SF Debris: Difference between revisions

 

== Tropes A-C ==

* [[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 ''[[Star Trek First Contact (Film)|First Contact]]'' review, which is almost entirely pointing out plot holes and snarking, yet ends with a score of 8/10.

** 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 [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|skinjobs]]!

** Stoned [[Seth Green]]: "For a minute I thought [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|I'd turned into a werewolf!]]"

** Bashir and O'Brien find Hannibal Barca to be very familiar looking.

[cut to Harry shrieking as a spike impales his chest]<br />

"Ahhh, much better. [[Loves the Sound of Screaming|Like the crash of waves and the call of seagulls]]..." }}

** 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.

* [[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...

{{quote| ''How sad is it that the master villain's name is derived from sarcasm!''}}

* [[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<ref>Or at least the worst long-term writer, since the third season of TOS and the first two seasons of TNG had a lot of writers who showed up, churned out one really awful script, and then were never heard from again</ref> ever to have worked on ''Trek'', but a loathsome human being as well[[hottip:*:Due to the misogynistic overtones in several of his scripts, plus his alleged conduct toward Gates McFadden, which we [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|won't delve into any further]]. 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.

** 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 [[Unfortunate Implications|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 Artifact|ancient Bajoran artifact]], [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right|travels back in time]], plants a bomb [[Killer Rabbit|inside a tribble]], stashes it [[Complexity Addiction|inside a grain silo]], and [[We Wait|waits for Kirk]] to [[Booby Trap|walk directly under it]].

* [[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 [[Unfortunate Implications|wonderful things]] with vegetables!" ("[[Caption Humor|Do not want]].")

{{quote| "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?'"}}

* [[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.

{{quote| '''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 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.

** Referring to a specific medical device (known in canon as a "cortical monitor") as a "neck thingy".

{{quote| "Because by God, nobody comes into Sick bay and leaves without a neck thingy!"}}

* [[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 (Film)|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]''.

{{quote| '''Picard:''' Commander, signal the following in all languages and on all frequencies -- ''"We surrender."''<br />

'''Chuck:''' Make of that what you will. }}

* [[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 Off for Real|killed him off]] this time.

{{quote| ''At this point the turbolift opens, revealing [[Cowboy Cop|a cop-on-the-edge who doesn't play by the rules]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|a greedy corporate big-wig looking to get rich]] by poisoning the water supply, and [[Uncle Tomfoolery|a skinny black guy]] whose job it is [[Jive Turkey|to say "Dayymn!" and refer to "My black ass!"]]''}}

** 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 [[Red Shirt|goldshirt]] to change his uniform because "he's playing with fire!"

* [[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 [[Viewers Are Geniuses|the viewer is expected]] to already know the context of the scene anyway.

* [[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.

** 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.

{{quote| '''[[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.}}

{{quote| "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."}}

* [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]]: Or at least it's inferior to [[Pirate|real piracy]], due to how great they look in puffy shirts.

** 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".

* [[Double Entendre]]: An absolute ''master'' of this, often utilizing either Star Trek jargon, [[Catch Phrase|Catchphrases]], or [[Call Back|Call Backs]].

{{quote| He needs to, oh, find the nearest Chief Engineer and "tap her warp core".<br />

'''Picard''': Yeah, I figured that when they were [[Trash the Set|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! }}

** Not that Picard is any better, considering his love of callously violating the Prime Directive whilst driving a Dune-Buggy.

* [[Dying Dream]]: Invoked as an alternative to the fan hypothesis that Picard never leaves the Nexus in ''[[Star Trek Generations (Film)|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.

** "The Andorian Incident" gave us "Vulcan Bitch" and "Colin the Andorian" (so called because of his resemblance to [[Whose Line Is It Anyway|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?").

** Refers to Voyager's [[Token Evil Teammate|resident sociopath]] crew member as "[[The Sociopath|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".

{{quote| '''Riker''': Gaze upon me, the world's biggest douchebag! }}

* [[Good Is Dumb]]: Actually, because the [[Mirror Universe]] inverts everything, it becomes "evil is dumb".

** 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!"

** 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 [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Admiral Thrawn]].'

** In his re-upload of ''In the Pale Moonlight'', he [[Fandom Nod|acknowledges]] that he loves making [[Memetic Badass|Sisko is a badass]] jokes.

