Restraining Bolts in Live-Action TV series.
- Babylon 5:
- The Drakh Keepers are an unusual example of Puppeteer Parasites functioning as Restraining Bolts. The Keepers are spawned by the Drakh to control other creatures, but they don't usually outright control the actions of whoever they're attached to — instead, the host remains conscious and more or less free to act normally, unless they act against the wishes of the Drakh, in which case the Keeper can either impose painful punishment or simply take over the victim's body.
- When Bester mentally conditions Garibaldi to be a Manchurian Agent for him, he also implants an "Asimov" which makes Garibaldi Three Laws-Compliant with respect to Bester — no harming him, no standing by while anything else harms him, and always following orders directly given by him. Ultimately, however, Garibaldi makes somewhat indirect efforts to get at Bester which ultimately prove successful.
- The Cylon Centurions in Battlestar Galactica (2003) have "telencephalic inhibitors" that prevent them from developing free will. One guess as to why this is even mentioned.
- Gan's limiter in Blake's 7, which malfunctions in one episode. This made it impossible for him to actually kill anyone and was implanted by the Federation after he killed one of their officers (who had killed his girlfriend). In one case, it prevented him from killing some actual threats.
- Buffyverse:
- The chip implanted in Spike to keep him from attacking humans via Pavlovian conditioning. Once Badass Decay and the return of his soul make the chip virtually superfluous, a "counter-bolt" is employed by the Big Bad in the form of a tune which (due to its specific connection to Spike) can cause him to revert to his old ways for a time. In the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the bolt also lessens in how effective it is for the sake of comedy or plot. Originally, if Spike so much as tries to attack someone, he's sent to the ground writhing in pain. Later on, he outright hits people, and the only consequence is a sharp, short jolt of pain. Justified or possibly Hand Waved with the explanation that the chip began malfunctioning. All of Spike's various restraining bolts are lampshaded when Buffy and Giles attempt to explain the situation to newcomer Robin Wood:Giles: Well, uh, it's a... long story.
Buffy: The military put a chip in Spike's head so he couldn't hurt anyone.
Giles: And that would be the abridged version.
Buffy: But he wouldn't hurt anyone anymore because he has a soul now.
Giles: Unless the First triggers him again.
Robin: Triggers the chip?
Buffy: No, the trigger's a post-hypnotic thing. The First put it in his head. It was...made him...he was killing again.
Robin: So, he has a trigger, a soul, and a chip?
Giles: Not anymore!
Buffy: It was killing him, Giles!
Robin: The trigger?
Buffy: No, the chip. The trigger's not active anymore.
Robin: Because the military gave him a soul? - Angel's soul is a very complex case whereby one character is essentially a Restraining Bolt on another—Angelus. The two are nothing alike, but canon is wildly inconsistent on whether they're truly different people—and the other souled vampire, Spike, makes things even more confusing by hardly changing at all, and in fact, undergoing most of his Heel–Face Turn even before regaining his soul.
- The chip implanted in Spike to keep him from attacking humans via Pavlovian conditioning. Once Badass Decay and the return of his soul make the chip virtually superfluous, a "counter-bolt" is employed by the Big Bad in the form of a tune which (due to its specific connection to Spike) can cause him to revert to his old ways for a time. In the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the bolt also lessens in how effective it is for the sake of comedy or plot. Originally, if Spike so much as tries to attack someone, he's sent to the ground writhing in pain. Later on, he outright hits people, and the only consequence is a sharp, short jolt of pain. Justified or possibly Hand Waved with the explanation that the chip began malfunctioning. All of Spike's various restraining bolts are lampshaded when Buffy and Giles attempt to explain the situation to newcomer Robin Wood:
- Charmed (1998): "I Dream of Phoebe": When Pheoebe wishes a Genie free, she's forced to take the Genies place, and with it all the perks of being a Genie, such as being forced to agree with Chris, her Master, when he suggests keeping Piper around a little longer and then questioning how she's supposed to give commands and take commands at the same time, forced to grant Chris's Wishes even when she objects to them, obey when being summoned in and out of her bottle and also having to obey Richard when she asks to use phone to call Paige and he refuses. Not to mention the Genie curse makes her annoyingly 'helpful', to the point that Piper threatens to bottle her if she doesnt stop putting her nose into her vanquishing spell.
- Doctor Who:
- In the new series, Cybermen have a circuit that keeps the formerly-human Cybermen from experiencing feelings. When deactivated, they die of grief, to say the least.
- "Rosa": Krasko, the time traveller trying to Make Wrong What Once Went Right, has a neural implant from his time in prison which prevents him from directly killing anyone, resulting in the episode's conflict playing out via Non-Lethal Warfare.
