An Astronomer Ranks Fictional Spaceships

[@peterallen2371]

How about looking at the Rocinante from The Expanse? That could be a fun one to examine.

[@MichaelSiegel14]

I haven't watched the Expanse yet. It's on my list!

[@danh8804]

@@MichaelSiegel14 you'll like it, it's probably the most actual-physics friendly space show there is. Like, it acknowledges the actual demands of space travel and comes up with plot justifications to make them feel credible, and I don't mean lazy handwaves like "inertial dampeners" (Star Trek)

[@frankinla91602]

@@MichaelSiegel14 How one can be a scientist, let alone a sci fi fan, and not have read/seen the Expanse boggles the mind 😔

[@AlgaSci]

Ty Frank has one beef with the introduction of the Rocinante in Season1, Episode 4. He said once you see it you can't un-see it; the PDC's don't spin (Special Effects Shop screwed up and no one noticed it). Other than that it's the best.

[@psycronizer]

@@MichaelSiegel14 That's a crime, you know....

[@MichaelSiegel14]

OK. You guys have talked me into it. I started "The Expanse" tonight. It may be a while before it shows up in a video since there are six seasons. :)

[@danielearley5062]

It's great. The best sci-fi to come out in years. Also the first time someone explained linear gravity effects. Remember the Cant!

[@sszibler]

It looks like episode four. Really good series all around. Great socio-political content as well. Another series, a little “buggy”, which you apparently don’t like, but one I enjoyed for its comedy and world building was “Lexx”. The entire series was built around a world-destroying starship made of living cells. A kind of biological ship from far in the future. Thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy fiction series.

[@danielearley5062]

@@sszibler I couldn't quite get into Lexx, Farscape is awesome though.

[@randyb4801]

The expanse show is my fav scifi ever and the books are even better.

[@fett713akamandodragon5]

I envy you getting to see it fresh, I think I speak for everyone in saying I wish I could rewatch it without remembering I already had lol!

[@HellsRaven4444]

In case it hasn't been explained yet. According to the Colonial Marine Technical Manual, The Sulaco has whats called the Tachyon Shunt Hyperdrive. It allows them to travel at FTL speeds in real space, but has a massive downside, mainly that any organic being in the ship would undergo rapid aging due to time expansion rather than time dilation. This aging is directly proportional to the speed of the ship, placing practical limits on how fast the ship can go in FTL and also forces all crew members into hypersleep just to avoid aging to death. The average cruising speed for ships of that class was around 0.74 lightyears per day.

[@MADSK_LLZ]

17:30 If I recall correctly, the Nostromo is the smaller *towing spacecraft*, not the giant city-sized factory itself. The Nostromo is the ship that tows the massive ore refinery.

[@jakkew5753]

That's right. And it's also the entire Nostromo that lands on LV-426, not a landing craft.

[@robvangessel3766]

If I knew that, I forgot!

[@benlutz1974]

Same with the Millennium Falcon. The actual cargo container was to fit between the two forward protrusions, so the ship itself was akin to the tractor of an 18 wheeler.

[@BrokenCurtain]

Tesotek 2100-B interstellar refinery.

[@fik_of_borg]

@@benlutz1974 I never got the Millenium Falcon. If it is a cargo ship itself, it barely has space for said cargo. If it is a tug and the cargo is wedged between those forward protrusion, why does it have FTL and that maneuverability? Surely no one tug cargo containers at anything above snail pace. The only thing left if that it's a bona fide smuggler ship built for that purpose, but I believe that's just the use Han & Co have for the ship.

[@n3rddegree869]

I was really hoping to see Red Dwarf on here. Another kind of obscure one that would be fun to see is the Valley Forge from Silent Running.

[@user-yg2gw4je8d]

Agreed. Red Dwarf and Starbug please.

[@neilwilliams2907]

I was hoping to see The Liberator from Blake's 7. I loved that ship as a kid 🙂

[@goldnoob]

Yes. Red Dwarf absolutely belongs on this list

[@bcmcnutt]

I would add the Pachyderm from Space Truckers!

[@Kmart_radio_dj]

At least Starbug! Though I'd love a Blue Midget thrown in there as well. Have to throw a dart at a board to pick which version of red dwarf (the ship) the writers were going with at the time to explore that one 😂

[@Spaceman0720]

The Nostromo is actually the landing craft you mentioned and is towing the refinery. It's pretty common to confuse the Nostromo for the refinery the first time you watch it I got confused too until I looked it up on the wiki. Even the fans mistook the Nostromo for the refinery the first time they watched it.

[@LatitudeSky]

The refinery platform actually has a name, or at least a desination. I can't remember what is. But of course the Nostromo was just a space tugboat, and maybe the biggest flaw in the movie is using the Nostromo as a landing craft. It's just risky. A drop ship or shuttle is much better.

[@testfire3000]

I thought that too. Just watching the clip he shows, I was wondering why the ship had big engines underneath it pointing backwards. If you lit those up, you would fry your own ship. But that is actually the refinery behind that. (still how do you light those engines to tow anything?)

[@Spaceman0720]

@@testfire3000 Yeah I still wonder how it tows the refinery without melting it with the engine exhaust.

[@testfire3000]

@@Spaceman0720 You would think in space the "tug" would actually be behind a carefully load balanced refinery/cargo pod/whatever, and it would push, not pull. Pulling is great if you are a seagoing vessel today or a riverboat tug where you use propellers against the medium of the water. Space has somewhat different challenges if the movie wants realism. But it is still a cool movie.

[@Spaceman0720]

@@testfire3000 I thought the nostromo was classified as a towing vehicle? Yeah its unrealistic and not something we would use but in the wiki thats what it is classified.

[@TeamDoc312]

Babylon 5 Starfury... The first Starfury that is seen in the majority of the episodes actually couldn't fly in a planetary atmosphere. Later in the series they introduced the Thunderbolt during the time that the Earth vs Alliance Civil War. It was the Thunderbolt that could sustain flight in both space and atmosphere by being able to deploy small winglets. Before the rivet counters come at me...I do UNDERSTAND that the Thundebolt is considered a Starfury MK 3. Thanks for your time. Doc

[@randybentley2633]

Argh!!! You beat me to it...by 5 days... :)

[@TheEventHorizon909]

Funny enough there is a nasa concept directly based on the starfury so

[@wargodsix]

I feel tho they don’t in the movies that the starfury is how a tie would fly in Star Wars if we designed it realistically

[@randybentley2633]

@@wargodsix it was designed realistically but used with WW 2 aerial dogfighting physics. It's one of those movies that requires you to disengage your brain to thoroughly enjoy it.

[@randybentley2633]

@@wargodsix it was designed realistically but used with WW 2 aerial dogfighting physics. It's one of those movies that requires you to disengage your brain to thoroughly enjoy it.

[@spacemanspiff3052]

I just started watching “The Expanse” a few days ago, I resisted because it seemed to me like a talkie soap opera in space, but boy was I pleasantly surprised to be so wrong. This show is SCI-FI at its purest and most imaginative. I’ve binged 3 seasons over a week and a half and hope to finish season 4 by the end of the week. It’s just that hard to turn off. You’ve got to watch ASAP and do a full post on it. I’m the meantime, I want to pick up and read the novels.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

The last bit of the last season got a little too ...weird for my personal taste, but apart from that, yes, i can very much agree. Don't worry, I am not going to say any more than that. Don't want to spoil anything for you. Enjoy the ride - and the juice ;-)

[@jsbrads1]

I really like The Expanse.

[@michaelnash2138]

The Expanse is awesome and fairly realistic, IMHO.

[@billy2182]

Love The Expanse. Reminds me of Larry Niven's Known Space series which never made it onto film or tv except for in a star trek cartoon lol.

[@BrokenCurtain]

@@billy2182 At least the Kzinti are now officially part of the Star Trek universe.

