Spaceships of Science Fiction

Science Fiction
SCI-FI FOCUS VOLUME ONE 7.95
SPACESHIPS OF
s c i s s a l C m l i F & V T f o s r a Over 100 ye

PUBLISHING
VOLUME ONE
7.95
The Past
The Present
The Future
Welcome
The oldest known story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written on clay tablets more than 3,000 years ago. In it the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, travels to the ocean at the end of the known world on a quest for knowledge and immortality. The merest touch of the water there will bring instant death, and the stone charms which could have protected the ship have been destroyed. But Gilgamesh cannot rest until he has crossed to the far side of the deadly sea. He boards the ship despite the fact that he may not make the crossing alive. As our world was discovered and mapped, heroes no longer needed to travel in small and fragile craft across deadly and inhospitable oceans. The development of sailing ships, rst of wood and then of iron and steel, means that the oceans of today hold little peril, and there are no new lands to conquer on the Earth. The world is smaller now, and to nd new challenges the heroes of todays fantastical stories are forced to leave this planet behind to nd the unexplained and the weird, the beautiful and the monstrous. But still they must travel through hostile, deadly waters. This book is about the ships that take those heroes to other worlds and sights, taking them beyond the ordinary world and into the world of the fantastic and magical. The Spaceships of Science Fiction.
Thanks to E. James Small, Grant and Naylor Productions, Martin Bower, Flint Weiss, Debbie Walker, Ruth Jamieson, Suzie Blaza. Dad, for The Skylark of Space. A special thanks to Kurt Kuhn of www.modelermagic.com, and to all the talented makers of spaceships both real and unreal. Your enthusiasm and imagination help us all to explore new worlds.
Editor - Piers Beckley Production Editor/Design - Ian Blaza Publisher - David Lane Advertising - Shilling Media Publishing Director - Paul Appleton Chairman - David Allan Published by - Ian Allan Publishing Ltd., Riverdene Business Park, Moseley Road, Hersham, Surrey, KT12 4RG Printed by Ian Allan Print Ltd, Hersham, Surrey
Ian Allan Publishing Ltd 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner. ISBN 978 0 7110 3693 2 Published February 2012
CONTENTS
06 22 24 26 41 42 44 1900s-1950s Gerry Anderson 2001: A Space Odyssey Star Trek Gene Roddenberry UFO Space 1999
Spaceships of Science Fiction
46 52 54 56 58 74
4
Aliens Red Dwarf The Space Shuttle Industrial Light and Magic Star Wars Blakes 7
75 76 78 80 82 83 84
Teleportation Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Sunshine Motherships The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Ron Thornton Babylon 5
86 88 90 94 95 96 98
Galaxy Quest Independence Day Space Travel Event Horizon Outland Space: Above and Beyond Battlestar Galactica
104 107 108 110 113 114
Weapons Firey Models Fact and Fiction Not just a spaceship... Index
5
1900s-1950s
Le Voyage dans la Lune - 1902

Directed, written, and produced by Georges Mlis, Le Voyage dans la Lune (usually known in English as A Trip to the Moon) was released in 1902, and is the rst known science ction lm. In this short lm, six astronomers travel to and explore the Moon, but when they encounter Selenites (the native race there) are forced to retreat back to the Earth.
Gun Crazy
The astronomers begin their journey by climbing inside a shell, which is then red from
a giant gun towards the moon. They return by pulling their vessel off the edge of the moon, at which point it falls back to Earth and drops into the sea. As the shell is airtight, it oats back to the surface from where it is retrieved and towed back to port. The idea of launching a space capsule to the Moon from the barrel of a gun was rst proposed in Jules Vernes novel De la Terre la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon, published in 1865). Space travel via gun lost much of its appeal shortly after Le Voyage dans la Lune made
its way into early cinemas, when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote his seminal 1903 paper on spaceight, usually translated as Exploration of the Universe with Reaction Machines. In this paper, Tsiolkovsky calculated that in order for a projectile to escape the Earths gravity eld when red by a gun, it would have to accelerate at 1,000 times the force of gravity more than enough to kill everyone inside. Fortunately in that same paper Tsiolkovsky not only proposed rocket engines as a means of travelling to space, but also that they could be used in multiple stages, each stage being disposed of as its fuel was used up. Variants of the multi-stage rockets proposed by Tsiolkovsky are still used today to launch cargoes into orbit, with current examples including Europes Ariane 5 and the United States Delta IV launch vehicles.
Spaceships Spaceships of of Science Science Fiction Fiction
1900s-1950s
Flash Gordon 1936-1940

Flash Gordon battled Emperor Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo in three lm serials from Republic in 1936, 1938, and 1940 respectively. a countermagnet for deceleration and landing.
Film Serials
In the 1930s, a cinema ticket didnt just get you entry to one lm. In addition to the main feature, you would also get a backup feature (the so-called B-movie, now a generic term for a low-budget lm), cartoons, and the latest episode of the lm serial. Film serials generally ran for between 12 to 15 chapters, each of which usually ended in a cliffhanger how would our hero escape impending death this time? The serials covered a large range of genres, from jungle adventure to superhero to western, and were groundbreaking in their day. The 1943 Batman series, for example, was not only the rst lmed appearance of the Caped Crusader, but introduced the Batcave to the mythos before that, the Dark Knight had to settle for a
Doctor Zarkoffs Rocketship

In the rst serial, Doctor Zarkoff builds a rocketship to travel from Earth to the planet Mongo in an attempt to stop the two planets from crashing together an event which will shatter the Earth into atoms. According to Doctor Zarkoff the ship requires two people to operate, which necessitates taking Flash Gordon along for the ride. All Flash actually does, though, is look through the telescope, suggesting that Zarkoff may just have wanted the company. The rocketship carries its own oxygen in the form of tanks, the valves of which must be opened manually after takeoff, and uses
ABOVE: DOCTOR ZARKOFF ADJUSTS THE CONTROLS WHILE DALE ARDEN AND FLASH GORDON LOOK ON IN ADMIRATION BELOW: FLASH TRIES THE SAME MANEUVER, BUT DALE IS LESS THAN IMPRESSED WITH HIS WORK.
tunnel and some secret underground hangars. But perhaps the high point of the serial came with Republics Flash Gordon in 1936. Coming in at approximately $360,000 for 13 episodes, it cost what would have been a small fortune at the time, and retains the title of the most expensive lm serial ever made.
they are capable of landing almost anywhere on Mars, and of taking on other craft in a dogght. Light Bridge - A ray of light connecting two turrets in the palace of Queen Azura of Mars, the light bridge, once activated, forms a surface solid enough to walk on. As well as re-appearing as hard light bridges in video game Portal 2, the original light bridge inspired the design of the Millennium Bridge in London, the rst new bridge to be built across the River Thames in more than a century.
Other Craft
Rocket ships arent the only craft to be seen in the Flash Gordon serials. Here are a few of the other forms of transport that Gordons used... Mings Ships- Smaller than Zarkoffs rocket ship, these fast-moving attack vessels are armed with rays capable of destroying giant lizard-creatures with but one shot. Gyro ships - The gyro ships of the Lion Men spin like tops as they move through the skies. In an attack on Mings palace, however, they are outclassed and defeated by Mings ships. Hydrocycle - A submarine used by the Shark Men of Mongo to travel to and from their undersea city. Stratosled - Used to get around on Mars during the events of Flash Gordons Trip to Mars, the stratosleds are long-range atmospheric yers. Armed and dangerous,
From Flash Gordon to Star Wars