- Farscape:
- Scorpius puts a "neural chip" into John's brain. The effect is John involuntarily sharing headspace with a "mental clone" of Scorpius, which the media-savvy John names Harvey. John mostly manages to dominate and use Harvey, although their relationship is complicated. One of Harvey's goals is to keep John alive for Scorpius, but another goal is to restrain John from attacking Scorpius...
- The Peacekeepers keep control of Leviathan Living Ships (such as Moya) by fitting them with a 'Control Collar'. These collars prevent Leviathans from attempting starburst, allow their will to be overridden (possibly even by remote), and can cause serious health problems for those Leviathans that have ever been fitted with them. Naturally, Moya loses hers in the first episode.
- Legend of the Seeker has the Rada'Han, which prevents a magic user from using their powers.
- The Magicians (2016): The fairy slave has one which takes the form of a neck band. It starts killing her when she casts a spell until Julia stops this.
- An episode of Married... with Children has a building inspector making Al live in the basement until it is brought up to code, and she gives him a shock collar to prevent him from going up until he does. In one scene, Marcy takes the opportunity to lecture Al with her feminist rhetoric.
- Motherland: Fort Salem: Collar devices exist that block witches from casting spells while locked on through stifling the vocalizations they use. Witch prisoners are equipped with them.
- Painkiller Jane has Neuros "chipped" to remove their powers. A simple injector to the back of the head is all it takes.
- Primeval has Oliver Leek gathering 40 or so Future Predators and fitting "Neural Clamps" to stop them from harming him or Helen. And...
- Red Dwarf:
- Kryten, a mechanoid, is partly governed by "behavior protocols" to help him act morally and follow social customs.
- In "Polymorph", the titular shape-shifting, emotion-sucking Monster of the Week feeds on Kryten's guilt, bypassing these protocols to the point where he would turn his friends over to be killed to save himself.
- In "Tikka to Ride", Dave Lister disables Kryten's protocols, causing him to smoke cigarettes, hum "Bad to the Bone", and even roast a dead human and serve it to them.
- One episode of Sliders had a world filled with mandatory "truth collars" which shocked the person each time they lied. The bigger the lie, the deadlier the zap was.
- Stargate-verse:
- The Asurans in Stargate Atlantis couldn't attack Ancients or humans with the Ancient technology gene until Rodney McKay modified their programming, opening them to make further modifications.
- In the beginning of season 9 of Stargate SG-1, Vala tricks Daniel into wearing one of a pair of bracelets which they can't take off and which will make them pass out if they're apart. He is not amused.
- The Asgard and Goa'uld have a treaty that acts like a contractual restraining bolt, preventing the Gou'ould from attacking Earth directly as well as the Asgard from directly assisting them. This is rarely brought up except when the plot demands it.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- Data has a series of ethical subroutines installed to ensure that he knows right from wrong and behaves accordingly. When the program is shut down or circumvented, Data can be capable of truly appalling acts, showing just how important to controlling his behavior the subroutines really are. In "Descent", Data's Evil Twin Lore deactivates the program before using Data's stolen emotion chip to make Data feel pleasure from causing pain, which results in Data torturing LaForge. Data only stops after his programming is rebooted by the crew, which renders the Emotion Control ineffective and allows him to defeat Lore. According to Star Trek: Insurrection, Data also has a hard-wired program which only allows him to act based upon his ethical and moral subroutines when his positronic brain is damaged. According to LaForge, it was designed to prevent anyone from taking advantage of Data in a compromised state.
- In "Attached", Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher are captured by rebels on a planet whose majority race had petitioned for Federation membership. While imprisoned, they're fitted with implants which broadcast their life-signs to their captors so that they can be easily found when they make their escape. The implants also result in Picard and Crusher being unable to remain further than ten meters apart without feeling violently ill and broadcasting their own thoughts to each other.
- Star Trek: Voyager:
- Seven of Nine doesn't seem to have any Restraining Bolts at first, but as she gets more in touch with her emotions, she eventually hits a fail-safe preventing Borg drones from doing exactly that in "Human Error". The Doctor manages to remove it later.
- The Doctor has ethical programming which prevents him from breaking his oath as a physician. It's not clear why this is not hard-wired into his code rather than a subroutine which can be turned off, invariably turning him into a 24th-century Mengele.
- In "The Chute", prisoners Paris and Kim have "neural implants" designed to make them more aggressive. The intent is that a populace which is often at each other's throats will dedicate less effort towards trying to escape. As an added bonus, no tears will be shed if they open up space for more prisoners.
- Stranger Things: Dr. Brenner put a chip in One's neck to keep him under control. It turns out to be the only thing stopping him from slaughtering nearly everyone in Hawkins Lab.
- The Wheel of Time (2021): The a'dam are metal collars which Seanchan use to control enslaved women channelers. A sul'dam, who controls the a'dam, can cause them pain for disobedience and breaks the collared women (damane) using this. Damane attempting to remove the collar or harm a sul'dam automatically causes them pain as well, and they can't channel without permission.
