Spaceships

[Avatar]

All right folks, this is a Sci-Fi forum too, and I know you've all got your favourite spaceships. The question is, which are the best?

Who has the coolest spaceships? (I'm sticking to Movies/TV in the poll, but if you want to vote for something like the awesome VoidHawks from Peter Hamilton's Nights Dawn, go right ahead and do it in your post.)

So that's it. Which are the coolest spaceships?

I fI've left anything off the poll, let me know and I'll add it. Or just name it as you vote for other...I'm open to suggestions.

--Avatar

[aTOMiC]

I can't tell you why but the Eagles from Space:1999 always seemed the coolest to me. And me a die hard Star Trek / Star Wars fan. Go figure.

[Avatar]

Too young to have watched it, (or even heard of it to be honest), but a quick google lets me confidently say, "No way!" Sorry Tom, they just don't do it for me.

I haven't voted though, because I can't decide...it was always between ST and SW for me, but FarScapes ones were pretty damn good too. And the baby ship in FarScape...wow.

--A

[Nerdanel]

I think Lexx (from Lexx), the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes, is neat. It's a huge biological spaceship based on a dragonfly and is able to destroy planets (which it does rather often). Also, I like the way Lexx subverts the traditional ship computer cliché by being dumber than the characters.

Spoiler

In one episode the captain cancelled the order to blow up a planet but Lexx did it anyway since it didn't know what such a difficult word as "cancel" meant.

Otherwise I'm not really a spaceship enthusiast, although the Shadow vessels from Babylon 5 look cool. I get attached to ideas, not particular examples of engineering.

[Ainulindale]

The level at which Serenity kicks ass is unsurpassed.

[Loredoctor]

I voted 'other'. Star Wars is too saturated in the market, Star Trek the ships are all essentially the same. BSG, well the show wasn't that good. Haven't seen Farscape.

[Nav]

Some good suggestions so far, leading me to the conclusion that spaceships are fundamentally cool.

I always liked Space:1999's Eagles too, as they look like such a feasable design, i.e. a big metal frame with rocket motors and a cabin attached. I must say that I've never been a big fan of the ST ships that appear to glide along like cruise liners (the TNG Enterprise being the biggest culprit IMO). It suggests that space travel has been made effortless and that just doesn't sit right with me. My favourite ST ship is probably the Defiant though, again probably because it looks the most convincing to me.

I think just about every ship that was ever in Star Wars (and even in the games) has been cool, despite the varying quality of the movies. They all look good, even if they do maneuver more like aircraft than spacecraft. Which brings me to Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica, both of which feature iconic space fighters that actually fly like they're in vacuum! The B5 shadow ships were awesome, it was so easy to believe those things were alive. The EA destroyers were very good too; the great, hulking, armoured spaceframe and the rotating section. Just the kind of ship that might be built by a people using superior manufacturing capacity to overcome a technological disadvantage.

As much as I loved Firefly, I have mixed feelings about Serenity. Her layout has been well thought through and she really looks the part, but I can't help feeling that the CGI people screwed up in the atmospheric sequences. To my eye Serenity is very clearly lacking in aerodynamic qualities, yet she swoops and soars with her engines locked in the horizontal position. The structure overall would generate practically no lift, so really there should be quite a bit of thrust directed downwards at all times. Imagine a Boeing Harrier with the wings taken off and that's how Serenity should fly. The scenes in space are nicely done though.

[Loredoctor]

I always liked Space:1999's Eagles too, as they look like such a feasable design, i.e. a big metal frame with rocket motors and a cabin attached. I must say that I've never been a big fan of the ST ships that appear to glide along like cruise liners (the TNG Enterprise being the biggest culprit IMO). It suggests that space travel has been made effortless and that just doesn't sit right with me.

Add insult to injury - almost every ST ship encounter occurs on a flat plane.

[[Syl]]

www.bbc.co.uk/cult/farscape/gallery/ima ... dargo1.jpg
www.galaxycon.com/Talyn.jpg
home.comcast.net/~6sider/FarscapeD6/images/prowler.jpg

www.starburstcards.com/KarlswebEnscapelopedia/Ships.htm

[aTOMiC]

Ships that have definitely left an impression on me:
the aforementioned Eagles.
The first shot I saw of a Star Destroyer in the opening scene of Star Wars.
The Enterprise E charging into the battle with the Borg in First Contact and Admiral Ryker's version of the Enterprise that appeared in the series Finale.
Loved the Jupiter II when I was a wee lad.
Shadow ships of Babylon 5.
U.S.S. Sulaco from Aliens.
Klingon Battlecruisers attacking V'ger in ST1.
Just to name a few.

Okay I'm easily amused. Oooh. there is a shiny object. Doh!

[Worm of Despite]

Always thought Boba Fett's ship was pretty badass.

[Loredoctor]

U.S.S. Sulaco from Aliens.

Good choice.

[Nav]

Add insult to injury - almost every ST ship encounter occurs on a flat plane.

That seems to occur in quite a few series. Even in the ones where combat very definitely occurs on all three axes (B5, BSG), when ships meet or form a flotilla they're all the same way up. I think it's one of those situations where it just looks wrong to human eyes. I can think of one time when a ship was pictured the 'wrong' way up and that was in an episode of Blake's 7 so there's a fair chance the effects team just weren't paying much attention to their charge.

[edit]

Oh my God, how could I forget the Liberator! Definitely my favourite sci fi vessel of all time, beautiful ship.

[/edit]

[High Lord Tolkien]

I voted ST thinking more about capabilities than design.
I like the sickbays, shields, photon torpedoes, holodecks, transporters and whatever the "instant food thingy" is called.

But here is my alltime favorite.
Sure, it doesn't have flashy phasers and lasers but it does have Judy Robinson

[Worm of Despite]

Damn it, beat me to it! Oh well, here's another favorite of mine.

[The Laughing Man]

Lexx for me! (can you say Xev? )

[matrixman]

The single coolest, greatest movie spaceship I've ever laid eyes on? That would have to be the Cygnus from The Black Hole. The Cygnus was an awe-inspiring and seductive cathedral of light. It deserved a better captain than a mad scientist -- but hey, if you're going to make a suicide flight into a black hole, you may as well go in style.

Runner-up is the Enterprise -- the design as seen in the first six Trek movies with the original crew. This is the "classic" Enterprise to me. I never much cared for TNG's too-slick CG version, and the ship from the original series seems too quaint to my eyes now.

For the overall coolest collection of spaceships in one sci-fi universe, Star Wars wins by a landslide in my view. But among all its iconic vessels, the Millenium Falcon is the one that captivated my imagination the most. It's the fastest and the most handsome hunk o' junk in the galaxy.

[High Lord Tolkien]

This site is pretty amazing if you ever had a question about the comparable sizes of spaceships (and starships!).


STARSHIP DIMENSIONS

www.merzo.net/

[aTOMiC]

How about some pics, Matrix. A little for you and a little for me.
BTW. Thanks a lot. Now I have the music from the Black Hole stuck in my head.

[CovenantJr]