In 1972 a young lm maker called George Lucas was putting the nishing touches to his coming-of-age lm American Grafti when he and his friend Gary Kurtz started discussing the old Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s. An attempt to buy the rights to the character from King Features Syndicate in order to make a lm were not successful, so Lucas turned his mind to making a similar action-adventure space epic, the story that was eventually to become the Star Wars lm series. The opening crawl that begins each Star Wars lm is based directly on the crawl of words telling the story so far as they oat away into the distance in the third and nal serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.
Spaceships Spaceships of of Science Science Fiction Fiction
1900s-1950s
Destination Moon -1950

After a rocket engine which has been funded by the US government explodes on takeoff, a group of industrialists pool their resources in order to ensure that the United States will be the rst country to land a rocket on the moon by building the worlds rst atomic rocket, Luna. Four people travel to the moon in the rocket and must cope with the problems that present themselves on their trip including the possibility that not all will make it back to Earth. Co-written by famed Science Fiction author Robert A Heinlein, Destination Moon exhibits a marked degree of realism for the time when it was made. While the proximal reason for the trip to the moon by private enterprise is the sabotage of a government rocket by agents unknown, there are no enemies, aliens, or villains to be seen in the lm other than nature and the harsh realities of space travel. The lm also notably includes a short cartoon featuring Woody Woodpecker, in which Woody is introduced to the science behind rocket travel. The cartoon is used to sell space travel to the businessmen and industrialists who work together to build Luna.
ABOVE: DESTINATION MOON WON THE OSCAR FOR BEST VISUAL EFFECTS IN 1950 BELOW: A RESCUE MISSION IS MOUNTED AFTER A SPACEWALK TO REPAIR THE RADAR GOES WRONG OUTSIDE LUNA.
Luna
Luna is an atomic-powered rocket which uses water as its reaction mass the mass ejected from the engines in order to propel the rocket forward. Energy from the atomic power plant is used to heat the water into steam, and the steam is then expelled from the engines to propel the ship to the moon and back again. After escaping the Earths gravity well, Luna drifts towards the moon over the next two days. The ship is equipped with gyroscopes fastspinning wheels which resist being turned around which it can rotate to set the engine to face the moon. The engine is then red again to cancel the rockets momentum and land safely on the lunar surface. After using the last of its reaction mass to lift off from the moon, Luna rst glides to a designated landing spot upon its return to Earth, and then deploys parachutes for the nal landing. This means that the rocket need not carry so much reaction mass into space in the rst place, leading to a large saving on fuel.
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THE ROCKET SHIP LUNA STANDS ON THE SURFACE OF THE MOON
11
1900s-1950s
Rocketship X-M -1950

The surprisingly bleak tale of the rst experimental rocketship. Its original destination is the moon, but a problem with the fuel mixture leads the ship to Mars instead, where it encounters the survivors of a destroyed civilisation.
The Space Race

During the making of Destination Moon, a huge wave of publicity was set in motion by producer George Pal to promote the lm. Sensing an opportunity, Rocketship X-M was pushed quickly in production to cash in on this publicity. Filmed in black and white instead of Destination Moons expensive Technicolor and at only a fraction of the budget, Rocketship X-M made it into cinemas a full three weeks before Pals effort.
The X-M
Named Rocketship X-M (for eXpedition Moon) by its creators, the X-M is a multistage rocket. It travels from the Earth to orbit, jettisoning its rst stage after doing so. Unfortunately this is pretty much the lms sole claim to scientic verisimilitude. The rocket runs on a mixture of monatomic
THE CREW OF THE ROCKETSHIP X-M SURVEY THE SURFACE OF THE RED PLANET
hydrogen, tri-atomic oxygen, and A. The fuel is stored in tanks in the motor room of the rocket assembly, just beneath the pressurised cabin, where it is combined in variable proportions to provide power to the ship. The mysterious element and/or fuel mixture A comes in several varieties including A12 (used with hydrogen and oxygen for the rst
A SUDDEN METEOR STORM IMPERILS THE SHIP AS IT TRAVELS AWAY FROM THE EARTH
120 seconds of the ight), A14 (used with hydrogen and oxygen up to 340 seconds), and A16 (used with hydrogen and oxygen up to 560 seconds, and on its own thereafter). The fuel is temperamental, however, and if the mixture is calculated incorrectly, the result can be that the ship is stranded in space unable to move or conversely may be ung off at high speed, adding the Earths orbital velocity to the speed of the ship. Both of these fates occur to the X-M, and it nds itself in the vicinity of Mars, an outcome so unlikely that it becomes clear to the lead scientist that a power larger than them has guided them there. The scenes on Mars were tinted red for the original cinema release, giving an eerie quality to the section of the lm set there as the crew of the X-M discover what happened to the advanced civilization that once ruled that planet. Despite the fact that the space travel presented in the lm is nonsensical and the treatment of the female lead reects the attitudes of the times in which it was made, Rocketship X-M redeems itself towards the end with the sequence on Mars and the nal touchdown of the ship as it returns to Earth.
12
The Day The Earth Stood Still -1951
A spaceship lands in Washington DC bearing the alien Klaatu and eight-foot-high robot Gort. Klaatu has come to deliver a warning from space and an ultimatum.
Klaatus spaceship
The ying saucer in which Klaatu lands is smooth on both top and bottom, with no sign of engines or exhaust ports of any description. Upon investigation, the material of which it and Gort are made cannot be scratched with either blowtorch or diamond drill. A ramp extends from the skirt at the bottom of the spaceship, and the dome on top cracks open to allow a person to enter the heart of the ship. When closed, the ramp and door meld seamlessly into the material of the saucer. The interior of the ship contains one main chamber inside a circular corridor that runs along the edge of the top dome. All functions of the craft are controlled from the main chamber using instrument panels which function via hand gesture. Both Klaatu and Gort are capable of controlling the ship. Gort can raise his visor to reveal a sparkling eye, capable of ring a disintegration beam at will.
GORT EMERGES FROM THE DEPTHS OF KLAATUS SPACESHIP TO PROTECT HIS COMPANION
Re-imagined
In the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, the alien ship on which Klaatu comes to Earth is a glowing sphere rather than the now-clichd ying saucer, and Klaatu does not arrive on the planet in human form. Gort, too, has moved on from the original. While to begin with he seems very reminiscent of the original robot only much larger later we discover that he is made of many smaller
machines. And his powers of disintegration are much more deadly. While the theme of humanitys dangerous nature survives from one lm to the other, the means in which that destructive force manifest is altered: in the original, humanitys threat is directed outwards into space, while in the later lm the threat is to the other species on the planet. In both cases, however, the solution offered from space is the same.
INSIDE THE MAIN CONTROL CHAMBER
KEANU REEVES BROUGHT AN ALIEN PRESENCE TO KLAATU IN THE 2008 REMAKE
13
1900s-1950s
When Worlds Collide -1951

