her, and then cast you aside? Tha--
 * Similar exchange from Fair Trade:

[pause...]

Huh. Fairly astute there, Neelix."

"SF Debris: What versatile radiation: it screws up all the computers, the transporters, and human brains. It slices, it dices, it cuts through a tin can and still slices through a tomato!"
 * Shout-Out: Now with their own page.
 * Shown Their Work: His reviews of Red Dwarf are very well-researched.
 * His review of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic discusses the franchise and Lauren Faust's past works.
 * Not to mention "Doctor Who: Lost in Time", where the first episode, "Wiped, Junked, But Not Forgotten" went very deep into detail concerning the lost episodes of Doctor Who.
 * In his review of Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan, he takes several moments to quote passages from King Lear, Moby Dick, and Paradise Lost, and explains how each story ties into the theme the overall movie. He also explains the history behind how the movie got made.
 * Simple Country Lawyer: "I don't have much legal experience beyond knowing not to sing 99 Luftballoons."
 * Admits in "Darmok" that he's not a linguist, and Noam Chomsky won't even return his calls -- "since that incident with the rice pudding."
 * Sincerity Mode: In contrast to his usual approach, Chuck will occasionally make a point of gushing and talking at length about something he thought was done well, made him think, or just needed a sober explanation with less of the usual humor.
 * Such as the epilogue for the Tapestry review.
 * Or the In The Pale Moonlight Coda.
 * Or the Prime Directive rant.
 * Maybe even the Passing Through Gethsemane Coda.
 * And the dedication to Elizabeth Sladen at the end of the Seeds of Doom review.
 * Also, in the the Real Life review, when he compares the death of the Doctor's dying (holographic) daughter, to his own experience of almost losing his twin boys.
 * Slices, Dices, and Makes Julienne Fries: Spoofed the line in the Projections review, when "kinoplasmic radiation" is used to justify or Hand Wave almost every plot development.

"Chuck: Once again I will use the words 'magnetic balls' to show that I'm not anyone special myself."
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Invoked when he accuses Star Trek Nemesis director Stuart Baird of this; Baird, at the time a well-regarded editor and fledgling action director, continually got LeVar Burton's name wrong (he called him Laverne). Burton, who has many talents and has been recognized for all of them, is highly esteemed by his peers and beloved by fans, and is an all-around nice guy, certainly did not deserve that treatment. As Chuck himself points out, it's basic courtesy and Baird should never have done it more than once.
 * There's an added wrinkle that Chuck doesn't actually mention: Rick Berman wanted LeVar to direct, but Paramount went over his head to install Baird as director. In effect, Burton was being mistreated by the man who basically stole his job. No wonder he's more than happy to lay all the blame for the movie's failure at the guy's feet.
 * Smug Snake: Chuck portrays Lutan from "Code of Honor" as a particularly unlikable Smug Snake, with every attempt to by Lutan to project authority and confidence failing and instead coming off as an entitled, childish, obnoxious idiot.
 * Something Completely Different: His review of Mass Effect 2. The first time he ever reviewed a video game (it was actually a full-length annotated playthrough, followed by his usual detailed analysis).
 * So Okay It's Average: Declared this In-Universe of Star Trek III the Search For Spock.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: A common tactic of his, especially in his otherwise more "serious" videos, to remind everyone not to take him or what he says too seriously.

""Which lumps the NX-01 into this group, too. Though I suppose you could argue the Titanic has become a legend.""
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: When Eddington asks Sisko for a "rousing" song before they head into battle, Chuck inserts the Piña Colada Song.
 * Janeway blowing up the Caretaker array to the accompaniment of Deliverance-stlye banjo music.
 * So Was X: His retort to a TNG Admiral's assertion that "for 500 years, every ship that has borne the name of the Enterprise has become a legend! This one is no different."

""You know, the VILLAIN!""
 * When reminded that Insurrection is supposed to be 'lighthearted and fun'' Chuck's rejoinder is that the last person who tried to combine Moral Dilemma + Lighthearted and Fun was the Clown in "The Thaw."

