Very few people are Omnidisciplinary Scientists, and even in fiction it can be surprisingly difficult for someone to become an Instant Expert (but if it were easy, everyone would do it).
As such, when fiction wants to maintain a degree of realism, our protagonists will often have to turn to the services of an expert in a particular field, particularly if said expert is not already a member of their group. Sometimes, they'll even know the names of just who they have to call for the job.
Only, when they make the call, they're informed that the renowned expert they seek is unavailable. The delay could be temporary, or it could be permanent. What it does mean is that the protagonists are often without the very expertise they need. In some cases, they may need to turn to a Great Big Book of Everything to try and figure it out. In other situations, it could be that they need to rely on an Indy Ploy to get themselves out of a particular situation. Often it's a means of enforcing The Only One or The Main Characters Do Everything, though in some cases this can stretch audience credulity beyond tolerance levels, and the writers will then have the main characters fail at their assigned task. In some situations, it might be the reason why the Simple Solution Won't Work.
In the event of this happening, expect the characters to try and call in the Closest Thing We Got (i.e. instead of a professor one of his students, a nurse instead of a surgeon, a food critic instead of a professional chef, etc).
This trope can be Played for Drama or for laughs, and it can serve as a means of introducing a new character into the series, as the expert could show up later, and then be someone that the cast come to rely on, or they could always remind the protagonists of how they failed to do what the expert was capable of. In such cases, it's likely to overlap with Insufferable Genius. Like many other tropes, balance is everything — trying to call for help only for the help to be unavailable because they are busy with something else can be as much of an infuriating Contrived Coincidence to the audience as any other if it seemingly happens too often.
Contrast Ignored Expert for when the expert is available, but their advice is rejected.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Slayers NEXT: In one story arc of the second season, Lina's powers are sealed by a mazoku, and so she is sent to see a magical specialist, Runan, who is supposed to be capable of lifting the seal on her powers. She meets a very young pink-haired girl who claims to be Runan. It is eventually revealed that she's Kira, who is the granddaughter of Runan, and using his name. She claims to be able to make the elixir that will restore Lina's powers, and Xellos, acting ostensibly as Lina's ally, tells her that from what he can observe, the elixir is correct. Unfortunately, before Lina can take it, Martina slips an extra ingredient into the cauldron, causing it to explode.
Comic Books
- Spider-Man:
- During the events of Maximum Carnage, Spider-Man tries to consult the Fantastic Four, hoping Reed Richards would have something they could use to battle Carnage. Worst-case scenario, he hopes to recruit the Human Torch, as fire is one of the Carnage symbiote's only weaknesses. He discovers that the FF are away, and this later causes him to call upon Firestar as a substitute for the Torch despite her not being as experienced a hero.
- During the famous "No One Stops The Juggernaut!" two-parter, after Spidey's initial encounter with Juggernaut ends badly he advises Madame Web to contact the Avengers or the Fantastic Four for backup, only to be told she's already tried but neither were available. When he learns that Juggernaut is powered by mystic power (his Crimson Gem of Cyttorak), he immediately heads to the Sanctum Sanctorum to consult Doctor Strange. Unhappily for Spidey, Wong informs him that Dr Strange is elsewhere and unavailable. He does suggest the wall-crawler contact the X-Men, as he had heard from Dr Strange they'd fought Juggernaut before and could probably help, but Spider-Man ruefully notes that there's no longer any time to try to call for The Cavalry and asks Wong to pray for him while he goes off to face Juggernaut.
- Superman: During the Panic in the Sky! storyline, Superman needs a set of oxygen belts built so he can lead a team of heroes to fight Brainiac on Warworld. However, he ruefully admits that he can't go to STAR Labs as their Metropolis wing was destroyed in Armageddon 2001, so he heads to his friend, Professor Emil Hamilton. When Hamilton admits such a request is too much for him to handle, they both reluctantly contact Lex Luthor II for his resources.
Comic Strips
- In books of British cartoons about church life by David Walker, some of these are based on waiting for only one person knowing how to do a difficult task in the church, such as changing the bulb on the overhead projector, or winding the clock. In one such cartoon, the clock winder has a sign saying "Remember, you must only wind it this way - or is it this way? Ask Mr Lawrence at Rose Cottage."
