Death World: Difference between revisions

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** There are the eponomyous ''Seas of Venus'' wherein the plants and animals are all varying degrees of dangerous ranging from "inclement" to "you just got killed so thoroughly, your parents are retroactively dead." (This is based on the novella "Clash by Night" by Henry Kuttner writing as Lawrence O'Donnell.)

** ''Redliners''. Burned-out, over-wrought veterans with more than a few ill deeds on their consciences are sent along to safeguard a group of purely-civilian colonists on a new world. They were warned that the planet had dangerous wildlife, but {{spoiler|it turns out to be an enemy base gone wrong, of sorts -- the entire biosphere is a weapons system that evolves itself in response to the defenses (proactive and otherwise) that the protagonists devise}}. See [[When Trees Attack]] for examples.

** The world of Bellevue in ''[[The General]]'' series Drake co-wrote with [[SM Stirling]] is only partially [[Terraform|terraformed]] and the native fauna is highly dangerous.

** The world of Bellevue in ''[[The General]]'' series Drake co-wrote with [[S.M. Stirling]] is only partially [[Terraform|terraformed]] and the native fauna is highly dangerous.

** Drake seems to have a particular fixation with killer plants. Aside from the entries above, there are scenes in ''The Jungle'' and ''Cross the Stars'' where men die in their sleep because fast-growing plants grew '''into their bodies.''' The [[Man-Eating Plant|vampire honeysuckle]] attack in ''The Jungle'' is another prime bit.

** ''Cross the Stars'' also has the ocean world Tethys, where practically all the sea life large enough to see is carnivorous, and one species can grow to 40 metres long.

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* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', we have both the Blight and the Aiel Waste.

* George R. R. Martin's ''Haviland Tuf'':

** In ''[~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging~~#Guardians Guardians]'', a misunderstanding leads to a war between colonists and an alien planet's ecology, as in ''Deathworld''.

** In ''[[wikipedia:Tuf Voyaging#Guardians|Guardians]]'', a misunderstanding leads to a war between colonists and an alien planet's ecology, as in ''Deathworld''.

** The seedship in ''The Plague Star'' also qualifies, at least until Tuf gains control of it.

* [[Anne McCaffrey]]:

* The planet Kolnar from McCaffrey and [[SM Stirling]]'s ''[[The Ship Who|The City Who Fought]]''. A volcanic, radioactive, heavy gravity nightmare world, in orbit around a sun with a spectral category of blinding. Colonized by a particularly nasty group of prisoners, they evolved into nigh-unkillable superhumans. It's no help that said natives have a nuclear war once every generation - and they get their weapons-grade nuclear material by ''hunting'' a creature best described as a jet-propelled submarine with fangs. And that's one of the nice critters on the planet. The natives' planned response to being infected with a pathogen which causes debilitating, but not lethal effects in many of their number is to deliberately infect the rest of their population, and kill anyone who becomes ill.

* The planet Kolnar from McCaffrey and [[S.M. Stirling]]'s ''[[The Ship Who|The City Who Fought]]''. A volcanic, radioactive, heavy gravity nightmare world, in orbit around a sun with a spectral category of blinding. Colonized by a particularly nasty group of prisoners, they evolved into nigh-unkillable superhumans. It's no help that said natives have a nuclear war once every generation - and they get their weapons-grade nuclear material by ''hunting'' a creature best described as a jet-propelled submarine with fangs. And that's one of the nice critters on the planet. The natives' planned response to being infected with a pathogen which causes debilitating, but not lethal effects in many of their number is to deliberately infect the rest of their population, and kill anyone who becomes ill.

** In the sequel, they've moderated their practices slightly. They still infect everyone, but they don't kill those who get sick. They just let them live or die on their own without medical help.

** McCaffrey's ''Dinosaur Planet'' is likewise an extremely active ecology, complete with a mix of toxic alien life and adapted prehistoric Earth life. There are even insect swarms which ''eat Dinosaurs bones and all''.

