Star Trekhas been home to countless worlds over the various shows and movies which make up the franchise’s enormous universe. However, in that time, not all of those planets have made it out as safely as thecharacters who visit them.
There might not be a Death Star in this franchise, but there arevarious ways in which planetshave been completely devastated or destroyed over the years of theStar Trekfranchise. Hard as it is for so many lives to be lost in one fell swoop, the dealings of various villainous characters or just unfortunate circumstances have led to it happening. There are many such occasions in alternate timelines and possible futures, but only a few planets have been destroyed in one of the two prime timelines that the franchise follows.
6Calbriden Prime/Calbriden III
Known by multiple names, Calbriden Prime was a planet with a Federation Colony living on it. This meant there were over 227,000 inhabitants on the planet by the time it came under attack in 2410 by the Iconians during the Iconian War. Fortunately, this was not a planet destruction that ended in countless deaths.
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An evacuation of Calbriden Prime was undertaken by the Federation and the Romulan forces. Almost all the inhabitants were safely evacuated, but apparently, around 3000 people went missing and are presumed dead. It is a terrible loss, but not as bad as it could have been. The plan of the Iconians to construct a pocket of tetryon space in the asteroid field left behind by Calbriden Prime was foiled by Captain Tom Paris inStar Trek Online.
5Romulus
Romulus was the Romulan home world and was one of the two planets together formed the capital of the Romulan Star Empire. There was no war or violent destruction by enemies involved in the death of Romulus. Instead, it was destroyed by the Hobus Supernova in 2387, killing pretty much all the 4.2 billion inhabitants in one of the most large-scale tragedies theStar Trekuniverse has ever known.
The Romulan Empire would eventually recover, instating New Romulus as the new capital of the Star Empire and a new home world for all Romulans in 2409. Still, this event had large-reaching repercussions in the universe. It was a devastating event for any Romulans who survived it,which led to much hatred against the Vulcansin the reboot franchise.
4Remus
The twin planet of Romulus met the same fate as the Hobus Supernova. Remus was, with Romulus, the capital of the Romulan Star Empire until its destruction in 2387. It was the original homeworld of the Remans and was a huge source of dilithium until it was over-mined.
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The Remans moved in 2386 to avoid Remus' destruction by Crateris, which was not destroyed by the Supernova. This means that most of the Reman race survived the destruction which wiped out so many of the Romulans on that fateful day.
3Omicron Kappa II
Another world that was destroyed inStar Trek Online,Omicron Kappa II was in the Hotep Sector and was a Federation Colony with about 22,000 residents. A research team went to the planet looking for a solution to the Borg nano-virus, but accidentally brought the Borg down on them.
The research team, fortunately, escaped before the Borg assimilated the entire world, but the planet did not make it out with just Borg assimilation, as the Undine later destroy the entire thing. While it had already been taken by the Borg, this was still a hefty loss.
2Praxis
Technically, Praxis was a moon and not a planet. But the destruction has to bementioned because of the enormous consequencesit had on the political situation across the known universe. Praxis was a moon of the Klingon home world, Qo’noS, which was heavily mined much like Remus.
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However, whereas the Remans stopped mining so heavily and even moved to a new home world to avoid a catastrophe, the Klingons just kept going and ended up destroying Praxis. While this did not destroy Qo’noS, it had severe effects, including the creation of an asteroid belt around the planet. The destruction of Praxis was the final straw that led to the Klingon Empire reaching out to the Federation to end their hostilities, and peace was had between the superpowers for a century afterward. Without the destruction of Praxis, manyiconicStar TrekKlingonscould have died.
1Vulcan
One of the most terrible examples of a whole planet being destroyed inStar Trekis when the homeworld of the Vulcans is imploded from within in the Kelvin Timeline. This was instigated by the Romulan Nero as a form of vengeance for his planet, Romulus, being destroyed in the future. Nero’s search for vengeance led to thesingle greatest loss of lifein the history of the Star Trek franchise, as over six billion Vulcans fell prey to the destruction of their home world.
Nero drilled into the core of Vulcan and unleasheda red matter devicethat caused the planet to implode. He did this to force the older Spock from his time to watch as his planet was destroyed, just as Nero had to watch Romulus die before Spock was able to destroy the Supernova which destroyed Romulus.Starfleet attempted to intervene, but lost multiple starships in an attempt to stop Nero’s advanced ship, The Nerada. Some Vulcans were saved, and with the help of the older Spock, were able to create New Vulcan to save their race and have a new home world.