Fan Works
- Aftermath and Recovery: When the Turtles are all left with severe injuries (due to the events of the Kraang invasion), Mikey and April call Draxum for advice. He tells them that while he can help with some of the injuries, they'll need specialists to deal with Leonardo's messed-up knee and to diagnose the cause of Donatello's seizures — specifically, they need a surgeon and a neurologist. This presents a problem since the Hamatos can't simply go to a hospital, nor would most doctors know how to treat mutant turtles. Fortunately, the problem is solved by having April's mother, a neurologist, look at Donnie while Draxum hires a yokai surgeon to operate on Leo.
- Fashion Upgrade: When deciding on what assignment they'll give Marinette's new class, Lila gets away with pitching her idea of a fashion show because she knows that ninety-nine percent of the class has no experience with fashion shows and have no idea how much work goes into actually putting one on. The one percent who does know is Adrien, who has been a model for years and has seen firsthand how long it takes his father to put a fashion show together (at least four months, which Marinette only has half of). But Lila is able to manipulate the class into ignoring Adrien's protests, reminding them how much fun Marinette will have showing off her passion (and leaving out how such a big responsibility will likely overwhelm her).
Films — Animation
- Bee Movie: In the film's climax, while trying to fly a bunch of flowers to his and Vanessa's hometown to repollinate the Earth, Barry tries to talk the plane's pilots into not stopping. He startles both of them into accidentally knocking each other unconscious. Thus, Vanessa (a florist with no flight experience) is left to try and fly the plane with Barry (and later the rest of his hive) coaching her.
- Frozen (2013): When Kristoff and Anna visit the trolls after the white streak has appeared in Anna's hair, the wise old troll is asleep and must not be disturbed. The group has to wait until he is awake, and the "Fixer Upper" song is sung in the meantime.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: When Jack Skellington decides that Halloween Town should take charge of Christmas that year, they inevitably run into a problem: the only one who knows anything about Christmas at all is Jack, who visited by mistake. They can't go and ask Santa himself because they don't know they're doing anything wrong. As such, despite their efforts, Jack's attempt at combining the two holidays is a disaster.
- Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness: Trying to escape an exploding moon base and return to Earth, everyone who could conceivably fly the ship is rendered unconscious by falling debris hitting them in the head, from two former pro-astronauts to the ship's designer to his wealthy brother who funded the space trip to begin with, and Freddy is having to hold a critical piece of machinery in place to keep the ship operational, leaving Daphne, the only person who observed how the ship was flown in the trip to the moon, free to fly it.
- Zootopia 2: When investigating why a snake would be in Zootopia, Judy (due to reptiles, especially snakes, being all but exiled from the city a century ago), can't find any information other than a conspiracy theorist named Nibbles Maplestick, a beaver who runs a podcast. This is partially because the Lynxley family buried the true reason why reptiles were exiled to hide the true source of their family prestige. Luckily, despite Nick's doubts about her, Nibbles is completely right ''and'' one of the few mammals to know about Marsh Market's secret reptile inhabitants.
Films — Live-Action
- Haunted Mansion (2023): While trying to assemble a group of people to help them figure out the curse of the mansion, Kent first tries to reach out to Louisiana's leading expert on the paranormal... only to figure out that he's dead.
- The Last Jedi: Rose, Finn, and BB-8 travel to the casino town of Canto Bight on a mission to find the Master Codebreaker so he can disable the First Order's tracking device. However, they get arrested before they can reach the Master Codebreaker, so they end up recruiting a slicer named DJ instead, just because he's in the cell with them. It turns out to be a huge mistake, as DJ sells them out to the First Order to save his own skin.
- In On the Beach (2000), Julian Osborne happens to be one of the world's leading experts on radiation and also an Australian, which means he's still alive after the US and China turned the northern hemisphere into an irradiated wasteland. However, Osborne in this version is a cynical misanthrope and opted to simply check out into a small tropical island and enjoy himself for what's left in the final months of humanity. The very first task USS Charleston is given is to haul Osborne to the mainland and help study the data on fallout and try help find solution of any kind, no matter how slim or feeble.
- Paddington: The titular bear spends most of his time in London trying to track down the explorer who came to Darkest Peru years before, as he knows the explorer (named Montgomery Clyde) invited his aunt and uncle to stay with him years before, and would likely give Paddington a place to live. Unfortunately, the Big Bad is Montgomery Clyde's daughter, and she's the one to tell him that her father passed away some time before.