[@testfire3000]

Hey that was a lot of fun! I am glad the algorithm brought you up to the top for me.

[@wittsullivan8130]

Speaking of "lived in" the only time the cast left the sound stage of the Serenity was when they changed clothes or slept. This was completely voluntary. They liked each other and the ship so much, they just hung out in the ship's common room or the bridge and various other areas all the time. They even took naps in their bunks. The sound stage was built in one piece, so you could literally move from room to room, from bow to stern in one shot, making feel like you were really in a ship.

[@thomasmiller4710]

So how much money do we need to get them to retcon Wah back to life and make new episodes? Because I can think of a few hundred million Star Wars fans who want some piece of their younger years back, and the Firefly crew can ABSOLUTELY do the job.

[@dwrdwlsn5]

@@thomasmiller4710 It would have to be a DAMNED good story, but if it is? I know I would watch it!

[@thomasmiller4710]

@@dwrdwlsn5 Absolutely.

[@Zankaroo]

No, the only thing they could do at this point story wise is Zoe was preggers towards the end of the show and movie and we get a little new goofy/quirky person that has learned to pilot the ship and is a natural at it pulling off risky maneuvers just like there dad but likes doing it more as they are still young. This would also work with the original actors all being much older now. I'd say make kid Wash probably 18-25 years old. Its been 17 years since Serenity, which is good as the actors haven't aged as much as they would have in the show. All thought there life style probably would have aged them a lot with the constant worry and battle wounds.

[@thomasmiller4710]

@@Zankaroo I'm still in. But we may just need to get Whedon his own production company. If Disney had their hands on it, I think we would regret bringing the series back.

[@Mars-ev7qg]

How about looking into the ships in the Stargate universe? There's quite a few to choose from. Definitely some interesting choices in the designs used by the various civilizations in the Stargate series.

[@KorAsek453]

I was going to say the same thing, not including any ships from Stargate on this list is a huge miss, it's the franchise that set the new standard for sci-fi television after Star Trek.

[@dmitriwillguard]

Tbh he could do an entire episode of *just* Stargate ships, there's such a diversity of designs. Shared elements within each faction but even just Prometheus vs Daedalus is a significant design jump.

[@redbynight]

@@dmitriwillguard so very true!

[@jeffery7281]

​@@KorAsek453 I always said that the Star Gate is essentially another Star Trek, just there's no things like subspace and warp geometry dynamic so you can built FTL ships at any shape you like. :D

[@jacobbrown1690]

He wont like stargate cause he doesnt believe in science other than science in the 20th century. Its like saying anti biotics are black magic cause we cant see microbes in the 15th century. But they did exist.

[@zeraith]

Don't know if someone mentioned this already since I'm late to the party, but the "original" Starfury didn't operate in atmosphere. The SA-32A Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfury "Thunderbolt" did, basically just an improved version. Loved your video. Sad that the youtube algorithm hasn't recommended this sooner!

[@channingdeadnight]

The millennium falcon is supposed to use cargo containers that fit in the middle slot. Which is why the cockpit is placed on the side.

[@masterskrain2630]

That's actually the location of the tractor beams used to load cargo.

[@jefferylegere]

They showed in 'Solo' that an escape of went there.

[@scottneil1187]

Yep, the reason the container is missing is Solo ejected it, that's why Jabba wanted his ass, it was his spice that Solo was smuggling.

[@scottneil1187]

A little correction, The Nostromo is the name of the ship towing the refinery, they are different vehicles, the refinery was never named but goes by the nickname Bismarck, also in the novelization of Alien the creature eats all their stored food, that and it's utterly alien, massively accelerated growth cycle explains it's rapid growth.

[@treadstone1138]

Where did you get the name Bismarck from? Even in the Aliens Blueprints book which details the refinery that's never even mentioned. But I'm glad someone mentioned the fact that the actual towing vehicle is the Nostromo and not the entire refinery itself.

[@RauschIronback]

While I'm a HUGE fan of the Aliens franchise, the one issue that repeatedly comes up across the movies, books, comics, and games is the growth rate of the Xenomorphs which doesn't even stay consistent from host to host in its "larval" form, or in its "pupa" form as it matures into an adult. And I mention those life stages cause if I remember right, the inspiration for the Xenomorph was taken from a type of wasp that lays eggs inside its prey. Anyhow, nothing gets to break the rules of physics, and yet these creatures get an efficiency rating for food to body mass conversion that probably exceeds 100%. For reference an average human will consume around 70 tons of food in their lifetime, assuming an average life span of around 70 years that is approximately a ton of food per year. The human body is actually an amazingly efficient conversion machine of food to body mass and energy, especially in the first 20 years of life. And even other animals, of the size in which Xenomorphs would be comparable, would still require TONS of food over a period of months to achieve late adolescence or adulthood. For reference, Polar bears which I think would be a comparable predator in size nurse on their mom's milk (which is 30% fat) for the first 20 months of life in addition to the solid foods they begin to take in that the mom provides. Now obviously that 70 tons of food for a human is not equally distributed across all years, but I would wager that quite a bit of that food is front loaded in the first 20 years of life. So let's call it 15 tons of food in the first 20 years, giving a discount on food consumption for the first 5 years, though toddlers can pack away the grub so perhaps I'm being too conservative. At the end of that 20 years you produce a person who will weigh on average between 100 pounds on the lower end (women with high metabolisms usually) to upwards of 300 pounds for an athletic man who plays something like football (and those guys probably eat way more than a ton per year). The Xenomorph given its size, strength, extremely solid exoskeleton, and other characteristics seen through the fiction is probably at least that football player's weight if not even heavier. So even raiding the foodstores in the Salaco I'm not so sure there was actually enough food (talking 20 tons or more needed here) to justify that kinda growth for an organism, even if it did have a more highly efficient digestive process than virtually any other animal known. But then a good monster movie usually requires some suspension of disbelief so I try not to worry about it too much as the next colonial marine gets pulled under the flooring to become a host for the next generation of Xenomorphs.

[@Belzediel]

Bismarck? Never heard that before, but hey, hokie-dokie, I like it. Cannot agree with the growth cycle. Mainly because the entire design language of Alan is nuts and bolts realism, it's functional, it works, it's relatable. Leonard is implied to increase in mass by something like 300% in a matter of a few hours. He's more or less stated to do so in part by shedding his skin, which means 300% is a VERY low estimate. There is no reference or shot implying he's been at the stash., and it is verging on impossible that Ridiculously Scott would forget to do one. No, it's probably the biggest plothole in cinema history, and that's the amazing thing - Alan is SO F&^KING GOOD that this huge plot chasm is completely overlooked. Rightly so. IMHO that plothole suggests that the original sequence of plot events actually went something like this... Crew on ship get signal. Go find Leonard. Kane gets a hug. Kane dies, Leonard is free. Crew figure it'll starve to death just fine. Crew opt to go into hypersleep and fly home for help. Possibly Mother gets crew out of hypersleep. Brett meets Leonard. Everyone gets a tad upset. Leonard goes for a spacewalk. Which gives Leonard a long time to grow, could arguably explain why he's the exact same colour and greeblie level as the Nostromo and allows some really creepy shots of him examining the crew in sleep, but, that timeline doesn't allow for Ripley Scott to do as much sex / wrap / birth metaphor so it got shoved around and everyone was pretty sure it works just fine. Which is absolutely does, Alan is a perfect film. And I'm near certain Brett is meant to be in the refinery when he gets his special haircut - all that vertical space to me implies the towers. My god this got long... YMMV

[@treadstone1138]

@@Belzediel no, Brett is not in the refinery. He's in bay of the forward landing strut. You can actually see it hanging above him in the shot. That is the folded landing strut that's above him. The refinery is not accessible to the crew of the Nostromo. For more clarification check out the Aliens Blueprint book. Very detailed and very very informative. And by the way why are you calling the alien Leonard? LOL

[@treadstone1138]

@@RauschIronback it's true alien physiology. We aren't meant to understand it LOL

[@hydragonal2921]

Gotta do Mass Effect ships for sure. Please check out the Citadel, the Reapers, and the Normandy. Definitely my favorites by far

[@bryantcordova7227]

There's so much in game background about the uss Normandy 1 and 2 that you would have a field day talking about it

[@buscôO-sensei]

And the Destiny Ascension

[@beannathrach2417]

How about Marathon, a generation ship which is a conversion of Deimos? Frog jump the vent core!

