Dark Matter in Fiction - in Film and Television

In Film and Television

• In the popular comedy cartoon series Futurama, dark matter is a black substance used as fuel in the show's starships. In the episode "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", the liquid form of dark matter can cause an increase of reproductive rate of penguins and even causes males to lay eggs. After the events of the film Futurama: Bender's Game dark matter is rendered completely useless, but before that, it is revealed that dark matter has reality-warping properties. Nibbler and his fellow Nibblonians defecate dark matter.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "In Theory," the Enterprise encounters a dark matter nebula. The dark matter temporarily disrupts the matter or energy fields with which it comes in contact.
• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Rocks and Shoals," Sisko and his crew attempt to hide from Jem'Hadar in a dark-matter nebula, but crash land their stolen Dominion ship into a planet before they reach the nebula.
• In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "One Small Step," the crew encounter a Dark Matter asteroid while observing a gravimetric spatial anomaly.
• In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Good Shepherd," Janeway and an away team encounter a type of dark matter lifeform.
• In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "First Flight," two members of the crew go looking for a dark matter nebula in a shuttlepod.
• In the animated television series Exosquad, dark matter was a material found naturally on the planet Chaos. The Pirate Clans and the Exofleet used it to cloak their spaceships; however, continued exposure causes humans to become violent and short tempered.
• A 1995 episode of The Outer Limits, "Dark Matters," revolves around the problems caused by a planetoid-sized chunk of dark matter.
• In the Earth: Final Conflict episode "Dark Matter," the substance collides with the energy-based Taelon Mothership, paralyzing the ship and all the Taelons aboard in a slow-motion freeze frame mimicking stasis.
• In a 1995 episode of The X-Files, "Soft Light," Dr. Chester Ray Banton is exposed to dark matter. This causes his shadow to break down every molecule of whatever comes in contact with it, converting it into a black and blue puddle of pure energy.