- Paranormal Activity: In the first movie, the main characters Katie and Micah call a psychic named Doctor Fredrichs to help them with the supernatural entity in their home only for him to tell them that his area of expertise is with ghosts not demons and gives them the phone number of a demonologist named Doctor Johann Averies who can help them. Katie wants to call Doctor Averies, but Micah refuses claiming he can handle the situation on his own. Later in the movie when Micah agrees to call Doctor Averies, they learn he's in Prague helping a client from Doctor Fredrichs who promptly leaves their home because his presence is making the demon angry.
- Practical Magic: Invoked. After the aunts, who are more well-versed in magic than Gilly or Sally, catch on that their nieces have been dabbling in some dark magic, they abruptly leave the house in the middle of the night, giving Sally's daughters protection and leaving a message: "Clean up your own mess".
Literature
- Beastly: When Adrien is first turned into a beast, he wants to continue his schooling as a means of continuing some semblance of a normal teenhood. Because he's now a chimera-esque creature, finding a normal tutor is out of the question, as is simply going to a normal school. A solution is finally found when Adrien's father hires Will, a blind man who acts as Adrien's live-in tutor. As thanks for his kindness at the end, Adrien uses his deal with Kendra to restore Will's sight.
- House of the Scorpion: When Matteo expresses an interest in learning to play the piano, his drug lord "father" tries to reach out to the best tutors money can buy. Because Matteo's a clone, they all refuse. So instead, they hire the only person willing to come: an elderly piano teacher who's recently gone deaf and is desperate for work. Luckily, his deafness does not hinder his teaching ability.
- Mother of Learning: Kael gives Zorian a list of people whom he knows have skill in soul magic, to help Zorian investigate why he gained awareness of the "Groundhog Day" Loop after suffering a soul magic attack — but it turns out that Sudomir already quietly assassinated most of them before the loop started, so that they wouldn't sense the presence of his immense soul storage device, and Zorian has to act quickly with each loop iteration if he doesn't want the same thing to happen to the last few.
When he arrived in the village where his first candidate lived and was informed by the locals that the man hadn’t been seen in the past two months, he was unconcerned. ... But then other disappearances started piling up.
- Pump Six and Other Stories: In the titular short story, Travis Alvarez, the main character and a maintenance worker for the failing sewage system of the future New York City, eventually devises a plan to save the system: there might be no replacement parts in existence anymore, but there is an engineering department at Columbia University, so all he has to do is get there, inform them about the critical situation, hand them the industrial-grade schematics of the valve he needs replaced and they will solve the problem from there. But because the story is set in the world of Stupid Future People, he instead finds out that the university closed when Travis was a toddler, and all the professors simply died of old age already — while the campus is simply occupied by adolescents partying there.
- The Marvelous Land of Oz: When Tip, Jack Pumpkinhead and the sawhorse travel to the Emerald City, Jack rides on the sawhorse, and they accidentally become separated from Tip. The rather dim-witted Jack arrives at the Emerald City, discovers that "his father" Tip is not there, and has to explain his presence to the Guardian of the Gates, and to the Scarecrow, who is the King. Jack does not even know why he is there, and that his "father" knows, but is not there. The King has to keep on Holding the Floor to keep Jack entertained until Tip arrives.
Live-Action TV
- The Addams Family (1964): In the episode "Uncle Fester's Illness", Fester comes down with a mysterious malady. Concerned, Gomez decides to ring up the family Witch Doctor, one of the only people they know who is accustomed to the Addams' peculiar biology. Unfortunately, the witch doctor is dealing with a sudden flow of tsetse fly bites in his home village and simply can't leave.
- A.N.T. Farm: In one episode, the school's principal loses her phone, with it ending up in Lexi and Cameron's hands. They end up doing numerous silly things with it, such as giving all of the foreign language teachers a surprise week off. Thus, when the principal goes to the language department to see if they can reach out to a potential foreign exchange student, she finds no one there.
- Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman has this happen several times for the sake of drama, so that Dr. Mike has to do the more dangerous procedures by herself.
- One of the best examples is when her adopted son, Brian, needs a brain procedure done to reduce swelling after he jumped off a high tree branch. She does contact a specialist, but at this point in the series the only mass transit to Colorado Springs is via stagecoach. Something happens and the brain specialist is delayed right when Brian takes a turn for the worst, forcing Michaela to do so herself.