""I'm sure Ed Wood thought Plan 9 from Outer Space was brilliant, too.""
 * Michael Pillar was convinced that LeVar Burton should have took his Raymond Chandler parody with avian-headed femme fatales and cops and submitted it for Emmy consideration.

""Normally in the Opinionated Guides, we defend the assholes, douchebags, and general antagonists when, objectively speaking, their behavior is understandable given the collection of starry-eyed, clicky, sugar-coated dogmatic zealots that they wind up going up against. But there is no defending [Bruce Maddox].""
 * Space Jews: Takes a hammer to the concept in his Mass Effect 2 review - or at least, the idea that the batarians match to Arabs because we've seen a lot of batarian terrorists and there was one batarian religious fanatic.
 * Special Effects Failure: In discussing the "big fight" at the end of Nemesis, he reminds us that we've seen bigger on Deep Space Nine, which obviously had nowhere near the budget of a big-screen action flick.
 * Spell My Name with a "The": He claims that the real reason why the Prophets call Ben Sisko "The Sisko" is his memetic badassness.
 * Spot the Thread: In his "Unreality" month where he reviewed episodes where reality and fantasy were warping into one another, he finds a common theme. "You may have thought you could fool us, hallucination, but you make the same mistake all the other hallucinations have made. You made Chakotay too lifelike, a dead giveaway!"
 * The Stoic: Chakotay is interpreted as "half Native American, half tree" as a gag on Robert Beltran's sometimes wooden acting.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: A rich, gold-filled in-universe vein of snark for his reviews of Star Trek episodes. SF Debris is able to spot these from a mile away.
 * So when Bruce Maddox of the Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man" wasn't this trope, he made sure to point it out.

"RDM: You know I'm a sucker for dark corridors and phones with cords on them. Hell, I could do a whole series on that!"
 * Hell, he even gives Neelix his due. "You don't care a great deal about your crew and then introduce them to the specter of death at every opportunity!"
 * Stealth Pun: In the "Body and Soul," he describes pon farr as "the need to do the Vulcan salute without the ring finger." Which would look a little something like this.
 * Stupid Evil: This is his main complaint about the Mirror Universe episodes of Enterprise; everyone's so busy backstabbing each other that it's a wonder anything gets done.
 * Take a Third Option: Neelix gives us the chestnut of "When the road before you splits into two, take the third path." Chuck responds, "The third path...would be back the way you came."
 * Take That: A writer's room reenactment of Ronald D. Moore. ("Genesis")

"Chuck: In my experience, the first impulse is to start forwarding irrelevant shit to my email."
 * For Vulcans, a repressed memory can cause brain damage until the patient tries to lobotomize himself. "Kind of like what happens when you watch an Uwe Boll film."
 * Fed up with the pomposity of first-season TNG in "The Neutral Zone," where the show tells us acquiring things is evil, he points out that it still costs a pretty penny to collect the show on DVD, and that even Gene Rodenberry himself has ripped people off in the past (he cites an incident where Gene wrote unused lyrics for the original Star Trek theme so he could get part of the credit, and thus part of the royalties). "And yet, what a perfect metaphor for 20th century Communism! Taking the credit for the people who do the actual work, all while spouting party doctrine!"
 * Chuck also snarkily points out how ironic it was that the Voyager episode "Dark Frontier" had the crew engage in piracy, while the DVD had a label against it. This is definitely a Take That against YouTube who took down his videos.
 * Any given episode has a 50% chance of having one against either Voyager or Enterprise.
 * When O'Brien notes in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" that Bashir could annoy hundreds of people he's never met if he becomes the template for a medical hologram, Chuck says it's like being Justin Bieber.
 * When Spock's brain is stolen, Bones gives his prognosis as worse than death. "He's in Transformers 3, Jim!"
 * "Oh, that's not fair. As if anyone watches Torchwood!" [cut to "SLAM" in graffiti]
 * "The Outcast" (TNG) presents us with a world of genderless beings. Kinda like a world of bisexuals. "It's like Torchwood, where your choices are either bisexual or Welsh."
 * While examining how the language in "Darmok" could work, he brings up how people can instinctively perform actions without thinking about the words that go with them, like braking when you see someone in the road..."unless it's Rick Berman."
 * Chakotay/Seven - "The kind of hot, steamy romance science fiction has been known for since Attack of the Clones."
 * Provides a subtle Stealth Insult towards the infamous endings of Mass Effect 3. Kirk, in "The City On the Edge Of Forever," wonders what if he tried changing history again with the Guardian to get a different ending. The only difference is that everything is blue-lit instead of red-lit.
 * VOY: "Ex Post Facto": "Not since Double Jeopardy have I seen such a ludicrous concept with the window dressing of a legal thriller."
 * Chuck relates the story of why the Xenomorph was designed as a collection of dicks and teeth. "It was this or the Penny Arcade guys, really."
 * Take That, Audience!: "Masks": "What does it feel like...when a person is losing his mind?"

