History Main / Deathworld

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': The titular world is absolutely teeming with all sorts of monstrous creatures that regularly prey on its amphibious inhabitants. Even the plants want to eat them. It's so bad that everyone is universally inured to the prospect of suddenly dying one day, even babies like Polly. This is played for all of the BlackComedy it is worth.

* On ''Series/The100'' the Ark station is surprised that Earth seemingly ''isn't'' a Death World, since the radiation from the nuclear wars was supposed to take another hundred years to subside. In the second season, it's revealed that the Earth's surface actually ''is'' lethally radioactive; Ark people and Grounders have just adapted to high radiation levels over the last century. The Mountain Men, who have not gone through this adaptation, become covered in radiation burns after just a few seconds spent outside their bunker.

*** The planet Eden in the episode "The Way To Eden". Looks beautiful, but beware of differing chemistry; the fruit is poisonous and the grass has acid for blood.
*** The planet Gamma Trianguli VI in "The Apple", including plants that throw poisonous thorns, rocks that act like anti-personnel mines and directed lightning strikes.
*** Vulcan itself is pretty harsh by human standards, being extremely hot, dry and rugged, subject to intense electrically-charged sandstorms, and home to man-eating plants and giant, venomous cat-like carnivores (which are freaking adorable and are kept as pets by the Vulcans).
-->'''Spock:''' Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive, and they have six-inch fangs.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has Galorndon Core, a geologically unstable planet with constant electromagnetic storms and a strong magnetic field that damages the nervous system of anyone foolish enough to spend too long on the surface.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s "Demon" (Y-class) of planet probably qualifies, although the Federation has armored space suits sufficient to let humanoids brave the crushing gravity, poisonous atmosphere, and intense heat. The shapeshifting "silver blood" native to it was a bit more problematic.

** Subverted by Cadia, which is (or was) a quite temperate Earthlike world... with a colossal NegativeSpaceWedgie called the Eye of Terror a distressingly short distance away, which shits out [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors]] from the depths of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] on a regular basis and is frequently used as an invasion corridor by Black Crusades. Cadia is naturally one of the most highly militarised planets in the Imperium, and one of the few to have a [[HomeGuard Planetary Defence Force]] that's the equal of any Imperial Guard force of comparable size.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero'', Penn Zero's parents get trapped in a place like this. It is literally called The Most Dangerous World Imaginable, so you should have seen it coming.
* The Planet Mir, setting of ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater'', has Middle Ages level of civilization in a few island kingdoms. But everywhere else is filled with vicious pirates and bizarre beasts, with occasional savage tribesmen or fiendish swindlers to boot. And, large areas of the planet are getting eaten away by a substance of pure evil called Dark Water.
* The setting of ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'' is a primordial world full of {{Prehistoric Monster}}s ([[OneMillionBC both Mesozoic and Cenozoic]], ranging from dinosaurs and giant snakes to [[BatOutOfHell demonic bats]] and [[FrazettaMan savage ape-men]]) where primitive humans (such as the protagonist Spear) face deadly situations on a daily basis.

** Subverted by Cadia, which is (or was) a quite temperate Earthlike world... with a colossal NegativeSpaceWedgie called the Eye of Terror a distressingly short distance away, which shits out [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors from the depths of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] on a regular basis and is frequently used as an invasion corridor by Black Crusades. Cadia is naturally one of the most highly militarised planets in the Imperium, and one of the few to have a [[HomeGuard Planetary Defence Force]] that's the equal of any Imperial Guard force of comparable size.

** Subverted by Cadia, which is (or was) a quite temperate Earthlike world... with a colossal NegativeSpaceWedgie called the Eye of Terror a distressingly short distance away, which spews EldritchAbominations from the depths of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] on a regular basis and is frequently used as an invasion corridor by Black Crusades. Cadia is naturally one of the most highly militarised planets in the Imperium, and one of the few to have a [[HomeGuard Planetary Defence Force]] that's the equal of any Imperial Guard force of comparable size.

** In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', Capt. Kirk and Dr. [=McCoy=] get convicted for Klingon Chancellor Gorkon's assassination and are sent to the Klingon penal planetoid Rura Penthe, an ice planetoid where prisoners mine for dilithium. According to Chekov, it's "known throughout the galaxy as 'the alien's graveyard'.".

** Subverted by Cadia, which is (or was) a quite temperate Earthlike world... with a colossal NegativeSpaceWedgie called the Eye of Terror a distressingly short distance away, which spews EldrichAbominations from the depths of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] on a regular basis and is frequently used as an invasion corridor by Black Crusades. Cadia is naturally one of the most highly militarised planets in the Imperium, and one of the few to have a [[HomeGuard Planetary Defence Force]] that's the equal of any Imperial Guard force of comparable size.