[@unrelativistic]

I would love to hear your thoughts on the various Star Destroyers. Also, a very overlooked short-lived sci-fi series was Space: Above and Beyond. There are some interesting ships there: The USS Saratoga, the SA-43 Hammerhead fighter, and the Chig ships, which didn't really get a lot of screen time due to the expense of CG at that time.

[@Eloridas]

Sounds cool. I think a big problem with Star Wars is, thats its more a space opera than a science fiction and if its a science fiction its big fiction and very less sience. So when someone talk about the ships the part about science will get really short or petty.

[@RaptorNX01]

he could also cover wing commander with that as space:above and beyond (underrated series) borrowed heavily from it for their fighter designs.

[@danmonges1539]

That was a great show!

[@karmicselling4252]

The Liberator from Blake's 7 is the most aesthetically beautiful design ever conceived for a starship. Closely followed by the Gemini 12 / Jupiter 2 of the original 1960's "Lost In Space" television series. Both of those designs exhibit lovely symmetry. And for something out of left field, The Borg Cube is the perfect example of "Simple Complexity". Thanks for the video and Cheers from the Land Down Under.

[@marienbad2]

Count me in as another Liberator fan!

[@rodneymackay2804]

Blake's 7 ruled, and so glad others know and have mentioned The Liberator

[@siroswaldfortitude5346]

Agreed, and Zen was an amazing ship's computer

[@nickpalance3622]

I was just going to mention The Liberator. Love it. And while at it, don’t forget The Scorpio. Someone else in another comment mentioned Red Dwarf so that was my third wish. Considering those were left out I was surprised that the Cygnus from The Black Hole was included - I had it in my own list that I put together before hitting the play button. I guess I like the more .. don’t want to say obscure or forgetten.. since here we are talking about all of these.. but the ones that our “friends” may not remember - what kinds of friends are those?!? :-)

[@CountScarlioni]

Also going to add my love for the Liberator. Absolutely gorgeous design!

[@osnatashtaralevin8944]

Oh this is so much fun! Please do it again! I'd love your opinion on _Moya_ from _Farscape_ and any of the ships from _The Expanse_ (the Roci is pretty iconic, but the Nauvoo is also one to consider - being a generational ship that has both spin capabilities and thrust gravity, especially in season 3).

[@olivertaylor4779]

Moya is interesting, she was a really big space creature and pilot was cool.

[@4666raptor]

haha i was wondering & said same thing before reading these comments. about moya

[@aaronsmith5363]

i agree with you, and the two previous posts.....once i finished this excellent video, my immediate thought was, "what about Moya!?"

[@markdaube507]

FINALLY-There is a channel for a nerd like me, a SciFi fan with actual technical knowledge. I was an Aerospace Explorer Scout back in Jr. High/High School, lead by a retired AF Major who had access to a lot of cool places. Our monthly meeting place was at a Lockheed Conference room at Moffett Field N.A.S. in Mt. View, Ca. We participated in SpaceSet 86', a space colony design competition for High Schoolers held at JPL in Pasadena. Our first day was seminars by Isaac Asimov and a bunch of astronauts and physicists. We then split up into student/company groups competing against each other for a fictional govt. contract. I was in charge of space station maintenance and robotics. I designed dog like robots that were couriers on board delivering luggage for guests or food orders. I also designed little maintenance bots that lived outside doing external jobs like micro-meteorite hole patches. They stuck to the surface with magnetic wheels. The double Taurus design used materials mined from the lunar surface. We learned the how, what, why, and where's of building in space. I have since been fascinated with space ship designs and have a few of my own, but based on the reality of today's technology, if the political and financial will supported it. I have made models of my designs out of pvc pipe and Advil bottles. Advil looks a lot like a SpaceX capsule. Anyway, the Sulacco design, with all of the capabilities mentioned in the Aliens' movie, was a statement by James Cameron, basically saying that all of the weapons and technology at man's disposal pale in comparison to a perfect biological creature defending it's territory. All of those Marines, still got their asses kicked due to a lack of understanding and appreciation of nature. Much like the Vietnamese defending their home turf with little training and weapons, but a knowledge of their home and a willingness to die defending it. Great channel, recently discovered, and eager to explore. Thank you.

[@novaclade8307]

21:33 It’s because of my age that I have such a soft spot for the Eagle Transporter, so much so that I went ahead and created a full scale virtual experience featuring the sets from Space: 1999. If anyone has a PCVR headset and is interested in experiencing the nostalgia for themselves, just do a search for “Space 1999 VR” on KZbin or itchio 🙂

[@WowplayerMe]

I love that you included The Argo in this list, Star Blazers is my all time favorite space series. I'm also a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars, but, SB holds a special place in my heart. Also, what you said about the Enterprise in ST3 hit the nail right on the head. The destruction of the ship was for me, the saddest character death in the whole franchise, even more so than, Spock's apparent death in the previous movie.

[@raven4k998]

it has a murderous computer on board so enjoy the ride🤣🤣🤣

[@cavecookie1]

When I was a kid, the Jupiter II from "Lost in Space" was the coolest thing in the world. A real live, honest-to-god flying saucer! Will Robinson was the luckiest kid alive!

[@Wordshine77]

Dittos!

[@mydogbrian4814]

- Like the series the Jupiter 2 was stupid. Where was room for the engine room, fuel, Space Pod and food storage at?

[@61seaview]

Yes, the cool factor ! I just wrote a comment about the Jupiter 2 also.

[@61seaview]

@@mydogbrian4814 Agreed.. but just the Cool Factor alone. It would be like flying a four door 67 Impala. A load of fun.

[@jasontoddman7265]

@@mydogbrian4814 Also, looking at it from the outside, even the galley all by itself doesn't look like it would fit in there. But originally the spaceship was only meant to have one level - what later became the "upper deck". They redesigned the ship - slightly - to accommodate the lower deck but I agree they didn;t do a good job of it. All the same, I was nine when the show first came out and never got over how 'cool' the Jupiter II was! 😁

[@umbrahs]

Yep, there is definitely more than enough iconic spaceships in all mediums of fiction to make multiple lists like this. Ideas for a Part 2 and Beyond.. 1) Rocinante (The Expanse) 2) Nauvoo (The Expanse) 3) Moya (Farscape) 4) Event Horizon (Event Horizon) 5) Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) When I first saw the ship icons, I thought for sure the Sun Crusher was the Mandoshowan ship from the Fifth Element (had to look that up).

[@bricefleckenstein9666]

I have to wonder how many folks (other than you and I) have ever heard of Cowboy Bebop? Wasn't exactly a high-popularity long running Anime.

[@umbrahs]

@@bricefleckenstein9666 True it wasn't a long running anime, 1 season + 1 movie but I'd argue it was fairly influential as I've seen it on numerous Best of ... lists as well as getting a Netflix Live Action Adaption (haven't seen, so I have no idea if it is any good). If I was listing the space rocket from RSF; Wings of Honneamise or the shuttle in Armitage the Third then I would definitely be surprised if they were well known.

