History Main / EngagingChevrons

* ''Stargate Atlantis'' has what amounts to a fetish of hand to hand combat scenes in an age of guns and energy weapons. Most fights could be avoided by a character simply using the gun at hand. Every fight is an episode time-waster and the reasons for the fights are usually contrived. If a fight would be 15 seconds long in real combat, it gets dragged out to 5 minutes or even ten minutes. Most of the fights are completely unrealistic and obviously scripted. Every chance to end the fight quickly is ignored. Some episodes like that of the "Super Teyla/Grossout the Doctor episode" have one fight after another, with the Atlantis characters making every mistake in the book (such as the aforementioned Teyla keeping a stick to fight with instead of using the fallen enemies' metal weapons.)Despite the short nature of real hand-to-hand fights where the first one to land a blow usually wins, almost every fight in SGA is long, drawn out, and has herculean persons who can take damage more severe than heavyweight prizefighters. "I've been hit on the noggin 25 times with a bat, but I'm doin' fine..." type of thing. Almost every character is required to have hand-to-hand combat in some episode (and usually more than one) and after the first dozen contrived fights, fans tend to fast-forward through them when they come on— they appear to be mainly filling time.
** The Earth gate has to be dialed by spinning the ring thanks to the jury-rigged dialing computer, which is, essentially, how you would dial it manually in the absence of a [=DHD=], which dials as fast as you can press the buttons.
*** One wonders why, later, they didn't just tear the dialing console out of a Puddle Jumper and use it...
**** A number of factors: tradition, a customized interface for the Iris toggle, the ability to prevent the Earth gate from falling victim to a galaxy-wide stargate-computer virus (an issue that ''does'' come up, twice), the ability to monitor gate behavior (such as when Anubis tried to overload the gate), and the opportunity to reverse-engineer the Ancient technology. Though, it should be noted, the SGC did have an available DHD as early as season 1 when they discovered the Antarctic gate and simply never used it. That's the military for you - reliable and resilient over quick and flashy.
***** You mean the DHD that ran out of power after a few goes?
***** Once they got a ship, they could have simply taken a DHD from an uninhabited world and buried the gate so nobody got trapped.

* There are also the transforming and SuperMode sequences in all three parts of the UnicronTrilogy. (''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' had stock footage transformations too, but they were much quicker.) Cybertron boasts the longest duration of stock sequences, but Energon gets points for having Prime's SuperMode sequence at the beginning of ''every'' fight and then ''not actually using said powerup'' in more fights than not. The same goes for the combining that is the series' main [[MerchandiseDriven toy selling]] gimmick - it's a pure time-waster, as Hot Shot firing his standard weapon is no more effective when he happens to be wearing Inferno as his legs.

* Nice aversion in Creator/PhilFoglio's comic ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'' [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20090303 here]].

*** The sequel replaces the elevator rides with loading ''movies'', which is probably worse, since you just get a video of something happening regardless of how long the actual load took. While the original ''Normandy'' was all one level with no additional loading, the second one has to load every floor, including the captain's quarters, which consists of ''one room'' (granted, this one loads pretty fast). What made it worse was that movies had to run for the whole duration each time. A simple mod that replaced movies with a static image showed that actual loading times could be, on faster PCs, under a second, whereas watching the "loading" movie would extend it to 10 or 15 seconds.

*** The sequel replaces the elevator rides with loading ''movies'', which is probably worse, since you just get a video of something happening regardless of how long the actual load took. While the original ''Normandy'' was all one level with no additional loading, the second one has to load every floor, including the captain's quarters, which consists of ''one room'' (granted, this one loads pretty fast).