A new sun and planet are entering the solar system at incredible speeds and the star, Bellus, is on a direct collision course with the Earth. With only eight months remaining before the Earth is destroyed, a rocket ship is constructed capable of travelling to the new planet, Zyra, in an attempt to save at least a few people from the end of the world.
The Space Ark

The vessel used to voyage to the new world can hold only 44 people, together with microche versions of books, and animals for breeding stock. With just a few reserved places, the rest of the passengers are selected by lottery from those who worked upon the project. The ship sits upon a sled equipped with its own rocket motors, which itself is mounted on a long ramp which runs rst down into a valley, then up into the sky.
THE ARK COMES IN TO LAND ON THE NEW HOME OF HUMANITY, ZYRA
Once the rocket sled has red and accelerated to the bottom of the rst incline, the ramp turns skywards and the ships own rockets ignite to add the nal momentum required to raise it out of the Earths gravity well and propel it across the gulf of space between the Earth and Zyra. After it reaches Zyra, the ship
decelerates by turning and ring its engines again, retarding its speed to the point where it can successfully orbit the new world. It then enters the atmosphere and uses its wings to glide to a landing to a landing in the same manner as NASAs space shuttle.
Rocket Sleds as Space Launchers

The ship in When Worlds Collide gains much of its velocity from a rocket sled, which accelerates it along a track to impart a high initial velocity. In real life, a rocket sled is a good way to launch a space vehicle as the fuel and hardware necessary for the rst part of acceleration need never leave the ground, so their weight neednt be lifted against gravity with the ship. Having reached the end of the ramp at high speed, the ship detaches from the rocket sled and accelerates the rest of the way under its own power. While in operation the Space Shuttle consumed a third of its fuel to reach 1,000 miles per hour (Mach 1.3), while rocket sleds have reached velocities of Mach 8.5. As the rocket sled itself never leaves the surface it can be easily recovered and refuelled, so launches are able to be turned around much more quickly.
USING A ROCKET SLED TO REACH ESCAPE VELOCITY FROM THE DOOMED PLANET EARTH
14
War of the Worlds -1953
THE MARTIAN WAR MACHINES USE THEIR DEADLY HEAT RAY TO DESTROY EVERYTHING IN THEIR PATH
A Martian invasion force lands upon Earth. Their War Machines are able to take any punishment that humanity can throw at them, swiftly carving their way through the armies sent against them and, it seems, unstoppable by the hand of man...
From Book to Screen

HG Wells The War of the Worlds was rst published in 1898. Tales of invasion were in vogue at the time, but this was one of the rst in which the invaders were not from other countries, but from another world entirely. Landing in gigantic metal cylinders, the Martians soon leave their ships behind and advance across the countryside, destroying everything in their path. Building three-legged ghting machines to transport themselves from their landing site, the Martians swiftly over-run the south of England, which is helpless against the alien heat-rays and the black smoke, a deadly poison launched by the Martians. In the 1953 lm adaptation, the action is relocated to the West Coast of the United States, starting in a small town just outside of Los Angeles, then later shifting to the city itself.
The Martians travel to Earth in giant cylinders thought at rst to be meteors, and the rst Martian ship lands just outside the town of Linda Rosa. Too hot to investigate immediately from its passage through the atmosphere and slightly radioactive, the house-sized cylinder is left to cool. As in the book, a hatch slowly unscrews. A exible metallic tentacle with what appears to be an eye regards its environs then shoots sparks and ame as its deadly heat ray is brought to bear. As more cylinders land, we nd that the spaceships which the Martians are using to travel from the Red Planet to Earth are controlled by jets after they enter the atmosphere, and navigate in threes to their landing sites using gyroscopes. The Martian War Machines that emerge from each cylinder are shaped much like manta rays, with the eyebearing mechanical tentacle emerging from its dorsal surface. Although they do not have the three legs seen on tripods in the book, each is supported by three rays emerging from the bottom of the machine to hold it aloft. The War Machines easily repel any armaments
that they are attacked with by using their electromagnetic covering an impenetrable blister of force which surrounds the War Machine, protecting it from any display of force up to and including a nuclear blast. Their offenses are no less powerful. In addition to the heat ray from their eye, the machines are armed with skeleton beams, green rays ring from the edge of each wing which disintegrate their targets, allowing if the target is human the skeleton to show through for a moment before it is utterly destroyed. Three appears to be a signicant number to the Martians, perhaps because of their own physiology heir War Machines travel three to a cylinder, the Martian eye and cameras have three sections to them, and the Martian hand has three long ngers.
15
1900s-1950s
Conquest of Space -1955
As the lm begins, construction is almost complete on a spaceship which will take humanity out of the orbit of Earth and into the wider solar system. Conquest of Space was created to be as realistic a portrayal of space exploration as possible. The lm took its title as well as the designs for the ship and space station from a factual book called The Conquest of Space by artist Chesley Bonestell (who also provided the astronomical art for the lm) and writer Willy Ley which portrayed humanitys exploration of the solar system.
Spaceship One
The ship, designed to transport a ve-person crew to Mars, holds its fuel in eight spherical booster tanks. After arriving at Mars, the booster tanks are jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere, and the ship then glides in to a landing. After landing, the main fuselage is rotated skywards until its engines face the ground. Detached from the wings, the fuselage becomes an independent rocket ship for the journey back to Earth. To save mass on the journey to Mars, the crew of Spaceship One eat food in the form of
SPACESHIP ONE IN ITS LANDING CONFIGURATION
concentrated pills containing all the nutrients that they need to live a common trope of early science ction. However, a pill containing enough calories for the body to continue to function over a long time would be the size of a meal anyway, so it seems that food pills will have to remain the future of the past.
The Wheel
Spaceship One is constructed next to a space station orbiting the Earth, and the two of them make a complete revolution of the planet in just
two hours. The space station itself is in the form of a wheel which spins to provide articial gravity to those on board. Supply rockets regularly travel from Earth to resupply the Wheel and to bring materials with which to construct the ship. To travel between the Wheel and the ship or vice versa, you need to call for a taxi. The taxi is a small frame open to space in which a suited pilot sits, while small rocket exhausts no larger than a waste paper bin at front and rear provide the motive power. Cargo is either tied directly to the frame, or to a line attached to the back of it, which stretches out and is pulled behind the taxi as it travels.
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This Island Earth -1955