{{quote| "Oh my god, that's... I didn't know Yeoman Chambers could that! ..And I ''really'' didn't know [[Robosexual|Legion could do THAT]]. Well, [[Brick Joke|no wonder he's dancing all the time]]."}}

* [[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 ''<nowiki>~2001: A Space Odyssey~</nowiki>''. He has to reboot in the same manner as ''[[Robo Cop]]'' to resume the review.

* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: [[Defied Trope]] in his review of ''[[Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (Film)|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.

* [[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 [[Continuity Snarl|lose their forehead ridges]]."

** 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 "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S1 E1 Rose|Rose]]" who runs a Doctor-sighting website out of his suburban home.

** In "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S31 E01 The Eleventh Hour|The Eleventh Hour]]", a plea for tolerance.

{{quote| "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!!'''}}

** "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-- <small>[[Where I Was Born and Razed|he burned it.]]</small>"

* [[I Call It Vera]]: Chuck let slip he refers to his laptop as "Ruby".

* [[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.

* [[Improbably High IQ]]: In his review of ''The Nth Degree" after Barclay claims to have an IQ of 1200-1450:

{{quote| '''[[SF Debris]]:''' That sounds about right, [[On a Scale From One To Ten|on a scale of 1 to you have no idea what IQ is, do you?]]}}

{{quote| (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?''<br />

''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!'' }}

* [[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.

{{quote| "All I ask is that you be ''consistent'' with your bullshit."}}

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Chuck''': Is there a medication for what you're on, Archer?}}

** 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.

** 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 [[Can't Argue With Elves|the Ba'ku]] (''ST: Insurrection'').

** In his special video about the Prime Directive, he reflects that discussing the Prime Directive would still be nerdy even if he did it [[Testosterone Poisoning|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.

** Also uses this exact phrase at the end of his ''[[Star Trek Nemesis (Film)|Star Trek Nemesis]]'' review, referring to how the creators of that movie effectively [[Franchise Killer|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.

* [[Not Making This Up Disclaimer]]: "[[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|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 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.

* [[Only Known By Their Nickname]]: Subverted in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXHNTuxflws the first part] of his review of the ''Voyager'' episode "Disease". In response to a rhetorical statement he poses on behalf of the audience:

{{quote| "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."}}

** 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.

* [[Operation Blank]]: Chakotay's plan, "Operation Common Sense". ("Scorpion")

** Ben Sisko's counter-offensive is dubbed "Operation [[MC Hammer|Hammertime]]".

** Worf and Riker's "Operation Accomplish Nothing" ("Descent").

* [[Orwellian Editor]]: Believes Janeway in "Latent Image" ordering all evidence of Ensign Jetal ''erased from existence'' actually makers her ''[[Up to Eleven|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 [[Patrick Stewart Speech|long-winded speeches]] about the sanctity of the Prime Directive, whilst secretly having Worf "[[Drives Like Crazy|pick dead bits of alien]] [[Car Fu|out of his grill]]".

* [[Our Elves Are Better]]: Chuck references this trope in his review of ''Insurrection'' regarding the Ba'ku:

{{quote| '''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.}}

** 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 [[Alternate Character Interpretation|believe]] that Picard [[Orwellian Editor|doctors his Log entries]].

 

* [[Parallel Porn Titles]]: ''Deep Throat Nine''.

** ''[[Curious George|Bi-Curious George Meets the Man with the Yellow Hat]].'' (''X-Files'': "Beyond the Sea")

* [[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.

{{quote| "Don't bother flipping him over that, Dukat. He's not some [[Red Shirt|nameless character]], he's a [[Fake Guest Star|Special Guest Star]]. He could survive a fall of at least five stories and get away with only a limp and a clever quip."}}

* [[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 [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|these guys have six nostrils]], it's not a pretty sight."

{{quote| "So don't tell me it '''Builds. ''Fucking''. Character.'''"}}

* [[Punctuated for Emphasis]]: "Code of Honor:" "Must...resist...urge...to...make sex joke in teaser!...urk...have whole review to make them!"

* [[Rape As Backstory]]: Wonders why Tasha Yar [[Angst What Angst|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 (Music)|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 (Film)|Superman]]'' plays.

