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Line 1: {{trope}}{{Needs Image}} {{quote\|'''''"MORE POWER!"'''''\|'''Tim Allen'''{{'}}s catchphrase as Tim Taylor on ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)\|Home Improvement]]''}} If your [[Applied Phlebotinum]] is broken, you can usually fix it by increasing the power. Line 10: Sometimes, this is subverted, and [[Overclocking Attack\|more power is a good way to destroy everything]]. In these cases, it may be time to [[Reverse Polarity\|Reverse the Polarities]] instead. If things are ''really'' bad, you do ''both'' - but beware of [[Explosive Overclocking]]. [[Nitro Boost]] is somewhere in between - no great enough risk of catastrophic failure to count as purely desperation measure, but already wastes enough of limited resource to not be a normal mode of operation. Named for the lead character of the sitcom ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)\|Home Improvement]]'', who constantly tried to give various appliances and tools "more power." However, this typically - and on some occasions literally - blew up in his face. Compare [[Up to Eleven]]. [[Oven Logic]] is what happens when '''Tim Taylor Technology''' is applied to cooking. Not to be confused with the occasionally-formidable [[The Goodies\|Tim Brooke-Taylor Technology]]. Or with needing more ''[[More Dakka\|fire]]''[[Incredibly Lame Pun\|-power]]. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} == Anime and Manga == * Averted in the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', where the eponymous machine's performance was improved with a new friction-reduction system instead of increasing the power output. ** Played straight in ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', where the [[Mid-Season Upgrade\|Freedom and Justice]] are able to outperform the earlier Gundams primarily because of their stronger (nuclear) power source. Line 28 ⟶ 27: * Of course, seeing as how Spiral Energy is something of an [[Expy]] of Getter Rays, that means that ''[[Getter Robo]]'' has been doing this for approximately three decades now. Each of the small, one-man Getter Machines has a Getter Energy reactor. Whenever they [[Combining Mecha\|combine]] into the titular [[Humongous Mecha]], they're able to do just about anything because they have... MORE POWER! ** Taken to its logical conclusion with the Getter Emperor, an out-of-control planet consuming monstrosity which is variously depicted as being the size of the earth, the size of Jupiter, and once an entire galaxy. Then it punched God in the face, who promptly exploded. * ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha AsA's]]'', Nanoha and Fate decided that the ammount of magical energy they were outputting at the time wasn't enough, so they use a [[Upgrade Artifact\|Cartridge]] system to boost their magical power by storing it in casings, which are dumped into the weapon during combat. ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS\|Striker S]]'', Nanoha [[Defeat Means Friendship\|takes on Vivio]], and decides one gun isn't enough [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvRAU_OlWbA she needs FIVE!] Notable also is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6ZtGhllMg&feature=related the scene where Nanoha] [[Oh Crap\|puts Quatro down]]. Line 34 ⟶ 33: == Comic Books == * In a DC ''[[Star Trek]]'' comic, the ''Excelsior'' was shown to have a working transwarp drive, capable of Warp 10. Transwarp has sometimes been defined as infinite speed, but only in later sources. Strange coincidence, considering Warp 10 is infinite speed by the rules of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''. Anyway, by Scotty diverting power from the transwarp drive, the ''Excelsior's'' shields are able to absorb the impact and detonation of a planet-killer bomb. == Film == * The 2005 ''[[Fantastic Four (film)\|Fantastic Four]]'' movie put this trope in center stage with Reed's cosmic storm simulation device for reversing their mutations. At the highest power he had available, it could do nothing but recreate or worsen their mutations. But if it had ''more power''... {{spoiler\|And once it did have enough power it worked, but the character who was cured went back in and mutated again so he could face the Big Bad.}} Line 62 ⟶ 59: Since they deliberately ran the engine off the end on an un-finished bridge they knew the overclocking wasn't going to be the worst problem. == Live -Action TV == * Many episodes of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' end with Al suddenly appearing and declaring they've figured out how to solve the current plot problem with enough power to light up major city X with time period Y.