Aliens from the planet Metaluna seek help from Earth scientists in synthesizing uranium to aid their war against the Zagons. The atomic fuel will be used to power the ionized layer protecting Metaluna from the meteors that the Zagons are raining down upon it. Two Earth scientists are carried on a ship to Metaluna to observe and help either with or against their will.
The Metalunan Ship

Like the Challenge 142 from It! The Terror from Beyond Space, the Metalunan spacecraft generates its own gravitational eld, keeping everyone from, as one character memorably states, oating away like balloons. The ship is also able to withstand the high temperatures of the thermal barrier surrounding the Earth. The atmospheric pressure on Metaluna is greater than that of the deepest ocean on Earth and because of that great pressure difference, travelling from one to the other unprotected would result in being either crushed to death or disintegrated, depending on which way one was travelling. The Metalunan spaceship contains conversion tubes to mitigate this effect, allowing humans to exist on Metaluna and vice versa, and a short time in the conversion tubes after takeoff allows transition between the planets with equanimity. Once the process has begun, though, the tube cannot be opened prematurely from the inside.
A METALUNAN MUTANT
THE SURFACE OF METALUNA IS UNDER CONSTANT BOMBARDMENT FROM THE ZAGONS, FORCING THE INHABITANTS TO MOVE THEIR CIVILIZATION UNDERGROUND
The ship is highly maneuverable, and armed with defensive weapons to destroy Zagon meteors aimed at the ship. It also possesses a tractor beam with the ability to bring a small plane to dock inside the craft, and is able to take control of a jet aircraft and y it remotely and safely to landing.
A METALUNAN SAUCER PREPARES TO CAPTURE THE LIGHT AIRCRAFT PILOTED BY THE FILMS HERO CAL MEACHAM
17
1900s-1950s
Forbidden Planet -1956
The crew of the C-57D, a United Planets Cruiser from Earth, travel to the planet Altair IV in search of the starship Bellerophon which landed there twenty years before. On their arrival they nd just two survivors, Doctor Morbius and his teenage daughter Altaira, but it is not long before the mysterious force which killed everyone else aboard the Bellerophon returns to the planet. Forbidden Planet mixes a tale of monsters with cerebral ideas and a vision of the future, and still stands up today as one of the greatest science ction lms.
16 times faster than the speed of light. To drop safely below lightspeed the crew must step into decelerator tubes which protect them from the sudden loss of velocity. Even so protected, the drop to 0.3896 of lightspeed can be stressful to the body, as seen in the staggered reactions of the crew as they step from the tubes after deceleration.
United Planets Cruiser C-57D

The C-57D is built in the classic ying saucer shape seen in many lms of the 1950s. Upon landing, the lower section of the saucer extrudes to make a central pylon supporting the bulk of the ship, while three staircases fold down from the body of the saucer to act as support struts. The interior of the ship is built on a multilevel set, at the centre of which sits a model representing the C-57D in the interior of a clear rotating sphere. This central console and navigation center also contains the pilots station. The ship uses hyperdrive to travel a little over
18
ABOVE: AFTER EMERGING FROM HYPERSPACE, THE C-57D COMES IN FOR A LANDING ON THE BARREN PLANET OF ALTAIR IV BELOW LEFT: THE SHIP WAS REALISED ON FILM AS A COMBINATION OF A MODEL, A SET, AND MATTE PAINTINGS BELOW RIGHT: LESLIE NIELSEN (SEATED, AS CAPTAIN ADAMS) HAD A LONG CAREER AS A DRAMATIC ACTOR BEFORE TURNING TO COMEDY
Electronic Tonalities
The unique electronic music for Forbidden Planet was produced by husband-and-wife team Louis and Bebe Barron. Making audio circuits from vacuum tubes, they built up a tape library of electronic sounds which were slowed down, sped up, and cut together to produce the rst ever lm soundtrack created completely electronically. During the course of the lm it is often impossible to tell what part of the soundscape is music, and what is a sound effect. The Barrons were unable to receive the original proposed credit for the lm of Electronic Music as they were not members of the American Federation of Musicians. In the end, their credit was rendered as Electronic Tonalities by Louis and Bebe Barron. As they were not members of the union the music was also ineligible for the best soundtrack Oscar.
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It! The Terror from Beyond Space -1958

Six months ago, in January 1973, the rst spaceship to travel to the planet Mars cracked up on landing. When the rescue ship arrives, only one person from the original crew remains alive. The rescuers dismiss his story of a creature which attacked and killed everyone else during a sandstorm on the planet, and prepare to take him back to Earth to face a court martial, swiftly followed by a ring squad. But the monster is real, and has found its way onto the spaceship... With its story of a monster trapped aboard an in-ight spaceship gradually picking off the crew one by one the lm is often cited as being one of the major inuences upon Alien, and writer Jerome Bixby went on to work on some of the most acclaimed episodes of the original Star Trek. metal struts with holes punched out of them hold the ship together. As the monster closes in upon them and they nd their weapons useless against it, the space travellers are forced to retreat upwards towards the control center at the top of the rocketship. Several airlocks are accessible from its different levels, which allows a spacewalk down the side of the craft in an attempt to get beneath the creature and attack it unawares. In many ways, the Challenge 142 is the classic 1950s spaceship a Single-Stage-ToOrbit rocket, landing and taking off from its tail with a chrome exterior, three landing ns, and no less than three atomic power plants to provide energy to the ship.
1900s-1950s
The Challenge 142

