# Which is your favourite doomsday's weapon in sci-fi genre?



## DragonAether (Sep 25, 2017)

There are a lot of ways to annihilate the universe, a planet or an entire civilization, which on is your favourite?

My favourite, as a good Star Wars fan, is the death star.


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## BAYLOR (Sep 25, 2017)

The Berserkers from Fred Saberhagen' series .


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## J Riff (Sep 25, 2017)

Hard to beat The Thing if it ever got loose.


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## Danny McG (Sep 25, 2017)

Grey goo


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## BAYLOR (Sep 28, 2017)

The Planet Killer in the Star Trek Episode *The Doomsday Machine *and the Souped up version of the planet killer in the Peter David's sequel Next Generation Star Trek novel *Vendetta*


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## reiver33 (Sep 28, 2017)

The Stellar Converter (Battle Beyond The Stars)


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## Dave (Sep 28, 2017)

Not meant or designed as a weapon as such, but if you are asking "a lot of ways to annihilate the universe, a planet or an entire civilisation, which on is your favourite?" then it would have to be Ice-9 from _Cat's Cradle. _I don't believe we will annihilate the world deliberately,  on purpose, or with malice. I do believe that we might annihilate it by accident.


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## DragonAether (Sep 28, 2017)

That's an interesting point of view, hope it isn't how mankind will end, you can change people minds and stop wars, but accidents behave in an another way.


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## paranoid marvin (Oct 30, 2017)

Mega Maid


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## Alex The G and T (Oct 31, 2017)

Planet Busting Rock Band _Disaster Area._


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## farntfar (Oct 31, 2017)

Not your standard sci-fi  perhaps but I always liked the sound of the Big-Boy Boomeroo from Dr. Seuss's Butter Battle book


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## reiver33 (Oct 31, 2017)

What, nobody has mentioned Tribbles???


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## kythe (Oct 31, 2017)

I'm reading Stephen King's "The Stand" right now, and I think that bioengineered virus did a pretty thorough job of annihilating human civilization.


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## DelActivisto (Oct 31, 2017)

Has anyone ever done little tiny machines that multiple and turn the entire planet into themselves by consuming all that lies in their path? That sounds pretty scary to me.


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## Mike Donoghue (Nov 1, 2017)

Not sure if this counts as a doomsday machine, but I have been a long time fan of asteroids as weapons of mass destruction, such as in _Starship Troopers._ That stuff can actually exist!!


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## Alex The G and T (Nov 1, 2017)

DelActivisto said:


> Has anyone ever done little tiny machines that multiple and turn the entire planet into themselves by consuming all that lies in their path? That sounds pretty scary to me.



*Blood Music*  Greg Bear.  (sort of.  More like a nanotech virus  IIRC.)


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## Mirannan (Nov 7, 2017)

DelActivisto said:


> Has anyone ever done little tiny machines that multiple and turn the entire planet into themselves by consuming all that lies in their path? That sounds pretty scary to me.



Yes. It's a pretty standard trope, called grey goo, and is featured in non-fiction works as well. Drexler's works, for example.

Incidentally, there are a couple of variants of the idea I've heard of, maybe more: Khaki goo is basically weaponised grey goo, aimed specifically at militarily important targets. And blue goo is the immune system to the grey goo disease.

I'm a bit old-fashioned. Two of my favourites are from EE Smith and the Lensmen series. First, the negasphere of planetary anti-mass; basically an antimatter planet, although negative matter in his stories doesn't behave quite as real antimatter does. And the sunbeam, which doesn't sound scary but really is. Basically, it weaponises the local sun.

One more: The Countermeasure from Fire Upon the Deep. I won't write spoilers here.


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## Mirannan (Nov 8, 2017)

Sorry for the double post - tried to edit the first one.

For some more info about various nanotech goos, see this link:

Goo & Paste Glossary


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## Danny Creasy (Nov 24, 2017)

kythe said:


> I'm reading Stephen King's "The Stand" right now, and I think that bioengineered virus did a pretty thorough job of annihilating human civilization.



Concur, I chose a weapons grade influenza to take out 99.99% of the worlds population in my books. I don't have a science background, so I kept it vague. I concentrate on the survivors not why their ancestors survived.


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## Harpo (Nov 24, 2017)

Has anyone written a story in which Venus is destroyed, and we on Earth have to endure a newly forming Venus Asteroid Belt?


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## Danny McG (Nov 24, 2017)

Harpo said:


> Has anyone written a story in which Venus is destroyed, and we on Earth have to endure a newly forming Venus Asteroid Belt?


