- The Enterpise (any version) - It’s iconic. It definitely does not look like a jet flying in space which is what a lot of TV and film spaceships go for. Hell, I still see wings on frigate or larger space vessels in movies for no good reason.
- The Millenium Falcon - C’mon! It’s Han’s ship! Besides, this is the first movie spaceship I saw that actually looked like people lived in it rather than just traveled.
- The Visitors’ saucers in V - Saucers weren’t exactly innovative, but the size of these things were. It was such a good idea that ID4 copied it.
- Star Destroyers - I love the backstory that they are built like wedges so all the guns can fire forwards but not backwards, thereby discouraging retreats.
- The Discovery (2001) - This is the first movie ship I can remember that actually tried to look like a real spaceship that humans could make.
Never really understood the love for star trek ship design. I think it mostly comes down to nostalgia as the ships REALLY don’t age well, but they had to stick with the same general design as it had become iconic with the series. Too campy/cheesy for me. I’ve always been of the opinion that if i feel embarrassed watching a space battle scene with said ships in the company of people who aren’t active followers of the series, there is something wrong with the ship design. Luckily the movies are for the most part good enough to offset this.
The non federation ships aren’t as bad, but the federation ones… a lost cause.
I tend to like the more… serious looking designs like The Omega Class Destroyer, the star destroyers and most of the ships on serenity.
Speaking of serenity, i liked the other ships quite a bit as well:
Here we go:
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The Enterprise. I actually think the Klingon ships were a lot better looking, but I have to give the overall nod to Star Trek for breaking out of the “Buck Rogers” mold of space ship design. Star Trek was really the first mainstream show to postulate a space ship that didn’t have to be aerodynamic.
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The Eagles from Space 1999. Terrible show, but I liked the fact that the space ships looked like they were intended for industrial use.
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Battlestar Galactica. Not really the BSG herself, but the sheer variety of ships in the “rag-tag fugitive fleet”. The base-stars were pretty cool too. The vipers sucked though.
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Millennium Falcon. Star Wars space ships were hit-or-miss for me, but the Falcon’s asymmetrical design was pretty damn cool. Gotta give some love to the tie fighters and Boba Fett’s Slave-1 as well.
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Eh, nothing else in the list really jumped out at me. I chose Moya from Farscape because I liked the idea of a living spaceship, even if it was butt-ugly. The SDF-1 was pretty close though – a giant humanoid space-robot with aircraft carriers for forearms is just a super cool/dumb idea on many levels.
You didn’t list Hawk’s ship from Buck Rogers?!
It’s a hawk. In space. With working claws. Piloted by a dude simply named “Hawk”. That’s like a guy named “Human” flying around in a monkey-shaped spacecraft, with a working tail or something.
Also, dude, no War Rocket Ajax from Flash Gordon?!
- The Star Destroyer- this ship defined “bad ass space battleship” for a generation.
- Serenity- While the Falcon made asymmetry cool, this ship actually looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment.
- Yamato- It’s a battleship in space. With a super-duper cannon. And twisty gun turret blasts.
- Battlestar Galactica (either version)- A big, blunt engine flying through space, with actual enclosed flight decks on either side. No consideration of unnecessary aerodynamics whatsoever.
- The Satellite of Love- It’s a dogbone with a robot arm called “Manos.” Plus it has the Falcon built into an interior wall.
Honorable Mention: Too large for a fighter, too small for a cap ship, the Phoenix from Battle of the Planets. It had a special attack where it lit itself on fire and crashed into whatever it was fighting. Ballsy.
I love the description of the battles in the Honor Harrington books, but the ships as described are uninspiring in terms of looks.
1. Vader’s Tie Fighter
2. Heavy Metal: The Movie’s Giant Smiley Ship
3. Close Encounters Mothership
4. Alien’s Dropship
5. Enterprise
Spike’s fighter in Cowboy Bebop. Probably because there’s always great music playing when he’s dogfighting.
The Last Starfighter gunstar. Childhood bias.
Galactica because it functions like a real capital ship more than others.
Hot Needle of Inquiry (puppeteer hulls in general) from Ringworld.
Phoenix from G-Force.
I guess my childhood spaceships just carry a hell of a lot more mental weight with me.
H.
The one that looked like a pair of nuts in Battle Beyond The Stars.
My top vote goes to the original Enterprise, of course.
But dude, you left off the TIE-fighter, the best design in Star Wars:
Edit: I see Bahimiron beat me to it. But the force is weak with him since he didn’t display the awesome design.
I loved the design of the Shadow Battlecrab. Totally alien and yet menacing.
If I had to pick an Enterprise, I’d go with the alternate future 1701-D from All Good things.
- Enterprise, any version
- Millenium Falcon-- it’s a hamburger with a bit taken out! The anti-hotdog rocketship.
- Star Destroyers because they’re so goddamn big in that first shot in Star Wars
- The Pan Am Space Clipper from 2001. C’mon, it was the first space shuttle.
- The Saturn V because it was real. Fuckers. And some of it went to the fuckin’ moon.
Nuts? Pfft, those are CLEARLY breasts.
Subtopic:
What are the best spaceship scenes?
The asteroid field, Empire Strikes Back. Exhilarating, funny, good acting, awesome visuals and sound, epic John Williams score. My favourite scene in all of Star Wars.
The nebula battle in Wrath of Kahn.
One reason I like the Star Destroyer is the oppressive vibe it gives off. Yes, that has to do with all those childhood memories, the score, etc. But that matters to me.
And I disagree with Charles; I found many of the rebel Cap ships in SW to be visually uninteresting. But the Rebels got way more awesome fighters (I love every rebel fighter design; the Tie Fighter is awesome but the rest of the Tie Series is just minor variations on that), so that made up for it; and that was where the real action was anyway.
Ah yes, totally agreed.
I read testicles.
You’re all wrong. It’s a uterus.
Well, since the ship has the voice of a girl and they’re clearly SHAPED like breasts, rather than a ball sack, I submit again, those are breasts.
My votes:
- The Death Star- no love for the Death Star? I’m surprised.
- Borg Cube- terrifying and alien in a way that fits perfectly with their fiction.
- Star Destroyer
- Klingon Bird of Prey- Cool looking!
- X-Wing- More iconic than the Millenium Falcon, I think.