I was watching Star Wars again and, with all the effects driven films since then, the opening sequence isn't as breathtaking as it was almost thirty years ago. I remember what it was like when I watched it in it's first run and that sequence alone set the movie up as something amazing. Part of what made that sequence so memorable was that the Star Destroyer had a size that dwarfed what I could remember seeing before that time. I started thinking about the spaceships, that were portrayed on movies and TV, and most were fairly small vehicles. The biggest one I can think of would probably be Star Trek's Enterprise. Does anybody remember anything else that was large scale?

http://www.merzo.net/

have a look here ;)

BAttlestar Galactica? pretty big too...

Attached Link: http://www.plexico.net/b4/coolships.html

Others:

Cocoon
Contact

Plus many more at this link:
http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/astrofilm.html

Then there was the very old TV show called Stingray, which I never watched

EDIT:  I forget the name of the movie :(  Near or at the end, there is a huge blue and white luminous ship slowly decending to the ground while everyone is standing around in total awe.  I can't remember if anyone/thing exits it though.  Probably a movie from the 1970's or 1980's.

erm.. Stingray was a submarine ;)

Oh. Well, I did say that I never watched it,  LOL

Oops...my post wasn't all that clear -- I was more curious about pre-Star Wars ships. Star Wars set a new look for ships, and their scope, after its release.

So before circa 1978 or 1979 or whenever StarWars was first released?

Space: 1999 which was a 1975 series.
Star Trek the original series.

Space Odyssey might fall into this too. It a science fiction series of novels and films created from 1953 to 1997

also off-topic - warner bros. announced they are gonna sell babylon 5 episodes on bitTorrent at $1 each.

if you want scale pre starwars.. there is one that takes all..

the Ringworld

(oneday they may make the movie.....)

Quote - Space Odyssey might fall into this too. It a science fiction series of novels and films created from 1953 to 1997

2001 was released in 1969, so the Discovery could be said to influence the look of star wars a lot in certain aspects (detailing on the hull)
but pre star wars, you need to go back to the 1950's and movies like When Worlds Collide for big ships.. they were pretty rare on screen due to the idea that all ships are smooth... no much for the audeince to look at.

but after star wars... ships like the Nostromo (Alien) and the Galactica are noteworthy...

Was Silent Running pre SW? The ship in that was pretty large.

"Space Odyssey might fall into this too. It a science fiction series of novels and films created from 1953 to 1997"

Correct, but possibly misleading...:-)

Kubrick's film ("2001 - A Space Odyssey") was based on a short story by Arthur C Clarke ("The Sentinel"), written several years before the film. The short story ended with the discovery (and activation) of the 1st sentinel, on the moon.

IIRC, Clarke & Kubrick collaborated on the film and extended the original. The book of the film was later released by ACC. After that there were some (IMHO) not very good pot-boiler follow-ups.

The film was the biggest-grossing Sci-Fi film before Star Wars.

Nuff trivia - I suspect that the Discovery was probably the biggest pre-StarWars space ship in sheer overall size (even if most of it was made up of unexplained modules which mainly separated the living area from the engines). At least it wasn't stream-lined (no need for streamlining in space-craft...)

Cheers,
Diolma

(Who read the original before the film was released, and also saw the film during its release year, and was wowed. But that was then...)

Quote - Was Silent Running pre SW? The ship in that was pretty large.

Silent Running is listed as 1972 ;) good call there.
the ship later appeared as stock footage in the series Battlestar Galactica as an 'Agro Ship'
but the model was destroyed shortly after the making of Silent Running.. the interiors were filmed on an Aircraft Carrier if memory serves..

In the 1977 Special Collectors Edition (UK) magazine states

"the ...Falcon was the only ship built  to life size proportions"..

The exterior death star sets where "sixteen hundred square"   but the death star itself was "no bigger than a football".

John Dykstra,the designer of Dykstraflex a special camera used to create the 365 composiste effects, was also involved in the FX of 2001.

I recall another early s/wars magazine saying the 'gribbles' (details) on the models in s/wars was based heavily from 2001.