Oddly enough that does sound familiar!
Gonna have to trawl through things now cos am fairly certain I read something like that at some time

Edit: I was thinking of Moonseed by Stephen Baxter, Venus gets destroyed first and that sets things off on Earth. 
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns and lots of other jolly japes


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## BAYLOR (Nov 24, 2017)

The Cancellatron  . It's a movie mogul based weapon which has the  power to cancel production of science fiction and fantasy films. It is a devastating weapon without parallel or equal.


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## HanaBi (Nov 24, 2017)

Perhaps not a Doomsday Weapon per se, but ST:NG's Borg is up there


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## Mirannan (Nov 24, 2017)

HanaBi said:


> Perhaps not a Doomsday Weapon per se, but ST:NG's Borg is up there



Possibly, but two points about that:

First of all, power level comparisons between different SF universes are highly debatable - but the Borg are very weak compared to some fictional threats in other 'verses. Imagine a contest between a Borg fleet and Lensverse Earth in the late period, for example.

Secondly, even in the ST universe there are powers that would make mincemeat of the Borg. As it happens, many of them are in the original series. The Organians are the most obvious example, but there are others.


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## chrispenycate (Nov 24, 2017)

Do I have to destroy the entire planet, or will it count rendering it unsuitable for life, or, even more limited, human life? Remaining within present day physics and completely destroying a planet is extremely difficult - even making the sun go nova isn't guaranteed to vaporise enough of it and push the vapour far enough out that the inherent gravitational force can't pull it back to something that is recognisably a planet. Grey goo won't do it - if you look at it right, life is already self-replicating nanoware, and it hasn't converted more than a tiny fraction of the surface into itself in several billion years of existance, ignoring the great majority of mass in the mantle and the core. Energy restrictions, mainly, plus finding enough of the right king of matter as building blocks for the next generation. Equally, generating a quantum black hole (in CERN) and capturing it in the heart of the planet, where it absorbs all the mass around it, getting steadily more massive and more voracious takes hundreds of thousands of years to work, even assuming Stephen Hawking is wrong about micro singularities evaporating - certainly not at the rate Niven's 'The hole man' functions. Explosions, even anti-matter explosions, won't scatter enough of the mass to stop it infalling back as a planet. No collision is going to do more than change its orbit, and unless the new path intersects the sun or, stretching a point, Jupiter, there's still going to be a planet there, albeit fractionated.

On the other hand, blowing all the atmosphere off, boiling away the oceans, fracturing the crust for volcanic effects Hollywood would love, all that's far more practical. Making the place uninhabitable is probably within our present technological ability. Making it impossible for humanity to survive is almost certainly possible for us, if you don't mind having the battered wreck of a planet still orbiting several million years down the line and available for forensic analysis.


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## HanaBi (Nov 24, 2017)

Mirannan said:


> Possibly, but two points about that:
> 
> First of all, power level comparisons between different SF universes are highly debatable - but the Borg are very weak compared to some fictional threats in other 'verses. Imagine a contest between a Borg fleet and Lensverse Earth in the late period, for example.
> 
> Secondly, even in the ST universe there are powers that would make mincemeat of the Borg. As it happens, many of them are in the original series. The Organians are the most obvious example, but there are others.



Now I think about it, perhaps honours should go to the Douwds, who probably could give the likes of the Organians, the Borg, Species 8472 and even Q, a run for their money.


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## Harpo (Nov 24, 2017)

One day somebody will put all of these and more into a gigantic knockout contest, to see which is actually the best, and worst, and ugliest


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## Vladd67 (Nov 24, 2017)

Harpo said:


> One day somebody will put all of these and more into a gigantic knockout contest, to see which is actually the best, and worst, and ugliest


Maybe a sci fi race top trumps?


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## Harpo (Nov 24, 2017)

Vladd67 said:


> Maybe a sci fi race top trumps?


Make it so!


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## SilentRoamer (Nov 24, 2017)

The Q muskets are awful doomsday weapons. Remember when the Q were warring the musket shots in the Q continuum were analagous to star system being completely obliterated. As the Q continuum stretches throughout all known time and space this could have been millions of stars destroyed across millions of galaxies. 

Of course when the Q ended the war they might have put it all back to the way it was.

I don't think even the Douwd can hang with the Q, when it comes to power levels in ST the Q are basically individual versions of the Abrahamic god - all seeing, all powerful. They just choose to interact on a human level.

Not sure any other finctional races can hang with Q unless they are also deemed omnipotent.