As seen in [[DeathWorld/RealLife the Real Life section]], this is TruthInTelevision.

* DeathWorld/RealLife

* The Literature/SporewikiFictionUniverse has quite a few: Nova Thei, the Zi-Jittoram Homeworld, Mahanaya, Vollix, Macronormus and Forda are the kind of planets where the local lifeforms easily have the means ot crush you and swallow you up. Paclernos and Mahanaya are planets where the planet ''itself'' may as well be a death wish (Mahanaya has been twisted by relics of [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils the Ayrai]][[OmnicidalManiac 'Shikua]] and Paclernos' environemnt is toxic to anything that's mostly water and doesn't have a natural pH of 2). Aside from Macronormus and Nova Thei all of them happen to be the homeworlds of the most fearsome ProudWarriorRaceGuy species in the First Gigaquadrant. Then we have Occasus, an abandoned CityPlanet that is primarily used as the site for the final exam for the Agency of the Kicath Empire; essentially Literature/TheHungerGames only using 14,000 3-3/4 tall cyborg'd up reptillian supersoldiers, no publicity and passing involves surviving for an entire year. To put its lethality into perspective, city blocks have been known to be destroyed during the exams and ''almost every qualified agent would rather forget about their time there.'' Let that sink in...

* ''FanFic/ThePalaververse'': The island-nation of Saddle Arabia. It’s a barren desert wasteland battered by horrifying magical storms that regularly sow the land with chaotic magic, with the sun burning away any moisture they leave behind. The chaos magic and harsh climate have worked together to populate it with a parade of horrors -- packs of mobile vampiric cacti, mountain-sized roc birds made of stone, enormous wind scorpions that surprise prey and evade pursuit by turning into wind, parasitic life-eating flecks [[EyeScream that inhabit eyeballs and spread by eye contact]]...
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' crossover ''Fanfic/TheVampireOfSteel'', Kara takes [[EldritchAbomination M'Nagaleh]] to the anti-matter Earth of the universe of Qward. M'Nagaleh bursts into flames right away and Supergirl has to leave as soon as possible because not even she can survive there for longer than a few seconds.

* In the ''Literature/DresdenFiles''[=/=]''Series/StargateSG1'' FusionFic series ''Endless Pantheon'' the Goa'uld consider ''Earth'' to be this. From their perspective the planet is positively brimming with fae, vampires, and any number of other supernatural baddies, many of which were explicitly created to kill Goa'uld. Even the mundane wildlife is considered unusually dangerous, having far more alpha predator species than any other planet; [[UsefulNotes/AustralianWildlife Australia]] was so bad that even the Goa'uld couldn't establish a foothold.

** ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'': First we see a desolate ice planet, where Riddick had been trying to hide until bounty hunters eventually tracked him down. Later is Crematoria, a volcanic planet with a sun so hot that being on the "day" side more than a few seconds will cause one to burst into flames. In this case, people actually took advantage of this trope to build an inescapable underground prison.

* ''Film/{{Enemy Mine}}'': The two main characters find themselves stranded on a desolate planet after an [[OldSchoolDogfight aerial battle]]. The planet is prone to regular [[DeathFromAbove showers of meteorites]] and riddled with [[SandWorm monsters hiding beneath the surface]]. The only food available is [[TooDesperateToBePicky a turtle-like alien race]], and the sole occasional visitors to the planet are members of a [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil brutal mining cartel]].
* ''Film/{{Everest 2015}}'': Rob explains to his clients that once they climb above 8000 metres on Everest, they will be in the "Death Zone", and their body will begin to shut down. The climbers are constantly reminded during their summit attempt that they must keep moving or risk death.

* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'': Astheet, the Rhynn homeworld, is populated by a great variety of predators, and the Rhynn themselves are firmly at the bottom of the food chain. They live in {{Treetop Town}}s to avoid the worst of it, but are still vulnerable to flying and climbing hunters, and especially to skyshrouds -- floating, transparent, odorless jellyfish-like creatures, that float through the skies and send questing tentacles through trees, cover and houses to find their prey. The Rhynn live in a constant state of alert, listening for the the screams of lookouts to warn them before deadly feelers come through their windows to snatch them.

* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'': Astheet, the Rhynn homeworld, is populated by a great variety of predators, and the Rhynn themselves are firmly at the bottom of the food chain. They live in {{Treetop Town}}s to avoid the worst of it, but are still vulnerable to flying and climbing hunters, and especially to skyshrouds -- floating, transparent, odorless jellyfish-like creatures, that float through the skies and send questing tentacles through trees, cover and houses to find their prey. The Rhynn live in a constant state of alert, listening for the the screams of lookouts to warn them before deadly feelers come through their windows to snatch them.