▼ ▲* Many episodes of [[Quantum Leap]] end with Al suddenly appearing and declaring they've figured out how to solve the current plot problem with enough power to light up major city X with time period Y. {{quote\|'''Al:''' ''We did it, Sam! We did it! Of course it took enough power to light up St. Louis for a month but we did it!''}} * Almost every episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' featured Captain Kirk demanding "more power" from Scotty. Later deconstructed in a ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation~~\|ST:TNG~~]]'' episode featuring Scotty, in which he explains to Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge that he always held something back and [[Scotty Time\|padded time estimates]] to make sure he would come off as a miracle worker. Oh, and as a side effect of Scotty ''writing'' most of the Engineering manuals that they use in Geordi's time, that means that most of the ships in the Star Trek universe by TNG time are running at about 33% efficiency. Just 'cause. * That's <s>just good</s> ''essential'' engineering practice. A bridge with a 10 ton load limit isn't going to collapse if you put an 11 ton truck on it. It ~~will~~might ~~probably~~even be okay with a 20 ton truck, but don't make a habit of it. This also partially supports the [[Super Prototype]] trope, as prototypes are often tested to their limits in order to figure out what those limits actually are. * ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' used this trope frequently, but inverted it in the episode "Booby Trap", where more power simply fed more energy to the titular devices which held the ship immobile and bombarded it with radiation. The solution was to shut down all the power systems and slip away on minimal life support and a single thruster pack. Another inversionin "Hero Worship", when one ship is destroyed (and the ''Enterprise'' nearly follows) by a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] when it keeps increasing the power to its shields - it turns out the phenomenon was actually an amplified echo of the shields themselves. Line 86 ⟶ 82: '''Hammond:''' There's a Clarkson answer to a problem. }} See the V8 blender and the V8 rocking chair, for two examples that suffered from problems. * ''[[~~Myth Busters~~MythBusters]]''. [[Rule of Cool]] applies after they've busted the actually possible part of the myth. A human can't actually swing that hard? Ramp it up as fast as the robot arm will go. The amount of explosives used in the myth doesn't get the stated result? Use a few blocks of C4 then. ** If the myth does prove to be confirmed, they still ramp it up to see how far they can push it. So burning 30,000 matchheads looks exactly like that viral clip... let's see what a [[Up to Eleven\|million matchheads will do!]] * ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)\|Home Improvement]]'', [[Trope Namer\|naturally]]. One of Tim Taylor's most notable acts was when he put so much fuel into a barbecue grill that it achieved geosynchronous orbit. In general though, his solution to any problem is to put more power in it. Whereas science fiction puts more power into laser cannons and shields, Tim Taylor is the king of [[Mundane Utility]] for power levels normally reserved for NASA. ** This was [[Lampshaded]] in at least one case. Tim wanted to buy a security system for his home, but most uncharacteristically, he just wanted a simple system. As soon as he told his friends at the hardware shop he was getting a security system, they immediately assumed he'd go his normal route and went nuts thinking up insane measures to install. One of them announced proudly that Tim's home was going to be the first one with "[[Nuclear Option\|first-strike capabilities]]." == Newspaper Comics == * In a ''[[Garfield]]'' Christmas strip, Jon buys an electric rotating base for his Christmas tree because he wanted a little splash and dash. Garfield decides to give him more splash and dash by replacing the base with a blender set to liquify. == Tabletop Games == * The tinker gnomes from the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' campaign setting, creating absurdly large machines and devices that make a lot of noise and produce a lot of light, and are often ridiculously oversized for the tasks they're designed to do. In game terms, the larger a tinker gnome device, the more chance it has of actually working successfully. * [[The Empire]] of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]''. A lot of their gunpowder / steam technology is Dwarf technology with extra power; gattling cannons and rocket batteries are good examples. Line 102 ⟶ 96: == Video Games == * The ''[[Star Wars: X-Wing]]''/''[[TIE Fighter]]'' series of space sims allowed the player to divert