History Main / BigDumbObject

* The title ship in ''{{Alternity}}'''s ''{{Star*Drive}}'' setting adventure "The Last Warhulk".

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{ComicBooks}}]]

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]
* The Halo rings in ''{{Halo}}'' are superweapons capable of destroying all life in the galaxy; they were built to stop {{The Virus}} (Flood) from spreading.
** Halo 3 introduces "The Ark", an even bigger even dumber object that can build Halo rings inside of itself very rapidly by a completely automated process and then supposedly teleport them directly wherever they're supposed to go. It's also built outside of the Milky Way so that people could hide out there while the Halos kill all life in the galaxy.
* {{Infocom}}'s InteractiveFiction game ''Starcross'' is about the player discovering and exploring one of these.
* ''MassEffect'' has the Mass Relays, giant space constructs believed to be left behind by the {{Precursors}}. While they are the definite means of interstellar travel for the humans and other races, they are also [[spoiler:part of the AbusivePrecursors omnicidal plans]]. The Citadel station applies as well.
** The dead Reaper in Mass Effect 2 counts, although just because it's dead doesn't mean it can't dream...
* The ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' game ''A Final Unity'' has the titular Unity Device, which has all the earmarks of one of these. It's actually [[spoiler: a Dyson Sphere created by the Chodak to hold their vast galactic empire together by manipulating the very fabric of reality; it has the power not only to destroy an entire fleet, but to eliminate or create ''an entire species.'' A group of Chodak rebels, worried about the damage being done to reality, gained control of it and disappeared along with the device itself. When the rebels bonded with it, it ceased to be a Big Dumb Object and became a living one. At the game's best ending, Picard chooses not to wield its massive power to destroy the Borg, and it vanishes again to continue its peaceful mission of repairing rifts in the space-time continuum.]]

[[TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monolith2001.jpg]]
[[caption-width:210:Behold TheMonolith!]]

* The pilot episode of ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' featured an alien podship a mile long and several thousand years old whose pods were exploded from the inside. The ship's insectoid crew left behind only a message warning of an invasive being that forced them to self-destruct rather than bringing it to their homeworld, which the mains take down fairly easily.

** It was (originally) built by humans, so it might not count for this trope.
*** It's still alien as hell, so it probably still counts.

The best real life analogue would be the pyramids of Egypt or [[{{Mayincatec}} Meso-America]], both of which give us modern people [[SinisterGeometry The Willies]]. (Let's not bother to think they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, and this object is nothing more then leftover dust by comparison to their new existence.)

Big Dumb Objects are best when they are empty so we can marvel about who made them and if they were cool enough to do this and still die out what chance do we have. The best real life analogue would be the pyramids of Egypt or [[{{Mayincatec}} Meso-America]], both of which give us modern people [[SinisterGeometry The Willies]]. (Let's not bother to think they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, and this object is nothing more then leftover dust by comparison to their new existence.)

** Well, you can argue that it also serves as a gigantic computer, an accelerator of human evolution and more ore less (at least in the end sequence of the movie) as a total [[MindScrew Mindscrew]] machine.

* Infocom's InteractiveFiction game ''Starcross'' is about the player discovering and exploring one of these.

* Lots of these in Iain M Banks' [[TheCulture Culture]] series.

** ''StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' has a "Whale Probe" that disables every ship in its path by just looking at them and begins vaporizing Earth's oceans in search of an extinct species.

** ''StarTrekTheVoyageHome'' has a "Whale Probe" that disables every ship in its path by just looking at them and begins vaporizing Earth's oceans in search of an extinct species.

** ''The Motion Picture'' has a cloud-covered super ship called V'Ger (or Vejur). It was built around an old Earth probe named Voyager (no, not ''[[StarTrekVoyager that]]'' Voyager, but rather a fictional 6th iteration in the real-life Voyager program) and sent back to meet its creator.
** ''The Voyage Home'' has a "Whale Probe" that disables every ship in its path by just looking at them and begins vaporizing Earth's oceans in search of an extinct species.

** Fossilization would require him being ''encased in earth.'' Of course, the fact that he appears to have ''calcified'' somehow is arguably not much better unless the [[AllThereInTheManual Space Jockey]] race is vastly different physiologically from humans (in addition to being 52 feet tall).

** It was (originally) built by humans, so it might not count for this trope.

Such is the Big Dumb Object. It's really, really big and really, really powerful. It could be a weapon or a habitat. Its makers could be alive in some far-off galaxy or long gone. Either way, they probably aren't aboard. The Big Dumb Object is always technologically more incredible than anything the discoverers have ever seen before, but, if it's dangerous, it probably has a silly weakness like [[StrawVulcan logic]], [[ReversePolarities antimatter]], or a well placed [[AttackItsWeakpoint torpedo]] in the right air shaft. Sometimes it's disguised as a natural phenomenon. See also ThatsNoMoon.

Such is the Big Dumb Object. It's really, really big and really, really powerful. It could be a weapon or a habitat. Its makers could be alive in some far-off galaxy or long gone. Either way, they probably aren't aboard. The Big Dumb Object is always technologically more incredible than anything the discoverers have ever seen before, but, if it's dangerous, it probably has a silly weakness like logic, antimatter, or a well placed torpedo in the right air shaft. Sometimes it's disguised as a natural phenomenon. See also ThatsNoMoon.

Big Dumb Objects are best when they are empty so we can marvel about who made them and if they were cool enough to do this and still die out what chance do we have. The best real life analogue would be the pyramids of Egypt or [[{{Mayincatec}} Meso-America]], both of which give us modern people [[SinisterGeometry the willies]]. (Let's not bother to think they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, and this object is nothing more then leftover dust by comparison to their new existence.)

Big Dumb Objects are best when they are empty so we can marvel about who made them and if they were cool enough to do this and still die out what chance do we have. The best real life analogue would be the pyramids of Egypt or [[{{Mayincatec}} Mezo-America]], both of which give us modern people the willies.(Let's not bother to think they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, and this object is nothing more then leftover dust by comparison to their new existence.)

* ''Sphere'' begins with the discovery of an enormous abandoned spaceship on the floor of the Pacific ocean. Eventually it's revealed that the spaceship is [[spoiler:from Earth, in the distant future, and somehow got sent back in time]].

** In the sequels it's revealed that the Rama spacecraft [[spoiler:is part of a vast intergalactic network tasked with collecting samples of intelligent life, which was made (essentially) by God]]. [[DisContinuity Nobody likes the sequels though]], so yeah...

** In the original ComicBook series, Cybertron was described as a natural planet where [[HollywoodEvolution naturally-occurring gears and pulleys evolved into sentient mechanical forms]]. SoYeah.

* The EventHorizon from the film of the same name is a large ship stranded in a planet's upper atmosphere containing horrors and secrets.