** The most {{egregious}} example from season two is a time when something was screwing up the process. You got the complete, extended evolution scene up to the point where it'd ''almost'' finish... and then you'd have to watch it ''all in reverse.'' The characters puzzled over the fact that it wasn't working, tried again, and we had to wait for them to evolve and then un-evolve ''a second time.'' Not. Cool.
** Happened in season 1, too. First the [[FourIsDeath Dark Masters]], with the mons digivolving one level for each Dark Master, only to [[CurbStompBattle be beaten every time]]. Then again with Apocalymon, where they all digivolved to perfect or mega, only to reverse digivolve, and then for mon & tamer to both be reduced to binary code, go through all of the digivolution sequences ''again'', before reforming themselves from binary code. And then then the next episode spent the first few minutes showing the end of the prior episode!
** [[Anime/DigimonFrontier Frontier]] is made a little less painful by having [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome an extremely cool evolution insert song, though.]]
*** Note that this does not in any way imply that the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome music]] used for evolution in Adventure was not Awesome.
* In ''{{Transformers}},'' the ''Armada'' and ''Cybertron'' seasons had the launching sequence. Jetfire even once {{Lampshade}}d it, saying "this seems a little elaborate for a takeoff." (Early in Cybertron, such scenes are often done with nothing said, but eventually ThePowersThatBe realized that the sequence loses something after the 20th time or so and needed some dialogue to keep the viewers awake.)

* The ''SkyGirls'' prologue OVA is roughly 50% Chevron Engaging.
* The transformation sequences of the Sailor Senshi in ''Anime/SailorMoon''. Generally you can quickly tell a poor episode script from a better one by seeing if the full transformations are shown, or just shortened versions. Transformations happening offscreen? You might actually have a good story there...
** They eventually began doing split screens to transform everyone at once, or showing condensed versions, but it would still eat 1-3 minutes out of the climax of each episode. That goes double for the seasons where Sailor Moon had a ''double'' transformation: first to regular Sailor Moon, then an added one to transform into Super Sailor Moon. As the seasons progressed and added [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters more and more Senshi]], it just lengthened out again.
* The 2-minute-long spiral staircase sequence in every episode of ''[[RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena]]''.
* ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' does this in one of its prequel series, when Reinhard and Kircheis are preparing to go out in a battle tank.
* ''DragonBallZ'': There have been episodes in which characters "powered up" (grunted fiercely) for literal minutes at a time. While they did this, the animation would be of the camera panning over one still frame.
** On tonight's episode of ''DragonBallZ'', Goku continues powering up to [=SuperSayan=]!
* ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' has Syaoran and Chaos staring at each other for one full minute.

* I'm calling in {{Axis Powers Hetalia}} for that scene with Japan, Italy and Germany on the island and that moment when they realize that the Allies are there. And that fact that they repeated it a million times.

* ''{{Godannar}}'', in keeping with its retro-[[HumongousMecha Super-Robot]]-show style, has an extended sequence for when Dannar and Okusaer take off from the base - the robots' engines are spun up by an external flywheel, the Jet Boys are attached to their backs, a huge runway is raised from beneath the sea, the front of the base opens up, numerous lights flick to green in the control-room, and the pilots flick a sequence of switches, ect. They're about 50% FighterLaunchingSequence, and the rest is EngagingChevrons. To spice things up, however, they (almost) never use the FULL sequence, and instead vary which parts are shown each time. Keeps it from getting TOO... chevronish?

** Misato watching the train Shinji has apparantly boarded leave the station.

** [[JustifiedTrope To be fair,]] a lot of this trope in Eva was not because the story needed padding, but because in later episodes they simply lacked the budget to animate everything they wanted to, resulting in a lot of reuse of [[StockFootage stock footage]] and excessively-long shots like the Ode to Joy scene.
* In the {{Manga/OutlawStar}} spin-off {{Anime/AngelLinks}} they run a minute or so launch sequence everytime the main ship launches. If you get bored of the regular launch sequence, they also have a night version.

* ''AustinPowers 2'' parodies this when Dr. Evil tells Frau to initiate a 30 second countdown for his rocket (overcompensating for the first countdown being too short). He eventually gets bored and tells her to just say 'go'.
* Parodied in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' by [[IncrediblyLamePun Colonel Sandurs]], who prefaces these statements with "Prepare to [do mundane task]", e.g. :

--> '''{{Mook}}''': Preparing to fast-forward!