Quote - also off-topic - warner bros. announced they are gonna sell babylon 5 episodes on bitTorrent at $1 each.

Darn! Now I'm gonna have to go hunt up a new BT program -- E-Donkey/E-Mule does torrents but I got rid of it after getting that virus last week. Anybody know a good, safe one I can use to download these when I buy?

According to the Starship Dimensions site that Khai referenced, here's the sizes of some of the ships mentioned:

Star Wars Destroyer - 1.6 km
Silent Running - 1.6 km
Battlestar Galactica - 610 m (after Star Wars)
Enterprise - 305 m
Discovery - 113 m
Eagle (Space 1999) - 68 m

I don't think the old "When Worlds Collide" ships are in the listings, but I don't recall that they were as large as the bigger ships here.

There's no question that "Star Wars" owes a lot to "2001". That movie still holds up well today with effects that remain realistic. John Dykstra, at least according to IMDB, didn't work on "2001", but did work on "Silent Running", which was directed by Douglas Trumball, who was the effects director on "2001".

Um, what about those BIG ships in the original Star Trek episodes from the 60's?

The planet eater?

Or that large Jupiter 2 eating ship from Lost in Space?

There was the Searcher from Buck Rogers, and also the War Witch from (I think) it's last episode(Plus the large Draconian mother ship from the Buck Rogers movie as well.)

But I think Buck as a few years after Star Wars, around BG time.

@MrSparky: Many of the 'gribbles' (details) on the StarWars models used for filming are in fact parts "borrowed" from  scale kits of WW2 planes, tanks and armoured cars.

For example you can find the rear storage boxes of Tamiya´s 1/35 scale German "Panther" tank on the Millenium Falcon, and the SandCrawler uses parts of the SdKfz. 222 armoured car.

:-)

Stahlratte

Much the same as the detailing on the CE3K mothership. heck, there was even a small r2-d2 on that!

Well the mother ship in close encounters was pretty big - not as big as a Star Destroyer though. I know both movies (Star Wars and CE) came out in 1977 - I think Star Wars was early summer and CE was later - but they were both in production at the same time. Doug

whoops crossed with gareee

In terms of spaceships that appeared on screen (in this case, television), the flagship "Fesarius" commanded by the diminutive Balok (played by then child actor Clint Howard), positively dwarfed the starship Enterprise.  Let's see, the TOS Enterprise is listed as 947 feet long.  The Fesarius kept approaching until its "buckyball" surface completely filled the TV and Kirk's ship stretched only about a third of the screen's width.

I'm gonna pull a number outa' my @$$ and say the Fesarius was probably 5 miles in diameter.  Yes, I know that's nothing compared to the Deathstars, but for its time, it was probably the largest "filmed" vessel (as opposed to narrative passages) ever shown.

Sincerely,

Bill

actually there was a ship larger filmed in 1963... and still on screen now..

an old beatup Type 40 Time Capsule... ;)

the TARDIS.... if you count the interior.... almost infinate... just very petite on the outside ;)

What about those huge ships in Flash Gordon, the B&W movie serials. and wasn't there a early rocket hit the moon in the face and it looked like the rocket was almost larger than the moon. I think they blasted it out of a canon.

Quote - if you want scale pre starwars.. there is one that takes all..

the Ringworld

(oneday they may make the movie.....)

Rumour has it that there's a TV movie of Ringworld in pre-production, by the same people who made 'Dune' (is that the Sci-Fi Channel?).

Until then... if by 'cinematic' you mean movies only, then probably the 'Discovery' and the 'Silent Running' ships as already mentioned. If you mean TV as well, two Star Trek vessels come to mind - the 'planet-killer' that someone's noted, and I'm pretty sure there was an asteroid-sized generation starship in one of the episodes as well.

Quote - ...two Star Trek vessels come to mind - the 'planet-killer' that someone's noted, and I'm pretty sure there was an asteroid-sized generation starship in one of the episodes as well.