- Also, in the backstory, when Sully's wife Abigail suffers complications in childbirth that the local midwife couldn't solve, they place her in a wagon and race to the nearest hospital in Denver. She naturally doesn't make it, and the child dies with her.
- Leverage:
- In "The Mile High Job", the person the team needs most to break into Genagrow and bypass their security is Playful Hacker Hardison, but he's incommunicado. Subverted that he returns to Leverage headquarters in time to warn them that the Big Bad is approaching. Turns out he had lost track of time because he was playing the new World of Warcraft expansion pack.
- In "The Rundown Job", Hardison, Eliot, and Parker learn of an impending terrorist attack on DC, and discover that the foremost expert in the form of bioterrorism is one Dr. Walter Udel. They go to his house to get info from him on what they need to do to stop it. The only problem is that the attack is being planned by Udel, who figured that the government wasn't dedicating enough resources to preparing for such an event, and decided to force their hand with a False Flag incident.
- M*A*S*H: In "Bombed", a soldier has been brought in who is booby trapped, a wire across his chest tethered to a grenade, and cutting the wire will release the tension, causing the grenade to go off. Frank protests that the doctors are not equipped to handle such things, and that they have a demolition expert in camp, one Staff Sergeant Benson.
Trapper: Frank! [pointing to the man on his operating table]] This is Staff Sergeant Benson!Hawkeye: Well tell him to stuff his giblets back in and get back to work!
- Night Court: In "The Mugger", a man who had previously mugged Christine has taken Flo and the owner of a military surplus store hostage with a grenade he took off the surplus store owner (who confirms the grenade is live). Mac informs Harry that the hostage negotiation team is currently unavailable.
Mac: They say it'll be at least two hours. Their people are all tied up right now.Harry: With what?Mac: Rope. They're being held hostage by a militant splinter faction of Up With People.Harry: [nods] It was bound to happen, sooner or later.
- On Pawn Stars the staff likes to call in experts for some items (they have a gun expert, book expert, toy expert, car expert, etc.), but sometimes the expert is unavailable so they must make an offer with insufficient information. This rarely ends well for them.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures: Double Subverted in "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith"; when Sarah Jane and Luke are stuck in 1951 trying to figure out how to keep the Trickster from manifesting and taking over the world, Sarah Jane says there is one person in the whole universe who would know what to do, but who rarely turns up when you need him: The Doctor. Just then, Sarah Jane spots a blue police box and thinks the Doctor has miraculously appeared in the TARDIS just in time, only to open it and realize it's just a regular police box, common in that era.
Luke: But how? What's that other way? How can we stop him?Sarah Jane: I don't know, yet. There's only one person in the universe who would know straight away. One person who could help us. And where is he whenever you need him?[Spots a police box in the alley]Sarah Jane: Oh, yes! Yes! I don't believe it! Doctor! It's me! Doctor! [She knocks on the door and it opens.]PC Ferguson: You won't find a doctor in here, my love. What do you want?
- Sesame Street: In one skit, Susie Kabloozie has an irrational hatred for the letter "F", so she wishes that everything beginning with the letter would go away. When her wish comes true and she realises this includes the furniture and floor, she tries to call the fire brigade. However, the only firefighter in town has vanished, since "firefighter" begins with "F".
- Thunderbirds: In "Path of Destruction", the "Crablogger" automated logging machine has run out of control, and is in danger of destroying an entire village. Only one person knows the extremely complicated shutdown procedure, and Lady Penelope visits him in his home at night, ordering him at gunpoint to tell her the procedure, alongside his sleeping wife.
Video Games
- Fallout 4: The Sole Survivor travels to Diamond City hoping to find information on the murder of their spouse and kidnapping of their son. They're directed to Nick Valentine, the city's finest private detective, only to learn that he's been kidnapped by Skinny Malone and the Triggermen gang, forcing them to rescue him from their base in Vault 114 in order to receive his aid.
- Subverted in Final Fantasy XIV. The Faculty of Medicine questline involves heading to Thavnair so Debroye can learn how to infuse ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) into her Mervynbread from Jalvaaz, a master alchemist and health researcher. Upon arriving in Radz-at-Han, Debroye is dismayed to learn that Jalvaaz was born a century ago, assuming that means the man is long gone. But his great-granddaughter assures her that he's still alive, hale, and healthy due to practicing what he preaches. She then directs Debroye to find him at Merhyde's Meyhane due to his love of liquor.
