Whenever he used the transporter it felt like every subatomic particle in his body was violating Heisenburg's Principle of Uncertainty.
— Farce Contact, a Star Trek: Enterprise Parody Fic
Tropes about portals, teleporters, and transporters. See also Faster-Than-Light Index and Time Travel Tropes.
Tropes:
- Teleportation (main topic)
- Alternate Self: Sometimes caused by a Teleporter Accident.
- Anchored Teleportation: Teleportation that requires the presence of a specific person or object at the intended destination to work.
- Artistic License – Physics: There are often a lot of Acceptable Breaks from Reality involved in teleporting in fiction, when compared to reality, where non-quantum-sized objects can't.
- Rotational physics: It's a given that with most teleportation stories that "whatever is 'down' is always 'down'", so teleporting to another location won't leave you at an angle to floor/ground — for example, when teleporting to the exact opposite side of the Earth, the character won't usually end up upside down and thus falling or standing on their head.
- The Conservation of Momentum: Everything in the universe is moving relative to everything else — spaceships, planets, everything. For example, the surface of the earth is revolving at a different rate at each latitude, meaning a character would have to compensate for speed the farther location north or south they teleported to.
- Blind Jump: When "here" is so dangerous that you don't care where you end up.
- Body Uploading: Teleporting bodies and other physical things into computer systems.
- Butlerspace: A servant suddenly appears out of nowhere when needed. May or may not be literal teleportation, but the effect is the same.
- Cool Gate: A structure in a fixed location generating a portal that is walked through.
- Crack in the Sky: A damaged point in reality that can serve as a gateway to other places.
- Doorway Between Planets: Portals or teleporting from the surfaces of planets allow people to drive, ride, or walk across space from one planet to another.
- Hellgate: A portal to somewhere awful.
- Portal Pool: A magical teleporter made of water.
- Portal Book: A book that teleports people.
- Portal Crossroad World: A location with a particularly high concentration of portals.
- Portal Door: A door that leads to someplace non-adjacent.
- Portal Network: A series of linked teleporters.
- Portal Picture: A painting that teleports people.
- Pulled into a Mirror: A person is dragged into a mirror by their reflection or another entity, leading them to another place altogether.
- Television Portal: Television screens as portals to somewhere else.
- Destructive Teleportation: When "teleportation" involves destroying the origin in some way. It comes in Twinmaker and One to Million to One forms.
- Dimensional Cutter: Bladed weapons can create portals by cutting.
- Extradimensional Emergency Exit: A character avoids a crisis by escaping into another dimension.
- Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: When direct teleportation is not possible.
- Fighting Across Time and Space: Characters fight or chase each other while teleporting across different locations.
- Flash Step: Super-Speed that acts as teleportation.
- Flashy Teleportation: Teleportation with effects.
- Inconvenient Summons: Someone being teleported against their will and without notice.
- Magic Mirror: One of its many possible uses is a portal gateway.
- Mass Teleportation: A large area or group of people are teleported together.
- Mental Space Travel: Uploading one's brain to a body at the destination.
- Multistage Teleport: Teleporting short distances over and over to achieve long-distance travel.
- Ninja Log: Ninjas teleporting away from attacks and replacing themselves, and presumably basically Swap Teleportation, with a log.
- No-Flow Portal: Portals are strangely selective about what goes through.
- No Warping Zone: An area where teleporting is impossible or at least too dangerous.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Characters get from point A to point B impossibly fast when the camera isn't looking.
- One to Million to One: A person shattering into pieces or animals or other objects which may go elsewhere before reforming.
- Portal Endpoint Resemblance: The area around a portal looks like the destination it takes you to.
- Psychic Teleportation: When it's one of the Psychic Powers.
- Random Transportation: When the teleportation is random.
- Reflective Teleportation: Teleporting through reflective surfaces.
- Resurrection Teleportation: A dying/dead character uses teleportation to return to life.
- Shadow Walker: A character who teleports via shadows.
- Spinning Out of Here: Teleportation involves spinning.
- Stealthy Teleportation: Teleportation where the only effect is disappearance and reappearance of something.
- Subspace or Hyperspace
- Summon Magic: A character teleports another being to his place to aid him.
- Swap Teleportation: Teleporting by switching places with something.
- Telephone Teleport: Telephones used as teleportation devices.
- Teleportation Misfire: Being sent to the wrong place.
- Teleportation Rescue: Someone who was in trouble gets teleported to safety by a third party.
- Teleportation Sickness: Being teleported is rough on the participants.
- Teleportation with Drawbacks: Limitations placed on teleportation.
- Teleport Cloak
- Teleporter Accident: Something...bad...happens in the process of teleportation.
- Portal Cut: Teleporting only part of an object.
- Portal Slam: Running into a teleporter only to discover that it is no longer there.
- Tele-Frag: Death by teleporting into another object.
- Teleporter's Visualization Clause: Teleportation targets are limited to places the teleporter can clearly visualize.
- Teleport Gun
- Teleport Interdiction: Security measures to limit who can teleport and/or where they can go.
- Teleport Spam
- Thinking Up Portals: When you can create portals by yourself.
- Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: When Time Travel can lead to a change in location; or if the location doesn't change, then possibility of location change is at least acknowledged.
- Toilet Teleportation: A character travels by going down a toilet, usually ending up at their destination via a point in the plumbing system.
- Travel to Projectile: When a character warps to the location of where their projectile makes contact with something.
- Twinmaker: A teleporter that makes a clone somewhere else and destroys the original.
- Villain Teleportation: Villains are more likely to have better or exclusive access to teleporting than the heroes.
- Virtual Materialization: Virtual objects and entities manifesting into reality.
- Warp Whistle
- Warp Zone: When there is a specific hub that sends you places.
- Weaponized Teleportation: Using Teleportation to kill or incapacitate, and weapon-like teleportation devices.
