Science Fiction Fans: Favorite Spaceship?

[DrNewGod]

I know I'm setting myself up for a deluge of Star Trek and Star Wars images here. Nonetheless, I ask, do you have a favorite space vessel from science fiction (film, comics, or prose)?

Personally, my favorite is probably the Palomino from Disney's Black Hole. I know it's simplistic, but it's always been the most believable to me.. I was old enough to remember the Apollo missions and this craft seemed close enough to what I'd seen in the news to have an air of authenticity that spoke to me.

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A runner up for me was Babylon 5's Earth Force Destroyers. They seemed like a natural evolution of naval air craft carrier mentality that Star Wars' Imperial Star Destroyers never quite matched. They lose out to the Palomino to me because 1) the depictions lack for suggestion that matches the interior images shown, 2) we never see their rotation sections locked in stationary position (suggesting they've got a low acceleration rate), and 3) they're too similar in design to the Leonov from 2010.

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Both of these are rooted in the idea that you can't just manufacture gravity, which is part of their appeal in my mind. It always bugged me that ships creating artificial gravity weren't attracting all manner of random debris to their outer hulls.

Another contender for me was The MacArthur from Niven and Pournell's The Mote in God's Eye, but the flat design of the model it was built around never quite jibed with the descriptions of centrifugal gravity-simulation the authors described.

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[Carabas]

I think this one is hard to beat...



I am also very fond of these two more conventional models...

[JasonTodd428]

My favorite ship is the USS Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's my favorite primarily because the Defiant class starships have a totally different look to the rest of the ones we saw in Star Trek. I personally think it's a good looking ship myself.



Runners up include the Babylon 5 Earth Force Destroyers you already mentioned and linked an image of and the Andromeda Ascendant from Andromeda.

[DrNewGod]

I don't think I recognize that one. Educate me?

[Gray Lensman]

The Babylon 5 Staryfury and Thunderbolt variant - one of the few that looks and acts like it is supposed to be a SPACE fighter instead of another 'airplane in space'.

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[Kirby101]

We should remember how revolutionary the design of the Enterprise was.

[Professor Moriarty]

and



and

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

Beautiful. Every one of them. Somebody post a pic of Shizon's Reman Warbird Scimitar and the Empire's Death Star firing that massive cannon and I'll save you an extra drumstick for Thanksgiving.

[The Whovian]

I think this one is hard to beat...

Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner!

[t hedge coke]

The Queen Emeraldas has always done it for me. It's a zeppelin on a boat in space!





The perfect mixture of streamlined and clunky, romantic and impractical, absurd and yet undeniable the way supernovas and phoenixes are. And, the different backstories are always good.

[DrNewGod]

What's that one?

[Carabas]

I don't think I recognize that one. Educate me?

It's the Liberator, from "Blakes 7", a 1977 BBC space opera series on a cheap cop show budget. Ran for 4 glorious seasons and has deep influences on the likes of Babylon 5 and Farscape. Lot of Blakes 7 DNA in Firefly too.

It was about a bunch of various convicts who have very different goals in life, lead by Blake (a freedom fghter, and a good deal more bloodthirsty and fanatical than most protagonist rebels in this sort of thing) who luck into getting control of an alien warship that is vastly superior to anything the Federation has.

[DrNewGod]

It's the Liberator, from "Blakes 7", a 1977 BBC space opera series on a cheap cop show budget. Ran for 4 glorious seasons and has deep influences on the likes of Babylon 5 and Farscape. Lot of Blakes 7 DNA in Firefly too.

It was about a bunch of various convicts who have very different goals in life, lead by Blake (a freedom fghter, and a good deal more bloodthirsty and fanatical than most protagonist rebels in this sort of thing) who luck into getting control of an alien warship that is vastly superior to anything the Federation has.

That sounds pretty cool.

[Angilasman]

The top-prize has to go to the Tardis. Such an incredible, magical, simple idea. It could appear anywhere, anytime!

After that... well, I love all the classic Star Wars ships: Millennium Falcon, X-Wing, Star Destroyers. I love classic flying saucers like you find in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, and Invasion of Astro Monster (aka Godzilla vs. Monther Zero). Naturally, you've gotta give props to the Enterprise. Captain Harlock's ship, the Arcadia, is also a great one, and speaking of anime: I've always been fond of Spike's one-man ship from Cowboy Bebop, The Swordfish.

[Elmo]

The Daedalus class ships from Stargate.