Favorite spaceship

[The Minx]

I just got to wondering, what is people's favorite spaceship, whether from fiction or from fact? The most inspiring, the most interesting or best or most cherished due to any other criteria you think most important?

Tell us something about it, why you like it and what makes it go.

[rhoenix]

My favorite fighters would be the Hammerhead fighters, from the short-lived show Space: Above & Beyond. They truly felt and looked as if they were U.S.-made and designed, while still being scifi - I felt that was a nice touch.

My favorite midrange ship would be the Defiant-class cruiser, most famously from the show Star Trek: DS9. Its design really did resemble a fist coming to someone's face, and looked and felt much less peaceful than other Starfleet designs before or since, with the possible exception of the Akira-class.

Finally, my favorite capital ship would have to be the Venator-class Star Destroyer, from the Star Wars movies (in my mind, only the original Episodes 4-6 actually count). They really did feel like representitives of an oppressive navy, secure in its power (mostly). Their design and capabilities all supported this directness of purpose, which though terrible, was almost awe-inspiring in that role.

[LadyTevar]

There are so many great ships, impressive ships, and ships I have simply loved for one reason or another. I'll just have to go by what I recall....

Earliest memory of an impressive ship, and the scene that still gives me chills : the first sight of the Imperial Star Destroyer in StarWars. I'm talking the 1977 version, where a six yr old watched this one ship fleeing, and then see the triangular point appear in the lower edge of the big screen.. and keep growing. And growing.. And GROWING.
So, yeah.. for "Impressively Scary" the ImpStar takes it.

2. 1978. BattleStar Galactica (the original). The Colonial Viper. It was sleek, it was fast, and it was just awesomely cool to me. The Updated version kept all the best parts of what made the Viper so cool to me as a child (jet-fighters in SPACE!) and added extra maneuverablity that the originals didn't have via the air-jets.
But that leads to ...

3. BattleStar Galactica, and the "Bucket" herself. While the original show had a great ship that could put up a decent fight, the new version has survived Cylon Invasion, constant pursuit, multiple nukes, and falling 90-thousand (meters? Feet?) in atmosphere, then took on 3 Basestars afterwards. The "Bucket" (and her commander) gets the win for "Most Inspiring" and "Badass" awards.

Most Cherished is split between the "Millenium Falcon", the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, and StarGate's Promethius, the first Earth-built capitol ship.
Best Design I think should go to B5's Shadow-spiders. They just looked too fuckin' creepy

[The Cleric]

Imperial Star Destroyer, bar none.

[General Havoc]

I have to make a few mentions here:

From Star Trek, the Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird. I just love the look and FEEL of that ship. It feels like a capital ship, like it can't just turn and fly about on a dime, and neither does it feel any particular need to. The entire design appeals to me.

From Star Trek again, the Galaxy-class Cruiser. Ironically, while I liked TNG, the design of the ship didn't really come to mind as something I liked until DS9 came out. It wasn't until you had lots of other ships to compare the Galaxy to that the design really crystallized for me. A big, honking capital ship with enough firepower to just waste most enemy ships. I will forever remember that one shot from the sixth season of DS9, during one of the immense battles, where the camera is set upon the bridge of a Cardassian Destroyer (Galor-class I think), which is firing on Federation ships in the distance. And then suddenly a positively colossal Galaxy Class ship looms up in the foreground, fires its dorsal phasers, and just pulverizes the Cardassian, while completely ignoring what little return fire is directed its way. True space-battleships.

From Star Wars, the Imperial Star Destroyer, accept no substitutes. Imposing, powerful, encrusted with weapons and fighter bays, but most importantly, it just FEELS different than everything else out there. All other Star Destroyer designs really just pale in comparison to the original granddaddy of them all.

From Babylon 5, the Omega-Class Destroyer. I loved this design back when I was watching B5, something about the battle-carrier style of it, the ruggedness, and the fact that the damn thing looked like a battering ram. B5 had lots of cool ship designs, but I thought the Omega rocked the house, to the point where in the Sci Fi universe thread, I modeled the Insectoid Bastion-class Battlecruiser after the Omega.

From Battlestar Galactica, the Galactica-Class Battlestar. Wasn't too fond of the look of this design when I started watching the show, but it's grown on me, and the ship is the definition of "takes a licking, keeps on ticking". Watching it put up a curtain of PD fire was quite a thing for me, and I'm a huge fan of combination Aircraft Carrier/Battleships in space.