"Chuck: Poor people, having to put up with this hobby taking over... *yells offscreen* Get out! I told you, I am NOT playing, I am working!"
 * Take That Me: Jokes in his review of "Rose" that Clive's obsession with the Doctor has caused even Clive's own family to think he's an internet lunatic.

"Doctor: As far as I know, Captain, you haven't executed any of my patients. (cut to Tuvix being killed)"
 * Taking You with Me: Duly notes that Neelix - who was indignant at being told to wear a safety harness earlier (expert climber that he is) - immediately grabs onto Torres' legs when he takes a tumble, nearly killing both of them.
 * Talks Like a Simile
 * The Tape Knew You Would Say That: "Author, Author", which features a Holonovel that Chuck wryly describes as "What happens if you watch my show and then try to write a Voyager episode".

"Q: I think you've discovered my one hidden virtue."
 * In "Death Wish", Janeway lauds Q for his honesty. This calls for a Stupid Statement Dance Mix, Fleetwood Mac-style!

""They've clearly gone out of their way with all this stuff to not have that sixties-era feel to it, instead be a timeless piece of-- [cue Bones, with a full beard and wearing a giant medallion over his all-white Jedi robe] --the hell??!"
 * Techno Babble: The secret is to take two scientific terms and mash them together, even if you don't know what they mean. He then gives some examples, while stating what they actually would be.
 * A Berserk Button of his seems to be pressed when Voyager's Technobabble isn't even consistent with itself, which unfortunately happens a lot.
 * He also goes out on a limb and says that Technobabble goes against basic good television if you lean too heavily on it.
 * Tempting Fate: On Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

"[cut to Chiana & Rygel behind a steamed porthole, with Rygel's hand pressed against the glass]
 * Aeryn Sun cranking up the Aurora Chair to eleven, leaving Crais screaming in agony. "Ouch," Chuck winces, "I really can't imagine anything worse."

"''AAUUUGH--!!' Damn my imagination!""

"Chuck: "That's brilliant justice, taking a page from Solomon there! Who are you?
 * His response to a homeless bum settling a dispute over stolen bread... by breaking the bread in half. ("Daleks in Manhattan")

Bum #1: "I'm starvin', Solomon!"

Chuck: " oh, this is gonna be a long day. ""

