Last week, I asked you — yes you — to tell me your favourite spaceship reveals in sci-fi and pop culture at large, that grand moment when an iconic ship comes into the scene for the very first time. And boy howdy, did you tell me about a lot of good spaceships.
While I still stand by my own pick of seeing the Normandy SR2 for the first time in Mass Effect 2, you all had some fantastic selections, creating a veritable smörgåsbord of spectacular spaceship images to choose from. In no particular order, here’s just a few of your very favourite spaceship reveals.
The Enterprise Refit in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
CoSineBlue
2/12/19 7:51pmThe moment Kirk and Scotty see the refit Enterprise for the 1st time in TMP is the reason the term “spaceship porn” is a thing…
The Tantive IV and the Star Destroyer at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope…
AbrahamDonne
2/12/19 8:00pmI kept trying to come up with something…anything…that could match it, but you really laid out the best one right there in the article. Much as I love the Klingon AND Enterprise reveals in The Motion Picture, as much as I dig Serenity’s barely-keeping-it-together vibe, nothing comes close to matching this:
I mean, Jesus Jackrabbit, that damn thing goes on FOREVER. Those rebels are totally fucked.
Also, on a note of just how good that original movie is. I searched for this clip just to show the Star Destroyer part and watched that bit just to be sure it was what I was looking for…and then ended up watching the whole damn thing. This movie just grabs you, doesn’t it? Damn.
… Or the fact there’s always a bigger ship, in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
cgo2370
2/12/19 8:11pmI see your A New Hope and raise you one Empire Strikes Back.
The Protector is real in Galaxy Quest
kernow
2/12/19 8:06pmThe answer is of course the reveal of the Protector.
In Galaxy Quest.
It also has Rickman so should win by default.
Aaaand now I have to go find my copy of Galaxy Quest and rewatch it
The Red Dwarf gets a scrub in the Red Dwarf opening titles
Kelvington
2/12/19 8:51pmI always liked the “Red Dwarf” opening reveal!
The UNSC Infinity launches in Halo 4
guinnessfanatic
2/12/19 10:49pmI stand with most of my brethren and absolutely vote for TMP Enterprise scene. I am surprised however that none of you youngsters have posted UNSC Infinity. If I were a decade or two younger this would probably be my pick:
The countdown in Thunderbirds
Apocalypse Cow
2/12/19 8:07pmGonna take things a little old school:
Loved this as a kid and the countdown still gives me little chills to this day =)
The Enterprise-A’s surprise unveiling in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Dr Emilio Lizardo
2/12/19 8:10pmNever has a single letter meant so much.
The Shadow Ships in Babylon 5
Aximill
2/13/19 9:56am“It was jet-black. A shade of black so deep, your eye just kind of slides off it. And it shimmered when you looked at it. A spider, big as death and twice as ugly. When it flies past, it’s like you hear a scream in your mind.” So goes the description of a Shadow Ship from Babylon 5. I forget how it was first revealed, but it seemed every time the cast encountered one, they all seemed to be filled with dread and foreboding.
The Serenity freefalls into view in Serenity
WoT14
2/13/19 10:16amOK, while the movie is subpar to the series, the re-reveal of our favorites is great
Define interesting?
We might experience some turbulence and then explode
The garbage will do in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Bat-dork
2/12/19 8:56pmIt’s more like a re-reveal, but in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it totally caught me off-guard when Rey said “The garbage will do” and we abruptly cut off to…
The terrifyingly beautiful Cygnus in The Black Hole
WinterRose
2/12/19 8:46pmOkay… I have to add, the USS Cygnus from Disney’s ‘The Black Hole’ If you ever saw a ship that was also a haunted house in space, this was it. It’s goddamn gorgeous. And at the same time, terrifying.
The Tachi (nee Rocinante) makes its escape in The Expanse
DrMunks
2/12/19 7:59pmThe Rocinante reveal in The Expanse season 1 (okay, it’s technically the Tachi at the time). I watched the series before reading the novels, so I had no idea at the time that this was going to be the starring spaceship of the show, but I was positively gleeful when the its first appearance involved it shooting its way out of a much larger Martian warship.
The Pegasus swoops in Battlestar Galactica
Legios
2/12/19 9:30pmIt’s not the first time you see the ship, but in this episode the Pegasus is supposed to be far way and you don’t know where the missiles are coming from. I loooooove this scene.
The Gallifreyan Space Station (and the TARDIS) in Doctor Who’s “Trial of a Time Lord”
Reginald Mobley
2/13/19 9:44amI’d been watching DW since I was 4, but the PBS station in Gainesville, FL only ever really showed the Pertwee and Tom Baker years. So EVERYTHING about this intro blew my mind when they finally started showing Davidson and Baker II…
There were plenty more great choices discussed in the comments, so head on over to the original thread to see more.