Planet Q

"Oh no, please don't ruin my sandcastle."

The world of sand known as Planet Q was home to the beings known today as Alpha Q, Scorponok, and the Terrorcons. But like those beings, the world was destined for a tragic fate at the hands of the chaos-bringer, Unicron.

Fiction

Energon cartoon

Plot points derived exclusively from the Super Link version of the Energon cartoon are in italics.

Alpha Q wins the sandcastle building contest on Planet Q. Unicron doesn't like this and decides to wreak havoc.

When Unicron attacked Planet Q, the world's inhabitants refused to go quietly into the good night, and its armies rallied under the command of the grand chamberlain to fight back. As the battle raged, however, it soon became apparent that Unicron could not be stopped, and the chamberlain instead opted for a suicide ploy. He instructed the planet's ruler to detonate the world's core, hoping to take Unicron out along with Planet Q, but the ruler, paralyzed with fear, could not comply, and the chamberlain performed the task himself. Planet Q exploded as Unicron was consuming it, driving him into dormancy.

"Pew-pew, Unicron!"
"Get your own sandcastle!"

Within Unicron's damaged frame, the spark of the planet's ruler was able to survive, and with Unicron inactive, he was able to use the planet-eater's powers to build himself a new body out of the "bones" of his former subjects, renaming himself "Alpha Q". Learning that, with adequate amounts of energon, he could recreate anything Unicron had absorbed, Alpha Q: Identity he used what small supplies he had to recreate the armies of Planet Q as the Terrorcons, Cybertron City with a recreation of the grand chamberlain reborn as Scorponok to lead them. Energon Stars Alpha Q eventually accomplished his goal in the midst of a reaction between Earth’s positive energon and Unicron’s negative energon, Open Fire! and Planet Q was reborn in a new sector of space containing many worlds Unicron had destroyed. Return! Our Scorponok

The AllSpark Almanac

Planet Q was the capital planet of Alpha Q's Realm. Swindle had a buyer for a valuable gyro-stabilizer there. Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II

Ask Vector Prime

The Beast Wars of Aurex 503.21 Gamma spanned all across Alpha Q's realm, and the war came to a head on Planet Q. After a temporal paradox resulted in everything going wrong, the Alternity intervened. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/03

Notes

• The "Planet Q" name only exists in one line in the English dub. "Alpha Q: Identity" alters Alpha Q's true voice into a chorus that identifies itself as "the voice of all those lost on Planet Q". In every other instance, it's described in generic terms, such as "Alpha Q's planet".
• The series itself does not make it clear precisely when the destruction of Planet Q occurred, and the issue is confused by some differences and disconnects between the Armada and Energon series, the English and Japanese versions of the latter, and Hasbro's intent versus what made it into the series. Alpha Q claims that the destruction of Planet Q happened eons ago, but that would mean it would have to predate Unicron's period of dormancy during which he posed as Cybertron's moon; given that we know Rodimus was active at the time of Planet Q's destruction, this does not seem likely.
• A separate continuity error served as possible explanation for fans to chew on. Hasbro's intent was that Unicron did not survive the events of Armada unscathed, so that the Energon series could begin with him damaged and dormant. However, the final moments of the series showed him fit and healthy, only for him to be damaged for no reason at the start of Energon. Hence, the smoothest fit, explaining this error in the process, is to place the surviving Unicron's attack on Planet Q somewhere between Armada and Energon, with its destruction causing the damage that he is afflicted with at the beginning of Energon. It seems Takara agreed with this notion, as this is precisely where they placed Planet Q's destruction in their new timeline.
• Production materials for Energon indicate that Alpha Q, at least, was intended to be a humanoid creature, but a flashback to the final moments of the planet depicts him, Scorponok, and the Terrorcons in the robotic forms they have in the main setting of the series. A modifier describes the scene merely as how the insane Alpha Q "remembers" the events, leaving wiggle-room, although if the Terrorcons at least were robotic originally, it would explain how Optimus Prime is able to identify them when they attack in the first episode of the series. Then again, Optimus's line of recognizing the Terrorcons was removed when the first episode was redubbed for its DVD release.
• The planet's main building appears heavily based on the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Sagrada Família|{{#if:||Sagrada Família}}]] church in Barcelona, Spain, specifically the west-facing Passion façade.