The ship is equipped with articial gravity and arranged vertically over several levels. Inside,
THE CREATURE, PLAYED BY RAY CORRIGAN, SEARCHES FOR A WAY INTO THE AIRLOCK
IN THE FUTURE OF 1953, A FEMALE ASTRONAUTS JOB STILL INCLUDED COOKING AND CLEARING AWAY AFTERWARDS
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Profile
Science Fiction Pioneers
George Pal
GEORGE PAL (LEFT) ON THE SET OF THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM
orn Gyula Gyrgy Mrczincsk in Hungary in 1908 to actor parents, George Pal trained as an architect in Budapest and moved to Berlin in 1931, where he worked at UFA lm studios. During his time in Germany, he found that his colleagues had difculty pronouncing his name so, taking his parents stage name and using the German version of his, he became rst Georg Pl then, later, George Pal. In 1932 Pal set up his own advertising company and developed a new stop motion technique in which the models were not moved slightly from moment to moment, but in which one entire carved model was wholly replaced with another slightly different one. Pal named this series of stop motion
lms Puppetoons a portmanteau created from the words puppet and cartoon. As the Nazis rose to power, Pal and his family moved away from Germany. They travelled rst to Prague, then Paris and Holland, and then nally in 1939 to the United States where he was quickly signed to a contract with Paramount Studios. At Paramount Pal continued to make Puppetoons, but this time as original short lms rather than as advertisements. They were a success, and several people who would later go on to fame as special effects creators in their own right worked for Pal on those early shorts with luminaries including Ray Harryhausen and Willis OBrien among their number. Successful though those early lms were, the cost of production was high compared to their return, and Pal moved into the production of live-action lms in the late 1940s. But the lm that put him on the map as a producer of science ction was Destination Moon in 1950, cowritten by Robert Heinlein. As well as receiving much press coverage even before its release, Destination Moon was a success at the box ofce, enabling Pal to
make many more classic science ction lms over the course of the 1950s including The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine based on the novels of HG Wells. Pals lms often showcased groundbreaking special effects and were immensely popular. Over the course of his life he was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning one for the special effects on Destination Moon, as well as receiving a special award in 1943 entitled To George Pal for the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons.
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Profile
Gerry Anderson
orn in 1929, Gerry Anderson is known across the world for his puppet series including Thunderbirds and Fireball XL-5. Starting in the lm industry as an uncredited Assistant Editor on the 1945 lm The Wicked Lady, Anderson worked as an assistant editor and sound editor on another dozen lms before his rst encounter with the type of show that would later make him famous. In 1957 Andersons then production company, AP Films, was hired by Associated Rediffusion and writer Roberta Leigh to make The Adventures of Twizzle, a puppet series for children. Although Anderson wanted to make live-action lms, the company needed the work, and so they dug in with a will. The Adventures of Twizzle was so successful that Anderson was asked to work on another series of the show immediately. From that sprang several more puppet series for Lew Grade at ATV, and his career took off. Despite several attempts to move into live action over the years, including
Filmed in
underperforming cross-solar lm Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, body-snatching alien invasion series UFO and moon-leaving-Earth insanity Space: 1999, Anderson has always been best known for his Supermarionation puppet series from the 1960s, in particular Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. When Anderson started working with puppets, the state of the art wasnt particularly advanced. The actors themselves were simple creations, usually lmed in static shots against painted backdrops. Andersons determination to make the best show that he could resulted in the use of long shots, mediums, and close-ups, shot in a threedimensional set instead of against a at background, and edited together in a lmic style. The loss of the backdrop meant that the standard way of operating puppets at that time, where the operator stood behind it to work the puppet, would no longer be viable. Instead, a bridge was built above the set where the operators would stand and work. The ground-breaking special effects in Andersons shows were the work of many highly-talented designers and special effects maestros just starting out in the business. Derek Meddings moved on from Thunderbirds to the James Bond lms and received an Oscar
for his special effects work on Superman: The Movie, while Brian Johnson went on to create special effects for lms including Alien and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, for both of which he won Oscars.
FACT FILE
DATE OF BIRTH: 14 APRIL 1929 NOTABLE WORK: SUPERCAR, FIREBALL XL-5, STINGRAY, THUNDERBIRDS, CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, UFO, SPACE: 1999, TERRAHAWKS
To increase the realism of the puppets, it was decided to have their lips move in time with the dialogue but how to do this? The solution was to add an electromagnet into their heads. When a current was supplied to the electromagnet passed down through one of the strings used to move the puppet it would pull a small bar up and down, opening and closing the puppets mouth in time with their words. As the technology developed and the electromagnets became smaller, the production team were able to move them into the puppet bodies. Which is why, compared to Captain Scarlet, the Tracy brothers have such enormous heads.
22
Rocketing to the Rescue

Although Thunderbird 3 appears in several episodes of the series, its only on three occasions that we actually see the ship take part in a rescue. Guess there still arent that many people in space, even in 2067.
Thunderbirds
Whenever a major disaster occurs International Rescue leap into action to save lives. Operating from a secret island base in the Pacic, their futuristic vehicles known as Thunderbirds include a rocketship and an orbital space station.
Thunderbird 3
A bright red rocket, Thunderbird 3 is used to resupply space station Thunderbird 5 as well as to perform rescues in space. A multistage rocket such as the European Space Agencys Ariane 5 throws away its fuel tanks as soon as theyre empty, either dropping them back to Earth for recovery or allowing them to burn up in the atmosphere. The fact that they dont need to carry the extra weight of a now-empty tank means they need less fuel overall. Thunderbird 3, though, is a Single-Stage-To-Orbit rocket (SSTO), lifting off from the Earths surface with all the fuel that it needs to escape the planets gravity. And thats not the only way that Thunderbird 3 differs from the rockets we use today. Its ability to take off and land again in the same conguration, with its nose in the air and its base to the ground, makes Thunderbird 3 whats known as a VerticalTake-Off-Vertical-Landing (VTVL) rocket. While the VTVL type rocket has long been popular in Science Fiction, with early showings in the lms Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M, in real life a VTVL rocket has never made it to orbit from the surface of the Earth. The McDonnell Douglas DC-X proved that the concept could work, though, ying a total of eleven times in the 1990s before a re caused by a cracked liquid oxygen tank caused so much damage that it could no longer be repaired.
Sun Probe
A solar probe with three astronauts aboard has own too close to the sun, and cant re its retro-rockets to escape. Thunderbird 3 must get near enough to send a radio signal that can activate the malfunctioning equipment, but without burning up themselves. And with much less heat shielding than the solar probe, Thunderbird 3 is already dangerously close to its limits...
The Impostors
When an astronauts jet pack malfunctions during a spacewalk, Thunderbird 3 must rush to the rescue. But the instant that the rocket launches from Tracy Island, International Rescues secret base will be exposed.
Ricochet
When a damaged rocket explodes in an area of space believed to be deserted, an unlicensed pirate TV station in a nearby satellite is knocked off course and falls towards the Earth. With Thunderbird 5 unable to hear their distress calls, International Rescue may not even nd out theres a problem until its too late.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: THUNDERBIRD 3 HEIGHT: 287 FT WIDTH: 23 FT (MAIN BODY) 80 FT (ENGINES) PROPULSION: ROCKET MOTORS MAXIMUM SPEED: 390 MPS BASE OF OPERATIONS: TRACY ISLAND
Thunderbird 5
The eyes and ears of International Rescue, Thunderbird 5 orbits the Earth, monitoring all broadcasts and frequencies to await the call to action.
23
2001: A Space Odyssey