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* A number of planets in [[Jerry Pournelle]]'s [[Co Dominium]] series, mostly used as dumping grounds for "undesirables" during the [[Co Dominium]]'s reign. During the Empire some of those planets, such as [[Heavyworlder|high-gravity]] Frystaat become known for their mercenaries.

* As if the [[Deadly Game]] the Capital created in ''[[The Hunger Games (Literature)|The Hunger Games]]'' wasn't enough, the designers make sure the arena is just as dangerous as the contestants: traps (deadly gas, forest fires), environmental disasters (volcanoes, tidal waves), [[Everything Trying to Kill You|horrible beasts]] (which range from [[Wolf Man]] muttations to [[Killer Rabbit|flesh-eating squirrels]])...

* [[Earth That Was|Earth]] in ''Waging Good'' by [[Robert Reed]] has an atmosphere pumped full of microscopic war machines, which enter the [[Your Head Asplode|blood stream and violently explode in the head]], viruses which infect pregnant women and turn the fetus into a living [[Fetus Terrible|poison factory]] or [[Tyke Bomb]], good ol' radiation, and chemical warfare agents.

* [[Earth-That-Was|Earth]] in ''Waging Good'' by [[Robert Reed]] has an atmosphere pumped full of microscopic war machines, which enter the [[Your Head Asplode|blood stream and violently explode in the head]], viruses which infect pregnant women and turn the fetus into a living [[Fetus Terrible|poison factory]] or [[Tyke Bomb]], good ol' radiation, and chemical warfare agents.

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'':

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

** The Death Zone on Gallifrey, a site where the most dangerous monsters in the universe (the Daleks and Cybermen are banned, but that doesn't stop them from appearing anyway) pit battle with one another in the Game of Rassilon.

** The planet of Androzani Minor from ''The Caves of Androzani'' features regular semi-volcanic mud bursts, is inhabited by a (admittedly rather unconvincing) carnivorous creature and is the native environment of a mineral which, in its raw state, will kill you within a few days if you so much as touch it. Not to mention you can get shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as there's a rather brutal war going on.

** The planet Spiridon in ''Planet of the Daleks'' is a good example. Plants that spurt quick-hardening glue that can trap you or close off your airways. Plants that shoot spores that, if they touch you, [[Body Horror|starts growing in your skin and spreads fast]]. Tons and tons of carnivorous beasts. Hostile, ''invisible'' natives. Honestly, when the army of insane alien killing machines is the ''least ''of your worries, things are bad.

** The planet Skaro--a delightful wasteland which experienced a nice long NBC campaign by two opposing sides, leaving it essentially a polluted, radioactive stone quarry. Also, there are the [[Absolute Xenophobe|surviving inhabitants]]...

** The eponymous planet from "[[Doctor Who ~~(TV)~~/NS/Recap/S4 E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" is seemingly made entirely of precious gems, and as such has a stake as a high-class vacation planet... as long as you stay inside, as the ''reason'' the planet's soil has turned to gems is because it's constantly exposed to a form of radiation that would incinerate anything living in two seconds flat. {{spoiler|Except for a nasty little [[Body Surf|body surfer]]...}}

** The eponymous planet from "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" is seemingly made entirely of precious gems, and as such has a stake as a high-class vacation planet... as long as you stay inside, as the ''reason'' the planet's soil has turned to gems is because it's constantly exposed to a form of radiation that would incinerate anything living in two seconds flat. {{spoiler|Except for a nasty little [[Body Surf|body surfer]]...}}

** The planet Marinus from ''The Keys of Marinus''. Glass beaches lapped by acid seas. Jungles full of hostile plants and deadly mechanical traps. Frozen wastelands patrolled by packs of man-eating wolves. Bodiless, telepathic slavers. Then there's the WAR...

* ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' had a couple of examples:

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** And, putting all the rest of the examples to pitiful shame, you have the Far Realm. Try to imagine a place where Lovecraft's [[Cosmic Horror|Cosmic Horrors]] would not only originate from, but would be the most basic form of life. Now remove everything even remotely resembling the laws of physics, in any possible way. Now make it a billion times worse than that. You're not there yet, but you're starting to get the basic ''concept''.

* ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'':

** Phyrexia is pretty much a techno-organic hell, complete with nine spheres, each with its own charmingly bloodthirsty hazards. [~~http~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~~Phyrexian The Other Wiki] has a pretty detailed description.

** Phyrexia is pretty much a techno-organic hell, complete with nine spheres, each with its own charmingly bloodthirsty hazards. [[wikipedia:Phyrexian|The Other Wiki]] has a pretty detailed description.

** Grixis and Jund, from ''Shards of Alara'' are death worlds. Grixis is similar to Phyrexia: cut off from green and white mana, the sources of life, it's a dying world infested with armies of the living dead, which fight furiously over the limited (and dwindling) supplies of life force, and even that apparently tastes like stale water or air. Jund is a world cut off from blue and white mana, the sources of order, and is a wild, volcanically active jungle filled with canyons, dragons and similar beasties on the top, and everything trying to kill you on the way up or down. On the bright side, the life magic is strong enough and the food chain is so horrifyingly efficient that there are no undead.

*** Naya, the green-centred shard, also qualifies. At first glance it may seem less threatening than Grixis or Jund, assuming your first glance happened to miss the ''50 foot tall monsters walking around the place''. Fortunately, they're prone to missing you too--just don't get stepped on. And don't offend the natives, who worship them. And also watch out for the plants, who have to fend off the herbivorous behemoths. And...

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* Even the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' card game has this, in the form of the Field Spell card, "Venom Swamp," which slowly kills ''everything'' except the native Venom monsters. There's also "Zombie World," (a world where everything is a zombie!)

* The tabletop miniature game ''[[War Zone]]'' has a supplement describing the flora and fauna of the colonized Venus as basically consisting of giant carnivorous plants, dinosaur-like lizards, deadly bacteria infesting the waterways and quicksand pits every inch you dare to tread. And that doesn't even include the Dark Legion's nightmarish troops lurking in the jungles.

* [[Earth That Was|Earth itself]] in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', which could be loosely described as a burned-out, ecologically wasted hell zone occupied almost exclusively by carnivorous nanobots, death traps, Exsurgent strains, and killing machines that exist solely to rip off heads and upload the ego contained therein for unknown reasons. A few others have been found through the Pandora gates.

* [[Earth-That-Was|Earth itself]] in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', which could be loosely described as a burned-out, ecologically wasted hell zone occupied almost exclusively by carnivorous nanobots, death traps, Exsurgent strains, and killing machines that exist solely to rip off heads and upload the ego contained therein for unknown reasons. A few others have been found through the Pandora gates.

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* Planet Ortega in ''Space Quest III'' requires wearing special underwear to survive the intense heat.

** There are only three planets in ''Space Quest V'' that require you to beam down onto the surface as part of the storyline. Of those three, one of the planets has a toxic atmosphere requiring the use of a rebreather. All of the other planets in the game have conditions so hostile that you will die immediately upon beaming down to them.

* [[Dark Forces Saga|Jaden Korr]] is assigned a rather nasty [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Blenjeel_%28Disciples_of_Ragnos%29 mission to the planet Blenjeel], a [[Single Biome Planet|Desert World]] swarming with sand burrowers (which bear a [[Shout Out|suspicious resemblance]] to the Graboids from ''[[Tremors]]''). Oh, and there's a fierce lightning storm going on in the upper atmosphere, which forces Jaden's ship into a not-so-happy landing on the planet's sandy surface. [[Derelict Graveyard|By the looks of things]], this is a common occurrence.