power to either shields, guns, or engines, increasing the performance of one or more of them at the cost of decreasing the performance of the remaining device(s). ''[[Free Space]]'' and later games in the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)\|Wing Commander]]'' series also used this play mechanic. Unlike the typical applications of this trope though, it ''usually'' doesn't affect the maximum performance of these systems, but rather the rate at which they or associated systems recharged. This may have been inspired by the part of ''[[Star Wars]]'', where Luke says "R2, try to increase the power!", and also the lines where pilots say "Switch your deflectors on double front," and "Stabilize your rear deflectors". ** The Missile Boat, found in the ''[[TIE Fighter]]'' expansion packs, provides a more traditional example of this trope. This particular craft features the [[Fun with Acronyms\|SLAM]] booster system, allowing the player to double the ship's speed by draining stored energy from the laser system - essentially trading laser cannon shots for seconds of speed boost. Being the ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin\|Missile]]'' [[Macross Missile Massacre\|Boat]], however, this had little effect on its firepower. Line 119 ⟶ 112: == Web Comics == * [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/991204.html This] strip of ''[[Real Life Comics]]''. * After Riff in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' "improved" his ex-girlfriend's life by amplifying her kitchen sink to a geyser: {{quote\|Monica: I think you're right about all guys [overpowering stuff]. The plumbers' invoice included an hour of assessing, two hours of repair and 15 minutes of "mandatory applause".}} * ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' * In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', teraport area denial systems can be penetrated by a sufficiently large amount of energy, and [[Deus Est Machina\|the Fleetmind]] has that level of energy. Except that lately {{spoiler\|it needs every petawatt of it to defend planets from the Pa'anuri, and it is essentially sacrificing millions of lives each time it chooses to use it for other purposes.}} This isn't, however, universal. Forcing a damaged annie plant to output max power is NOT a good idea.▼ Even sonars. {{quote\|'''Captain Hartung''': Depends on how much juice we put in my buoys. '''Captain Hartung''': At full power, they'll show you fish on the other side of the planet. '''Captain Hartung''': Of course, that involves boiling away the oceans on this side. '''Der Trihs''': I've got a friend who overengineers things that way, too.}} ▲ ~~In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', teraport~~Teraport area denial systems can be penetrated by a sufficiently large amount of energy, and [[Deus Est Machina\|the Fleetmind]] has that level of energy. Except that lately {{spoiler\|it needs every petawatt of it to defend planets from the Pa'anuri, and it is essentially sacrificing millions of lives each time it chooses to use it for other purposes.}} This isn't, however, universal. Forcing a damaged annie plant to output max power is NOT a good idea. *** Or a single "big" wormhole - which is but several centimeters. It won't be stable enough to stay around for long, and you couldn't squeeze a ship through it anyway, but {{quote\|what ''could'' be sent while it's around may be energetic enough to kill ships. }} == Web Original == * Mentioned by name in #4 of ''[[Cracked.com\|Cracked]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_17392_6-sci-fi-movie-conventions-that-need-to-die.html 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die)]. == Western Animation == * Averted in [[The Venture Brothers]] when the Venture family tries to make it out of Ünderland after their experimental jet is disabled; Doctor Venture frantically and repeatedly demands that they switch to auxiliary power, and when they finally land, Brock snaps back, "WE DON'T '''HAVE''' AUXILIARY POWER!" * Parodied on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. NASA are watching television to get an idea of what the average American is like. They turn on [[Home Improvement (TV series)\|Home Improvement]] to hear Tim Taylor declare he's just finished souping up his lawnmower. Then the lawnmower goes backwards instead of forwards, knocking over the fence and leading to the line {{quote\|'''Tim:''' Oh no! I've killed Wilson. Oh well, looks like it's [[Actor Allusion\|back to jail]] for me}} * In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic\|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', the Flim Flam brothers pull this in "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000\|The