"Kim:It's...debris...
 * Testosterone Poisoning: When Sisko, Spock and Kirk were in the same frame in "Trials and Tribble-ations" Chuck claims that his computer froze up and nearly broke as though it sensed the sheer awesomeness of that situation.
 * Theme Song: One for every series, and one for the movies, most of them being Real Song Theme Tunes (though Red Dwarf, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Flash Gordon, and The X-Files  use their own respective themes), generally dating from the same era, and usually with some thematic connection to their respective series:
 * Voyager: "Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky)" by Roxette.
 * Enterprise: "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down.
 * The Second Part of the Mirror Universe episode opens with "Kryptonite" played backwards.
 * TNG: "99 Red Balloons" by Nena.
 * Chuck used "Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky)" on the last few TNG reviews that were posted to YouTube, after they started disabling the audio on some of the TNG videos with "99 Red Balloons."
 * For the episode "Darmok", about a culture with an inscrutable language barrier, he naturally uses the original German version of the song instead.
 * Deep Space Nine: "The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena McKennitt.
 * For the DS9 episode Sacrifice Of Angels he added the theme from Blazing Saddles as a closing theme tune.
 * TOS: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as covered by, of course, William Shatner.
 * Trek Movies: "It's A Jungle Out There" by Randy Newman. (♪ You better pay attention, cause this world we love so much might - just - kill - yoooouuuu.... ♪)
 * Though for Nemesis he switched it with a Shout-Out to Patrick Stewart's speech in Oblivion, complete with its theme music.
 * TAS: "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos.
 * Doctor Who: "Good Lovin'", though a variation of the Doctor Who theme played during the Cyberman episodes from The Moonbase.
 * Night of the Comet: "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany.
 * Sunshine: "I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff
 * The Dark Knight: "All Along The Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix
 * Farscape: "Adiemus" by Karl Jenkins.
 * The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers: "People Ain't No Good", performed by Nick Cave.
 * Mass Effect - "Don't Fear the Reaper" by ~Blue Öyster Cult~.
 * The trailer is even better. "I'm a blonde single girl in a fantasy world..."
 * Twin Peaks: "Way Back Home" by Bing Crosby.
 * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel.
 * For the trailer, "Hero" by Nickelback. Wait, wait, come back, it works!
 * Firefly: "Ride the Wind" by Poison.
 * Blade Runner: "Who Made Who" by ACDC.
 * Threshold: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan.
 * The Man From Earth: What else? "Who Wants to Live Forever?" by Queen!
 * Alien: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One of his major in-universe peeves against Voyager, as he often points out where it actually has some good, original ideas, but utterly fails to do anything worthwhile with them, such as in "The 37's", "Alliances" and "Waking Moments".
 * He claims that a key difference between ~So Bad It's Good~ and ~DarthWiki/So Bad It's Horrible~ is that the latter embodies this trope.
 * Chuck repeatedly mentions that Seven of Nine was a great character who was wasted in Voyager, as a Borg would become Human over the course of a season instead of being forced to have Humanity thrust upon her would have given her far more character development.
 * Also thinks removing Kes was a waste of the character, particularly as this could have created an interesting love triangle between Tom, B'elanna and Kes. Even more so that in "Year of Hell" where her knowledge of the future from "Before and After" could come into play, would she hesitate in warning B'elanna to step away from the console that was going to kill her?
 * This Is Gonna Suck: In his review of "Daleks in Manhattan," a character who acts like King Solomon is actually named Solomon causes Chuck to have this reaction.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball: Not a big fan of this trope in Star Trek First Contact when discussing the Borg using time travel to assimilate Earth and why the good guys don't use it more often. "And before anyone tries to bring the whole parallel reality argument in...don't. If that's true, then it invalidates when it IS used. You can't have it both ways, that the only time that it works just the right way is when the plot says that it's okay and the rest of the time you can't use it. Look, all I ask is that you be consistent with your nonsense, okay?"
 * Title Drop: "Why it's...dare I say it...a swarm! Maybe even The Swarm."
 * Meta-Title Drop during the review of the Voyager episode Real Life when the crew makes a shocking discovery while attempting to visit a space station.

Chakotay: Debris?

Chuck: Yes, it's meeee!! You guys are sooooo screeeeewed..."

"[clutches head] "Agh! I shouldn't have drunk that Sacred Smoothie so quickly!""
 * To the Bat Noun: Chakotay's Sacred [insert noun here].

"Chuck (on the Q story arc): We've gone through the good (clip of "Q Who?") the bad (clip of "Hide and Q") and the ugly...
 * Toilet Humour: Done with the aid of an abrupt cut between two unrelated clips here:

Pakled: We look for things. Things that make us go.

Worf: Prune juice, extra large!"

