Basic Trope: A space-ship that serves as a space-lifeboat.
- Straight: The Cool Ship Troperion suffers a warp core breach, forcing the cast to run into the escape pods.
- Exaggerated:
- The escape pods have escape pods.
- The above example, but there are several levels of escape pods.
- The escape pods are Mile Long Ships in their own right.
- Downplayed:
- The ship has ejector seats, but they only get you out of the ship.
- There are not dedicated “escape” pods as such: the pods aboard the Troperion pull triple duty as an Escape Pod,a Drop Pod and a Boarding Pod.
- Justified: Space OHCS insists on their inclusion on every ship, in case of radiation leaks, enemy attacks or alien contamination.
- Inverted: Boarding Pod: This pod gets you onto a new ship instead.
- Subverted:
- The Ensign Newbie runs to the escape pods…but is stopped halfway when The Captain points out they can just eject the warp core and be done with it.
- It’s not a true escape-pod but a Disposable Vehicle Section that can be attached or detached at will.
- The pods are just emergency shelters; they don't jettison. One big ship's easier to find and has more resources to secure aid than a bunch of little ones. They're called "escape pods" because you escape to them, not in them.
- Double Subverted:
- The Troperion‘s hull is punctured by a stray shot, forcing them into the escape pods after all.
- The disposable section has it’s own escape pods.
- The emergency pods are modular attachments, and can be easily jettisoned by way of a button near the airlock.
- Parodied:
- The escape pods seat 30 people, despite being the size of a phone booth, and they’re NOT bigger on the inside. Much squeezing and awkwardness ensues.
- The Troperion is shaped like a Humongous Mecha, and the escape pods fire out of it’s ass.
- Zig Zagged: The Malicious had it’s escape pods removed, to force those onboard to fight to the death. However, Emperor Evulz snuck one aboard so that he can make his secret escape. As he flies away laughing however, it suddenly detonates; his treacherous underling had installed explosives in it to prevent his escape. Evulz escapes in his escape pod’s escape pod, however, and uses it to board his minion’s craft and hijack it.
- Averted: No escape pods are mentioned. If they need to leave the Troperion in a hurry, they just use the onboard combat-shuttles.
- Enforced: They’re Recycling The Castaway IN SPACE!, so of course they need a lifeboat.
- Lampshaded: “Jesus Christ it’s a Reptilian get in the pod!”
- Invoked: The Captain has an escape pod built into his quarters, just in case.
- Exploited:
- The escape pods are used as guest-rooms when not in use.
- Pirates hide in seemingly marooned escape pods, in order to ambush those kind souls who pick them up.
- Defied: “Escape pods? Why would you bother? As soon as this ship is hit it’ll go up like a firecracker. There’s no time to get into them!
- Discussed: “Don’t we have some sort of tiny spacecraft we can run to in a situation like this?”
- Conversed: “I wonder how much delta V that tiny speck of a craft has…”
- Deconstructed: The pods have no FTL, cramped conditions, a limited supply of food and air, and are almost always too far from a planet to perform re-entry; to say nothing of how hard they are to discover in the limitless blackness of space. The “Escape” pods of the Troperion have no survivors: just cadets who died slower than those left on the ship.
- Reconstructed:
- Instead of costly life-support systems, the modern Escape Pod design is just a a cryo-chamber, a distress-signal, a long-lived battery and a black box. Even if the inhabitant is not thawed for a thousand years, their eventual rediscovery and recovery is almost assured.
- The Subspace Ansible exists in this universe, and the laws of chivalry are well-respected. As a result, escape pods are always quickly found and picked up.
- Played For Laughs: The captain is a Lovable Coward who screams “MAN THE ESCAPE PODS” at every tiny bump.
- Played For Drama:
- The crew ejects to escape their exploding ship…but the mole escaped with them. The situation grows tense as the hunt for the mole continues, to say nothing of dwindling supplies...
- The crew is forced to Abandon Ship because of an enemy attack...and then said enemy decides to attack the escape pods as well.
Take the Escape Pod to flee back to the main page!