* ''Felarya'' ([[NotSafeForWork NSFW]]), except everything is trying to ''[[AuthorAppeal eat]]'' you. Or just kill you. Or, you know, ''both''. The writer specializes in vore, so, as expected, most of the flora and fauna in his magnum opus are based on one question: "How many ways are there for a creature to eat someone?" There's a creature for every possible method. How about gassing you and growing roots into you to suck out the juices? Or portals ''out'' of that hell being created by creatures who live between dimensions and will ''snatch you while you're in SubspaceOrHyperspace'' for dinner? The ones on the ''low'' end of his hazard scale aren't ''safe,'' they just need to be ''near'' you to kill you as opposed to, say, creating a wind tunnel to suck you up from over a hundred yards away. It's amazingly creative. However, if you're not a voreaphile, the sheer number and creativity of ways you can suddenly find yourself in something's gut make it scary, not sexy.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Outside of four heavily protected Kingdoms and a number of smaller locations blessed with strong natural barriers, Remnant is a world where Humans and [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]] struggle to survive against the dominance of the [[AnimalisticAbomination Creatures of Grimm]]. As monstrous beings that are attracted to negative emotion, Grimm appear to be consumed by the need to destroy people and their creations. Trained by elite [[ExtranormalInstitute Academies]], only Huntsmen possess the combat skills, [[{{Mana}} enhanced Aura]] and [[OnePersonOnePower trained Semblances]] to fight back, so it's their job to protect humanity and Faunus from the Grimm. If people can't defend themselves, they hire those that can, and all transport -- from ocean ships to airships -- are armed with guns. Even those who survive the Grimm will have bandits to contend with, whose raids [[DisasterDominoes inevitably create]] heightened spikes of negativty that attract swarms of Grimm.

* The world of Remnant in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' qualifies, even if it's an idyllic beach resort compared to many examples here, since most of the flora and fauna won't try to kill everyone they encounter. However, the world is infested with Grimm, soulless monsters who attack humans on sight. The landscape is dotted with fortified cities (some inhabited, some lie in ruin) where the majority of people live, and according to [[TheSmartGuy Blake]], the few humans who live outside these protected settlements live rather hard lives and have to learn how to fight very quickly or they will die -- [[TheHero Ruby]] and [[TheBigGuy Yang's]] superior combat skills compared to other Beacon Academy freshmen supports this assertion, although that may also be due to [[BadassFamily them having good teachers]].
** What makes the Grimm an especially dangerous threat is that they're attracted to negative emotions. A couple of Grimm attacking a town might not do much, but a serious problem like a bandit attack or famine will bring quite a few more. The resulting fear and panic from that attack will bring more Grimm, and this rapidly becomes a series of DisasterDominoes as each attack brings more Grimm until the defenders are overwhelmed. A prolonged period of dread and worry, followed by a horrific disaster, can end up summoning enough Grimm that even the massive defenses of the Kingdoms can be overwhelmed.
** The Grimm themselves range from simple AnimalisticAbomination beasts like wolves and bears, to more mythological monsters like massive dragons and serpents, to hybrid beasts like giant winged gorillas, to [[{{Kaiju}} colossal Godzilla-scale monsters.]] Then there's the truly terrifying and inhuman monsters, like the Apathy, which are zombie-like Grimm who [[EmotionEater drain all emotion and motivation in people around them]], allowing them to make an entire settlement die of dehydration from sheer lack of caring about continuing to survive.
** Bandits aren't the only issue. Terrorist and criminal organizations such as [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the White Fang]] and [[BigBad Cinder's]] ([[spoiler:actually, [[TheManBehindTheMan Salem's]]]]) group are also a big problem, especially given that the latter's sole purpose seems to be ''attracting Grimm so that the Kingdoms can fall.'' [[spoiler: Even with the powers of the [[PhysicalGod Maidens]] protecting mankind, [[OhCrap they can just as easily end up in the wrong hands...]]]]

* The entire world of ''Manga/SevenSeeds'' by the time our characters [[AfterTheEnd awaken in it]]. Evolution has begun to repeat itself and is filled with rodents, insects, [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]] and even flesh-eating plants that are trying to kill the humans, but also each other. It's a survival-driven world.

