History ApocalypseHow / ClassX

* There are hints in the StarTrekExpandedUniverse novels that the Orion Syndicate once wiped out an entire civilization.

* In ''StarTrekVoyager'', the episode "Scorpion" features speciae 8472, which blows a Borg planet to pieces with just 9 small ships.

* [[http://qntm.org/destroy One article]] at ThingsOfInterest discusses why and how to destroy the Earth. Destroying humanity is not good enough, and ideally the destruction would be permanent.

* And now appearing again in 2009's [[StarTrek Star Trek]] film, this time [[spoiler:Vulcan]].

* In ''WhenWorldsCollide'' by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, the Earth is about to be hit and destroyed by the larger of a twin planet. Fortunately the smaller planet is drop-in replacement for Earth. The story (which arguably is the ur-creation that gave rise to stories like FlashGordon and the many similar tales that followed), revolves around the attempt of a group of scientists to build a [[TheArk pair of rocketships]] to escape a world facing destruction..

* In ''[=~Dexter's Laboratory~=]'', Dexter and Mandark bicker over each other while forgetting about the meteor shower that destroys the Earth. [[NegativeContinuity This is ignored the very next episode.]]

* Various incarnations of [=~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~=] do this to Earth from the Vogons, ostensibly because of a hyperspacial express route, though it's really because Earth has the Ultimate Question being calculated, and that would be terrible for all the psychoanalysts.

* In ''{{Master of Orion}} 2'' (often called [=MoO2=]), the player could research, build, and mount a stellar converter on a large enough ship and wipe out entire planets with a nifty movie showing the massive explosion. This typically doesn't eliminate the empire that occupies it, but it does remove the planet from play permenantly. Though if the system still has a colony, the resulting asteroid belt can be used to build ''new'' planet. Even better, all planets constructed this way have the same size, which may be larger than the original one. Also, it is possible to avoid the 'no terraforming on toxic planets' rule this way, making this a very rare example of using a Class X as a reasonable (if abusive) step in terraforming.

* ''{{Master of Orion}} 3'' also has the Stellar Converter, but it was sadly de-powered to Class 5 level, leaving the planet an un-colonizable, lifeless cinder, but otherwise intact.

* In an episode of ''{{Gargoyles}}'', Fox and her mother are working with some nanomachines which escape and begin a GreyGoo scenario (below), where everything it doesn't turn into more nanomachines is restructured into unchanging order. Since it's meant to grow and evolve it will eventually engulf the entire earth (the heroes only have as much time to stop it as they do because it's reached it's current bounds and will take some time to gain the capacity to come further). They eventually stop it by sending Goliath and Dingo into the Dreaming, where they discover they can communicate with it. Dingo manages to convince it to protect the earth rather than destroying it by suggesting that instead of mathematical order it try ''law and order'', which is similar, but requires less extinction.

* The Lensmen books end up using planets as billiard balls against other planets. Faster-than-light planets made of something like antimatter, to boot.

* This is what will happen to the world of ''TheOrderOfTheStick'' if [[EldritchAbomination TheSnarl]] gets released - and it IS what happened to the previous world before the existing one was made. (Probably.)

*** The distance for mass extinction (this one would dwarf anything Earth has seen before) would be about 1,000 parsecs. The distance for "Farewell, atmosphere." would be 500 parsecs. A parsec being about 3.26 light-years. GRBs emit obscene amounts of energy, ejecting matter from the star at 99.995% the speed of light. Still, there'd still be a planet. Granted, there would never be life on it again...

* ''{{Homestuck}}'': [[BigBad Jack Noir]] does this to Prospit in the kids' session, [[spoiler:and later on ([[TimeyWimeyBall sorta]]) he destroys Prospit and Derse in the Trolls' session]]. He does this with a [[MacGuffin magic ring.]]

* GreenLantern John Stewart is accused of causing a chain reaction leading to this in ''JusticeLeague''. It turns out that it was actually a hologram.

* In ''RatchetAndClank'', [[{{Big Bad}} Chairman Drek]] tries to do this to [[spoiler:Veldin]] ''twice''- first with the [[{{BFB}} Planet Buster Maximus]], and again with the [[{{Frickin Laser Beams}} Deplanetizer]]- the latter being used to blow up his new planet ([[{{Karmic Death}} and him]]).

* [[spoiler:In ''FineStructure'', this happens as a side note during the FinalBattle. Barely any human casualties though, thanks to the intervention of some really advanced alternate universe humans with copious experience in large-scale split-second rescues. They even build a new Earth afterward.]]

* ''DoctorWho'' has a number.

* Narrowly averted in a ''DonaldDuck'' story about [[HollywoodAcid the Universal Solvent]], which dissolves everything except diamonds and does not dissipate. When it's poured to the ground, it's going to [[MinovskyParticle keep dissolving]] the planet from within unless the heroes recapture it with a diamond-linen container.

** Another example from the classic series, there's a 'planet' (more a space craft, but the inhabitants are unaware of this) which eats other planets. When it is finished eating, it makes a hyperspace jump to another planet and starts again. It's better than it sounds.

** Earth actually gets it twice, first from Buu, then again in ''GT'' thanks to the effects of the Black Star Dragon Balls. The Namekian Dragon Balls restored it both times.
** Planet Vegeta gets it before either of them.
** And Frieza has a move called "Destroy the Planet".

* In Robotech: Shadow chronicles humans nearly blasted Earth , averted only by [[spoiler: Invid Regess destroying the missiles]]. Though they were aiming for Apocalypse Class 2-3 just to get rid of the Invid, but [[spoiler: underestimated the power of Neutron-S missiles.]]

* ''StarWars'': The Death Star wipes out Alderaan in ''ANewHope''.

** In the novel ''H2G2/MostlyHarmless'', the Vogons finally succeed in destroying not just Earth, but every version of Earth across all the infinite parallel realities. Douglas Adams must have been in a very bad mood when he wrote that one.

** Only if it happens really close to the planet, like in the same solar system or a few lightyears away. A more likely scenario for a gamma ray burst-based apocalypse would be "merely" having the side of the planet facing the blast completely sterilised while the other side burns as the atmosphere catches fire.