The top science-fiction spaceships of all time

I'd remove The Borg Cube from the list (it might be powerful but its aesthetic design is extremely uninspired)

Omission from the list that would not only make my top Starships list, they'd made my top 5 Starships list.

#3. (ostensibly - Ed) The U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701-E. This aesthetic design would absolutely _top my list_ if it actually looked like this in the Trek movies. It however doesn't. The Enterprise E's nacelles are bulkier and not set at the same incline, effectively imo rendering the streamlined Sovereign class version (in the photo)., into an as yet _undeveloped prototype_. Otherwise a fantastic hybrid A come D post-retro design.

#2.   Heavy Metal: The Movie's Giant Smiley Ship. Love the new wave design. Strangely reminiscent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's mascot.

and the #1 Spaceship design: The U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701 (refit ST:TMP) would take the #1 Spaceship spot on my list.

I love everything about it. To me nothing quite epitomizes "the future" like the transmogrifications made to turn a past-future ship into a future-future ship.

To this day, I find it remains the single most aesthetically compelling and eternally-futuristic of all onscreen vessels.

(partially because she died before her time - Ed)

Indeed. In a sense, she is the Marilyn Monroe/James Dean of Starships. Forever young, forever perfect, forever holding the promise of adventure.

The Avante Guardian. ---- Einstein's Hair^2 //Approved.

A few comments....

The "V" ships and the "Independence Day" ships are very similar. Trash the ID ones!

The Nostromono is not even the best ship in Alien, it was the hammerhead-horseshoe Alien ship itself that was a lot more memorable! While the interior shots were of course the best part, the exterior alone was unique enough to warrant praise.

I'd include the Red Dwarf "Bug" on the list.

How about a real 'classic' saucer. OK so Ed's Woods paper plates in Plan 9 probably don't cut it, but either Klaatu's ship from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" or Harryhausen's saucers from "Earth VS the Flying Saucers" should be somewhere on the list.

Also would have to include at least one genuine pointy rocket with fins.

And last but not least... where is the "Icarus" from Planet of the Apes!

~ Lazarus ~

Horrible List! It doesn't even seem worthwhile to make a list of anything less than the top 100 ships. No Millenium Falcon? No Jupiter-2 from Lost in Space? No Valley Forge from Silent Running? No Discovery from 2001? No Eagle Transporter from Space:1999? I'm sorry but this is simply the WORST best of list I've ever encountered.

Thinking more on this.

Why is the original Battlestar Galactica there, but not the Vipers which were way cooler.

1999 Eagle (good one anon!)

I guess Canada's own Starlost never had a chance!

~ Lazarus ~

O.K., the Shadow vessel deserved the ranking. Where is the Liberator? The TARDIS? Moya? Even the ship fro 'Space Cases'. The Enterprise- any of them- no way.

The Starlost Olympic geodesics, Space 1999 Eagle and the Red Dwarf Bug would get my vote.

Fond of some of the future-ships that appeared in Dan Dare and Flash Gordon. (and also in the Heavy Metal ship graveyard)

(
even if the early DD/Flash Gordon ships were blatantly psycho-sexual - Ed)

*cough*

(this Flash Gordon inspired model is very close to one of my favorite classic rocketship designs. There's something like it laying horizontally in the game Myst I'm particularly fond of extended dorsels, chrome veneer and smooth lines. - and the gold one above actually flew in space.

..it was aboard SpaceShipOne when it won the X-Prize; und then sold on eBay (to the creator of Ultima) for $15,000 U.S.

also love this simple classic design:

Would add that if the The Tuck Pendleton Pod from Innerspace makes the grade then Space Shuttles and smaller space-faring vehicles are in.

In which case:

Rocket Robin Hood's 2 manned spacecraft (photo excessively difficult to locate) and:

DS9's Defiant:

would make my list _before_ the Innerspace Pod.

For that matter so would at least 3 Star Wars art deco ships:

The Naboo Starfighter:

(even if I prefer the cockpit ergo the entire ship facing the other direction with the thrusters in the rear)

and

The Royal Cruiser (J class yacht):

and the Naboo Royal Yacht (H class)

All of this is reminding me of a book my friends and I used to race to read in the library in school, which depicted a myriad of starships and space vehicles.

IIRC it was packed with illustrations akin to these within:

und let's not forget,

The White Knight

und

SpaceShipOne.

The Avante Guardian.
----
Einstein's Hair^2 //Approved.

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 Let's see . . . the

United Planets

                    Cruiser C-57D

What about the Andromeda Ascendant?

That's just a plain pretty ship.

I vote Andromeda Ascendant as well