Yep, forgot about that one, Yonada built by the Fabrini from "For the World is Hollow, and I have Touched the Sky".  The same painting (prop?) was portrayed as a "killer" asteroid in "The Paradise Syndrome".  I can't remember which episode was filmed first (thus establishing the "rock's" original production purpose).

Sincerely,

Bill

I wouldn't count the George Melies bullet in the moon because that had cartoonlike proportions because the actual bullet was only a little taller than the passengers standing inside it. "Lost in Space"'s Jupiter was only about the size of a large room.

I'd forgotten that "Close Encounters" crossed production with "Star Wars" because it seemed as if it had come out a lot later, but that's memory. I just watched the documentary, on the DVD, and "Star Wars" is barely mentioned. It's hard to tell how much influence "Star Wars" had on the movie. The fact that there's a little R2D2, on the mothership, is a good indication that  "Close Encounters" effects were post-"Star Wars" release. Dennis Muren, one of the lead effects gurus on "Star Wars", worked on "Close Encounters" after "Star Wars" release. Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who helped sell the vision of "Star War", was brought in to visualize the mothership, so there's a fair possibility that "Star Wars" influenced the scope of the "Close Encounters" mothership.

I had forgotten about some of the 1-episode ships from "Star Trek", so they certainly qualify as pre-dating "Star Wars". Mainstream science fiction novels had tales of huge ships for decades before the movie. Science fiction artwork, likewise, was filled with such visions before "Star Wars".

"Star Wars" still managed to shake up how Hollywood viewed science fiction.

"Close Encounters" !!!  That was the movie title that escaped me!   I knew it started with an "E" though.  I can't remember any of the movie except for the part about the huge decending space ship towards the end.

"I wouldn't count the George Melies bullet in the moon because that had cartoonlike proportions because the actual bullet was only a little taller than the passengers standing inside it. "Lost in Space"'s Jupiter was only about the size of a large room. "

The main control room was, but the outer hull blueprints show "rooms" where items like the chariot parts and space pod were stored.

Watch the shows with people walking around the ship, or the episode where they show the full sized mockup, and you'll see it's MUCH larger then just one room.. tit was 2-3 stories tall, and then add the circumference as well.

But the main point of this, is that it was tiny being swallowed by the alien ship, so that ship would have been 30-50 stories tall, and a 7-8 hundered stories in length.

still say the largest is the TARDIS :tt2:

2001's Discovery may have predated many of these other ships (or not, not sure of the chronology of some of the TV show ships) but Discovery was NOT the biggest ship in 2001. That honor would go to the orbiting space station that Heywood Floyd landed on before his trip to the moon. (As shown in the movie, the station was partially under construction.) The station would have dwarfed Discovery, had the two been shown side-by-side.

I dunno about the TARDIS, Khai - I suppose it depends on whether we are measuring the inside or the outside. :tongue1:

Quote - Silent Running is listed as 1972 ;) good call there.
the ship later appeared as stock footage in the series Battlestar Galactica as an 'Agro Ship'
but the model was destroyed shortly after the making of Silent Running.. the interiors were filmed on an Aircraft Carrier if memory serves..

The aircraft carrier was U.S.S. Valley Forge, CV-45, and its name was also used for Dern's spaceship in the movie ;).

I'd say that Discovery, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, isn't really as big as some think it is - it's only a couple hundred feet long; the pod doors alone, which take up almost 1/3 the height of the main forward hull, are only about 8' tall, at most, so you get an idea of the scale - the ship was only about 30' in diameter. I'd say the ship from When Worlds Collide is one of the big ones - despite its smoothness making it look small, don't forget that it was an ark. Valley Forge is likely amongst the biggest ships; I've never seen a scale for it, but those domes certainly weren't small.

Quote - "the ...Falcon was the only ship built  to life size proportions"..

Actually, only the left half of the Falcon was built life-size (the side with the cockpit and ramp). The other half was created with the use of matte paintings.
 