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## Rodders (Nov 26, 2017)

The Forge Of God by Greg Bear has one of the best End Of The World description I’ve ever read. 

My personal favourite is still atomic Armageddon. It could happen.


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## Cathbad (Nov 26, 2017)

My favorite Doomsday Weapon would be a gas to put us to sleep before killing us painlessly.

Why would I want to be awake to see and feel it all??


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## HanaBi (Nov 26, 2017)

The fearsome, all-conquering Tribbles!

Enough said.


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## Cat's Cradle (Nov 26, 2017)

Shatner's/Kirk's exploding girdle, circa _The Wrath of Khan_??

But seriously, a second for _The Forge of God_ by Bear (and there are some awesome weapons in its sequel, _Anvil of Stars; _love these books). 

And I'll go to the world of Marvel comics for another great doomsday weapon: the Ultimate Nullifier (at the time of its introduction, it was the one weapon that terrified Galactus). 

Darn! I was beaten to the punch with a Star Trek joke!!


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## Pyan (Nov 26, 2017)

How about negative-matter bombs of planetary anti-mass delivered by hyper-spacial tubes....
You really can't beat EE 'Doc' Smith's _Lensman_ series for the ultimate arms race up to indescribability cubed.


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## Cat's Cradle (Nov 26, 2017)

I was thinking of Smith, but couldn't remember the book ... the hero and his family are stranded (near the end of the novel), and need the tiniest piece of iron to activate some ultimate weapon ... did that happen? (It's been 35 years, or so, since I read Smith.)


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## Jax (Nov 26, 2017)

For me its a Shadow Death Cloud from Babylon 5. 
I think I would prefer a nice quick death from a Death Star ray, compared to an enormous black scary cloud that envelops your planet and rains down death from above.

Also I love the way the Vogons implode Earth in Hitchhikers. Very efficient


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## Phyrebrat (Nov 26, 2017)

None of these are pleasant but I think I'd rather them than if the Rapture as laid out in The Revelation in the Bible were true. I recall the feelings of bleakness and total unwinnableness of Armageddon as a child when I used to read the Bible in church when I was bored.

In SFF though, I can't see anything worse than John Crichton's Wormhole Weapons in _Farscape_ in which a black hole just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, consuming entire galaxies till there's nothing left.

Still, I'd rather that than Revelations. 

pH


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## Mirannan (Nov 26, 2017)

Vladd67 said:


> Maybe a sci fi race top trumps?



Just a partial list of contenders:

Downstreamers
Xeelee (and their enemies the Photino Birds)
Assassins (from the Heechee saga)
Xunca (from Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster)
Cosmic AC (Last Question by Isaac Asimov)
The Excession (Ian Banks)

I think those are all top tier, with power level decreasing down the list.


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## logan_run (Jan 31, 2018)

Dooms day weapon from beneath the planet of apes.


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## CTRandall (Feb 1, 2018)

The Robot that can create anything, so long as it starts with _n_ from Stanislaw Lem's _Cyberiad. _Don't ask it to create nothing! There's a reason there are empty spaces between stars and that there are no more gruncheons or pritons in the universe.


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## WarriorMouse (Feb 6, 2018)

Wormhole Bomb   "Farscape"


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## Droflet (Feb 6, 2018)




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## Starbeast (Feb 6, 2018)

The indestructible, universe destroying dragon, which was summoned by a space witch named, Xena. The creature is from the final chapter in the Project A-KO anime series, _Uncivil Wars_ (1990). The unstoppable monster grew to the size of a galaxy.


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## Cathbad (Feb 6, 2018)

Starbeast said:


> The creature is from the final chapter in the Project A-KO anime series, _Uncivil Wars_ (1990).


Dangit, I missed  that one!


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## Caledfwlch (Feb 6, 2018)

I am going to go for a nice simple answer.

A Dalek.

Cyber Leader: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?

Dalek Sec: Four.

Cyber Leader: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?

Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You superior in only one respect.

Cyber Leader: What is that?

Dalek Sec: You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!


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## BAYLOR (Nov 17, 2019)

Skynet and the Terminators   

Hm, That would also make great name for a rock Band !


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## Starbeast (Nov 17, 2019)

Starbeast said:


> The indestructible, universe destroying dragon, which was summoned by a space witch named, Xena. The creature is from the final chapter in the Project A-KO anime series, _Uncivil Wars_ (1990). The unstoppable monster grew to the size of a galaxy.



Visuals are always great. Here's the gargantuan dragon-like destroyer on it's way to obliterate this universe. Can it be stopped!

@Cathbad Nice to see another fan out there.


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