In the prehistoric past a tribe of apes wake one morning to discover a mysterious black monolith by their watering hole. On touching the monolith, they discover their own capacity for violence, which allows them to destroy another tribe and prosper. In 1999, Doctor Heywood Floyd travels to the Moon to investigate an identical monolith, which has been buried beneath the surface there for about four million years. When it is exposed to sunlight, it sends a powerful radio signal to one of the moons of Jupiter. The spaceship Discovery One travels there to investigate, but onboard computer HAL 9000 malfunctions and kills all but one of the astronauts on board. On arrival at Jupiter, surviving astronaut Dave Bowman is drawn into a tunnel of light, which leads him into a surreal series of chambers where he sees himself in progressively older forms. Encountering a third and nal monolith, Bowman is transformed into a Star Child, a being able to travel through the vacuum of space without harm, and returns to Earth.
INTERIOR VIEW OF THE DISCOVERY ONE
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 260 FT DIAMETER: 56 FT (DIAMETER OF COMMAND MODULE) POWER SYSTEMS: NUCLEAR PROPULSION: GAS POWERED NUCLEAR ROCKET ENGINE CREW: 2 AWAKE, 3 IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH TO JUPITER
The Ships of 2001

The spaceships in 2001 were state of the art in all respects. Harry Lange and Frederick Ordway III had both worked for many years as aerospace engineers, when in January 1965 a chance meeting with their friend Arthur C Clarke in New York led to them meeting director
Stanley Kubrick and becoming engaged to design the ships and sets. All of the technology was designed to be as realistic as possible, with Ordway and Lange insisting on knowing the function of every single item down to the labelling of each individual button, and ensuring that any information displays gave accurate readings of what was going on in the craft at any particular point. This attention to detail gives a verisimilitude to the spacecraft and technology that we see onscreen that still impresses today, more than 40 years on and long past the titular 2001 itself.
Discovery One
Discovery One is the craft which ferries astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole together with three colleagues in suspended animation from Earth orbit to Jupiter. The ship is laid out with a command module at the front of the craft and the nuclear reactor which both powers and propels the ship far away at the rear. Between the two a long axis frame contains supplies of food, water, and oxygen for the journey, and at the center of the frame sits a dish for receiving and transmitting signals to Earth. Running around the inside of the spherical command module is a giant centrifuge which, when brought up to speed, provides articial gravity for the astronauts within via centripetal force. The centrifuge also contains three Hibernacula, suspended animation chambers to allow the other members of the crew to sleep through the long journey. Also aboard the command module are EVA pods which can leave the ship and move around it to allow external repairs during ight.
24
The Space Clipper

Doctor Heywood Floyd uses an Orion III space clipper to travel out of Earths gravity well to an orbiting space station where he will catch his connecting ight to the moon. The Space Clipper is a Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) re-usable spaceplane owned and operated by Pan American Airways. As the clipper is designed to operate in atmosphere, unlike all other spacecraft in the lm it is streamlined and has wings.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: SPACE CLIPPER MAXIMUM SPEED: AT LEAST 25,000 MPH CLASS: ORION III CREW: PILOT, CO-PILOT, STEWARD. PASSENGERS: 30 BASE OF OPERATIONS: ERATIONS: EARTH AND SPACE STATION V S
SPECIFICATION
NAME: AME: ARIES RIES 1B DIAMETER: 40 FT HEIGHT: EIGHT: 40 FT (LANDIN (LANDING G LEGS LEG GS RETRACTED) 46 FT LEGS (LANDING (LANDIN G LE LEG GS EXTENDED) PROPULSION PROP PRO PULSION SYSTEMS: LOW-THRUST L OW-THRUST PLASMA JETS PASSENGERS: 60 BASE OF OP OPERATIONS: ERATIONS: SPACE S PACE S STATION TATION V TO MOON MOON
Aries 1B
The Aries 1B is a transfer shuttle travelling between Space Station V and the Moon. As the ship never needs to land on Earth, it does not require any atmospheric streamlining, and is in the form of a sphere to maximise internal space. Four landing legs extend from the bottom of the craft when it comes in to land on the Moon. Its propulsion system would not be strong enough to achieve escape velocity from Earth, so its terminus on the planetary end of the journey is at Space Station V, a large station which uses rotation to provide articial gravity and which is still under construction in the lm, as shown by the exposed spaceframe. Using thrust from its plasma jets, the Aries 1B takes approximately two and a half days to make the journey from Earth orbit to the Moon, at a cost of $10,000 per trip for a single traveller, or $600,000 if you want to charter the entire ship.
25
Star Trek
The starship Enterprise has been sent out from Earth on a ve year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before. But you probably already knew that.
The Original Series

Designing the Future
Matt Jefferies was the Assistant Art Director on the original Star Trek television series, and the man who together with Art Director Pato Guzman designed the Enterprise. His name has been immortalized within the show itself in the Jefferies Tube, the internal maintenance conduits which carry cables and wiring from one place to another within the body of a starship. Asked to design a cruiser-sized deep-space vessel to explore the galaxy and without the trails of re, streaks of smoke, jet intakes or rocket exhausts that had characterized spaceships up to that point Jefferies and Guzman went back to rst principles. Pinning present-day space exploration designs onto the wall together with previous designs from Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers as examples of what not to do, they set to work. Gene Roddenberry, the creator and producer of Star Trek insisted that every design that they make be believable. And he did not like any of the rst ones that they put before him. Using a piece of a design that Roddenberry liked here together with another piece there, Guzman and Jefferies started again, creating another twenty or more different designs. These were shown to Roddenberry, the sales department, the production ofce, and a representative of the RAND corporation (a US government thinktank). This time there were four or ve things he liked. And so the process began again. Because the ship would be seen in every single episode, it was important that it feel real, and look right. Going against advice from the studio, who felt that spending so much time on the design of the Enterprise was a waste of time and money, Roddenberry stuck to his guns in the conviction that even though the audience might not realise it consciously, the ship would feel right to them. And that would help the audience to believe in the reality of the world that he was creating. As the design began to converge on something that all parties were satised with, Jefferies went down to the model-making shop on the studio lot and had the craftsmen there create a saucer-shape which he used as a basis for a three-dimensional model of the ship. He hung the model from the ceiling, and invited Roddenberry in to view the Enterprise in ight for the very rst time. A main saucer and two engine nacelles, each attached by pylons to a secondary hull. And with a few minor variations, this is the same basic design that the Enterprise has today. The only major difference? In the original presentation the model Enterprise was hung upside-down from the way in which it travels the galaxy now.
Shuttlecraft Galileo
The USS Enterprise carries a number of shuttlecraft for use when the transporter is nonoperational, or for carrying personnel and equipment on investigatory expeditions in space.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: GALILEO LENGTH: 24 FT HEIGHT: 8 FT WIDTH: 13 FT CREW: 1 PILOT - 6 PASSENGERS
26
USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Carrying a crew of 430 men, women, and aliens, the USS Enterprise can be said to be, in many ways, the starship that millions of people grew up on. Throughout the pre-production process Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry insisted on verisimilitude - the appearance of truth - in every aspect of the spaceship that would carry his heroes from adventure to adventure. As just one example, the terminology used on the Enterprise was based on that of US Naval vessels, so that the ship would feel real to viewers in a way that many other spacecraft of the time on lm and television did not. When creating the bridge, the designers asked themselves: What does each station do? How many people need to be on the bridge at any one time, and what are each of them doing? How can the Captain get information from his bridge ofcers quickly and easily? These questions led to the placement of the captains chair in the middle of the bridge, which can swivel around to see every command station. The reason that the bridge of the Enterprise feels so realistic is that throughout its design, the following question was always kept in mind: If this starship really existed, how would it work?
THE REFIT
FOR STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, THE USS ENTERPRISE UNDERWENT A COMPLETE REDESIGN AND REFIT. BOASTING IMPROVED ENGINE NACELLES AND DIFFERENT PROPORTIONS, THE NEW ENTERPRISE MODEL WAS DESIGNED WITH MUCH MORE EXTERNAL DETAILING, INCLUDING MANY ADDITIONAL WINDOWS.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701 LENGTH: 947 FT PRIMARY HULL (SAUCER) DIAMETER: 417 FT LENGTH, SECONDARY HULL: 340 FT LENGTH, ENGINE NACELLES 504 FT DIAMETER, ENGINE NACELLES: 60 FT WEAPONS: PHASER BANKS, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: OUR GALAXY PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FASTER THAN LIGHT) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER REACTORS CREW: 430
RE-IMAGINED
IN THE NEWEST STAR TREK FILM FROM 2009, HISTORY TAKES A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PATH. INTO THIS REBOOT OF THE SERIES STEPS A NEW, SLEEKER ENTERPRISE WITH FLOWING CURVES AND CHROME INTAKES ON THE ENGINE NACELLES. THE NEW ENTERPRISE IS LARGER THAN THE ORIGINAL, AND BUILT ON THE PLANETARY SURFACE RATHER THAN IN SPACE. BUT DESPITE THE SURFACE DISTINCTIONS, SHES STILL THE SHIP WE KNOW AND LOVE. 27