{{quote| "Jesus you're a complete [[Curse Cut Short|cun-]][[Beat|...]]-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 [[Big Creepy Crawlies|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 [[Brain Bleach|glimpsed you naked]], [[Go Mad From the Revelation|he spent hours screaming there were]] ''[[Continuity Nod|Five Lights!!!]]''"}}

** And even the above was topped by the following for Lutan.

* [[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.

* [[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."

**** ''[[Star Trek III the Search For Spock (Film)|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.

*** "[[Notable Commercial Campaigns|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]])

*** "Lazarus of the Week" (for when a crewman, well, pulls a [[Contractual Immortality|Lazarus]])

**** Tom Paris gets a "Jesus of the Week" for actually managing to raise ''himself'' from the dead. Note that that this happened without [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Alien intervention]], [[Applied Phlebotinum|advanced technology]], or [[Time Travel]] being involved. He was dead one minute, then alive the next all by his own doing, hence this exception.

*** 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.

{{quote| '''Caption:''' No Neelix. Life is good.}}

**** 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."

** '...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 [[Healing Shiv|Medical Phaser]]" for when the OBH isn't sufficient or fatal enough for some hapless soul.

* [[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, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg8KOFVLMAo this.]

* [[Screw Yourself]]: Two Sevens! "Clearly the only way to resolve this paradox is for the two of them to start making out! ..[[Girl On Girl Is Hot|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).

* [[Shout Out]]: Now with their [[SF Debris/Shout Out|own page]].

* [[Shown Their Work]]: His reviews of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' are ''very'' well-researched.

** 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 (Film)|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.

** Admits in "Darmok" that he's not a linguist, and Noam Chomsky won't even return his calls -- "since [[Noodle Incident|that incident]] with the rice pudding."

* [[Sincerity Mode]]: [[Subverted Trope|In contrast to his usual]] [[Deadpan Snarker|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 [[Serious Business|sober explanation with less of the usual humor]].

** 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.

{{quote| '''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!}}

* [[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 [[Let's Play|a full-length annotated playthrough]], followed by his usual detailed analysis).

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Chuck:''' Once again I will use the words 'magnetic balls' to show that I'm not anyone special myself.}}

* [[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.

* [[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.

** 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."

{{quote| '''Chuck:''' In my experience, the first impulse is to start forwarding irrelevant shit to my email.}}

* [[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.

*** The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAiT7jzZzI&feature=channel_video_title trailer] is even better. "[[Aqua (Music)|I'm a blonde single girl in a fantasy world...]]"

** ''[[Twin Peaks]]'': "Way Back Home" by [[Bing Crosby]].

** ''[[Firefly]]'': "Ride the Wind" by [[Poison (Music)|Poison]].

** ''[[Blade Runner]]'': "Who Made Who" by [[ACDC (Music)|ACDC]].

** ''[[Threshold]]'': "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by [[Bob Dylan]].

** ''[[Alien]]'': [[Ironic Nursery Tune|"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".

** 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.

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Sfdebris''': Man, when Ten breaks shit, he really ''breaks shit'', doesn't he?}}

* [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]: [[In-Universe|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.

{{quote| "''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.''"}}

** His review of [[Flash Gordon (Film)|Flash Gordon]] references [[Trope Overdosed|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.

** 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.

* [[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.

** 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 [[Thrown Out the Airlock|Out the Airlock]].

* [[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:

{{quote| '''Chuck :''' The script makes numerous comparisons to Earth:<br />

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

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

* [[Why We Can't Have Nice Things]]: Classic television mistake: handing [[Slow Motion Drop|a highly-breakable cup]] to a [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone|psychic]]. "Thanks, demons from the beyond!"

** This also appears to be [[Star Wars the Clone Wars|Dooku's complaint when Sidious tells him to kill Asajj Ventress]].

* [[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.

* [[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 (Film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' where [[Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs|he betrayed people and then killed them]]."

** Hey kids, it's [[Mark Sheppard]]! "Great chance to talk about this performer in a ''rare'' appearance '''[[Firefly (TV)|in]] [[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|a]] [[X Files|work of]] [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|science]] [[Doctor Who (TV)|fiction!]]'''"

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Chuck''': Hope you're wearing latex contacts if you're going to keep eye-humping her like that Lt. "Family-Man"!}}

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