THE TOP 13 COOLEST SPACE SHIPS OF ALL TIME

FRIDAY! List time! Oh BOY! What's the subject this week? Well, I'll tell you: SPACESHIPS! That's right! The absolute staple of the outer space Sci-Fi film is the ever-present ship that either transports the heroes or villains to their destinations, or else it's a major piece in the story line itself. Galactic travel has been around for years, and each and every decent series of well know movies has featured a mode of transportation that stands out as something not only kick-ass, but also holds on to its popularity for generations. The following thirteen ships and the like are some of the most well known pieces in film and television history.

*************************************************** ***************************************************** **************************************************

13) The YAMATO (Argo): Starblazers

The inhabitants of Earth secretly convert the ruin of the Japanese battleship Yamato into a massive spaceship, the Space Battleship Yamato of the title. Using Starsha's blueprints, they equip their new ship with a space warp drive and a new, incredibly powerful weapon called the "wave motion gun" that fires out the bow. In the English dub, the ship is still the historical Yamato and once referred to as such, but is renamed the Argo (after the ship of Jason and the Argonauts) once rebuilt.

*********************************************** ***********************************************

12) The Satellite of Love: Mystery Science Theater 3000

he Satellite of Love (sometimes known as the SOL) is the fictional main setting of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 It is a giant bone-shaped spacecraft Joel Robinson (later replaced by Mike Nelson) and his friends — robots: Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot and the noncorporeal Magic Voice — live in. The vessel was in orbit above Earth during much of the series, except for a journey to the end of the universe and its flight throughout the Space-Time Continuum chasing Pearl Forrester.

************************************************ ************************************************

11) Klingon Bird-Of-Prey: Star Trek

The Bird of Prey was first seen in the movie Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. This has become perhaps the most common Klingon ship design in modern Star Trek. It is much smaller than the D7 and K't'inga class cruisers. Standard crew complement is a dozen officers and men (stated by Hikaru Sulu in STIII). Birds of Prey are fast and agile warships. They are the ship of choice for espionage and spy missions, and many Klingon commanders prefer to command them over the larger vessels in the fleet. The wings are movable and have three main positions: slanted down for battle, raised slightly above 180 degrees for cruising, and raised very high for landing (the Bird of Prey is one of the few starships that enter a planet's atmosphere and land on its surface; Federation Intrepid-class ships are another).

****************************************** ******************************************

10) The Event Horizon

In the year 2047, faint radio signals from the starship Event Horizon are picked up on Earth. The ship had mysteriously disappeared in 2040, just beyond the planet Neptune; her loss was attributed to an accident, and was widely considered to be the worst space disaster on record. The ship appears to be in a decaying orbit around the planet Neptume, and the rescue ship Lewis and Clark is dispatched to investigate. The crew, which includes the Event Horizon’s designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), must spend a 56-day journey to Neptune in stasis in order to reach the ship.

***************************************** *****************************************

9) The Sulaco: Aliens

The U.S.S. Sulaco is a fictional spaceship forming an important setting in the film Aliens and being briefly seen in the opening of Alien 3. In Aliens, the Sulaco is used by the United States Colonial Marines a fictional military force, as a transport to investigate the loss of communication on LV-426. A large part of the movies features an attempt by the remains of the force landed on the moon to return to the ship in orbit. Eventually, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) manages to return to the vessel on board of one of the dropships, but accidentally carries aboard the Alien Queen has to fight it in the dropship bay of the vessel before casting it out into space.

************************************************ **************************************************

8) Flash Gordon's Rocket Ship

The comic strip follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, a handsome polo player and Yale graduate, and his companions Dale Arden Dr. Hanz Zarkov. The story begins with Earth bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov believes the meteors are from outer space, and invents a rocket ship to locate their place of origin. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover that the meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo.

*********************************************** ***********************************************

7) Unicron: Transformers - The Movie

The character Unicron first appeared in the opening scene of 1986's Transformers Movie, immediately making clear his driving goal by consuming the small world of Lithone the year 2005. Subsequently, when the battered bodies of Decepticon leader Megatron several of his troops were set adrift in space by Starscream a furious battle with the Autobots, Unicron appeared before them and offered Megatron a deal: in exchange for a new body, and new troops, Megatron would destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, the only thing that could stand in Unicron's way.

********************************************* ********************************************

6) Imperial Star Destroyer: The Star Wars Universe

The first Star Destroyer to appear in Star Wars is of the Imperial class, and this type most frequently appears in the original trilogy. Although the ship appears in A New Hope (1977), the term "Star Destroyer" is not used in dialog until The Empire Strikes Back (1980).In the original draft scripts of the movie that would become Star Wars, the term "Stardestroyer" refers to two-man fighters flown by what would become the Galactic Empire in later drafts. ILM built a 91-centimeter shooting model of the ship for A New Hope they built a 259-centimeter model, equipped with internal lighting to provide a better sense of scale, for The Empire Strikes Back

*************************************** ***************************************

5) The Classic Flying Saucer

From the description of Earth Versus the Flying Saucers: The film is set in 1956, a year before the first satellite, Sputnik I went into orbit. In the film, "Project Skyhook," a U.S. effort to launch a dozen satellites, is visited by a flying saucer. A misunderstanding leads to the aliens being fired on, and they respond by immediately attacking in retaliation. The sequence of events quickly spirals out of control and leads to a full scale invasion. Flying saucers attack Washington, D.C., Paris, London, and Moscow. In the end, the alien saucers are defeated over the skies of Washington by a device using high-power sound coupled with an electric field that stops the saucers' propulsion systems.

******************************************** ********************************************

4) The USS Enterprise: Star Trek

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) is a fictional starship in the TV series: Star Trek, which chronicles the vessel's mission "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before" under the command of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). An upgraded version of the ship also appears in the first three Star Trek films.

************************************ ************************************

3) The Millennium Falcon: The Star Wars Universe

The Millennium Falcon is a fictional spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his first mate Chewbacca. The highly modified YT-1300 light freighter first appears in a brief cameo in SW EP: III on Coruscant subsequently throughout the Original Trilogy. The Falcon also appears in a variety of Star Wars Expanded Universe materials, including books, comics, and games.

*************************************** ***************************************

2) TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space): Dr. Who

A product of Time Lord, a properly maintained and piloted TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in time and space. The interior of a TARDIS is much larger than its exterior, which can blend in with its surroundings through the ship's chameleon circuit. In the series, the Doctor pilots an unreliable, stolen, obsolete Type 40 TARDIS, once referred to as a TT Capsule, whose chameleon circuit is faulty, leaving it locked in the shape of a 1950s-style London Police Box. It was stolen from Gallifrey where it was an old decommissioned derelict, and the unpredictability of the TARDIS's short range guidance — that is, relative to the size of the entire Universe — has often been a plot point in the Doctor's travels.

******************************************** ********************************************

1) The Death Star: The Star Wars Universe

The ULTIMATE WEAPON in the universe. 'Nuff said.