* One of the many criticisms of ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' was that it contained many [[LeaveTheCameraRunning long tracking shots]] of the ships and little action, leading to its FanNickname "[[IncrediblyLamePun Star Trek: The Slow-Motion Picture]]".
* In ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', Rocky's "creation scene," where Frank brings him to life.
** Leading the [[AudienceParticipation audience participation]]:

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Pro wrestling uses several techniques to fill time, either so that wrestlers can communicate more easily to plan out the next piece of action, or to allow them to take a breather after a period of intensity. Such moves are known as 'rest holds', and are usually weak-looking submission holds that most fans have worked out by now will almost never actually result in a submission.
** The other favourite trick is the "double impact" move, where both wrestlers hit a move on each other at the same time (usually either a clothesline, dropkick or flying body block) and both spend a period of time on the mat recovering.
* Some wrestlers have introductions long enough to qualify for this, usually wrestlers who go on at the end of a show, when it's clear how much time there is to fill before the show ends. Some have a certain routine to go through on the way to the ring, Others just walk very slowly. [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker The Undertaker]] does both. At one point, enough wrestlers had slow entrances that fans were placing bets on whose would be longest on a given night.
[[/folder]]

* Perhaps as LampshadeHanging, in TheDocumentary episode of ''SG-1'', Walter (whose job it is to make the announcement, and who, at this point in the series, had never been seen to do anything else) painstakingly describes his entire purpose in life, explaining that he usually says "Chevron seven locked" rather than "Chevron seven encoded" just for a bit of variety.
* ''Stargate SG-1'' also periodically uses a falling-through-the-wormhole animation for similar purposes. It's also the TropeNamer, as despite the movie using the exact same format, it was not really intended as filler, but suspense.
** On one occasion, when O'Neil while [[TouchedByVorlons under the influence of an Ancient Repository of Knowledge]] rigs the computer to dial an address automatically, Walter goes through with the chevron announcements anyway despite having no control over the dialing. The characters are all thrown for a loop, though, when Walter announces the seventh chevron...and the gate continues to dial an ''eighth'' one. Since at the time it was believed that every stargate in the universe could be reached via a 7-chevron address, this time the announcement actually ''was'' dramatic.

** The Earth gate has to be dialed by spinning the ring thanks to the jury-rigged dialing computer, which is, essentially, how you would dial it manually in the absense of a [=DHD=], which dials as fast as you can press the buttons.

* ''Series/BattleStarGalacticaReimagined'' spent much of its fourth season engaging chevrons by having whole episodes devoted to a disagreement with an obvious logical compromise that any viewer with two brain cells to rub together could come up with in about three minutes.

* ''{{iCarly}}'': In 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. ([[WaynesWorld you don't say the one]]).

** Season 2 was particularly {{egregious}} about this, going from the rangers holding their hands up and calling their zords in unison in season 1 to each character having an individual SuperSentaiStance for his or her zord, followed by the Zord changing from its season one form into its season two form - something you'd think would only need to be done once.
** ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' was terrible for this - Whilst later seasons would have lengthy sequences for each Ranger morphing & summoning their zords, after the second or third episode showing the full sequence, it would usually be shortened down & whichever Rangers were morphing were shown on a splitscreen. ''Samurai'', however, would continue to show the full length morph sequence for each Ranger consecutively, and ''then'' do the same thing for each of the zords on top of that, until well into the season.
* ''LegendOfTheSeeker'': When Kahlan uses her MindControl "Confession" thing on somebody the first time, the clouds part, the sky darkens, thunder rumbles, her eyes go black, and she passes out for nearly a minute. Averted, in that the production quickly tones it down for subsequent uses. By the second season, she barely breaks her stride.
* Lest we forget the original Adam West ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series: "Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed"... then the rocket engine ignites, they take off out of Bronson Canyon... and off to Gotham City, past that sign stating, "Gotham City 14 miles."

* In the fourth season of the original series of ''KnightRider'', KITT gets a Super Pursuit Mode upgrade that allows him super-speed. This is achieved with various aerodynamic bits and winglets popping out, with the same stock footage used over and over. By the end of the season this was occasionally omitted or achieved in a jump-cut. On the other hand, sometimes it was used multiple times an episode.