[The Minx]

I like the choices so far.

In addition to these, I would nominate the original Starship Enterprise (in the good old days before the franchise went stale), Dr Who's TARDIS (a ship the size of a small city which can be parked in my room? Yes, please), and the Shadow Dreadnaught from Babylon 5 (for the intimidation factor).

But the most inspiring ship for me, the one which had the most important long-term influence has to be this one:



Can you guess what it is?

[Dark Silver]

Constitution/Enterprise-Class starships (Enterprise being the Constitution Refit) - a stately, majestic ship, which packed a punch back in the day.

Sovereign Class Starship - I loved this design far more than any other Trek ship, except maybe the Constitution and the Defiants. It look like it's going Warp 9 even when it stands still, and it's heavy armed and armored.


Imperial Star Destroyer - what can I say that hasn't been said already?

Shadow Battlecrab - scarey lil bastards...they appear, kill, disappear. And they look like spiders. I hate spiders


Vorlon Battle Cruiser - I loved the straight forwardness of these designs, even if their bio-ships. plus the big honking forward gun is always nice.

[The Silence and I]

Depending on the category being judged my answer varies. For example the Romulan Warbird is stunningly beautiful, graceful and deadly looking and wins that category. But reading the title I thought: "what is my favorite ship?" and answered with "the Falcon, obviously!"

It has the right mix of personality, looks, spunk, and story to win the day. That ship is in no small fraction why I prefer The Empire Strikes Back over the other five.

[Derek Thunder]

Can you guess what it is?

Cosmos really was an excellent miniseries, there hasn't been much since that could live up to it.

For my answers...

The Constitution-class Enterprise: So many memories, so many hyper-intelligent gas clouds or surly ex-crew members taking it over. The Sovereign-class Enterprise was pretty neat too, but so little was seen of it.

The Nimbus: The stately capital ship of the Democratic Order Of Planets, commanded by 25-star admiral Zapp Brannigan. Contains wave after wave of disposable soldiers. Unfortunately, easily sliced in half by a decapodian battle cruiser.

The P-Funk Mothership: The vehicle of choice for Dr. Funkenstein and the means by which funk was spread across the known galaxy during the 1970s.

[The Minx]

Can you guess what it is?

Cosmos really was an excellent miniseries, there hasn't been much since that could live up to it.

Yes indeed. I only recently found it uploaded on YouTube, and wow, did it bring back memories.

"We're going to explore the cosmos in a ship of the imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies, it can take us anywhere in space and time. Perfect as a snowflake, organic as a dandelion seed, it will carry us to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts."

[The Village Idiot]

While many ships have thier merits, and I do find some of them absolutely stunning, practical or just awesome. The only ship that sticks in my mind more then any other is the one and only, Heart of Gold. The ship Douglas Adams dreamed into this world and the only ship of its kind.

[Charon]

The Imperial Star Destroyer obviously.

The Ambassador Class starship from Star Trek. Mostly I like it because it actually looks like it's a brawler, and it's the last Star Trek ship that wasn't sleek looking.

Millenium Falcon, again there's nothing that hasn't already been said.

Moya from Farscape. And to completely contradict myself, I loved the sleek design of this ship and the fact that it didn't have a single weapon on it.

Finally...

And Silence, you should feel ashamed of yourself for not thinking of this.

Dahak. The sentient planetoid from Mutineer's Moon and the following books. Great personality, the size of a freaking moon, the ability to vaporize a planet. He is the epitome of power and majesty.

[B4UTRUST]

The SDF-1 from Macross. Fucktons of destroids and veritechs, an entire city inside of it, the ability to punch holes through planets without much effort, it transforms and it has aircraft carriers for arms.

[Jason_Firewalker]

First off for Starfighters I love to Colonial Viper from BSG, its just awesome and the human version of the death glider from SG-1. The Delta Flyer is pretty cool too as is the Argo from Star Trek.

For lighter ships my number one has to be the Raptor from the new BSG and the Steamrunner from Star Trek.

The mid range ship I enjoy looking at the most and like for its ability the most has to be the Breen Frigate. The next up has to be the Nebulon-B frigate.

The heavy ships I like most are Galactica, Dominion Dreadnaughts, and the new Basestars.