What is On Jeffs' Mind

I will be doing a series of 3 posts on my favorite ships from different Sci-Fi Movies and TV Shows. This first one will be ships that are not from either Star Trek or Star Wars. Then I will have posts, one for Star Trek and One for Star Wars.

One of the reasons why I like Sci-Fi so much, is for the Ships. There is something about them that really grab me, so I was thinking, why not talk about some of my favorites.

Original Series Cylon Raider

This ship has always been a favorite, since the first time I saw it as a kid. I really like that it has some what of a saucer shape, but looks so menacing. It looks fast, it looks tough, it looks mean. When I think about this ship, I think about all the stock clips from the old Battlestar Galactica series, where the Cylon Raiders would cruise onto the screen in packs. I saw it over and over, but never tire of those clips. They are iconic to me.

When I was a kid, a friend down the road from me, had a toy Cylon Raider, and I would remember going over and always gravitating to that toy. The Cylons in side were pretty small, and it shot little missiles, but I thought it was real cool. I am not really sure why I never asked for one from my parents, it might have been there were other Star Wars toys that I wanted more. But I had a lot of good times playing with my friends Raider.

When the updated Battlestar Galactica came out, I was interested to see what the new Cylon Raider would look like, and to be honest, I really did not like it, and still dont. I get the idea that in the new series that the Cylon and Ship are one, but I guess the design of it really did not grab me. They did come out with some larger Cylon ships that were bombers, that were more reminiscent of the original, but they never got a lot of screen time.

Jupiter 2

A pretty plain looking ship from all accounts, but I find something charming about it. From the 60′s show Lost in Space, each week the Robinson on the Jupiter 2 would travel to some new strange world and have a new and usually cheesy adventure.

I think what I like about this ship, is it simplicity, as it really is just a saucer, almost like what one would imagine of a flying saucer from that era. It spun when it flew, landing and take off. It had a big front wind shield so to say, where they could look out to help navigate. But since it’s mission was to take the Robinson’s to different planets as they found a new place for the people of Earth, it was sort of a futuristic Motorhome.  There was two floors to it as we saw on the show, with the upper level for navigation, and the lower level for living.

It did seem for the size for the Ship, that they were able to pack a lot into it, as they had a Land Chariot, a bunch of equipments, and a crew of 7 plus a robot. The sets looked quite large compared to the scale of the ship when we saw it on the outside. I suspect back in the 60′s, they did not put as much thought into the scale like they would now. Also it was Lost in Space, so a very Cheesy show. But still, I really liked this ship, and some day I hope that I can get some sort of model of it.

Blackbird BSG

I have always liked Vipers from Battlestar Galactica, and I actually like all of them from both series. There is something about them that I really find cool, they look so fast, and can deliver a good punch. Some might say they are a bit derivative of the X-Wing as they have some of the same lines to them with a long nose, rear engines, and red striping, but I think they are cool none the less.

I chose the Blackbird out of all the Vipers as the one to put on my list as I found it different from the rest, but still very familiar to the over all design. They don’t really consider it a Viper, but part of me still does. It is cool as it is black, and made for stealth. Built from carbon fiber they use it to go on secret type missions when they want to do surveillance, since it cannot be detected like the standard Viper.

It was named Laura after president Roslyn on BSG, and it is a pretty simple design. There is not a lot to it, and it is pretty sleek. I think part of the reason why I like this ship so much, was that it was in some of my favorite BSG episodes. I always liked more of the space and ship based episodes compared to all the dramatic and arc based episodes. So anytime they got out in the ships and did battles or missions, I really liked the episodes.

Phoenix

Growing up one of the cartoon series I watched a lot was Battle of the Planets. I remember watching it every day after school, and looking forward to it. The show was based off a Japanese anime show called Gatchaman, and re dubbed and edited for North American audiences. It followed 5 young people who protected Earth from an enemy called Spectra. The crew was led by their commander Mark, his second in command was Jason, Tiny piloted the ship, and Princess and Keyop rounded out the crew. Their base was an underwater facility called Center Neptune.

This was a real cool ship in my opinion, it was a pretty basic design, and was blue and red. But what the Phoenix could do made it so special. 4 of the members had their own vehicles which would be located in different parts of the ship. It was always cool, when they would show clips of the Phoenix picking them up. Jason had a race car that would fit into the nose of the ship, Keyop had a buggy of some sort that was in one of the wings, Princess had a cool looking motorcycle that went in the other wing, and Mark had a jet that would be docked in a hangar in the back of the Phoenix. All their vehicles could transform from standard type vehicles to the special vehicles they used to protect Earth. Another thing that made this ship so cool, was that they could transform it into what was called the fiery Phoenix, which was that the ship turned into a flaming bird.

This ship will always hold a soft spot in my heart as it was one of the first models I ever built. I built it in the early 80′s at summer camp. I wish I still had the model, but I don’t as I played with it quite a bit. I suspect that I did not do a very good job, since it was my first model, and I might have been a pre teen at the time, but it always gives me some nice memories of the time. It is a ship that I am hoping that one day I can find a model of, as I would not mind having something in my collection. I look for it off and on on eBay but never really got to anything serious, but it is on my list of ships I would like.

Original Series Basestar

Seems like my list has a lot of Battlestar Galactica ships in it. I guess for me, I really liked the ships in the shows, and they really grabbed me. The Original series had a lot of episodes based on space battles and missions, and like I said, I really like sci-fi shows that focus a lot on ships. The Basestar from the original series I thought had a real cool and different design from the rest of the ships.

Again, like the Cylon Raiders, I really liked these ships, especially when they traveled in numbers, as they looked like a formidable opponent. Basically they look like two disks which tapered down and connected to each other. They had a much different look to them then the Galactica did, since they did not have a real traditional ship look to them. I guess they are a Basestar, so in a sense probably more of a Spacestation then a ship. I guess another argument could be made that they come off a bit similar to the Deathstar, since both are sort of round, and a ship or station that does not have a lot of detailing to it.

All I know, is if I was a fugitive fleet, on the run, that I would not want a pack of these following me, with their squadrons of Raiders that could be deployed to attack. I think some of the coolest Episodes these ships were in was the Living Legend episodes, where the Galactica and the Pegasus take on the Basestar is some cool battle sequences.

 

So that is my list of top 5 Sci-Fi ships that are not in Star Trek or Star Wars. I was going to add honorable mentions, but to be honest, there are probably quite a few ships I could add, so I think I will leave it at this list. Also, I only included shows that I watched a lot of, as I am sure there are plenty more cool shows with cool ship I have not seen. Maybe this list is a bit of a reminder to me that I need to watch some more Sci-Fi . My Followup posts for Star Trek and Star Wars I will add Honorable Mentions.

Tags: Basestar, Battle of the Planets, Battlestar Galactica, Blackbird, BSG, Cylon Raider, Fiery Phoenix, Gatchaman, Jupiter 2, Lost in Space, Phoenix, Viper