posted
What is the most impressive, most inspiring spacecraft design you have ever seen, be it real or fictional?
Picture yourself in Earth orbit aboard another spacecraft or space station with a window affording you a view of your chosen spacecraft hanging serenly in space above the crystal blue and fluffy white globe beneath.
Now, which ship or craft of any sort would you place there, and can you identify in particular the design elements and forms which combine to make it the most inspiring spacecraft you've ever seen or imagined?
You have permission to wax lyrical as necessary.
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
After due reflection on just about every real-space and science-fiction design I'm aware of...
I think I'd have to go with the Excelsior. And I know that's not going to be too popular with some people here. It seems to me to embody a sort of brutal grace -- seen to best effect, I think, in Star Trek VI. The shapes of the various components and how they're put together implies in my mind a kind of sturdy strength, a kind of power contained, like the whole ship knows it can take on anything and doesn't need to boast about it.
I don't know if you want us to go into runners-up, but I got some...
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
After a long thought I chose the Errant Venture. I mean c'mon, what's cooler than a blood red Star Destroyer?
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Too many really cool ones to pick a favorite. But tops on my list include:
- The SDF-1 Macross from the anime of the same name. 1,200 meters long, contains a whole city full of people, and it justifyably transforms into a giant freaking ROBOT. 'Nuff said.
- The Alexei Leonov from 2010. One of the best "real SF" designs from the past few decades, right down to the rotating section, aerobraking, and massive nuclear engine. This was unceremoniously ripped off by Babylon 5, whose Omega-class destroyers get a lot of false credit for "new and different design". Schmendricks.
- Excelsior. See above.
- My favorite Star Wars ship, after the B-Wing, is the trusty Nebulon-B Frigate from the last two movies. It's graceful yet functional, and its very shape really emphasizes how stuff can AND can't look cool without the limitations of gravity.
- I'm a huge fan of the Valley Forge and her sister ships from the Starship Troopers Chronicles animated show for the same reason. These puppies have a LOT of power behind 'em, and it shows. They had a whole episode devoted to just how cool this ship is. The dropship from the same show is also wicked fictitious.
-And finally, I really, really like the original primary configuration of the International Space Station before all the cutbacks. Screw politics, this thing is a marvel of engineering, it looks awesome, and it's REAL.
posted
"Impressive" can mean so many different things...
� The Executor is my definitive "oh, shit!" spaceship. � Have you guys seen those Shadow battleships lately? Those still freak me out, ten years later... � I like the Constitution refit as a great example of beauty and engineering, properly synthesized. (I'd say Excelsior as well, but that's been portrayed so differently over the years.) � The Andromeda Ascendant is one of my favorites because it's such a unique and distinctive shape, almost to the point of putting form over function... but not quite. � The original Starfury was an impressive fighter-type ship, because of its realistic maneuvering capabilities. � Watching a squadron of White Stars sweeping in on a target inspired awe, as well.
So next time, be more specific.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
The Tiger Claw from the old Wind Commander game (Not the craptastic movie) Was pretty cool. The Rapier II fighter from WC1 is still one of the coolest looking fighters ever.
Here's a webpage with a pic of the Rapier II, It's pretty crappy because the games like 15 years old... Rapier II
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Impressive means you were impressed. Doesn't just have to mean you were impressed by it's size (penis envy?) or it's firepower (impotence cure?)
Ok, try this. Wistful. Which one would make you feel wistful and wish you could take a piece of it with you, live the life it promises, enjoy the company of exciting people, go anywhere, see incredible sights, do things terrestrial bums can only dream of and read novels about.
posted
I think there's some silent agreement about the refit Constitution (from STI:TMP) being the most aesthetically beautiful ship from evar which I'd probably go along with. Really pleasing lines, strength, speed, artful and yet functional. Even if we can't decide where the rec-deck or Officer's Lounge are. But since probably everyone is going to/has said that, the runner up for me at that same scale would likely be the Tantive IV Rebel Blockade Runner from Star Wars. Seems cluttered and complicated the way I imagine a real ship would be.
If we were going to include stationary objects, then the wagon-wheel station from 2001 would probably supercede my previous runner up, especially reflecting Earth blue. I'm a sucka for the wagon-wheels.
For wistful on a smaller scale, I think the Millenium Falcon edges out Serenity for me.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Spaceball-1. I'd honk to it.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
In starship mode or Mega-Maid mode?
Nice pair of robo-tits on that mega-maid...
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
I always liked the Buck Rogers fighters actually...
-------------------- "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity´s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Impressive: the Defiant when she first fired those new pulse phasers and destroyed an oncoming Jem Hadar ship- made me love Trek all over.
Impressive and Wistful: the Gunstar 1: holy crap- the single baddest fighter of all time. Ever.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
GUNSTAR! From which those B5 Starfuries are lovingly ripped off.
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
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