*** Let's elaborate a bit, shall we? At daytime, the sun is scorching enough to kill any [[WeakenedByTheLight troll]] except for [[OurVampiresAreDifferent rainbow drinkers]] (who are extremely rare, by the way). At night, you are at [[EverythingTryingToKillYou constant risk of attack]] from lethal fauna and ''flora'', [[AristocratsAreEvil seadwellers]], bandits, pirates, [[LevelGrinding trigger-happy]] [[BloodSport FLARPers]], [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors]] lurking in the sea, and, if you are a [[TheSocialDarwinist mutant or cripple]], [[MechaMooks Imperial Drones]], [[MonsterClown Subjugglators]] and [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner Legislacerators]]. And that's not to mention [[{{Dystopia}} troll]][[TeenageWasteland ish]] [[FantasticCasteSystem soc]][[GalacticConqueror iety]], which is ruled by a [[SlasherSmile gleefully]] [[KillEmAll murderous]], [[TheCaligula sociopathic]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Empress]], and a cabal of [[MonsterClown monstrous]], [[AxCrazy psychotic]] [[{{Juggalo}} juggalos]] who will kill you [[ItAmusedMe if you're not funny enough]] and who [[spoiler: [[ReligionOfEvil worship]] [[BigBad Lord English]] ]]. Welp.

* The asteroid in ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' is not only airless, it's covered in big, jagged, evil-looking spikes and regularly spews forth masses of gas and rock designed specifically to kill intrepid astronauts.

* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': Pretty much everything from the past and the future is trying to kill you for one reason or another, and the worlds they come from don't tend to be favorable to supporting human life. The Cretaceous is full of carnivorous beasts and dinosaurs, the Precambrian's atmosphere is sulfurous gas in place of oxygen and it's filled with carnivorous giant worms, the Silurian is barren desert filled with giant scorpions, and even ''mold'' in the future can kill you.

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!!Examples:

* On ''Series/StrangerThings'' the Upsidedown is a Death World. Note the absence of scrabbling heirarchies of primal fauna or roiling volcanoes and lightning islands. The [[MeatMoss plants]] growing everywhere is sickly and dessicated, the Infected Humanoids are few and far between, and the air is made of mysterious floating ash.
* On ''Series/The100'' the Ark station is surprised that Earth seemingly ''isn't'' a Death World, since the radiation from the nuclear wars was supposed to take another hundred years to subside. In the second season, it's revealed that the Earth's surface actually ''is'' lethally radioactive; Ark people and Grounders have just adapted to high radiation levels over the last century. The Mountain Men, who have not gone through this adaptation, become covered in radiation burns after just a few seconds spent outside their bunker.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had a couple of examples:
** The planet Eden in the episode "The Way To Eden". Looks beautiful, but beware of differing chemistry; the fruit is poisonous and the grass has acid for blood.
** The planet Gamma Trianguli VI in "The Apple", including plants that throw poisonous thorns, rocks that act like anti-personnel mines and directed lightning strikes.
** Vulcan itself is pretty harsh by human standards, being extremely hot, dry and rugged, subject to intense electrically-charged sandstorms, and home to man-eating plants and giant, venomous cat-like carnivores (which are freaking adorable and are kept as pets by the Vulcans).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has Galorndon Core, a geologically unstable planet with constant electromagnetic storms and a strong magnetic field that damages the nervous system of anyone foolish enough to spend too long on the surface.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s "Demon" (Y-class) of planet probably qualifies, although the Federation has armored space suits sufficient to let humanoids brave the crushing gravity, poisonous atmosphere, and intense heat. The shapeshifting "silver blood" native to it was a bit more problematic.
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' features another class Y planet, Theta Zeta, a dilithium-rich hellscape of a planet inside a radioactive nebula. In addition to theta, delta, electromagnetic, and subspace radiation, radiation readings list two ''undiscovered'' types of radiation. Simply ''approaching'' the planet risks severe radiation poisoning, never mind actually being on it, and anti-radiation meds only buy rescuers time to get to you, assuming the advanced holoprogram active on the KSF ''Khi'eth'' designed to stop Su'Kal from fearing rescuers doesn't mask them[[note]]Adira has to take their dose before beaming down and hide the away team's doses in their mouth to avoid this happening[[/note]]. Su'Kal is the only individual to survive a significant amount of time on the planet, having mutated in utero after the KSF ''Khi'eth'' crashed [[spoiler:and also adapted to the dilithium on the planet, resulting in the Burn when the poor kid saw his mother die of radiation poisoning]].

* ''Series/AlienNation'': In the TV movie ''Dark Horizon'', the Overseers out in the galaxy come to consider Earth a Death World after a scout they sent there returns dying of a disease and claiming that all the escaped Tenctonese slaves from the ship ''Gruza'' all died of that disease. On the other hand, seawater is like sulfuric acid to them, so much of the planet really is deadly to them. And most of them live in San Francisco.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': "If you go to Z'Ha'Dum you will die." Even the [[AbusivePrecursors Shadows]] and their servants live in domed cities there, implying at the very least an unbreathable atmosphere. Anyone who lands there and doesn't already serve the Shadows has to deal with the Shadows themselves as well.