[@brozy5720]

Adding the Orion from "Raumpatrouille", an old german Sci-Fi series, the spaceships from "Independence Day", the LEXX

[@scottneil1187]

@@bricefleckenstein9666 You do know Netflix just made a live action Cowboy Bebop that failed spectacularly?, the whole internet was buzzing with it for months, on top of that Cowboy Bebop is one of the most well-known and beloved animes out there.

[@AndreiTupolev]

Definite points for Farscape! Brilliant, shockingly underrated show

[@SciFiFemale]

I'd love to see one about living, grown, spaceships. Lexx, Moya from Farscape, the ones in Babylon 5, a few in Star Trek etc.

[@snufkinmatt162]

The Lexx would be a great one to review, especially as it has to eat!

[@viperswhip]

The Normandy from Mass Effect.

[@williamford8566]

Loved your review. Here's an obscure one...how about the hilarious moon based interceptors on the short lived series UFO?

[@funkyfender1]

I loved this show… it was one of Gerry Anderson’s forays into a live action show, departing from his ‘Supermarianation’ puppetry productions such as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons, Joe 90, Fireball XL5, and (the awful) Terrahawks!

[@RCAvhstape]

I recently rewatched that entire show, having only seen a couple of episodes as a kid, and it is surprisingly good and the characters deeper than I expected. Those lunar interceptors are really cool. And I'm still waiting for the US Space Force to introduce purple wigs as uniform items for women.

[@MrAndyBearJr]

I really like the way that The Expanse tries to apply physical science to their ships more than most series.

[@Dysan72]

Oh yeah. I cheered when the Rosi arrived at Eros after the high speed burn, and it was pointed BACKWARDS. As in they had been using the main engine to slow down.

[@simonjhudson7378]

A ships I like is the Liberator from Blake's Seven. Very cool looking ship, although the way it fights did look a bit odd. Also the Valley Forge from Silent Running springs to mind. There are a lot of other spaceships from animated series like: The Bebob from Cowboy Bebop, The Basroil from Banner of the Stars, the Planet Express ship from Futurarma. There is the Amaterasu as well from Starship Operators which I think is an underrated series (There are some excellent space battles).

[@StephenDahlke]

+1 like for mentioning The Basroil.

[@charlesunderwood6334]

The liberator in earlier series was a cutout. Not the best special effects.

[@simoncribbes9141]

This was great, loved your reasoning for your rankings, even if I disagree with one or two. A few ships to look at in future - The Valley Forge - Silent Running The Lexx - Lexx Icarus II - Sunshine Moya - Farscape Liberator - Blake's Seven

[@cocacola4blood365]

Oooo! Silent Running! That movie doesn't get enough love!

[@travelinlightbill]

Fun video! I would also like to see what you think of the Rocinante, since The Expanse is probably the most realistic show I've seen. Also, the normal Imperial star destroyers (angled armor, guns along the edges) and the original Cylon base ships (maximizing fighter launchers) always seemed logical within their respective universes, even if not scientifically accurate.

[@08191906]

Definitely! The Roci is a must.

[@Alan_Edwards]

I guess by now he got the point 😀

[@MedPig]

Try the “Valley Forge” from the 70’s “Silent Running”. Also, the Con-Am 27 Shuttle, from the movie “Outland”

[@OrkDiktator]

I'd interested in your opinion about some ships: USS Defiant (DS9) Avalon (Passangers) Jupiter 2 (Lost in Space) Icarus II (Sunshine) Enterprise NX-01 (Star trek: Enterprise) UNSC Infinity (Halo, videogame) Endurance (Interstellar) Normandy SR-1 Normandy SR-2 (Mass Effect, videogame)

[@racookster]

Lost in Space never explained how they got two decks - and a third that we saw in one episode - into that little tiny saucer. And where was the fuel? And where did they store the chariot and the space pod and all that other hardware we saw? Did it use TARDIS technology?

[@OrkDiktator]

@@racookster the saucer isn't that small. The machine deck has been shown in one episode. There are big rooms in the center, several rooms arround, several decks. It's big for a shuttle type ship. Watch the Series again. It's huge for only one family

[@Grumpy_old_Boot]

The 5th element had some interesting space ships, everything from intergalactic pleasure cruiser to hardcore fighter ships.

[@XMachete]

I was going to leave without voting since the Rocinante isn't in this, but I have to leave an upvote for including Space Battleship Yamato. Also, I'd like to add some candidates: Valley Forge from Silent Running, and USS Palimino from The Black Hole.

[@danmallery9142]

I'm so happy you included the Eagle. I grew up with Space:1999 and it has a special place in my heart. I was an early teen when it came out and was heartbroken when it was cancelled. It primed me for science fiction along with Star Trek and made me ready for Star Wars. I always loved the Eagle and along with 2001 ships I loved the realism (as much as you would expect from sci-fi) and seeming functionality of it. I would also love to see your take on the Valley Forge from Silent Running.

[@devcybiko]

I also voted for the Valley Forge (and Earthship Ark from The Starlost)

[@scotteaton4868]

First season of Space 1999 was exceptional. The series was stunningly beautifull, and the cinematography and production design was immaculate. Infernal Machine rivals anything made today.

[@jeffgrencik1295]

@@scotteaton4868 ya i agree with what you're NOT SAYING about the second season. lo,

[@gcewing]

Space 1999 would have been excellent if it had stuck to being just a story about a base on the moon. But they had to go the utterly ridiculous route of having the moon get blasted out of earth orbit (somehow without getting torn apart in the process) and going on an interstellar journey visiting a different star system every episode without any form of FTL.

[@andrewcowling5804]

Gerry Anderson was the greatest guy you could ever meet. he had his flaws. but by heck could he ever grabs a kids attention. and inspire them for later things. I was a professional modeller for years because of him. and the pinnacle of all his series was Thunderbirds. A Brilliant concept but totally unrealistic.

[@Jordy120]

Cathedrals in space?...my mind went immediately to Warhammer 40K. New sub...luv ya work.

[@Null_Experis]

I think you'd enjoy the Event Horizon from the film of the same name. It's a horror/sci-fi film about an experimental FTL ship that utilizing space-folding to achieve its goal, and the premise of the film is that is vanished without a trace during the maiden voyage where they attempted to activate the folding engine, and several years later it pops up again with a distress signal. The design is very Arthur C Clarke with massive engines and a crew section further away from it.

[@kerryedavis]

And it somehow "orbits" within the atmosphere of Neptune for however long it takes the rescue ship to get there, while just hanging around while they approach.... baaaarrrfff!!!! That said, a movie made about what happened BEFORE they movie they made, would be far more interesting. Oh, and it was supposed to be a secret mission? Why didn't they just name it "Nothing To Do With Black Holes" and call it a day?

[@crtinde]

I thought the overall premise sounded interesting, but personally I was disappointed by the plot. I felt like it just became a series of nightmares and gory practical effects without much substance to the story line

[@kerryedavis]

@@crtinde probably because the premise was that the new propulsion system took the ship literally to Hell and back. Not sure how introspective you can get from that.

[@razor1uk610]

@@kerryedavis yup, deep theological sci-fi-ing.... the Event Horizon made a translation into the Immaterium without humanity yet knowing the dangers of the other side of daemons, immaterial creatures and immoral things lurking there born as a mirror of our material universe, and without Gellar Fields to repulse them from infesting the ship and possessing crew.

[@crtinde]

@@kerryedavis I don't think more introspection as what I was looking for, personally I just feel like dreams and delusions are lazy storytelling devices. It's also why I got tired of watching Mr. Robot, he would go through some whole sequence and then whoops you realized it was all in his imagination They could have moved the plod along by showing how the ship went in hyperspace, or maybe the fact that wormhole travel actually took much longer than direct travel, and these people had been stuck in that dimension for 10,000 years (a la Black Mirror) Watching characters have a nightmare on screen is commensurate to hearing a friend or co-worker come in and tell you about the dream they had.