Supper Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]]" during the cider-making contest. Upon realizing that the titular machine isn't producing enough cider, they crank up the power, which results in it starting to suck up entire ''trees'' rather than just the apples. == Real Life == * [[Truth in Television]]: Aircraft of all kinds (be they prop planes, helicopters or supersonic jets) do not always fly at their maximum speed. They have a 'cruise' speed at which they operate at optimum performance for distance, speed and fuel usage. The [[wikipedia:UH-60 Black Hawk#Specifications .28UH-60L.29\|UH-60 "Black Hawk"]], for example, has a cruise speed of 150 knots (173 mph, 278 km/h) and a "maximum" speed of 159 kn (183 mph, 295 km/h). Some aircraft also have a "never exceed" speed, beyond which flight <s>can</s> '''will''' become dangerous. Jet engines are also rarely operated at maximum power, because it will reduce their lifespan considerably (and use disproportionally more fuel). ** The most notorious example is the Mig-25. It is "redlined" at Mach 2.8, though it can fly at Mach 3, but one aircraft that was tracked doing so ended up destroying its engines during the flight. Line 166 ⟶ 162: * [[wikipedia:SSME#Thrust specifications\|Space Shuttle main engine: Thrust specifications]] at The Other Wiki says, "Current launches use 104.5%, with 106 or 109% available for abort contingencies." It's a convention, as they go on to explain, but sounds nice. ** Similarly, jet engines can sustain short bursts over their maximum rated thrust to take off or abort a landing. * The ''[[wikipedia:Z machine\|Z-]][https://web.archive.org/web/20111021160652/http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2006/images/z-machine.jpg Machine]'', a device with a peak power output of 290 terawatts, over 10 times the combined power flowing through all of the world's electrical grid for a few tens of nanoseconds, generating a plasma implosion, an extremely powerful X-ray blast and lightning storm, and partially destroying itself. Originally built as a nuclear bomb simulator with an output of 50 TW, it's now being used as an extreme physics experiment and fusion power testbed, with plans to upgrade it to output 1 petawatt - 1000 TW. It's working principle, the Z-pinch, essentially involves gathering as much energy as you can and releasing it one extremely powerful shot through a couple of poor thin wires, causing said wires to explode into a plasma and then causing the plasma to then crush itself under its own magnetic field. This process, apart from generating huge amounts of X-rays creating, can generate stupendous temperatures, many times hotter than the center of the Sun. It is one of the ways of achieving inertial confinement fusion reactions - the other two ways involve having hundreds of giant laser beams simultaneously converge on a tiny ball of hydrogen as in the 500 TW [[wikipedia:National Ignition Facility\|National Ignition Facility]] or have a runaway fission chain reaction - a nuclear bomb - implode on a hydrogen target - creating a thermonuclear bomb. * Laser pickups in CD players usually go bad either due to increasing opacity of the lens, or reduced power output of the diode. In theses cases, a very Tim Taylor fix of upping the calibration trimmer (increasing the laser's power) is employed. * Similar to the ''Samuel B. Robberts'' example above, we has a civillian example of Tim Tayloring for an emergancy: The [[wikipedia:Rms carpathia\|RMS ''Carpathia'']] had a registered top speed of only 14 knots (16 mph). When he got the ''Titanic's'' distress signal, what does Captain Rostron do? Cut off the heat to the A/C and hot water taps and redirect it all to the engines for ''MORE POWER!'' Doing so scored the 500+ foot long liner a speedy (for her) 17.5 knots (20.1 mph). ARR ARR ARR! * Firearms author Elmer Keith was fond of squeezing more power out of common revolver cartridges. Naturally he lost several guns in his experimentation. While several of his up powered cartridges would be produced as standard cartridges with good reputation, like his .38 special and .44 special loads, manufacturers wisely decided to lengthen the cartridge of these production variants a bit so they couldn't be used in revolvers not built with the hotter load in mind, creating .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum. ~~{{related\|Explosive Overclocking}}~~ ~~{{related\|Nitro Boost}}~~ ~~{{related\|Oven Logic}}~~ ~~{{related\|Up to Eleven}}~~ {{reflist}} [[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]▼ [[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]] [[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]] ▲[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]