Web Animation
- Sonic for Hire: In Season 3, when needing disguises to sneak into Shredder's bank, Sonic attempts calling Mr. Disguise for assistance but is notified that he's unavailable via voicemail. The group instead uses costumes from the ice skating show.
Web Videos
- Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party: Double Subverted; as acclaimed mystery writer Agatha Christie was already one of the invited party guests, the other authors at Poe's party anticipate her arrival in hopes she can figure out who is killing them off one by one. She finally appears at the door in "Ch. 5: The Oval Portrait", but has already been stabbed to death, falling down dead in the doorway. This is Played for Laughs.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series: When he begins investigating an invisible thief in "See No Evil", Bruce Wayne asks some of his people at Wayne Enterprises about a patent they invested in years ago, discovering that an "invisible cloth" a scientist created might be what the thief is using. He requests a meeting with the scientist, only to find out that the man died some months before. Thus, Batman is left to go and speak with the scientist's assistant instead.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World", the evil Chronosapien, Maltruant, hires Dr. Psychobos to repair his body. Psychobos bemoans that he’s "the greatest mind in the universe" and being used as tech support is beneath him. Maltruant retorts that Azmuth is the greatest mind in the universe, but Azmuth is too smart to be evil, so Maltruant had to settle for second-best.
- DuckTales (2017): Zig-zagged; because of Scrooge's long and illustrious treasure-hunting career, Donald's experience as an adventurer/overprotective parent, Mrs. Beakley's past as a spy, and Della's flight/survival/adventuring skills (not to mention all of the various eccentric geniuses that work for Scrooge), the MacDuck/Duck family usually has or can find a expert for whatever their adventure of the week entails. But there are occasionally moments where someone who would be able to solve their problem quickly isn't available:
- When Scrooge's birthday comes around, it's revealed that part of why Scrooge dislikes his birthday is because the only one who ever planned birthday parties he liked was his former butler, Duckworth, and that he hasn't felt like celebrating since the butler passed. Inverted in the same episode, where Duckworth's ghost is summoned back to the house and he's able to give Scrooge the birthday present he really wants: seeing his enemies humiliated and the party he didn't want ruined.
- In "Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", the kids' slumber party turns into an odd shared-dream experience that Lena in particular is freaked out by. Since they all agree this is likely due to an outside influence (and more than likely magic), they wonder if Scrooge would be able to help. However, Scrooge simply finds the kids asleep, thinks they just partied too hard during their sleepover, and decides to let them rest.
- The Magic School Bus: In "Out of This World," Dorothy Ann discovers that a Meteorite of Doom is headed for the kids' school. The class tries calling NASA, but it just gets them a Ridiculously Long Phone Hold. Fortunately, Ms. Frizzle has a magic bus, so the kids can deal with the asteroid themselves.
- Madeline: In "Madeline's Christmas", Miss Clavel and most of her students, along with a random mouse, all catch a cold. Miss Clavel tries to call Dr. Cohn and have him make a house call, only to find that he's laid up with a cold as well.
- Peppa Pig: In "Soft Play", Mummy and Daddy Pig, Dr. Elephant, and Miss Rabbit all get stuck in a kids' play area. Daddy Pig tries to phone the rescue service, but that doesn't work since the rescue service is run by Miss Rabbit.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: While Mystery, Inc. tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of the original Mystery, Inc, it quickly becomes apparent to the teens that a surprising number of adults in their lives know far more about the situation than they're willing to say (with it eventually being revealed that Fred's adoptive father was the reason most of Mystery, Inc left Crystal Cove in the first place, and that one of the friend group's closest friends, Angel Dynamite, was actually one of the original members who changed her name). Due to none of these adults being willing to tell them the truth, the group is forced to find answers themselves, despite the efforts of those same adults (occasionally in monster costumes) trying to stop them.
- Smiling Friends: In "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?", Pim and Charlie come across the corpse of Salty's Restaurant founder Simon S. Salty, complete with a knife plunged into him. When Pim tries to call the police, they tell him that they no longer handle murders due to budget cuts. Charlie then receives a call from Mr. Boss explaining their exact situation, and that the Smiling Friends are now in charge of Salty's murder.
- Tangled: The Series: While at the Spire to try and obtain a piece of the Demanitus Scroll, Rapunzel and company try to find the museum's protector, the wise Keeper. When they arrive, his apprentice (an annoying Know-Nothing Know-It-All named Calliope) tells them that he hasn't been around for days.