[@dingolovethrob]

The RAMA from Rendevouz with Rama always stuck in my head as a fantastic ship - provided you accepted that their civilisation had created a 'space drive' that could react against space-time itself.

[@NemoConsequentae]

The Ramans always do things in threes...

[@pace1719]

Got a heavy Land of the Giants vibe, damn I loved that show as a kid.

[@willrbsnb9]

So happy to see thee coolest ship ever, the Eagle Transporter, make such good standing on your list! Make sure to watch season one’s ‘Dragon’s Domain’ to see the full function of this ship in action!

[@thb3766]

Being an engineer I apply similar criteria when deciding which fictional space ship to like and which not. I remember back in 1977 when the first Star Wars Episode came to the cinemas I was utterly appalled by the blatant violation of the laws of physics in space. It took me several years to be more relaxed and develop this "willing suspension of desbelief" :-)

[@DaveG6HNI]

Great video I agree with most of your conclusions. Can I suggest you also consider, The Borg Cube from Star Trek TNG, Star Bug & Red Dwarf from BBC Red Dwarf, The Liberator from BBC Blake's 7, Dark Star from film Dark Star and USS Valley Forge from film Silent Running.

[@dusanmal]

Heart of Gold with its Infinite Improbability Drive. Not only that it matches zany Universe it is set into but it is exactly what I as a Physicist would expect technology of instant space travel to have as a consequence (and it is automatically a time traveling vessel too!...). Physical design and crew to match. Would love to hear your spin on it.

[@_starfiend]

From the TV program NOT the awful film.

[@jeremypnet]

@@_starfiend the Heart of Gold was the only good thing about the film.

[@_starfiend]

@@jeremypnet Lol.

[@AnthemAnimation]

@@_starfiend the one in the TV show was worse than the one in the film

[@_starfiend]

@@AnthemAnimation No No No No No No No! The one in the (awful!) film was a bad joke. A cartoon caricature. The one in the TV series actually looked pretty much as it was described in the book. Far better.

[@barlotardy]

"I hate this ship. This isn't a ship, it's a cathedral!" Warhammer 40K: ".....and I took that personally."

[@johnmorris7815]

Totally agree with your assessment of the Firefly, love that ship.

[@mrdunk2955]

At first I was suprised to see the Yamato(suprise to be sure but a wellcome one) here but then I remembered how popular the series was in the US back in the thay and you've probably seen it as a kid(or however old you were back then). The lack of Stargate ships was a bit unfortunate, but if you are gonna make a part 2 I hope you would put some of them as well. Great video btw and I'm really hoping for part 2 :)

[@jeffgrencik1295]

there is a dubbed into english live action version you can check out.

[@sarc88]

Great topic and well thought out! I have to point out a couple Galactica features that might have counted higher IMHO. 1) The DRADIS. Too many SCIFI ships just rely on "the computer" or "hey, computer", "star maps" without being something they check EVERY TIME. I thought that DRADIS took 3D SONAR type capability to the next level. 2) Galactica in atmospheric freefall, one of the coolest ideas and visual delivery ever seen. 3) Finally, Galactica captured the Fleet culture of a spaceborne navy. Their ranks were correct, the special relationships that exist onboard were noted (like the airwing components, etc), and especially the "Don't Give Up The Ship" mindset. That ship is their home, the Fleet is everything, and a piece of sovereign real estate. Thanks again for a great piece, I really enjoyed it, and glad to see a pro tackling the science but acknowledging the cool points!

[@Gatetraveller1]

Could you do an episode on the Stargate ships? There are so many different designs and types and I think a lot of them are fairly ‘realistic’. Hyperspace engines aside.

[@LordMondegrene]

Loved the ship powered by wine from the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, in "The Mouse on the Moon." It had all the finest mid Victorian diamond tuck leather and red velvet upholstered and brass fitted doo-dads, with shower nozzles for main booster rockets. A stirring tribute to the intrepid explorers, with a full china tea service, because even in space, you need tea time.

[@OnASeasideMission]

Yes, I watched it on first release. Bernard Cribbins, first man on the moon. 😄

[@bobblum5973]

Ah, yes, Professor Kokintz (?) discovering Pinotium-64 and Janus particles, if I recall correctly. Science fiction, political commentary via satire... good stuff!

[@LordMondegrene]

@@bobblum5973 Good catch, I'd forgotten all those wonderful little details, and Jean Seberg, Terry Thomas and Peter Sellers! A sequel as good as the original film, a very rare treasure.

[@stever285]

I've never managed to see the movie, and I've been looking for about 40 years. If it's half as good as "The Mouse That Roared"...

[@bobblum5973]

@@stever285 Peter Sellers isn't in it, as I recall, and it's not as good as "Roared", but it's still a decent movie carrying on the characters. Somewhere I have a paperback copy of the book, so it's hard to recall what details are from that or the movie.

[@AnimationGoneWrong]

I'd LOVE to hear your take on RAMA. (from Rendevous With Rama)

[@Cafeman_2D]

This was an enjoyable watch. I also had that Eagle-1 toy as a kid in the 70s, it was awesome.

[@markedwards6455]

The other show that was based in the same universe, "UFO" was a favorite of mine too.. The Alien saucer ships, the underwater launched fighters that took them out, the Moon based interceptors.. also the odd wigs and dyed skin/or make up of all the female crewmen was very unusual..

[@twylanaythias]

You might not have been aware that most capital ships in Starfleet - including all Enterprise variants - actually have two propulsion systems: ~ Impulse Drive - There are actually two of these systems; one in the rear of the secondary (lower) hull and one along the trailing edge of the saucer section. From Star Trek's inception, the two components could separate and operate independently then rejoin. These drive systems operate in the conventional manner of generating thrust, as you seemed to expect. ~ Warp Drive - These systems operate not by propelling the ship (as you seem to believe) but instead fold space-time around the vessel. The warp nacelles are mounted to extended pylons as the core distortion fields when operating are extremely hazardous. They essentially form sort of a 'magnetic bubble' around the ship, 'polarized' so the leading edge attracts while the trailing edge repels. Also, please consider reviewing: ~ The Valkyrie from Titan AE ~ Valley Forge from Silent Running ~ The Milano from Guardians of the Galaxy ~ The Bebop from Cowboy Bebop

[@RaptorNX01]

@@magellanthecat Tho it did end up just being emergency survival cases there to. at the start of the show it was supposed to be standard procedure whenever they entered battle (you know, cause they had families on board), but it cost too much so it just became emergencies. thats why the first season it happens nearly every other episode, but then they just stop doing it for the rest of the show.

[@RaptorNX01]

all warp capable ships have both warp engines and impulse drives (and maneuvering thrusters, which are just the same tech as on space shuttles, just bigger). warp engines aren't safe to use over short distances and esp within star systems. but yeah, warp engines was star trek's way of getting past the faster than light problem by simply just making it that the ships never actually do it. its closer to quantum tunneling then actual propulsion.

[@twylanaythias]

@@magellanthecat Correct, though it was an integral design feature of the Constellation Class (which included the original Enterprise). Producers of ST:TOS were positively anal about budgeting and, even at the height of the show's run, refused enough of a budget to show a saucer separation. When syndication created the demand for the sequel, ST:TNG, Roddenberry put his foot down - Paramount could NOT do a new Star Trek *UNLESS* he was allowed to have a full saucer separation in the pilot episode. Try as they might, Roddenberry wouldn't budge an inch on this demand - the rest is history.

[@twylanaythias]

@@magellanthecat Right, but it kinda goes without saying that something designed to be connected by default with the capability of controlled disconnection can be reconnected. Could be a rarely-used operational procedure or could require 'drydock', but you can reassemble anything that was assembled in the first place. That being said... While I lost my copy of SFTM long ago, I'm pretty sure the original point about the propulsion systems was correct.