"Tuvok: A particularly nice sign of dickishness from a man who has over three times the strength of the people he's leading."
 * Too Dumb to Live: This is pretty much the modus operandi of the cast on Enterprise. It's rare for an Enterprise review to go without Chuck commenting on at least one Too Dumb to Live moment (Almost always from Archer, with Trip taking most other incidents).
 * Of particular note is the instance where Archer engages in some convoluted plan, which involves getting the shit beaten out of him, to figure out where some holes in the wall lead to. This plan is apparently preferred to the simpler plan of... looking through the holes.
 * Reaches a head Nemesis, where he points out that the only reason that the Enterprise crew isn't destroyed out of their own stupidity is because Shinzon is even more incompetent.
 * Points out that Linnis, Kes' daughter, could quickly tell Kes her brilliant plan to keep her in the present, but instead stands and gawps helplessly while she quantum leaps back in her own timeline. Congratulations Linnis, you now have been responsible for erasing yourself from existence.
 * In Blade Runner, he notes how stupid it was to make soldiers out of slaves.
 * Neelix in "Q2", when he taunts the temporarily depowered "Harry Potter" by refusing to shut up, as revenge for Q's son having used his powers to previously remove both his mouth and vocal chords. Chuck points out the stupidity of taunting a Demigod that will get his powers back in a week.
 * Took The Bad Episode Seriously: An in-universe Lampshade Hanging. Gives props to Robert Duncan McNeill in "Threshold" who is clearly acting his ass off... while doing so under pulsating head-lung lizard makeup and in an episode so awful that it that actually became Canon Discontinuity.
 * Another example from the original series: Chuck praises DeForest Kelley and his ability to deliver the most ridiculous dialogue with utter sincerity in "Spock's Brain".
 * Training From Hell: Notes that Tuvok's attempts to put the Maquis through their paces in "Learning Curve" makes him come off as a massive jerkass, especially when he makes them run a 10 kilometre lap, with full packs and the gravity turned up 10%.

"Sfdebris: Man, when Ten breaks shit, he really breaks shit, doesn't he?"
 * Translation Train Wreck: In his review of the episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" he translates the lyrics of "La donna è mobile" using the Babylon 8 translation software resulting in this trope. Apperantly the song is about furniture.
 * Trash the Set: In his review of the "Eleventh Hour", he notes that due to the Tenth Doctor's violent regeneration, Eleven can't use the still-rebuilding TARDIS, but at least he still has his ever-faithful sonic screwdriver, right? Cue it promptly exploding.

""Kes comes in to see Tuvok and, after a couple of minutes, Tuvok decides he'll try that plan of Harry's. There's a thing TV Tropes calls Unfortunate Implications, and this seems to apply here: The only thing stopping the black guy and the Asian guy from beating each other up are white women.""
 * True Art Is Incomprehensible: Acknowledges this trope when discussing David Lynch and surrealists in general. In his opinion, what separates Lynch from the others is that he doesn't fall into this trope: all of his surreality seems to serve a higher purpose.
 * Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: Referenced in a review, regarding Unfortunate Implications.

"Janeway: "Tuvok! Bring me some coffee!"
 * When he finally awarded the first ever 10 to a Voyager episode ("Life Line") the video caption noted to "Alert TV Tropes!" in order to update the entry that would be affected by that score (and which, in light of said review, became obsolete and was subsequently deleted).
 * His review of Flash Gordon references a large number of tropes by name, and the general approach to the review is in line with the feel of this website, all the way up to, and including... Brian Blessed!
 * Twofer Token Minority: Parodied along with Executive Meddling in his review of "The Naked Now," where one (hypothetical) moronic executive thinks Geordi is wearing the visor because he's gay, making him gay, black, AND blind.
 * Even funnier, the dumb executive is portrayed by an image of Rick Berman. (The guy who fired Ron Jones. Make of that what you will...)
 * Undying Loyalty: Suggests that Janeway has slowly brainwashed a sense of this into Tuvok.

Tuvok: "But captain, I'm trying to hold this cable to stop the lift with my family in it from plummeting to their-"

Janeway: "Tuvok! Do you actually expect me to get up and walk over there?"

Tuvok: "...No, of course not captain. I'm sorry for being selfish."

Janeway: "I'll punish you later, coffee now!""


 * Unfortunate Names: The Next Generation writer Melinda Snodgrass, incorrectly referred to by Chuck as "Melissa".
 * Chuck can't help but laugh when the, uh, "proper pronunciation" of Chakotay's name by Torres sounds exactly like Chocolate Day. "CHOCOLATE DAAAAAAAY!"
 * Uriah Gambit: A running gag that Picard almost letting slip that he intentionally sent Jack Crusher to his death so he could get Beverley in the sack.