** The PC version of Franchise/ResidentEvil also had them, but they were skippable (after the game finished loading, at least, something barely noticeable even on contemporary machines).
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''. Slowest elevators the universe has ever seen. People claim that they hate the game ''for no other reason'' than that those endless elevator-sequences drives them to distraction. Admittedly, when there's some plot relevant announcement or witty comrade banter it's not ''too'' bad, but the rest... egh. The Unreal engine can do much better than that. (Also fixed in the PC version.) Mocked [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/16/nitpicking-mass-effect-part-two/ here]] by PennyArcade. Arguably ''the'' worst is the elevator on the Normandy. Going down one level? Almost thirty seconds. No music. No radio. No other characters talking. And then you have to go back up when you want to go somewhere else in the ship!

** ''MetroidPrime'' had load time elevators but they were pretty short due to the quick load time of the Gamecube and awesome because it was the best way to check out suit upgrades. The more annoying version was that doors sometimes stayed closed until the rooms behind them finished loading. In a game with much {{Backtracking}}, that got old really fast, especially in ''Hunters'' where there were {{Timed Mission}}s that kept the timer counting down while you had to wait for the doors to open.

* Nice aversion in PhilFoglio's comic ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'' [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20090303 here]].

* ''{{Voltron}}'''s transformation/assembly sequence. ''Especially'' [[ReplacementScrappy Vehicle Voltron]], which would go on to be [[http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/voltron-force-assemble.html ruthlessly mocked]] by ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''.
* The Saban [[ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Gatchaman]] translation ''Eagle Riders''. There was a roll call routine every time the Chickenship launched. ''Every. Friggin'. Time.'' There were only five on the team.

----

** ''MetroidPrime'' had load time elevators but they were pretty short due to the quick load time of the Gamecube and awesome because it was the best way to check out suit upgrades. The more annoying version was that doors sometimes stayed closed until the rooms behind them finished loading. In a game with much {{Backtracking}}, that got old really fast.

* The first ''{{Dominion}}'' OVA series has a sequence of the deploying from the second floor on ropes down to their tanks in their hanger bay. The first time they do this, it makes sense. In a later episode, it seems really stupid, as they had been in the hanger bay when the deployment order came out, which means that in order for that stock footage to make sense, they'd have had to leave the bay and go upstairs off-camera, just so they can be seen going back downstairs and getting into their tanks.

* SeenItAMillionTimes in video games to disguise load times. An especially notorious example is the opening door from the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games; although the much faster loading times of the [=PS2=] and the Gamecube technically mean it's not necessary, it was left due to tradition in ''Code: Veronica'', ''RE 0'' and the ''RE 1'' remake, and wasn't dropped until ''Resident Evil 4''.

* The transformation sequences of the Sailor Senshi in ''SailorMoon''. Generally you can quickly tell a poor episode script from a better one by seeing if the full transformations are shown, or just shortened versions. Transformations happening offscreen? You might actually have a good story there...

* ''SteelBattalion'' deserves a special mention here because it actually has you, the player, engage your own chevrons. Five switches on the game's almost absurd flight-stick-esque controller were dedicated to being flipped on during the start-up sequence before each mission, then off again between missions.

* [[FamilyGuy Chicken Fights]] anyone?
** All thanks to the [[CloningBlues cloning]] experiments of a certain doctor.
** Don't ''ever'' say the words "ConwayTwitty" around ''any'' ''FamilyGuy'' fan. [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry You will not like the results]].
* ''{{Voltron}}'''s transformation/assembly sequence. ''Especially'' [[ReplacementScrappy Vehicle Voltron]], which would go on to be [[http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/voltron-force-assemble.html ruthlessly mocked]] by ''RobotChicken''.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Gerry Anderson's works tended to suffer from this, most prominently breakout hit ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'': The first time you see the full TechnologyPorn-laden launch sequence for each craft, it's cool. By the sixth or seventh the novelty has honestly begun to wear off. They cut down the length of such sequences in later works, and in the case of ''CaptainScarlet'''s infamous [[CoolTank Spoectrum Pursuit Vehicle]] requisitioning scenes actually came up with a different set every time to show that SPECTRUM is CrazyPrepared enough to cache these things all over the globe, but even then it got to be an OverusedRunningGag and TheRemake did away with it apart from a couple of homages.