[@twylanaythias]

@@magellanthecat Ah, yeah - it's been a while. 🤪 Though I do remember being a founding member of the local "Waste Wesley Fan Club". (Talk about Gary Stu's!)

[@JALNIN66]

I enjoyed your video and would love to hear your thoughts on more ships. #1 The Rocinante from The Expanse. #2 The main ship in Stargate Universe, millions of years old and refuels itself by flying through the corona of a star. How cool is that? All the ships in the 3 Stargate series are cool. The Borg cube, the ship from Passengers movie, especially the pool scene. The main ship from the Battlestar Galactica reboot. The USS Discovery (borrowed from alternate writings by Gene Roddenberry, aka Andromeda series).

[@kickballjedi]

What a great video. The fact you include the Yamato and the Space:1999 Eagle is great. I was a huge fan of both and I did have the Eagle ship toy from Space:1999. My ship suggestion would be the Borg Cube. I like how they went for a basic, functional shape with no slick design for the very practical Borg.

[@KayOSweaver]

Great list. I really like the sensibility of balancing realism with the cool factor.

[@jeffdavis6657]

We may need another video, Gunstar, Last Starfighter, Flash Gordon, Various versions and decades, and for your joke one, the Eagle 5.

[@xbubblehead]

Small downside, it has a murderous computer on board.

[@rcschmidt668]

Great video! I would like to see what you think about the Liberator from Blake’s Seven, the Red Dwarf, and Moya from Farscape. FYI, for the making of the movie The Black Hole, they didn’t know as much about space as we do now, so a lot about the open spaces and apparent overuse of glass exterior might be forgiven. Perhaps it is not glass but an invisible plasma as mentioned in Star Wars discussions or Transparent Aluminum from Star Trek.

[@redf7209]

I was surprised about Red Dwarf and its starbug not being here

[@McKavian]

Boys from tha Dwaaaarf!

[@9KznfiS87f7]

Wonderful video - but... 11:00 - In warp drive the only stresses are applied to space itself by the warp field. There is no stress on those thin things that support the warp nacelles. They look to be easily strong enough for any slower sublight propulsion. 19:20 - What the heck solar system has 100 billion planets orbiting its sun?

[@Frumpyjones2]

Loved this. Love that you rated the TARDIS and Firefly the way you did! Might I suggest red dwarf?

[@Bobcat_Cal]

I am totally here for Red Dwarf and Starbug both.

[@arlenesobhani8739]

The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey. Probably written in the 70's. The controlling aspect of the spaceship is a human being born so deformed and small that she is trained and adapted to be the sentient heart of the ship. Just as some people ride in wheelchairs, this character propels and runs the spaceship. Look it up, it's pretty cool.

[@deaks25]

You are someone with exquisitely refined sci-fi taste. Great book/series.

[@njhoepner]

I loved those stories!

[@scottbilger9294]

I read that many years ago. The human pilot was called a "brawn", I remember.

[@paulg3336]

You are in the wrong place. That is real science fiction by a real science fiction author. Not the ludicrous movie screenplays written for TV and movie sci-fi mentioned in this video.

[@ramonbmovies]

I loved this video. It was very entertaining! I wonder what you think about the SDF 1 from the anime series in 1985-1986 called Robotech? It's an alien ship that crash lands on Earth in 1999. Humans rebuild it, and an alien race called the Zentradi is sent (by yet a different alien race, as we learn in the 2nd season) to capture the ship and learn the secret about how it generates its own energy source. Throughout the 1st season, the alien race is unable to capture the ship from the humans despite the Zentradi's superior technology and strength in numbers.

[@sasquatchandme3673]

The function of the Millenium Falcon as a cargo vessel was visually represented in an episode of Star Wars Rebels, where a ship of the same make and model as the MF used that forward slot in the center of the ship to intersect with a wall of shipping containers and push them through space - like a tugcraft.

[@DSzaks]

too bad Solo came along and retconned that to be where the escape pod goes.

[@sailure1]

I was going to correct people on this. The Falcon flys upright with the cockpit pod at the top and then locks into a horizontal cargo container forming a "Plus sign" ship. So it looks like a + with the cockpit on top.

[@AveragePicker]

The functionality of the Falcon was probably an after thought.

[@Zach476]

@@DSzaks that wasn't a retcon the escape pod was a modification to the ship it says so in the reference book that was released alongside the move.

[@DSzaks]

@@Zach476 What movie? Solo?

[@dipi71]

I really enjoyed this - curious about the »real« shape of the Tardis which is supposed to look like a heap of connected spheres. Great to see the Serenity on top rank of your list. Subscribed, cheers!

[@-Bill.]

Speaking of stars, I love the canon use of a Stargate to cause a stellar nova, in Stargate SG1. They dialed a Stargate into another gate which is in orbit of a black hole and then dropped it into a star. The black hole then removed mass from the core of the star until it went out of balance with the outward pressure from fusion reaction. It was pretty clever with only the conceit of the gates being able to survive the heat and pressure.

[@lsaplai]

Very entertaining. Discovered a lot of spaceships. Would you consider doing a video about The Expanse and its ships?

[@zkeletonz001]

I was really surprised there was no Borg Cube in this list. To me it's become one of the most iconic SF ships out there.

[@Sundablakr]

The Borg and their ships have always been my favourite space villains/ship designs. I just love the whole simplicity is strength aspect of it.

[@zkeletonz001]

@@Sundablakr The Borg cube and the line, "Resistance is futile," always carried such a great sense of dread with it when they would show up.

[@Sundablakr]

@@zkeletonz001 Absolutely, probably why I enjoyed Voyager quite a lot too because it explored much more of the Borg in it's regular episodes than TNG did.

[@MrAndyBearJr]

I was always fascinated to hear how the special effects crew filmed the Borg ship. They used wax to build the structure for filming, directed heat at it to slowly cause it to come apart and collapse, then ran the footage backwards to give the impression of the Borg ship repairing itself. Genius!😀

[@Sundablakr]

@Mister Flibble To play devil's advocate you could argue that solid geometric shapes also give the most surface area to be hit by enemies and don't have a whole lot of evasive options, whereas sleek slim designs like Starfleet can perform complex manoeuvres during combat. It does make sense that a race as advanced as the Borg, who don't really care about presenting large targets, would make them though. Though I'd also say that the computers of Star Trek era should not have any trouble landing hits with weapons on targets of absolutely any size and speed, given that we already have computers in 2022 that land autonomously fly rockets and guide weapons. You can very much tell Star Trek was made in an era before modern computers.

[@billfryer5911]

I have an obscure one for you - the Vulture, from the 1979 series "Salvage-1". The pilot is about a team of salvage experts who build a space ship out of parts they find in a junk yard to salvage the equipment NASA left behind on the moon.

[@veiledzorba]

That show was a hoot! Loved it!

[@colinp2238]

Michael, have you ever seen the Liberator from an old 1970's BBC series called Blake's 7? It is certainly worth a watch, written by Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks from Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in 1978 and ran until 1981. Before the last series the ship was destroyed and they were then on a planet, I suspect that this was for budget reasons.

[@Amaranthine1000]

Loved Blakes 7 Avon and Villa were such great characters, not to mention Jenna. The Liberator was a great looking ship

[@logandarklighter]

@@Amaranthine1000 Even though it DOES look like 4 old style microphones kit-bashed together with some extra flash and parts. THAT SAID - they STILL made it look damn good! 😄 But that's sort of the charm of 60s/70s/80s British sci-fi - shoestring budgets and crappy special effects - but they MORE than make up for it with STORY, WRITING and EXCELLENT characters! 👍😎

[@themadgroper]

You put the Enterprise in a second slot?!? You’re insane!!

[@masterroshi1015]

Fascinating yet quite illogical

[@jeffgrencik1295]

BLASPHEMY!!!