Since they didn't think Star Wars would be popular, they destroyed the exterior Falcon sets after filming was finished... and had to re-create it for Empire Strikes Back. This time, the entire ship was built (especially for the scenes on Hoth where Han and Chewbacca walk on the exterior).
And, no, the exterior ramp did not actually lead into an interior set: the actors ran up the ramp and hit a wall. But, with clever editting, it looks like the actors ran up the ramp, through the interior, and into the cockpit.
 
The star destroyer in Star Wars seemed so big because it was the first time spaceships had been filmed like that: the slow movement made it seem like the ship just kept going on and on and on.
Even though the Enterprise, the Death Star, and 2001's Discovery may be the same size or larger, those ships were never filmed like the star destroyer.
 
--John

Ringworld mentioned earlier....based on the Larry Niven set of books?

and it's about time some-one tackled Arthur C Clark's Rama....

oh....and then there was the ship, the name of which escapes me, in the Black Hole....that was supposedly rather long....

well Rama is basically a long tube with airlock bunkers at each end..

the black hole ship was the Cygnus..

(Khai the mine of useless SF info...)

Just to provide a little guidance (word chosen specifically)..
The subject of this thread was "cinematic spaceship".
Not "cinematic space construction"

Spaceships imply a propulsion device. A way to change position other than just orbiting.

So anything that cannot change it's position under it's own propulsion methods should be excluded?

OK. I'm just showing off and being pedantic:-))

(Just wanted to keep this thread alive, so that I could learn more for trivia quizzes, actually)

Cheers,
Diolma

well Rama is basically a long tube with airlock bunkers at each end..

the black hole ship was the Cygnus..

(Khai the mine of useless SF info...)

 Plot Summary - the Official Blurb

THE STARLOST: the incredible adventure of a giant spacecraft carrying the survivors of a dead planet Earth on the most critical mission ever launched by man: an endless journey across the Universe in search of a new world. Earth ship ARK: hundreds of miles long... a huge grapelike cluster of metal domes, each a tiny world isolated from all the others. In the countless generations that have lived and died since the launching of the ARK, everyone has forgotten that the Earth ever existed... forgotten that they are streaking through space on a collision course with disaster. Forgotten... until one man stumbles on the truth: that they are...

THE STARLOST *********************************************************************************************

So What do I win for the biggest onscreen ship pre-Star Wars?

Quote - > Quote - "the ...Falcon was the only ship built  to life size proportions"..

Actually, only the left half of the Falcon was built life-size (the side with the cockpit and ramp). The other half was created with the use of matte paintings.John

I'm pretty sure I have an old Cinefex around here that shows pictures of the full life sized falcon.. not just 1/2 of it.

A quick google search revealed this:

http://www.blueharvest.net/images/falcon.shtml

About Dr. Who.. I remember quite a number of VERY large alien ships in the older series.. maybe one of those would take the top prize?

The Falcon looks to be close to the same size as the original Jupiter 2 exterior. There's a prop I'd like to have in my yard!

Check this out:

http://www.mentalwardfilm.com/Falcondocumentary.htm

Taking Geekdom to a whole new level!     o.O

still saying the TARDIS here.. why? well the Police Box is a stuck disguise, meaning if the chameleon circuit was working properly is can be as large as the inside ;)

sounds like all the bases are covered. There was a Japanese cartoon (in America it was called Starship Yamato)..which was the size of a large battleship...wait.. it was a large batteship..;) I'm not sure if it predates Star Wars, tho..

Red Dwarf......wasn't pre Star Wars, but was damn big

Speaking of Star Blazers - what about the comet empire - they're base ship was a comet!  (if I remember corectly)

If you're going Post Star Wars - then the dyson sphere in STTNG is the big daddy.  It's in the episode where Scotty came back.    Much bigger then the Death Star.

Doug

Silent Running was one of my favorite old movies!! :D

I have to vote with Mizrael. The show Starlost wasn't very big, a Saturday morning type show as I remember, but the ship was huge! I remeber reading the "bible" for the show and it was made up of a large number of habitats that measured on the order of 3 miles (or maybe kilometers) across.

mike