* Gerry Anderson's works tended to suffer from this, most prominently breakout hit ''{{Thunderbirds}}'': The first time you see the full TechnologyPorn-laden launch sequence for each craft, it's cool. By the sixth or seventh the novelty has honestly begun to wear off. They cut down the length of such sequences in later works, and in the case of ''CaptainScarlet'''s infamous [[CoolTank Spoectrum Pursuit Vehicle]] requisitioning scenes actually came up with a different set every time to show that SPECTRUM is CrazyPrepared enough to cache these things all over the globe, but even then it got to be an OverusedRunningGag and TheRemake did away with it apart from a couple of homages.

* ''{{Thunderbirds}}''!

** ''MassEffect''. Slowest elevators the universe has ever seen. People claim that they hate the game ''for no other reason'' than that those endless elevator-sequences drives them to distraction. Admittedly, when there's some plot relevant announcement or witty comrade banter it's not ''too'' bad, but the rest... egh. The Unreal engine can do much better than that. (Also fixed in the PC version.) Mocked [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/16/nitpicking-mass-effect-part-two/ here]] by PennyArcade. Arguably ''the'' worst is the elevator on the Normandy. Going down one level? Almost thirty seconds. No music. No radio. No other characters talking. And then you have to go back up when you want to go somewhere else in the ship!

** MassEffect had another example with the pre-mind-meld speech given by the Asari commando on Feros. Averted later; whenever Liara melds with Shepard all she says beforehand is "Embrace eternity!", and by the end of her romance arc she doesn't even need that much.

* ''Stargate Atlantis'' has what amounts to a fetish of hand to hand combat scenes in an age of guns and energy weapons. Most fights could be avoided by a character simply using the gun at hand. Every fight is an episode time-waster and the reasons for the fights are usually contrived. If a fight would be 15 seconds long in real combat, it gets dragged out to 5 minutes or even ten minutes. Most of the fights are completely unrealistic and obviously scripted. Every chance to end the fight quickly is ignored. Some episodes like that of the "Super Teyla/Grossout the Doctor episode" have one fight after another, with the Atlantis characters making every mistake in the book (such as the aforementioned Tayla keeping a stick to fight with instead of using the fallen enemies' metal weapons.)Despite the short nature of real hand-to-hand fights where the first one to land a blow usually wins, almost every fight in SGA is long, drawn out, and has herculean persons who can take damage more severe than heavyweight prizefighters. "I've been hit on the noggin 25 times with a bat, but I'm doin' fine..." type of thing. Almost every character is required to have hand-to-hand combat in some episode (and usually more than one) and after the first dozen contrived fights, fans tend to fast-forward through them when they come on— they appear to be mainly filling time.

**** A number of factors: tradition, a customized interface for the Iris toggle, the ability to prevent the Earth gate from falling victim to a galaxy-wide stargate-computer virus, the ability to monitor gate behavior (such as when Anubis tried to overload the gate), and the opportunity to reverse-engineer the Ancient technology. Though, it should be noted, the SGC did have an available DHD as early as season 1 when they discovered the Antarctic gate and simply never used it. That's the military for you - reliable and resiliant over quick and flashy.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'' does this, without a trace of irony (because that wouldn't be [[DarkerAndEdgier Dark or Edgy]]) for all ''nine'' chevrons. Twice! But thankfully they don't bother doing it beyond that point, even though the old-style rotary gate dials slowly enough. Though the first nine chevron dialling could be deemed as being as dramatic as the (now standard) seven were in the original movie.

* In the fourth season of the original series of ''Knight Rider'', KITT gets a Super Pursuit Mode upgrade that allows him super-speed. This is achieved with various aerodynamic bits and winglets popping out, with the same stock footage used over and over. By the end of the season this was occasionally omitted or achieved in a jump-cut. On the other hand, sometimes it was used multiple times an episode.