[@Solamnic31]

This was fun, a part 2 would be very nice as there are so many spacecraft to pick from, like Red Dwarf, The Orville/Union ships etc etc etc....!

[@aegisofhonor]

I always liked the design of the USS Defiant from Deep Space 9, it has a smaller, tighter form factor that seems to be able to realistically move like that with it's large side thrusters and is probably the single most "practical" "starship" in Star Trek.

[@Windwalker85]

Well, it was a ship solely built for combat. Similar could be said for Klingon Birds of Prey.

[@jackisloved]

I'm glad to see others have already convinced you to start The Expanse. The Roci ftw! Also, the Andromeda from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda is my all-time favorite ship, and the mass drive concept is pretty intriguing. It's similar to the concept in Mass Effect, which would be another neat franchise to explore. I'd love to hear your ideas on the Reapers. Also, bio-ships like Farscape's Moya? And, as had already been mentioned, check out the Bebop and other ships from Cowboy Bebop. The explanation for high speed interplanetary travel (I can't remember if it's technically FTL) is pretty trippy, but not spelled out in the show. You'd have to look it up.

[@chriscowey7464]

I was about to post mentioning the Andromeda. It is overlooked often in comparissons.

[@Dysan72]

Andromeda had the slipstream drive. "Slipstream - It's not the best way to travel faster then light, just the only way"

[@andytol1976]

I’m of 2 minds about Andromeda. I loved the idea of the series, and many of the concepts in it (like Andromeda herself being an actual citizen, as a recognized sentient artificial intelligence). The style of the series itself though… Sci-Fi Hercules was a bit too campy. Hehe

[@jackisloved]

@@Dysan72 Slipstream was a cool take on your basic subspace/hyperspace concept. The show used it for FTL convenience, but Roddenberry really elevated the idea by conceiving of slipspace as being filled with branching paths of probability functions as the 'rails' a ship had to follow, and thus needing a living pilot to observe and make a conscious choice to collapse the wave function and continue on the path. For in-system travel, though, a High Guard ship of the line used an exotic matter lens to manipulate the ship's mass. Andromeda was around a kilometer long, but with an effective total mass of around 1kg while the exotic matter lens was doing its thing, her engines could accelerate her to relativistic speeds. As @andytol1976 pointed out, so much of the genius of the show never really made it on air, unfortunately.

[@davidkenny7151]

Great list. I would love to see how you rate the ships on The Orville.

[@Casedilla73]

I’d be interested to see some Cowboy Bebop ships like the Bebop, Swordfish II, and Red Tail

[@TheRedneckPreppy]

Madness...MADNESS! You rank the Sulaco at the Dyatlov level but Space Battleship Yamato higher? MADNESS!

[@texan-american200]

Sulaco didn't have the WAVE MOTION GUN... 😬😉

[@TheRedneckPreppy]

@@texan-american200 😁

[@leslauner5062]

Sorry, I'm fans of both properties, but the Space Battleship Yamato would dust the Sulaco in under 20 seconds from the shock cannons alone. Sulaco is a good transport vessel, but the Yamato is a combat behemoth.

[@blitzkrieg1941]

Based Space Battleship Yamato

[@jonmcgee6987]

@@leslauner5062 Considering what the Wave Motion Gun took out in Be Forever Yamato and Final Yamato. The WMG is more powerful that the Death Star's super laser.

[@Andrew-id1vd]

Seeing you cover the Sun Crusher was great! I'm a huge Legends fan and was surprised to see that on your list

[@admiralfluffy42]

I would recommend reviewing Halo ships, like the Pillar Of Autumn. Also the G1 transformers ships. Seeing a review of High Charity would be cool too.

[@wompa70]

Another vote for the Rocinante. But there are other ships from the series that would be great to do also. The Razorback is a ship built specifically for racing.

[@SnowBlowerNoBlower]

"...It looks like a cathedral...You'd never design a spaceship like that" /Warhammer enters the chat

[@timsikora9356]

Two of my favorites from my childhood. Fireball XL5 and the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space. You can also look at the Columbia from Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.

[@TheDavidPoole]

Just saw this and really enjoyed it. Please do a follow up. A couple of ships I'd like to hear your thoughts on are the Dark Star and the Event Horizon. Cheers.

[@LucasThon]

I second the request for the Event Horizon!

[@boese9319]

@@LucasThon Thirded! Where we're going we won't need eyes to see

[@MattBellzminion]

+1 for "Dark Star"'s planet-killer, which had some interesting aspects (the star-viewing bubble chamber up top; a generally cramped feel; a vertical, industrial shaft of sorts; and an extremely "used future" aesthetic ahead of its time -- 1974 -- with garbage, grunge, a crew with dirty clothes and oily faces & hair, porn mags, rock music, dim, awful lighting, and after a mishap, no toilet paper), an insidious mission to destroy "unstable" planets, and a very realistic, troubled crew, contending with boredom, isolation, horniness, and serious mental illness. Then there was the disobedient, intrigued-by-philosophy, sapient thermonuclear bomb...

[@kittyhawk9707]

No Gunstar from the film the Last Starfighter or the ships from Event Horizon ...Lois and Clark and EH itself ?

[@chrislyne377]

Excellent list and I can't fault your choices except to say that the USS Enterprise refit of the movies is simply the most gorgeous, majestic and perfect spaceship ever 😉 As a bit of a silly/eccentric design I'd love to hear your thoughts on the ships from Warhammer 40k such as the Emperor class battleship. They're ships that are essentially floating cathedrals crammed with weapons and fighters plus a gigantic ramming prow because why not??

[@kennethbutler1343]

How about next time you review the Jupiter 2 from the TV version of Lost In Space, and it was based on the Forbidden Planet ship. You might also consider the ship Ray Walston had in the TV show My Favorite Martin if you grew up with the reruns like I did. You might hate it but that's the ship I imagines when I used cardboard boxes to make spaceships with as a kid. Love your reviews of the ones you picked!

[@Docsporseen1]

I grew up watching "Star Blazers (Yamato)" in the kitchen before school, and now they're redone the series completely. Very well done redo. Of course, there's also the SDF-1 in Macross / Robotech and the Galaxy Express in Galaxy Express 999. I'm sure there are hundreds of others in anime (The Bebop?!?)

[@yippeeyokai5750]

I love the ship from flight of the navigator. I always wanted a ship like that. Max was cool, but I grew up on Pee-wee so his voice was not a negative to me.

[@dennisfox8673]

First, I say this as a fan of the Alien universe-especially the first two movies, but I do agree with your point about excessively large internal spaces, and more specifically the Nostromo has a very oversized HVAC system for a ship with only seven people on it.

[@winglessviper]

Great find! Mike, you put a lot a thought in your reasoning. Here's 3 more. B5- White Star, Star Wars- Dautles heavy cruiser and the Yuuzhan Vong World ships. The Omega class B5 destroyers are one of my favorites. Each ship is named after a historical figure or place; Churchill, Agamemnon, Medusa, etc... Please do another ship list.

[@rovanderby759]

Great video, I hope you'll do another one like this some time in the futere. I'd like to hear your opinion on the Red Dwarf. The series of the same name was of course a comedy, but the creators did spend some serious thought on the ship's design and functionality.

[@residentgrey]

i just commented this before seeing yours. GMTA indeed

[@KayOSweaver]

Red Dwarf is better than some legit sci fi shows. The first seasons are the most realistic.

[@residentgrey]

@@KayOSweaver Diamanda Hagan has done excellent work covering each season in their merits and critical plot points. Well worth watching. This also applies to her series on Dr Who.

