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July 22, 2014: On ships and such!

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Another day down, another story done.  That makes 8 out of our 13 first season episodes broken in less than three weeks.  I feared today’s episode would prove tricky, but I got in early this morning and hashed out a rough outline.  My writing partner, Paul (aka Captain Logic) had surprisingly few problems in the early going and we positively breezed through the first three acts.  “Wow,”he marveled.  “We’re moving quickly!”  “Sure,”I said, “but I’m sure that we’ll eventually come to that sticking point.”  And we eventually did, sometime after lunch and somewhere in the fourth act – but, thankfully, it wasn’t one of those “Let’s sleep on it” bumps.  We talked it through, came up with some great scenes, and completed our beat sheet in record time.  Sadly, not quite fast enough for us to roll right into episode 9, but still.

Today, we also received some early concept designs.  I love this part of my job: weighing in on space ships.  We had a choice of five sketched variations and then three color models.   They were all terrific, but Paul and I preferred #2.  I’m not a big fan of winged ships in general, but I do love armaments: gun turrets, plasma cannons, etc.  This ship should be bad-ass, retrofitted with all sorts of illegal weaponry, and Bart’s first pass is a huge step in that direction.  Very exciting.

While considering the different looks, I hopped online to do a little research and came across this interesting rundown of The Top 75 Spaceships in Movies and TV. A pretty solid list – but Stargate: Universe’s Destiny is conspicuously absent. Given the fact that this list was published back in July of 2009, however, I’m willing to cut the gang at Den of Geek some slack:

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/286589/top_75_spaceships_in_movies_and_tv.html#indexmain

SFX came up with their own list, this of The top 51 Sci-Fi Spaceships where Stargate is well-represented:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/12/02/top-51-sci-fi-spaceships/

And if you’re wondering how they all compare, check out this chart by Dirk Loechel comparing vessels from various SF worlds.  Damn impressive!

July 22, 2014: On Ships And Such!

http://dirkloechel.deviantart.com/art/Size-Comparison-Science-Fiction-Spaceships-398790051

So many terrific designs.  Which are YOUR favorites?

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23 responses

  1. maggiemayday Avatar
    maggiemayday

    Lexx, followed by Moya. Maybe living ships are my thang.

    Reply
  2. skua Avatar
    skua

    I have a preference for sloppy ships, with a lot weapons and patches and loose circuits and parts everywhere . Preferably you have to give them some punch in some strategic place to work properly. So my favorite of all life are the Millennium Falcon, Serenity, Nostromo, Battlestar Galatica & off course Destiny.

    Reply
  3. Douglas Alvarado Avatar
    Douglas Alvarado

    My first would have been The Odissey, Asgard beaming tech, Asgard-Core, ZPM, Cloaking, Mark XII warheads, Asgard laser weapons, Asgard Shields, sadly daedalus-class ship was sometimes like downgraded when facing new enemies mostly in SG-Universe. Next Atlantis, next Asgard Vessel, the Asgard Oneill´s-Class Ship, next Aurora-Class Ship. And “the destiny” would not be in my list, looks a lot like X-Calibur from the Babylon 5 spin-off “Crusade”. Then Firefly, X-Wing, Tie Fighter, etc.

    Reply
  4. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    Holy ship! That’s a lot of fire power right there!

    My favorite ships will always be: 1. The original Klingon D7-class battlecruiser (followed closely by the Bird-of-Prey classes – which, according to that diagram, are the B’rel and the K’Vort-classes), 2. the Wraith hive ship (followed very closely by the Wraith transport used in…ugh, forget the episode names! The Lost Tribe and First Contact? I think they’re the ones), and, of course, the original Enterprise.

    das

    Reply
  5. Kathy C Avatar
    Kathy C

    I can’t find the TARDIS anywhere. Does anyone see it?

    Reply
  6. arcticgoddess Avatar
    arcticgoddess

    Asguard ships would be Toyotas? Seriously? Seriously?

    Reply
  7. ensredshirt Avatar
    ensredshirt

    In no particular order my favorite Ships: TARDIS, White Star, Enterprise E, Atlantis, USS Saratoga (USMC), Some small and fast some big bases of operation..

    Reply
  8. Ganymede Avatar
    Ganymede

    Hey! Nothing beats that old ’30s BUCK ROGERs Model-Ship-on-a STRING dangling about with the “exhaust” smoke blowing *ahead* of ITS travels through the CELLULOID…

    Reply
  9. DP Avatar
    DP

    Why do so many ships have such lame paint jobs? If they’re trying to hide visually, and I don’t know what good that would do, by that level of tech, they could have chamelion skins, then be all cuttlefish on acid the rest of the time.

    The purple ones remind me of as forged titanium. A color that would look awesome on a ship is this shade of blue you get when you cycle some nickel alloys to their higher solid temps over and over and force a certain kind of oxidation. Bits of the surface would spall off here and there but what do you expect when you push it that hard? At least it’d be pretty until then.

    Hey, what are the risks of hitting debris in a space ship. I was just thinking so many SF spaceships travel with their longest dimension in the direction of travel. If debris could penetrate the hull when traveling at high speed, would you either lessen the chance of a hit by pointing the ship that way or travel with the broad side in the direction of travel to minimize how many bulkheads could be breached on one hit?

