Terraform: Difference between revisions
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* It's in progress on Mars as of the first ''[[Armitage III]]'' OVA. In the epilogue to the sequel, it get's oceans courtesy of a lot of dropped comets.
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', Mars is terraformed through the use of [[Nanomachines]]. How these machines affected native Martians becomes a major plot point later on.
* The beginning of an attempt to terraform Mars is mentioned in the finale of ''[[Gundam Wing]]''. The sequel novel ''Frozen Teardrop'' has it completed roughly
* ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' makes this central to the backstory. Around a hundred years prior to the series, a serious attempt at terraforming Mars was made. An unexpected and extremely deadly plague made the Federation give up, {{spoiler|in the process abandoning the settlers already there because they expected them to die out pretty quickly anyway, and sweeping the whole matter under the rug. A few colonists survived though, and formed a nation called Veigan... which is now attacking the Earth Sphere for revenge and is known to them only as the "Unknown Enemy", or UE.}}
* [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''Mazin Garon'' is a [[Humongous Mecha]] with the ability to alter planets to mimic the conditions of any other planet, even going so far as to be able to control gravity.
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* ''[[Total Recall]]'' does this to Mars, supposedly by rapidly melting the planet's icy core to flood the atmosphere with oxygen. [[Did Not Do the Research|All at once, with no harmful side effects to billions of tons of air suddenly blasting on to the surface faster than any tornado.]] A window gets broken, that's it. There's not even any dust kicked up. ''On Mars''.
** Maybe, it could have been [[All Just a Dream]].
* ''[[Titan A.E.]]'' had the Titan, which could completely and quickly remake a planet, just like the [[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Genesis Device]]. Unlike the Genesis Device, though, the planet didn't collapse back on itself after a year
** The Titan didn't so much remake a planet, as make a whole new planet using a local nebula for raw materials. They just happened to call it "New Earth". Besides, we all know it's really called Planet Bob.
* The Genesis Device from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' turns a nebula into an Earthlike planet. Sadly, the planet tore itself apart within a year. If it had been used on a rocky planet instead of a nebula, the planet probably wouldn't have fallen apart if that terraformed underground location Khan imprisoned Kirk and co. in was any indication.
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* In [[Robert Charles Wilson]]'s ''[[Spin]]'', when the Earth is placed under a membrane that slows down time (which means that for the people of Earth the Sun will expand in a few decades), humans successfully terraform Mars; a whole civilisation appears there within a few years (for those on Earth)/a few millennia (for the people of Mars - humans who have evolved slightly differently.)
* The major plot element of the [[New Jedi Order]]. Picture a cross between [[Dragon Ball|Super Saiyajin]] and [[Star Trek: Voyager|species 8472]].
* ''Cthulhu's Reign'', edited by Darrell Schweitzer, is a [[Cthulhu Mythos]] anthology of short stories on what <s>life</s> existence on Earth would be like <s>if</s> when the Old Ones return. There are several references to the [[Eldritch Abomination
* In one [[Arthur C. Clarke]] novel Mars is being terraformed by selection and spread of oxygen-generating plants native to Mars, as well as by turning Deimos into a coninuous thermonuclear explosion, effectively providing the planet more sunlight than the Earth gets for a hundred years.
* In ''[[Helm]]'', Epsilon Erdani
* In part three of Alexander Kazantsev's ''Destruction of Faena'', Mars' surface is made inhabitable by bombarding it with rockets made of ice, which melts, creating the first ocean.
* ''Savior'' by [[Robert Reed]] - A rapidly failing alien starship uses a massive laser cannon to melt the ice bergs to try and make the Earth habitable for them. Naturally, this [[Nuke'Em|doesn't go to well]] for the aliens.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Andromeda]]'' has the Pyreans, aliens who exist on planets like
* ''[[Firefly]]'', where ''every'' planet and moon in the system is terraformed. The terraforming is mainly done by massive machines brought from [[Earth-That-Was]], but human labor is still needed and it's hard, dangerous work.
** Plus, terraforming often has unintended side effects, like the newly introduced atmosphere interacting with minerals or gases to cause a massive plague, and at least one planet is considered an uninhabitable "black rock" because the [[Blatant Lies|terraforming never took]].
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* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' has two whole galaxies full of planets terraformed by the [[Precursors|Ancients]] and the Goa'uld, complete with [[Transplanted Humans]].
** They also had a "pyroforming" species, similar to the Andromeda example above.
*** Except these were [[Actual Pacifist
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' did it twice, both due to Rimmer and both resulting in complete catastrophe.
** The first episode, "Terrorform", was based on a sentient moon which formed itself based on the psyche of those who
{{quote|'''Dave Lister:''' Remember, it's Rimmer's mind out there. Expect sickness.}}
** The second time was "Rimmerworld", where Rimmer, abandoned to his own devices (by his own cowardice) on an uninhabitable world for 600 years armed with only a planet seeding pod, creates a [[Single Biome Planet]] of
** Terraforming was the backgound plot of '' Back to Reality'': Planet engineers in an ocean seeding ship had terraformed an ocean moon and created a marine ecosystem teeming with lifeforms by vastly speeding up evolution. Unfortunately it backfired when one lifeform arose that wiped out everything else: the Despair Squid.
* The ''[[Cosmos]]'' episode "Blues for a Red Planet" discussed the possibility of terraforming Mars with dark-colored, hardy plants.
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** Let's not forget about various asteroids, moons and the caves on Mercury.
