My Top 5 Sci-Fi Ships

I actually did a little research on this—very little. Well okay to be honest almost none other than checking out The Top 75 Sci-Fi ships on Den of Geek's 2009 list. Was I shocked and surprised! Out of 75 science fiction ships Boba Fett's Slave (I II, or IV) was nowhere to be found! "Insulting!" as Richard Riddick would say, lol! But that's further down a few paragraphs. There are a lot of favorite science fiction ship lists, so many in fact that I feel compelled as well as entitled to list my top five (or ten, depending on when I get to the end of this post). As usual I wandered off the beaten path at times but I have reason for that deviance and I do list a few of the obvious ones. Let's start backward with the aforementioned Slave in any or all incarnations.

#5: Boba Fett's Slave:  This is not a cool ship by any means and that's probably why it's not on major lists. Why do I love it then? I don't. I always loved BF's character so intense (and sexy to me—but then I'm a sucker for bad boys) in just those few scenes in Star Wars IV (A New Hope) that when I got a glimpse of that hideous thing he flew that reminded me of a repulsive elephant head I almost puked. How how could such a cool character pilot something so…yucky? Well, I wasn't pleased with the casting of Temuera Derek Morrison as Boba/Jango Fett in later films either—I liked him—he just wasn't…bad enough for me. But back to the Slave: it was functional if not pretty and it flew funny too—standing vertically as it shot through light speed. I always got the feeling Boba was standing up. Feets don't fail me now.

#4: Voyage To the Bottom of the Sea: The Seaview nuclear sub and its mini/flying subs. Myself being a water sign, of course underwater sci-fi hypnotized me. I never saw the film (too young) but I watched the television show which helped feed nuclear terror of the Cold War into children like me. The Seaview was the oceanic mother ship run on nuclear power and vaguely phallic in design. The show worked a little differently than usual by dealing with aliens, mermaids, and thwarting terrorist attacks in an underwater setting. But the coolest thing was that mini/flying sub. Oh yeah and that windshield on the Seaview that may have pre-dated Star Trek.

#3: Battlestar Galactica: from the original series. Not a giant fan of the series, it began with a tremendous potential but then many times descended into foolishness. But for Cripe's sake, the ship had a CASINO at one point! For me, that clever idea was possibly the most realistic aspect—think about it: humans need recreational activities and an interstellar Las Vegas kicked the ass of every other recreational activity on board any ship except those in international waters. Excuse me, I hear ducats dropping into someone's SpaceSlots basket…

#2: Millennium Falcon: Oh come on. Sure it had the most fun ever swiveling gunner seats and cannons with those ultra cool bay windshields, but it was also a little rickety. Okay, a lot rickety just like the research I did for this post. The difference is the Falcon was supposed to be rickety. It's been though sci-fi hell and back and it's like the ultimate Mustang Cobra Shelby of deep space. Even I got a little nervous when it showed the interior. One of the neat and logical things the Falcon had were those floor panels they hid beneath when the Storm Troopers scanned the ship. It made sense since the Falcon's main job was hauling illegal materials for galactic cartels (read: Jabba the Hut). Of course those Storm Trooper scans SHOULD have caught life forms so I listed it as #2.  Plus, it looked uneven to me with the cockpit to the side instead of under, above or front center of the ship and that unsettled and disoriented me more than a tad. Kinda' like when I went on my first road trip in Great Britain…

And last but probably least:

Ta Da Da Da!

#1: Chronicles of Riddick: Toomb's first ship: Whatever the hell they called it.  It was pointy, bouncy and possessed a super cool First Aid transfusion kit! That last was one of my sci-fi dreams. Plus the idea of riding shotgun in a dangling gunnery nest blasting gats just blows away my nano-matrix!

I know this list is completely void of technologically impressive design wonders but it isn't always about stiff scientific theory. Sometimes it's just about good old alien Bling!  

P.I. Barrington