History Main / EarthThatWas

* In ''{{Battletech}}'', The Clans appear to follow this trope (The Inner Sphere houses obviously don't, since they know perfectly well where Earth is and who owns it). One of the Clans' rationales for invading the Inner Sphere was to reclaim Terra, which they saw as their ancestral home by right.

!!Examples:

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-->--'''Opening Narration''', ''{{Serenity}}''

->''"You are the children of a dead planet, earthdeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend. We shall take you in, but may we ask this question--will we too catch the planetdeath disease?"''
-->--'''Voice of [[GeniusLoci the Planet]]''', ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''

->''"[[TropeNamer Earth that was]] could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many."''

* In StevenBrust's sci-fi work ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille'', the staff of the titular time- and space-travelling restaurant is trying to find out, among other things, whether or not the Earth is still around and still viable. [[spoiler: Nope. It was nuked.]]

* ''Earth 2''.

-->''"[[TropeNamer Earth that was]] could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many."''

*** And later later on, we move back out and leave it as a museum. [[spoiler:Until the donations dry up and it finally dies. Of ''old age''.]]

* In ''{{Lunar}}'', the humans of Lunar came from the Blue Star, which has become a frozen wasteland recovering from a battle between Althena and Zophar.

*** Because there's always a plot twist when humanity isn't living on Earth unless you're in StarWars (and just you wait, it will show up one day).

* Slowly revealed throughout {{Vandread}}. Earth that was is now a giant glowing molten planet where Moon is forcibly buried within it. Most people left it in colonial ships, several of which settled in space stations or even planets, like Taraak and Mejeiru. Those that remain on Earth [[spoiler: were the architects of the Harvester fleet, to literally harvest body parts for their continued existence]].

* A surprisingly consistent point of future history in {{Doctor Who}} foretells the mass evacuation of Earth around the thirtieth century, to avoid solar flares. The fourth Doctor encounters a wheel-type space station full of sleepers in ''Ark In Space'', and the Eleventh meets the Starship UK in ''The Beast Below'', but it comes up in other episodes as well.

-> ''[[TropeNamer Earth that was]] could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many.''

->''You are the children of a dead planet, earthdeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend. We shall take you in, but may we ask this question--will we too catch the planetdeath disease?''

* ''[=2300 AD=]'' has a variant in one of the many little alien secrets known only to the GM: [[spoiler: the Ebers' mysterious "lost colony" is actually their original (nuked) homeworld.]]

* ''2300 AD'' has a variant in one of the many little alien secrets known only to the GM: [[spoiler: the Ebers' mysterious "lost colony" is actually their original (nuked) homeworld.]]

* In the novelisations of ''RedDwarf'', Earth was eventually abandoned and used as a garbage dump by the rest of the inhabited solar system, before some of the volatile waste exploded and flung it out of the solar system (possibly a reference to ''Space1999''). Lister later crash-lands on it and has a PlanetOfTheApesEnding moment.

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* In the rebooted ''RogueTrooper'', Earth is abandoned and used exclusively as a resting ground for the Norts' and Southers' new weapons.
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* In a RayBradbury's ''The Martian Chronicles'', human colonists on Mars watch in disbelief as an accidental nuclear war lights up and completely cleanses the Earth's surface.

* ''[[TitanAE Titan A. E.]]'' - Where the alien Drej vaporize it before the opening titles

* BattleForTerra has Earth, Mars and Venus all blown up. So humans go to titular planet to find a new home

** Wrong. The Alliance actually launched the sleeper ships to escape the [[ForeverWar eternal war]] between themselves and the Coalition (which the Coalition was winning).

-> ''Earth that was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many.''

The trope is named for the name for the used up Earth that humanity abandoned in ''{{Firefly}}'' (As well as Serenity).

* ''{{Homeworld}}'' has the Kushan people forced to leave their homeworld after losing a war. Returning there is the whole point of the game, especially when their [[DoomedHometown current residence]] has its ''atmosphere ignited.''