* [[Dark Forces Saga|Jaden Korr]] is assigned a rather nasty [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Blenjeel_%28Disciples_of_Ragnos%29 mission to the planet Blenjeel], a [[Single Biome Planet|Desert World]] swarming with sand burrowers (which bear a [[Shout-Out|suspicious resemblance]] to the Graboids from ''[[Tremors]]''). Oh, and there's a fierce lightning storm going on in the upper atmosphere, which forces Jaden's ship into a not-so-happy landing on the planet's sandy surface. [[Derelict Graveyard|By the looks of things]], this is a common occurrence.

* ''[[Escape Velocity]] Nova'' has Cunjo, named for its top predator. Auroran warriors sometimes hunt them for bragging rights.

** The Auroran capital worlds also qualify: ridiculous levels of pollution from extreme overpopulation makes them uninhabitable outside of arcologies.

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* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Death Valley]]. [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]].

* Ilha da Queimada Grande, a small island off the coast of Brazil, and crawling with very deadly Golden Lancehead vipers--as many as 1-per-square-meter if averaged out.

* South America's [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert~~ Atacama Desert] is so arid that not even bacteria can live there.

* South America's [[wikipedia:Atacama Desert|Atacama Desert]] is so arid that not even bacteria can live there.

* Antarctica. At least Australia has a permanent human population. And the interior of Antarctica doesn't permanently support ''any'' life. Emperor penguins live there part of the year to breed and raise their chicks, and the males (who stay there the longest) lose half their body weight doing it.

** On a related, but much smaller, note: Mount Everest. If you're a strong-lunged mountain climber, you'll need an oxygen mask to avoid losing your mind in the thin air and walking off a cliff; if you're a regular person, you'll suffocate before you can get the mask on. It's also got unpredictable snowstorms, and if the cold doesn't kill you, it'll freeze your toes off--literally. Have fun!

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* Venus is certainly the best example of the trope in our solar system. The atmosphere is almost entirely carbon dioxide, the sky is constantly overcast with clouds of sulfuric acid, and the global climate is in excess of 500 degrees Celsius. All probes sent to Venus were quickly destroyed by the heat, or crushed by the air pressure, which is about ninety times that of Earth's at sea level. Scientists have called it Hell, and with very good reason.

** Which makes it strangely fitting that this is the Planet the Devil takes his alleges Name from. (Lucifer = Morning Star = Venus)

* Speaking of carbon dioxide living near <ref>ie within 16 miles of</ref> [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos~~ Lake Nyos] is quite hazardous given its nasty, if occasional, habit of belching 1.6 million tonnes CO2

* Speaking of carbon dioxide living near <ref>ie within 16 miles of</ref> [[wikipedia:Lake Nyos|Lake Nyos]] is quite hazardous given its nasty, if occasional, habit of belching 1.6 million tonnes CO2

* The universe itself is basically one immeasurably vast [[Death World]] intent on snuffing out all life and making it impossible for whatever survives to have any real significance in the universe. As an example, you find yourself out in space. Everything in an unsealed part of your body has escaped and other parts are swelling due to the lack of outside pressure, you're being bombarded by all sorts of nasty x-rays and gamma-rays and whatever-rays you can think of. Micro-meteroites keep flying through your body, letting even more of your precious body fluids blow out. You're cooked alive by a nearby star, only to freeze when you get stuck into a sunless orbit around a nice planet you want to call home. You use your personal jet pack to land on the planet, at which point you realize too late it's too close to the star and an earthquake topples a mountain on top of you, it gets covered in lava, and then a giant meteor lands on you. You think the worst is behind you, then the star collapses and you're whisked into the event horizon and eventually expelled by the black hole as radiation. You're floating around, enjoying your time radiating all over the place as you and the rest of the universe slowly converts all of the usable energy into heat. Welcome to the universe, enjoy your stay!

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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Death World]]

[[Category:Trope]]