Not every sci-fi show requires a spaceship, but a lot of the ones that call space a home absolutely do. Spaceships vary wildly depending on the focus and the tone of the show, and they can also give a quick understanding of the society the spaceship comes from, as well as the type of future they represent. We’re probably nowhere near the level of innovation most sci-fi TV spaceships represent, but they give us something to reach for.
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These spaceships are many things for the main casts of their series; usually, they’re a home, and often they’re a weapon and a shield. Some of them have minds of their of their own, while others need a good pilot at their helm. Ultimately, the best spaceships are solid representations of the shows they inhabit. Here are 10 of the best.
1) USS Enterprise (Star Trek: The Original Series)
The original Enterprise introduced an idea of an incredible future of space travel a few years before man’s first steps on the Moon. The Enterprise glided through the vast reaches of space effortlessly; it had impulse engines and a powerful warp drive. The men and women aboard the NCC-1701 were able to walk freely around the ship, thanks to artificial gravity generators. The original Star Trek took place in the 23rd century and promised a future of space exploration that was open to many, not just a few able-bodied men at a time. As a spaceship, it offered a grand vision of what the future could be.
2) USS Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
The USS Defiant, as introduced in the third season of Deep Space Nine, was unique among Starfleet vessels; it was always intended to fight wars, not go on ambitious expeditions. The Defiant was designed in response to the Borg threat introduced in The Next Generation, but its small, fast design (and its cloaking device) meant it also worked well in the unknown reaches of Dominion space, beyond the wormhole. While many of the spaceships introduced in the Trek spinoffs are interesting, the Defiant offered a new evolution; the Enterprise-D and Voyager were huge and almost unwieldy. The Defiant felt more like a submarine, and it gave more breadth to an expanding franchise.
3) Planet Express (Futurama)
The Planet Express ship, or “Old Bessie,” was often whatever Futurama needed it to be. It could’ve just been the futuristic version of a UPS truck, but on at least one occasion, it had its own personality. It was the perfect spaceship for a comedy sci-fi cartoon; it evolved and changed and had many secrets to discover. With its electric mucus color, it also stands out in a televisual world full of blandly colored spaceships.
4) Serenity (Firefly)
The crew of Firefly got to fly around the universe in Serenity, a tightly designed ship. It’s a smaller ship than most on this list, as it can mainly carry 18 passengers and cargo. In that sense, it’s more of a freighter than a battleship, but that does mean it can “fly” better than most of the space cruisers in pop culture. In many ways, it’s a TV version of the Millennium Falcon. Quantum Mechanix, who create screen-accurate replicas, have even produced blueprints of the ship for fans.
5) Moya (Farscape)
Stranded astronaut John Crichton ends up spending most of the series on this living spaceship, the Moya. The Moya is sentient; it’s a cool idea, especially considering a lot of other TV spaceships aren’t living at all (no matter how much Scotty talks to the Enterprise). That means Moya is a character in her own right; she even gives birth to another spaceship over the course of the show. Her species, the Leviathans, had no weapons, and only one defense maneuver, the Starburst, where they could quickly run away, but have no real idea of where they would end up. Farscape was truly one of a kind, and its main ship represents that.
6) Galactica (Battlestar Galactica [2004])
The Galactica gets lucky by virtue of being deemed obsolete and irrelevant. Despite being a valiant ship during the First Cylon War, it’s being prepared to be decommissioned by the start of the 2004 Battlestar Galactica. Of course, everything changes in an instant when the Cylons manage to ensure the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Galactica, under the command of William Adama, manages to save some of those fleeing and join an escape effort. Galactica survives the entire series and even gets to see Earth, ultimately being scuttled as the main cast begins a new colony. It’s a beast of a ship, the equivalent to an aircraft carrier on sea, and even though it was outdated in many ways, that ultimately ensured its continued survival against the advanced Cylon threat.
7) Rocinante (The Expanse)
The Roci was a stolen ship from the start; it doesn’t make an appearance until the fourth episode of the first season, when its eventual crew manage to escape from a dying Martian warship. The Rocinante is a tough little frigate with extreme maneuverability (and a whole lot of weapons); it’s thrilling to see it in action over the course of the show. It’s an example of the original books The Expanse is based on being adapted so well; the TV version of the Roci correlates well to the version talked about in the books.
8) Pathfinder (For All Mankind)
For much of its first season, For All Mankind utilizes realistic spacecraft. It’s attempting to tell an alternate story of the Space Race, so this makes sense. In season two, though, the show steps up its game, introducing the real space shuttle fleet, which also includes Pathfinder, an entirely fictional vessel. Pathfinder feels like what a dream of what the space shuttle could’ve been; sure, it can glide, but it can also fly. In the second season, Pathfinder can also carry weapons, which is a definite escalation in the world of the show, but a realistic one.
9) Avenue 5 (Avenue 5)
It fits that a spaceship on a show written by master satirist Armando Iannucci would be as silly as most of the characters on it. The Avenue 5 is meant to be ridiculous; it’s an intergalactic cruise ship, which is only meant to be gone for eight weeks at a time. The whole point of the show is that everyone on it gets stranded for much longer than that. It’s seemingly not a ship meant to endure the hardships of space travel, but that’s also the point: a cruise ship in space is an absurd idea, but you know Carnival Cruises or another company would consider it if they could.
10) Luthen Rael’s Fondor Haulcraft (Andor)
Luthen’s Fondor Haulcraft is used several times over the short run of Andor to do some pretty thrilling things; it seems like it’s a highly modified version of a slow hauler. It can go incredibly fast, and it can defend itself, and go on the offensive when it needs to be. In Luthen’s hands, it even went toe to toe with a small Imperial detachment. By the end of Andor, it’s been confiscated by the Empire. If there’s one part of Andor it would be cool to see in a future Star Wars property, it would be the Fondor.
What’s your favorite spaceship from television? Let us know in the comments below!
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