Tropes V-Z
""Now let me put this in perspective. This is a souped-up version of the ship that nearly assimilated the entire Federation. In straight-up combat, that ship, a regular cube, was only defeated thanks to an armada, and unique insight into its vulnerabilities on a moment-by-moment basis. Now THIS ship (shows picture of Super Cube), is the one that the Borg deploys when they decide that Shit Just Got Real. THIS is when the Borg get deadly serious about fighting. (Janeway says that they're going to infiltrate the ship) Oh for god's sakes.""
 * Values Dissonance: Star Trek may have been Fair for Its Day, but Chuck uncomfortably points out how most of the Star Trek the Original Series original episodes he's reviewed have been unkind to women (with depictions of them as crazed and emotionally fragile).
 * Not to mention legally barred from captaining a starship in the 23rd century. In a story that Gene Roddenberry came up with, so you can't just say it was another writer who didn't understand his vision. This becomes Fridge Logic when Enterpise has a woman as the Captain of the second NX-class ship.
 * Verbal Tic: He personally acknowledges one of them - prefacing rhetorical questions with the phrase "You might ask" - during his "The Nth Degree" review.
 * Viewers are Morons: Usually inverted. For instance, in the first review of "Threshold" posted to YouTube, Chuck likens the phlebotnium that makes the episode's storyline possible (namely a type of dilithium that allows travel at infinite speed) to being able to buy a type of gasoline that would let you drive a corvette at light speed. In the version posted to blip.tv however, the analogy is replaced with a lengthy discussion of the mathematics that make it impossible to achieve light speed, much less infinite speed.
 * Villain Ball: Points out in the Mirror Universe Enterprise episode that everyone suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder to the point that most of their problems are a result of it, and marvels at the fact the eventual collapse of their empire comes from reform instability rather than the blatantly self-destructive way it's run.
 * Villain Decay: One of his big complaints about the Borg in "Unimatrix Zero," which shows two much smaller and weaker ships attacking an upgraded Borg Cube.

""Tall stranger, you are the wind beneath my wings.""
 * Villain Protagonist: By his reckoning, Captain Kathryn Janeway.
 * Voodoo Shark: Coined the trope in his review of the Voyager episode, "The Cloud".
 * Walking Disaster Area: His version of Commander Shepard, appropriately named Shiva Shepard.
 * Waxing Lyrical: Just listen to his "Mwu ha ha!!" when Neelix's lungs are stolen.

""That's for sure. And he's...dancing like he's never danced before."
 * "Crais is a maniac."

""Een heaven there eez no beer! That's vhy vee drink eet here!""
 * Londo singing the No Beer Polka.

"Chuck : The script makes numerous comparisons to Earth:
 * We Could Have Avoided All This: Closes out the ST: Nemesis review by wishing Wesley had been the archvillain instead. "THAT would've put asses in seats!"
 * What Could Have Been: He reviewed Star Trek Insurrection. He ripped it apart. However, at the start of part 4, he theorized about an internal conflict among the crew, with each character having different motivations which conflict with the rest, causing a rift between them. If this had actually been in the film, it would have been greatly improved.
 * In a video dedicated to Kes, he theorizes that had her character arc been better planned out, she could have been an effective "River from Firefly" type character.
 * In his review of Star Trek (2009) he points out that Nero was far more fleshed-out and sympathetic in the comic book tie-in to the film. He points out Nero could have been the most compelling Trek villain since Khan, and gives a chilling monologue regarding the villain's motivations, finishing with a lament that instead of an effective villain, Nero's lack of on-screen development put him across as some "emo with a trident."
 * In response to a bogus rumor that Edward James Olmos was considered for the part of Janeway, Chuck ruminates that we'd see "a lot more of Neelix being bludgeoned with a flashlight, so that's one serious loss we've suffered." The VOY premiere would have doubled as the Series Finale, with the crew getting home immediately after throwing the Kazons Out the Airlock.
 * What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: References this trope several times when reviewing Gargoyles, in particular how it averts Never Say "Die". Also comes up in his Clone Wars review.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Chuck puts up trailers for his reviews on YouTube. The Star Trek trailers are set to the sweeping orchestral theme of Star Trek the Next Generation. This leads to moments such as listening to this iconic fanfare while watching Archer stare at his dog.
 * WTH? Casting Agency: Invoked while discussing the decision the director of "Code of Honor" made to cast the aliens of the week entirely with African-Americans:

Data: That is from an obscure language known as French.

