What is the best spaceship ever commited to science fiction and why?

Question

I'm fond of spaceships ok, I quite like the 'Sulaco' in Aliens but it would be pretty slow, and the Iain Banks 'culture' ones are great too

Answer 1

Star Trek's Voyager or Defiant.
no, Lexx is cool.

Answer 2

Strictly speaking, this question belongs under "entertainment" rather than "astronomy and space," but it's an interesting question, so I will get into the spirit of it and not report you.

And the answer is clear: Beyond all question, the greatest all-around space ship ever created for a Sci-Fi story is the United Planets Cruiser D-57W (J.J. Adams, commanding) that appeared in the 1956 classic "Forbidden Planet."

Admit it: no other space ship ever used Liquid Born, Quandrum Mechanics, and Klystron Relays. Who else ever Short Circuited the Continuum on the ten-parsec level? And got the girl, too?

No way to beat it. The cleanest design and the most obviously practical magneto-gravitic controls and etherophasic propulsion ever seen. And those wonderful steps they recycled from old Greyhound busses.

And what other spacecraft ever allowed the Executive Officer to turn the Artificial Gravity off ("grav off!" *click!*) in the middle of a high-speed turn without spilling a drop of the Medical Officer's coffee?

Good old D-57W. She was the best!

Answer 3

I’ve wondered about this myself (Yes, I’m sad & need a life)

5 – H G Wells - Martian Tripods – The image of them walking across London & destroying everything their heat ray.
4 – H G Wells – Time Machine – Basically a time travelling bath chair – Fantastic Victoriana.
3 – Star Trek - Enterprise D – Looks good & can separate in two.
2 – Star Wars - The Millennium Falcon – Again looks good & has character (does not always work, looks battle damaged).
1 – Dr Who – Tardis – Travels in TIME as well as space, bigger on the inside & is a 1960’s Police Box.

Answer 4

Star Trek, Star Wars, Forbidden Planet, Aliens, Babylon 5, Firefly, SG-1, Blake 7, Dr. Who, Farscape, Battlestar Galatica, Hitchhiker's, etc... The list goes on and on.

My personal favorites would be those that had personality like Serenity.

Answer 5

For me it would be a toss up between the Millenium Falcon and the X-Wing fighter from Star Wars... The Millenium Falcon is after all the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. More importantly it's got great character. In fact it almost IS a character in it's own right, with it's technical woes adding to the plots of the movies.

And the X-Wing? Come on... That's one cool looking machine!

Answer 6

The Winabago from Spaceballs! Ludicrous speed now!
Seriously the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship Red Dwarf, so called because it's red, and big!
Then there's the TARDIS, smaller on the outside, bigger in the middle.
I would include the colony ship from Hitchikers but you never see the outside.
The ship from Dune is a good concept, travelling without moving, very Zen.

Answer 7

Liberator (Blakes 7) for something a little more personal
the Tardis as to be the ultimate Space/Time Vehicle but
if your going for the Classic Spaceship its the Liberator!

Answer 8

Star trek and Star wars all very good but personally I have always liked the "baddie" and in Babylon 5, the shadows' ships were just great, all black and looking a little like spiders with too many legs. They looked nasty and the crew would probably be the baddest "bad guys" in the universe

Answer 9

The Lady Mac Beth out of Peter F Hamiltons Night's Dawn trilogy, near 6000! But Syrinx's void hawk Oenone is pretty cool, so are the GSVs like one particular renegade that secretly changes unfathomable amount of mass into engine to out pass acceleration of anything.

Why... read the books.

Answer 10

i will 0.33 Dune--a artwork of genius and variety of one thousand situations greater useful than the two action picture made up of it. The Left Hand of Darkness, LeGuin A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller Engine summer season, Crowley. superbly wrought and in all probability my sought after s-f novel Roadside Picnic, Strugatsky except you propose fairly previous, wherein case, From the Earth to the Moon, The warfare of the Worlds, The Time device, and Herland.

Answer 11

To be honest, the Star Trek series has the best looking ships, but I must admit to having a secret fondness for the Klingon Battlecruisers.