[@swanchamp5136]

There's 3 main ships not including ones they find in Red Dwarf, Starbug, Blue midget and of course Red Dwarf, ranking all of them would be cool

[@rovanderby759]

@@swanchamp5136 Yeah, though not as cool as the Cat, of course ;)

[@nairbvel]

I like what you said here -- and I've always wondered how the Death Star *moved* because it doesn't have obvious engines (at least for me). I do have one bone to pick, though... the "Nostromo" was *not* the refinery; it was the tug pulling the refinery through space (the part you referred to as the landing craft). I agree that it was waaay too big inside, but give it back some extra points for how scary that movie was. :-) For a follow-up video I'd suggest any of the main ships from The Expanse (especially the Rocinante, of course), and -- if you're looking for something less obvious -- the starship in Arthur C. Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night" (there may be a little more information in its rewrite, "The City and the Stars").

[@anonamouse5917]

Nice list. As a massive Star Trek fan, I would have liked to have seen your ranking of the Borg cube

[@Wyrdwad]

What a cool idea for a video! Very interesting to get your perspective, too. I do have a ship to recommend that's... a little obscure, I guess? But since you reviewed the Yamato, it seems anime is not off-limits, so I'd be very curious to get your take on either Toybox and/or the Von Braun (and/or even the Technora space station itself) from the anime "Planetes." If you're not familiar with Planetes, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it -- it's a sci-fi show that actually got consultation from NASA, and is often praised for its high degree of realism. It takes place in the year 2075, and is about how mankind has dumped so much garbage into earth's orbit that it's greatly interfering with orbital and deep space operations on a catastrophic scale, so any corporations operating in space are obliged to have a "debris section" in charge of managing some of this garbage, either retrieving it or (more often) redirecting it into the earth's atmosphere so it burns up. The debris sections of these companies, however, tend to be understaffed and underfunded, so they make do with a lot of failing technology and outdated parts, which is where Toybox comes in. It's the debris section's official retrieval/disposal ship for a deep-space corporation known as Technora. The Von Braun, then, is a newly developed fusion-powered ship that's being sent on earth's first ever manned mission to Jupiter, which becomes a major plot point as the show progresses. The show begins as something of a slice-of-life comedy, but it gets pretty serious as it goes on and really winds up becoming a very compelling, very believable character drama in its back half, with some incredibly clever concepts and plot arcs, all interspersed with just enough comedy along the way to keep things from getting too depressing. Given the fact that much of the technology and conceptualization on display was written after consultation from NASA, I feel like it would be extremely interesting to hear your take on it -- and either way, I can tell just from how passionate you obviously are about the shows and movies you've discussed here that Planetes would almost certainly be a story you'd greatly enjoy. If I may make one other recommendation, too... how about the Red Dwarf? As in, the mining ship from the British comedy series... erm... Red Dwarf? Been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, and while I don't think it's even remotely true-to-life, I feel like it would tick a lot of boxes for you on the cool side. ;) Sorry to type so much, but hopefully you've read this, and thanks again for the great video!

[@STSWB5SG1FAN]

Sounds like an interesting series, I'll have to give it a look. Do you know where it's available, KZbin or Hulu?

[@Wyrdwad]

@@STSWB5SG1FAN Not sure at this point, I'm afraid -- it's a mid-2000s anime, so it's fairly old now. It was released on DVD in the West, but the DVDs are long out of print after the Western publisher went belly-up, and I don't know if it's ever been picked up by anyone else since then. There are fansubs floating around here and there, but your best bet to watch it legitimately is most likely just... to try to score the DVDs off of eBay or something, unfortunately. Unless it IS available on streaming services somewhere, anyway! But I suspect it's probably held up by rights issues, like so many other anime from that decade.

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

Apart from Red Dwarf being generally great, and having the single funniest scene I've ever seen, the actual Red Dwarf itself is very, very realistic. It's a squat cylinder so great for surface to volume. It has a single huge drive cone emitting white light, could be fusion power, but the accident which kept Lister locked in stasis created radiation which took a million years to decay. There is a big net at the front, which could be a bussard ramscoop, sourcing fuel (and it's a mining ship). This can explain constant 1G acceleration gravity. It travels for a million years, all sorts of systems degrade including Holly the ship's computer, whose IQ is substantially lowered. An entire race of sentient cats arises and falls in its hold, meanwhile various 'alien' races settle the galaxy which all originate from human robots or genetic engineering. For a comedy, its worldbuilding is amazingly well grounded.

[@BrokenCurtain]

Oh yeah, I loved watching Planetes. If I recall correctly, the series was produced in cooperation with the Japanese space agency.

[@DivideByZeroGetCake]

Could the other solar panels on the hermes be radiator panels?

[@MichaelSiegel14]

Possibly. But radiator panels are usually smaller.

[@ramay2679]

Michael: this topic is one that has interested me for many years. I appreciate the fact that you consider the real-world implications and functionality of the designs in addition to the fantasy and sci-fi perspective, but i justify my ignoring that aspect by the fact that reality can take care of itself - i stick to the fictional designs (which include, among many others, for example, the ship that crashes in Moscow in the 2017 film, "Attraction" and the 2016 film, "Passengers" starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.

[@xxHUNGRY4THETRUTHxx]

Always a fan of Robotech/Macross. Try the SDF-1 which unintentionally became a humanoid transformer just in order to get its main weapons to function. And also functioned as a city for it's citizens much like in Battle Satar Galactica.

[@superhakujin]

The way it ends up with arms is especially amusing. "Whelp, here we are... in space... with a couple of useless aircraft carriers... get the welding torches!"

[@beverlywhitman303]

it could fire the main weapons with out transforming, (it fired them on auto when the first zentraties showed up in orbit) the humans just couldn't get to to do it after disabling the auto fire as they had to hack the systems and half of the functions on the ship didn't work right.

[@pudgyfolds2186]

I love the Battlestar Galactica. Its essentially just a big lead box with an ftl drive and some boosters for maneuvering during battles. Everything u need. Also that atmospheric viper launch and ftl out before they hit the ground is one of the most jaw dropping scenes in anything ever!

[@garyg68]

the Adama Maneuver, what an amazing sequence! I like how they even took the downward rush of air into account for added realism.

[@GonzoTehGreat]

I suspect the battestars (Human and Cylon) were inspired by aircraft carriers, which explains the aesthetics of their design (exterior, but also interior), limited maneuverability and reliance on fighters for combat.

[@raeda99]

I loved the fact that the galactica making an ftl jump was a massive deal. Not routine at all

[@moo80]

Definitely a lot of suggestions here for a second video Michael. And I also cast my vote for the Red Dwarf to be in any follow up videos 😁

[@Sgreubel]

The one ship I would love to explore is the Avalon from the movie Passengers. The space walk would be the ultimate thrill for me!

[@darrenkeady6570]

@Friendship 7 . With her.

[@dgoody84]

The USS Enterprise has got to be abduct me level. Probably the most iconic science fiction spaceship of all time. Also I love Flight of the Navigator! I was enthralled with that movie as a kid lol.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Designed by TV execs!

[@jeffgrencik1295]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver not it wasn't. matt jefferies designed it. a pilot G.R. knew. .

[@noisepuppet]

Nice. I wonder if you'd consider doing a video on more or less plausible modes of interstellar travel. I'm new to the channel and didn't see a video on that subject, but it's possible I missed it. Thanks for the good work on this channel!

[@june4976]

I love this video! As a SciFi Author, I got a lot of information from this, many thanks for that! There is a design I would love to see analyzed. Problem is, it's from a German series from the 1960s. It is the "Orion" from "Raumpatrouille Orion".

[@TheCatLady65]

Oh my, I loved that show! It was shown on South African TV dubbed into Afrikaans, lol.

[@june4976]

@@TheCatLady65 Well, that's something I'd love to hear! (Although I don't speak Afrikaans.) I didn't even know it aired outside of Germany.

[@HumanistGordian]

Yes everyone needs a Rücksturz zur Erde occasionally.