Kevin's Watch

sorry i made a mess in this thread...i couldn't get the photos to post properly!!

Esmer wrote:me too

me too

me too

The first time since I started this thread that I've actually gotten a chance to read all the replies, and check out the pics.

I voted other myself, but only because for me, I'm afarid it's a dead tie between Star Trek and Star Wars.

As Matrix man said, for sheer variety and coolness, you just can't beat Star Wars. Tie Fighters, Bombers and Interceptors, the agile X-Wings, the clumsy Y-Wings, the massive sleek Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari Cruisers, Corellian Corvettes, and the unparalleled Millenium Falcon of course.

(I used to have a bunch of 3-d models of a lot of the ships for TrueSpace, and used to amuse myself by making .avi's of dogfights in space.)

Star Wars though, well, the ships tend to look pretty utilitarian, (although not as much as those Eagle ones). If you're looking for slick, smooth and impressive ships, then Star Trek is where to go.

From TNG's Enterprise, (Sorry MM, child of the digital age, you know (Just)) to the beautiful Defiant, I always thought that those guys knew what a spaceship should look like.

Their size, functionality, (can't believe nobody has yet told HLT that they're "replicators") and sheer design stylishness has always impressed me. Even DS9 was pretty damn cool. Voyager too.

The Borg cubes always impressed me, simply because they look so wrong, but of course, being aerodynamic isn't important where there isn't any air.

And how can you not love the Bird of Prey? Awesome ships all. Like I said, a dead tie.

Some other nice ones mentioned, I must say, but they just don't compete. Red Dwarf for example...sure, 5 miles long...ugly as sin though. (Deliberately? IIRC)

And while I'm always impressed by FarScape's ships, they just don't have the special place in me that ST and SW ones do. *sigh*

--A

I mentioned the Monoliths of the Space Odyssey stories in the "Aliens" thread, but those mysterious things could also belong here.

Same with the alien "cigar" probe from ST IV: The Voyage Home, and V'ger from ST: TMP.

It seems to me that all these objects qualify as both "vessels" and "beings."

Of course! The Ian M Banks thread, and the Somberlains post in the "Aliens" thread made me remember something...the Culture spaceships. Man, those are awesome. And I gotta say, I especially love their names.

How about it LoreMaster? I don't have the books handy, so I can't post them, and I'm damned if I can remember any accurately enough to post them. Remind us will you?

--A

Consider Phlebas

GCU Nervous Energy
GCU Prosthetic Conscience
GSV The Ends Of Invention [ex-Culture]
GSV Eschatologist (temporary name)
GSV Irregular Apocalyse
GSV No More Mr Nice Guy
GSV Determinist
GSV Bora Horza Gobuchul
LSV Profit Margin
ROU Trade Surplus
ROU Revisionist

A Player of Games

Clipper Screw Loose
GCU Flexible Demeanour
GCU Just Read The Instructions
GCU Of Course I Still Love You
GOU Limiting Factor
GSV Cargo Cult
GSV Little Rascal
GSV So Much For Subtlety
GSV Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
GSV Youthful Indiscretion
LOU Gunboat Diplomat
dROU Zealot
Superlifter Kiss My Ass
Superlifter Prime Mover

Excession

GCU Different Tan (Mountain Class)
GCU Fate Amenable To Change (River Class)
GCU Gray Area
GCU It's Character Forming
GCU Jaundiced Outlook (Ridge)
GCU Problem Child (Troubadour)
GCU Reasonable Excuse
GCU Recent Convert
GCU Tactical Grace (Escarpment Class)
GCU Unacceptable Behaviour
GCV Steely Glint (Plains)

Highpoint (ulterior)
Shoot Them Later (eccentric;ulterior)

LOU Attitude Adjuster (Killer)
ROU Killing Time (Torturer Class)
dROU Frank Exchange Of Views
(Psychopath Class)
Systems Vehicles

GSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's
Arrival, The (Plate)
GSV Death and Gravity
GSV Ethics Gradient (Range)
GSV Honest Mistake
GSV Limivourous (Ocean)
GSV No Fixed Abode
(Sabbaticaler, ex Equator)
GSV Quietly Confident (Plate)
GSV Sleeper Service (Plate)
GSV Uninvited Guest
GSV Use Psychology
GSV What Is The Answer and Why?
GSV Wisdom Like Silence (Continent)
GSV Yawning Angel (Range)
GSV Zero Gravitas
LSV Misophist
LSV Serious Callers Only (Tundra)
MSV Not Invented Here (Desert)

Use of Weapons

GCU Just Testing
dROU Xenophobe
GCV Very Little Gravitas Indeed
GSV What Are The Civilian Applications?
GSV Congenital Optimist
GSV Size Isn't Everything
GCU Sweet and Full of Grace

ship nomenclature
GCU General Contact Unit classes: Delinquent
GOU General Offensive Unit
GSV General System Vehicle
LOU Limited Offensive Unit classes: Hooligan
LSV Limited System Vehicle
MSV Medium Systems Vehicle Desert Class: 3.5km length (Original GSV concept, now reclassified MSV)
ROU Rapid Offensive Unit classes: Abominator, Torturer, Gangster, Inquisitor, Killer, Psychopath, Thug, Scree (LCU) demilitarized Rapid Offensive Unit [Renamed "very fast picket" in Weapons]

And you know, it never even occurred to me to google for them *shakes head* Thanks LM. Some of those are fantastic.

Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence

The ships, for those who don't know, are sentient, and name themselves.

--A

Funniest are:

GCU Just Read The Instructions
GSV So Much For Subtlety
GSV Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
and,
GSV What Are The Civilian Applications?

That list doesn't include the ships mentioned in Look to Windward, which has some of my favourites in it:

Nuisance Value
Vulgarian
Sanctioned Parts List
Resistance Is Character-Forming
All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff
Someone Else's Problem
Lacking That Small Match Temperament
Poke It With A Stick
I Said, I've Got A Big Stick
Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again
But Who's Counting?
Germane Riposte
We Haven't Met But You're A Great Fan Of Mine
All The Same, I Saw It First
Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement
Zero Credibility
Charming But Irrational
Demented But Determined
You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here
Lucid Nonsense
Awkward Customer
Thorough But ... Unreliable
Advanced Case Of Chronic Patheticism
Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory
Conventional Wisdom
In One Ear
Fine Till You Came Along
I Blame The Parents
Inappropriate Response
A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity
Lapsed Pacifist
Reformed Nice Guy
Pride Comes Before A Fall
Injury Time
Now Look What You've Made Me Do
Kiss This Then
Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall

I often use Culture ship names as my MSN nickname.

They are hilarious!

Excellent ones, thanks Nav.

Damn, the one I'm trying to remember doesn't seem to appear on the lists...(Seem, because while I think I'd remember it on sight, I'm not sure.) Will have to go and see if it's in one of my books.

Charming But Irrational
Demented But Determined
Thorough But ... Unreliable

--A

Funnily enough, it was while I was looking for that list of names that I came across the Culture articles I posted earlier.

My favourites are the Gravitas series... I just love that - so we're told - some alien race remarked quite sarcastically on how little "gravitas" the Culture ship names had. And then a bunch of Minds retaliated by naming themselves Very Little Gravitas and the like. It makes me chuckle... possibly more than it ought to.

I really like the ships themselves, too. The description of the ship docks in the GSV (I forget its name) in Consider Phlebas is brilliant. And their little cliques and quirks in Excession... very cool. Come to think of it, I should probably read more SF authors than Donaldson and Banks, really. I'll look around in this forum for new authors to try.

And of course the Grey Area's "other" name

I really liked the Grey Area, even though I'd expected to hate it after the allusions to it in the other books. I though Excession was great. So much science fiction preaches that when society is governed by machines everything will become efficient and orderly, but the Culture Minds are every bit as eccentric, underhanded and argumentative as modern day politicians!

Just remembered another good ship; the lilfter that ferried Gurgeh to the GSV was called Let's Haul Ass. I'm going to have a car with that name at some point.

Those Banks ship names are great guys! Reminds of one of my neighbors who couldn't figure outwhat to call his boat, so he named it: Hellifiknow

Sorry, I don't know Ian M. Banks. I see there is a thread for fans of his work, but it doesn't tell me who he is and what he is about: the nature of his stories, his writing style, his background, his place in science fiction, etc. Please enlighten me.

Ooh, danlo's awesome freaky avatar is back!

It might just be a temporary fix (my Edgetar) Fangthane made a guest appearance with me on another post and our gallery Avs have a way of knocking out hosted Avs in the profile...that's how I lost the old one. Sorry if this one's too freaky, I'll try to change it back soon.

NO!!! no...danlo...don't change it!!!! i LOVE it!!! it's GREEN!!!!

very very

If ever I find my bouncing Wario avatar, I'll make danlo's tar look like a Rembrandt.

Yes, you should keep the av, danlo. It's supposed to be spooky.

Matrixman wrote:Sorry, I don't know Ian M. Banks. I see there is a thread for fans of his work, but it doesn't tell me who he is and what he is about: the nature of his stories, his writing style, his background, his place in science fiction, etc. Please enlighten me.

Perhaps this might help:
p210.ezboard.com/fahirashangarfrm6.show ... D=58.topic

I would have to agree that Banks' starships, with the most powerful Minds to ever exist, are right up there with the most interesting space ships ever thought of.

Anyone remember the hilarious conversations between the ships in Excession?