Klingon D-7
The Klingon D-7 battlecruiser wasnt seen until the third season of Star Trek as the production could not afford the cost to build the model before then. In earlier seasons Klingon ships were talked about, but never seen clearly on screen. The D-7 was designed by Matt Jefferies to look completely different from the Stareet ships, so that it would be instantly recognisable even in a short cutaway shot. Other design constraints included the need to make the ship look threatening and vicious. Its rst appearance in the show was not, however, as a Klingon ship, but as a Romulan ship in The Enterprise Incident. As model ships were expensive to make, and the original Romulan Bird of Prey ship was no longer available, the D-7 was was used there in order to put money on the screen, and its appearance explained by a line that said the Romulans were now using ships of Klingon design! The original colour scheme of the D-7 was two-tone, in grey and pale green. In the effects shots, though, the green was washed out into a blue-grey colour.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: KLINGON D-7 LENGTH: 947 FT WIDTH: 446 FT HEIGHT: 156 FT WEAPONS: DISRUPTOR CANNON, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: OUR GALAXY PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FASTER THAN LIGHT) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER REACTORS CREW: 430
Romulan Bird of Prey

First appearing in the episode Balance of Terror, this class gets its designation from the giant bird of prey that the Romulans paint upon the underside of their ships. While the Romulan Bird of Prey is much slower than the Enterprise, it has two advantages the Enterprise does not a powerful plasma weapon, and the ability to cloak itself, becoming effectively invisible. This leads to a tense cat and mouse game as it and the Enterprise seek to destroy one another.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: ROMULAN BIRD OF PREY LENGTH: 395 FT WIDTH: 525 FT HEIGHT: 127 FT WEAPONS: HIGH-ENERGY PLASMA, NUCLEAR WARHEADS BASE OF OPERATIONS: BEYOND THE NEUTRAL ZONE POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER REACTORS
MARK LENARD - THE ROMULAN COMMANDER IN BALANCE OF TERROR - LATER WENT ON TO PLAY SPOCKS FATHER SAREK.
Model Shots
The studio models of the D-7 and the Galileo shuttlecraft were actually built by toy company Aluminum Model Toys (AMT) as part of a deal with Star Treks production company Desilu. The television series was still in production at the time and in exchange for the rights to produce models based on the series, including that of the Enterprise, AMT would help out by building models to be used on the show itself. AMT produced two versions of the D-7 to Matt Jefferies designs, one for use as a lming model by the TV series, and one to act as the master for their model production.
28
Star Trek
Klingons
Klingon Bird of Prey

One of the most widely-seen ships in all of Star Trek, the Klingon Bird of Prey has appeared in no less than ve Star Trek lms and three of the Star Trek television series. From its rst appearance on the big screen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock to its last (at least so far) appearance in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Borderland, the sweeping lines of a Klingon Bird of Prey graced our screens for 20 years. In early drafts of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the enemy ship was to have been a Romulan craft, which is why it bears the same name as the Romulan Bird of Prey from the original Star Trek. Like the Romulan vessel the
SPECIFICATION
NAME: KLINGON BIRD OF PREY LENGTH: 360 FT WIDTH: 414 FT HEIGHT: 225 FT WEAPONS: DISRUPTORS, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: ALPHA QUADRANT PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: 12 TOP SPEED: WARP 9.6
Klingon Bird of Prey carries a cloaking device which allows it to become effectively invisible. In later drafts of the script the idea of the craft being Romulan was dropped - but the ship and its cloaking capabilities remained. The Klingon Bird of Prey has seen many different bridge designs over the years, but all have shared the same characteristics. In contrast to the pristine interiors of the Stareet ships which they oppose, Klingon starships have a broken-down look. Their interiors are often lled with smoke, and the sound design is more jagged and lled with machinery than the low ambient hum of the Enterprise. In all ways, Klingon vessels are designed to present a marked contrast to those of the Federation.
ENTERPRISE TIMELINE
THE USS ENTERPRISE TOOK HER NAME FROM A LONG LINE OF DISTINGUISHED UNITED STATES SHIPS. IN 1983, A CAMPAIGN BY STAR TREK FANS RESULTED IN THE FIRST SPACE SHUTTLE BEING GIVEN THE NAME ENTERPRISE.
USS ENTERPRISE
USS ENTERPRISE (CVN(NX-01) 65) SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE ENTERPRISE USS ENTERPRISE (N
21512161 1877-1909 1961
1983 (TEST VEHICLE ONLY) 22452285
30
Size Matters
The Klingon Bird of Prey is one of the most extreme examples of whats known as starship scaling. Its sometimes necessary for the visual effects artists to change the real size of the vessel in order to make a shot look better. The classic example of this is when two starships are hovering in space, yet the director (or other person in charge) wants to see the two vessels in the same shot. The distance between them is therefore cheated so that ships can be seen together, despite the fact that they should be much too far apart for this to happen. This is also, incidentally, why its rare for a character in a
show to explicitly say how far away another ship is, as this allows the special effects designers much more wiggle-room in placing the starships in shot simultaneously. Similarly, in order to make an enemy starship look and feel more impressive, it can be shot to appear much larger than its real size within the ction. One of the most extreme examples of scaling is in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. While rescuing the two whales George and Gracie from evil whalers, the Bird of Prey commanded by Captain Kirk appears above the whaling ship. In the script, the Bird of Prey is described as being as big as a football eld, but onscreen its presented as being about eight times its size of
the whaler, dwarng it and terrifying the crew. If this is correct, then the Bird of Prey must be at least 1080 feet wide! Later, after crash landing the Klingon Bird of Prey into San Francisco Bay, the crew are forced to abandon ship, climbing on top of the bridge to stay aoat. This gives us a human reference for the size of the ship meaning the whole thing must be less than 150 feet long at the outside. Obviously these two measurements are irreconcilable. Given that it changes size so much even within the same lm, were going to go with the information in the script, and say that its the size of an American Football pitch: 360 feet long.
NCC-1701) NCC
ENTERPRISE (NX-01) USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701) USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-A)
USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-A)
21512161 22862293
22452285
22862293
31
Threats to the Federation