* In the ''Centauri Knights'' setting for ''[[BESM]],'' the planet being colonized has had its ecosystem wiped clean to the bedrock by [[Nanomachines]] made by the natives. The native ecosystem survives on a couple of still-working, but unoccupied, space habitats near the planet. One of the conflicts in the game's politics is: do we terraform the planet into a new Earth, rebuild its own ecosystem by transplanting from the colonies, leave it a barren desert and mine it for technology, or abandon it and go home?
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', there's a card called [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Terraforming "Terraforming"] that lets you search your deck for a field card. You literally make the environment more friendly to your
* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' this is done by two factions, and inverted by a third.
** The Imperium either terraforms any worlds it settles that are not already inabitable by humans, or turns them into [[Single Biome Planet|polluted hyper-urban hive worlds]].
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* The third game in the ''UFO'' series, ''Afterlight'' has this as much of the point. Humans, forced off of Earth, travel to Mars to create another habitable planet. Terraforming technology very slowly changes the red planet to a blue and green planet in real-time, and tactical combat maps change from red and deadly to green and (relatively) safe. In fact, if you fail to start the terraformation process shortly after the beginning of the game, the environmental hostility will quickly go out of control, and your space suits will not protect you. The terraformation is also shown in "stages", with the dead, red planet as stage 1, small "plant" organisms and cacti as stage 2, and the appearance of water and more complex organisms as stage 3.
* Terraforming Mars is mentioned in ''[[Doom]] 3.'' You have to go outside a few times, [[Oxygen Meter|and you can last only a few minutes]].
* In the first two ''[[Master of Orion]]'' games, terraforming goes on for much of the game. Together with the tech for planetary gravity generators, radiation shields, enriching biospheres and ''installing'' biospheres, it's possible to transform an empire into a verdant garden where previously inhospitable planets have between three and fifteen times their original population limits. In the second game it's then possible to fashion asteroid belts and gas giants into new planets and terraform them as well. It's great fun for [[Video Game Caring Potential|those who get attached]], and well out of place in games of galactic politics and warfare where genocide is what's for dinner. The third game has ''[[Spore]]''
** Interestingly, despite the ability to take a gas giant, squeeze it into a rock, and turn that rock into a lush world, you can't de-toxify a planet. Possibly, an oversight on the part of the creators. The only alternative is to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy the planet]] with a [[Wave Motion Gun|Stellar Converter]] and then rebuild it into a world of your liking.
* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] 2'' gave various levels of terraforming, which would each make a planet slightly more habitable. In the later expansions, planets with extreme conditions were introduced which required special technology to be researched even to colonize.
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* ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]:'' Andross apparently planned to terraform Venom, a rather barren planet with acidic oceans. In ''Command'', this becomes central to the better endings since these oceans are also the home of the hostile Anglar. In 2 endings, his invention is used successfully and causes Venom to be as fertile as Corneria.
* The simulation game ''Outpost'' had terraform-buildings available in the late game. Of course, it took an inordinate number of turns for them to complete their job, and successful terraforming provided no real benefit over the life-support buildings you had since Turn 1.
** ''[[Outpost 2]]'', in its [[Genre Shift]] to real-time strategy, made terraforming into the ''cause'' for the game's
* ''[[Perimeter]]'' has terraforming as important game mechanic. Not so much terraform the whole planet as local area, but idea's the same.
* The [[Machines]]' primary function before they get into a war.
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* ''Haegemonia'' has terraforming capabilities for all races. Planets can be sorted into four groups: for humans, the first group is gaia/terran/oceanic (can be colonized from the start), the second is forest/swamp/desert/arctic/plains/volcanic/rocky (needs research), the third is barren/acidic (needs more research) while the final one is gas (uninhabitable). Kariaks and Darzoks have different qualifications; for example, both like barren. If it's not good enough, it can be terraformed once which improves the quality of the planet; once the next level is researched, it can be terraformed again. For example, level 1 human terraforming can turn plains into forest while level 3 instantly pushes any planet to oceanic/terran. In the expansion ''The Solon Heritage'', spies can actually '''reverse-terraform''', causing an ecological catastrophe (talk about overkill...).
* ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' reveals that the Four Elemental Crystals that show up in so many games of that series are actually terraforming implements. They're a bit less reliable than slower methods though, given that their terraforming effects tend to wear off once they're removed or destroyed.
* Egosoft's ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' games have terraforming as the event that started the whole series. After a ''[[AI Is a Crapshoot|glitched software update]]'', the machines that man had sent out to terraform the system started terraforming ''everything'', including inhabited planets and ships. Mankind fights back, the terraformers swat them out of the way, and all seems lost until they're tricked into moving en masse to a distant part of the
* ''[[Escape Velocity]]'': [[Broad Strokes|In these games]], Mars was always the first planet to be terraformed. And it always [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went very, very wrong]], and the next few hundred years are spent trying to fix the mess.
** ''EV Nova'' also lets you see somebody get terraforming right in one quest line. And the [[Higher-Tech Species|Polaris]] have largely mastered it, with several planets listed as terraformed in the "communicate with planet" dialog box.
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* ''Star Wars: The Gungan Frontier'' has the player setting up a complete ecosystem on one of Naboo's moons so the Gungans can colonize it.
* In ''[[Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds]]'', much like the novel, the Martians engage in xenoforming with their red weed.
* ''[[Champions Online]]'' features as a mid-level quest chain fights against the froglike Gadroon who are seeking to Xenoform Earth into a much warmer, swampier
* ''[[Lost Planet]]'', though the original plan for making E.D.N. III hospitable would have fried the Akrids and more importantly the colonists already on the planet.
* ''[[Video Game/Sim Earth|Sim Earth]]'' has terraforming machines for its Mars and Venus scenarios.
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