Picard: ...and [the Ligonian society's] unique similarity to an ancient Earth culture we all admire. On behalf of the Federation, therefore, I would like to present this token of our gratitude and friendship, from China's Song Dynasty.

Data: For example, what Lutan did is similar to what certain American-Indians once did, called "Counting Coup."

Chuck : So, of course... the director interpreted this to mean that everybody was black."

"Chuck: [Worf baritone] "It was the 'hitting them' part that I was having trouble with.""
 * What Measure Is A Non Minbari: In "Meet John Sheridan" he chews out the Minbari for launching a genocidal war against humanity over a simple cultural misunderstanding, refusing to accept Humanity's unequivocal surrender and then having the gall to be offended that the sole human victory of the war occured when John Sheridan managed to actually blow up one of their ships.
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?/Hypercompetent Sidekick: "Wait, so Let Me Get This Straight...: so Tom Paris not only flies the ship, the most important shuttle missions, is the field medic/assistant to the Doctor, has 24th century lock-picking ability... he's also a commando. Oh! And let's not forget he once designed an engine that goes to infinity. And this is the guy Starfleet doesn't want?"
 * Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Classic television mistake: handing a highly-breakable cup to a psychic. "Thanks, demons from the beyond!"
 * This also appears to be Dooku's complaint when Sidious tells him to kill Asajj Ventress.
 * Why We're Bummed Communism Fell: "The first half of The Nineties largely reflected this realization that the world was no longer what we thought it'd be, from the decline of the military industrial complex, to who should be the default bad guys in fiction."
 * Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Refers to this in the Voyager episode "Faces", where he points out that the intelligent, believable way the characters were written in that episode makes it possible to accept that the episode's entire premise hinges on the absurd plot point that the Vidiians can somehow split one person into two fully-formed and fully-grown people.
 * The Worf Effect: Worf seems to have finally overcome this in "By Inferno's Light", laying out 10 Jem'Hadar in a row.

""It's hard to imagine anyone would do something like this, without being deliberate gross negligence, like they have a sign up somewhere celebrating 428 days without a workplace apocalypse.""
 * Chuck theorizes that the reason for this trope's existance is that Worf's commanding officers in Star Trek the Next Generation are such pantywaists that they keep hampering his efforts while giving the enemies time to prepare.
 * X Days Since...: The poor safety record of an entire moon in Star Trek VI is mocked.

""He's some asshole in a puffy shirt, but everyone acts like he's equal parts Han Solo, James Bond, and Robin Hood -- when he's really equal parts Keanu Reeves, Pauly Shore, and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury.""
 * X Meets Y: Okona is truly outrageous. Contagious. Okona's his name, no one else is the same.

"Chuck: Hope you're wearing latex contacts if you're going to keep eye-humping her like that Lt. "Family-Man"!"
 * You Can't Handle the Parody: Inserted into Dukat's rant in "Waltz."
 * You Might Remember Me From: Brad Dourif, who "you might remember from Voyager, where he was a killer. ...Or Babylon 5 where he was a killer. ...Or The Lord of the Rings where he betrayed people and then killed them."
 * Hey kids, it's Mark Sheppard! "Great chance to talk about this performer in a rare appearance in a work of science fiction!"
 * You Monster!: Notes the sheer horror of Janeway's actions in "Tuvix", where she forcibly executes Tuvix, who literally goes from person to person begging to be allowed to live. Besides the Doctor, everyone simply stands there and does nothing.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Calls Past!Carey out for hitting on Seven in "Relativity" despite the fact that we later learn he's got a wife and two kids.

"''"I'm afraid!"

"I knooooooooooow."''"