Doomsday: 10 Ways the World Will End is a Docudrama series that originally aired on The History Channel about hypothetical disasters that could threaten the human race. It can now be viewed online
at the History Channel's official YouTube channel.
Tropes common across the series include:
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Happens in a few episodes.
- Apocalypse How: The disasters range from Class 1 to Class X.
- Apocalypse Wow: It's a series about world-ending disasters, so this is to be expected.
- Artistic License: Most of the portrayed disasters would have been foreseen a long time ago that Humanity would have taken the necessary steps to try avoiding these Doomsdays instead of only just noticing them at the very last minute when nothing can really be done. Even then, the portrayed Doomsdays according to actual science are currently very unlikely to happen to us in the first place.
- Colony Drop: The premise of a few episodes.
- Downer Ending: Obviously not unexpected about a series that deals with world-ending disasters, with only three Episodes being the exception to this.
- Earthquakes Cause Fissures: Happens in episodes where the Earth is torn apart by gravity.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Coming from a series about ways the world could end.
- Everyone Dies: Happens in a few episodes where Earth is destroyed.
- From Bad to Worse: Several portrayed events cause increasing severe disasters until the Earth is destroyed.
- Monumental Damage: In a series about world-ending disasters, it's not surprising that some famous landmarks would be affected.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Episodes 4, 5, and 7 all uniquely end on these as unlike other episodes where the Earth is destroyed, rendered uninhabitable, or Mankind gets completely wiped out, these episodes have Humanity recover from their disasters and slowly rebuild civilization once again, even if it takes anywhere from several decades to two-hundred years.
- Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Each episode features experts explaining what could happen in the disasters.
Tropes for individual episodes:
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Episode #1: Killer Asteroid
- Colony Drop: The episode recreates the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs in modern times.
- Endless Winter: Happens as a result of ejecta blocking the sun.
Episode #2: Black Hole
- Downer Ending: Subverted. Although the Earth is ultimately destroyed, scientists discuss a possible scenario in which the Earth is sent to an alternate universe instead.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom
- The black hole's gravity causes an asteroid to destroy the Moon.
- Earth is torn apart by the black hole's gravity in the final moments.
- Fling a Light into the Future: If an unmanned probe travels far away to avoid the black hole, then microbes on the probe could seed life on another planet if the probe lands on one.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Viewers have noted that the scene where Earths' Moon is destroyed by space debris contains portions of the "Rosetta Suite" from Dead Space 3.
Episode #3: Rogue Planet
- Colony Drop: In this episode, the Earth is on a collision course with a planet the size of Neptune.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Earth is violently torn apart by the other planet's gravity just before impact.
- Monumental Damage: An Apollo LM descent stage alongside the US flag is seen being pulled off the surface of the Moon as the other planet violently tears the Moon to pieces.
Episode #4: Solar Storm
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Unlike the other episodes where Humanity ends up getting completely wiped out, this one ends on a hopeful note as smaller-scale power systems are recovering again and that while large-scale power Transformers are difficult to manufacture, people will inevitably rebuild them again even if it takes many decades to do so.
- Solar Flare Disaster: The premise of the episode.
Episode #5: Nuclear War
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Small groups of humans below the equator managed to survive the nuclear aftermath and are predicted to rebuild civilization.
- World War III: An "incident" between the U.S. and Russia erupts into a full-scale nuclear war.
Episode #6: Hit by Gamma-Ray Burst
- But What About the Astronauts?: The ISS astronauts and cosmonauts are killed by the radiation produced by the Gamma Ray Burst
- Hope Spot: The Gamma-Ray Burst wipes out all life on half of the planet, leaving the other side relatively intact. Years later Acid Rain begins to fall indicating that the Ozone is starting to repair itself and would allow for Human Civilization to slowly come back on the rise again. Two years later, a wave of Charged radioactive particles slams into the Earth from the same source as the Gamma-Ray Burst: only this time, it hits the side of the planet that wasn't hit last time: resulting in the Ozone being wiped out again and resulting in all non-insectoid life being wiped out.
Episode #7: Blasted by Mega Eruption
- Death from Above: The volcanic "hypereruption" causes chunks of material to rain down in distant cities as far out as Seattle and Vancouver.
- Endless Winter: Happens as a result of ash blocking the sun.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The eruption that caused the new ice age manages to dissipate after several decades; much of Humanity managed to survive at the equator and two centuries after the initial eruption, plantlife in other parts of the world managed to recover again and allow for humanity to flourish as they did before.
Episode #8: Knocked Out of Orbit
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Earth becomes a huge ball of molten lava before the sun's gravity tears it apart.
- Hurl It into the Sun: Happens to the Earth after a rogue star's gravity disrupts the Earth's orbit.
Episode #9: Attacked by Aliens
- Aliens Steal Cable: Discussed as a possible means by which a hostile extraterrestrial civilization can find us.
- Body Horror: The aliens use a modified version of the Cordyceps fungus as a biological weapon. The results are not pretty.
- Enemy Mine: It's mentioned that an alien invasion is one way to get the world's nations to unite.
- Expy: The aliens' energy weapons and force fields appear to be inspired by Independence Day.
- Hostile Terraforming: After most of humanity is dead, the aliens transform the atmosphere into one they can breathe. This kills off all remaining life on Earth.
- Nothing Personal: According to the experts, one possible reason for the invasion may simply be that the aliens need resources.
- The Radio Dies First: The loss of satellite signals at the Combined Space Operations Center is one of the first signs that something is wrong.
Episode #10: Wiped Out by Ocean