    Reply
  10. RichS Avatar
    RichS

    My favourites are the Klingon Bird of Prey, the Enterprise D with the extra engine and big gun from All Good Things and Liberator from Blakes 7 🙂

    Reply
  11. Line Noise Avatar
    Line Noise

    That’s a cool chart.

    I agree, wings on spaceships are stupid unless they need to go trans-atmospheric. And if you have VTOL capability then wings are probably unnecessary in those cases as well. The different densities and pressures of alien atmospheres you’re likely to encounter would make wings pretty pointless. You’d have to change your wing profile for every planet.

    The reality is that a cube or sphere is probably the best shape for a spaceship. You want to maximise internal volume and structural integrity with minimal mass. If you’re travelling a significant percentage of the speed of light then you’ll need deflector shields (or ablation shields) to protect against micrometeorites. Windows are a no-no. However, if your FTL technology requires no acceleration then you’ll only ever be travelling at manoeuvring speeds so you’d need minimal shielding.

    As far as weapons are concerned, missiles and relativistic rail guns are probably the most practical. Energy weapons would be pretty ineffectual. Just make your hull nearly 100% reflective and energy weapons would be neutralised. Again, in reality, most space battles would be conducted over vast distances and several hours, if not days. Most people don’t understand how big space really is.

    I’ve spent WAY too much time thinking about these things.

    Reply
  12. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    The Enterprise-D. It will always be hard to beat that for me.

    Reply
  13. Tam Dixon Avatar
    Tam Dixon

    Serenity was pretty cool.

    Reply
  14. Airelle Avatar
    Airelle

    Kathy C, I was also looking for the Tardis, on the website, Dirk said ” Also,by popular demand: the Tardis is already on the image, Whether it’s on the Red Dwarf and .25 pixels large or ALL ofthe image is your choice, it’s probably both, anyway”…..
    ~I didnt see it yet, but its like Where in the world is Waldo?, fun to look.

    Reply
  15. Airelle Avatar
    Airelle

    And how old is too old for a computer, Joe? anyone, I am thinking mine is history, does not want to load, I have done virus checks, yea its about 7 years in human years, ack, I know, ancient. WHat a giant pita when all I want to do is check email, read Joes blog and look up useful information.

    Reply
  16. JimFromJersey Avatar
    JimFromJersey

    The Galaxy Class starship in all its iterations will always be my favorite. I also love the X-Wing, Tie variants, and Star Destroyers from Star Wars. I played Eve for about 5 minutes, and while I didn’t enjoy the game, the ships were very impressive.

    Reply
  17. angelwithsoul Avatar
    angelwithsoul

    If I’d get to live there, Atlantis. (Preferably in orbit, with some cool views) If I’d get to explore the galaxy, Uss Voyager (with a working quantum slipstream drive). If I’d have to think smaller… It’d be a tie between the Delta Flyer from Voyager or a Puddle Jumper equiped with a hyperdrive.

    Reply
  18. shinyhula Avatar
    shinyhula

    I have to choose between the Lego Millennium Falcon and Lego Death Star for my nephew. I’m leaning toward the less expensive Falcon but of course he want the 300 plus dollar Death Star. My personal fave is the STNG Enterprise. I know, it looks like a flying Howard Johnson’s complete with cheap modern art and mauve carpets but oh the places that it went.

    Reply
  19. paloosa Avatar
    paloosa

    I’m so excited about this show, and I don’t even know what it is yet! How does it feel to be back in the saddle?

    I’m thrilled to hear that the stories are moving along, and things seem to be falling into place rather quickly.

    Ship wise, I really liked the bio pod look of the ship in Silent Running. I know it has a very sparse and utilitarian look to it. And it wouldn’t be functional for an action focused show, but there’s just something about the bio pods that for some reason I think looks cool.

    Reply
  20. FargateOne Avatar
    FargateOne

    My favorit spaceships:
    1-Serenity Firefly
    2-Moya Farscape
    3-Geonosis Solar Sailor – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
    4- Falcon millenium Star Wars
    5-Lantian counsil Aurora class from SGA
    6-Star Trek USS Enterprise
    And a special mention for Rocket XL5 and Thunderbird no 3

    Reply
  21. Bailey Avatar
    Bailey

    Atlantis and Serenity.

    Reply
  22. David Knowles Avatar
    David Knowles

    I’m excited to find out what your show is about. If it dark Matter one of things I wasn’t to keen on was the ship designs in the comic.

    My personal favourite is probably USS Prometheus, three vessels in one, it multi-vector assault mode is so cool.

    USS Defiant, after seeing that vessel, I’m sure many races in the Alpha Quadrant feared how powerful a war ship the Federation could build if it put it mind to it.

    The White Star from Babylon 5 another small, over powered vessel that could kick arse and chewed bubble gum at the sametime.
    Big fan of the Wraith vessels underpowered beasts they were, and Earth vessels in SGA, the travellers had nice designs as well.
    Babylon 5 Excalibra.
    Andromeda Ascendant was a pretty cool design. An the Talon Mothership Earth Final Conflict.

    Species 8472 was a cool design.

    Event Horizon from the Event Horizon, not a vessel I would ever wish fly on mind you but still it was pretty awesome design.

    To many ships to choose from, if I had to choose my absolute favourite, I would be here all night.

    Reply
  23. Elminster Avatar
    Elminster

    Hey Joe
    I always liked Serenity. That said, I was also intrigued by all the ships on Stargate. Someone had a really good imagination on the show, they were all gorgeous.

    Elminster

    Reply

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