There are many alien races in the galaxy which make it a dangerous place for explorers. Here are just a few of the threats that Stareet has encountered over the years...
Vger
The Voyager 6 probe was originally launched from Earth in the late 20th Century. Its mission was to search the galaxy for knowledge and then to return home with it. During its travels the probe was transported to the homeworld of a machine race which built a giant ship around it to help Voyager full its original programming. During its return journey to Earth Vger became sentient and sought its creator, believing it to be a machine like itself. Assuming that humanity was an infestation on the creators planet, Vger took steps to remove that infestation by eradicating humanity.
ABOVE: THE USS ENTERPRISE PASSES THROUGH VGER LEFT: A CARDASSIAN GALOR-CLASS STARSHIP
Ferengi
Originally positioned as one of the major threats in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the rst appearance of the Ferengi in the series was not well received. Despite their technology being estimated to be the equal of the Federation, they did not come across as the terrifying opponents that were originally envisaged, and in later years were instead used as comic relief.
Cardassians
First appearing on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Cardassians come from a militaristic society in which obedience to the state is the greatest responsibility and duty for a citizen. The Cardassians appeared several times during the run of Star Trek: The Next Generation before becoming one of the primary antagonists in
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a series set on a Cardassian-built space station. Although Cardassian technology may not be as effective as that of humanity, their ships were able to hold their own in combat against those of the Federation in a series of wars fought over a period of more than ten years.
The Doomsday Machine

In the original Star Trek, the Doomsday Machine is an automated planet killer that carves up planets using an antiproton beam and uses them for fuel. Its hull, made from pure neutronium, is invulnerable to weapon re and its course is set to take it through the most densely populated region of the galaxy.
CENTER: A DKORA CLASS FERENGI MARAUDER READIES ITSELF FOR BATTLE RIGHT: THE USS CONSTELLATION AFTER AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE PLANETDESTROYING DOOMSDAY MACHINE.
29
Star Trek
The starship Enterprise has been sent out from Earth on an ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before. Which seems vaguely familiar.
The Next Generation

Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were pulling in large salaries for each new lm. By hiring a new cast of less-well-known actors at a cheaper price, a new TV series could be created that would continue to bring prot to the studio for years to come.
The future of the future

After the cancellation of the original Star Trek by NBC, it went into syndication, airing daily across the US. Appreciation for the show grew vastly over the next few years as it reached a new audience who had not discovered it during its rst airings, and this surge in interest soon resulted in the studio looking to create more Star Trek. In the mid-1970s, work began on a new series, which would star many of the original cast and was known as Star Trek: Phase II. Scripts were commissioned and starship models built for the new series (including a new version of the Enterprise), but production was shut down in 1978 in order to allow what would become the rst of many Star Trek lms to be made instead. Fast forward to 1986, and stars William
Design Sketches
The new starship Enterprise was to be much larger than the original, capable of holding whole families rather than just a crew of 430 personnel. The registration number of the
LEONARD NIMOY, DEFOREST KELLEY, WILLIAM SHATNER, GENE RODDENBERRY, AND ROBERT WISE ON THE SET OF STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
32
Enterprise was altered from NCC-1701 to NCC1701-D to show that it was the fth starship to bear that name although early versions of the Star Trek: The Next Generation bible (the document that talked potential writers and directors through the show) listed the registration number as NCC-1701-G, which would have made it Enterprise number eight. The exterior of the ship was created by Andrew Probert, a designer who had assisted in updating the original Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the original Star Trek, was overseeing the new series and had remembered Proberts work on the lm. This resulted ten years later in Probert becoming the 11th person to be hired on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Initially Probert was set to work on the bridge design. As one of the most important sets on the show, it was important to begin design work on the bridge as early as possible, in case any changes needed to be made. As he was working on the bridge, though, Probert also sketched possible designs for the
ENTERPRISE TIMELINE CONTINUED...

USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-B)
RICK BERMAN, GENE RODDENBERRY, MICHAEL PILLER AND THE CAST CELEBRATE THE 100TH EPISODE OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION ON THE BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-D IN 1991
Enterprise itself, one of which he kept on the wall of his ofce. David Gerrold, who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generations rst season and developed many of the concepts that would become part of the show, was passing through Proberts ofce when he saw the sketch. Asking to borrow it, Gerrold took the artwork to a meeting of the producers, and within half an hour the basis for the USS Enterprise NCC1701-D had been approved. Probert went on to design most of the starships for the rst season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
22932320s
USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-C)
2332 2344
USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-D)
23632371
USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701-E)
2372 ACTIVE (AS OF 2387)
SPECIFICATION
NAME: USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-D LENGTH: 2,005 FT WIDTH: 1,836 FT HEIGHT: 384 FT WEAPONS: TWELVE PHASER ARRAYS, TWO PHOTON TORPEDO LAUNCH TUBES BASE OF OPERATIONS: ALPHA QUADRANT PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SUBLIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: 1,012 MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND ALIENS (INCLUDING FAMILIES OF CREWMEMBERS)
33
Klingon Vorcha Class Attack Cruiser

The Vorcha attack cruiser was a mainstay of the Klingon Empire throughout the runs of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9. First seen in the episode Reunion, the Vorcha merges the aesthetics of the classic Klingon D-7 cruiser together with Federation technology, as seen in the design of the engine nacelles. Despite this, the hard angles still show the lineage of a Klingon ship.
34
SPECIFICATION
NAME: KLINGON VORCHA CLASS ATTACK CRUISER LENGTH: 1,500 FT WIDTH: 1,065 FT HEIGHT: 333 FT WEAPONS: DISRUPTOR CANNON, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: ALPHA QUADRANT PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SUBLIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: 1,900
SPECIFICATION
NAMR: ROMULAN WARBIRD LENGTH: 4,440 FT WIDTH: 3,067 FT HEIGHT: 1,419 FT WEAPONS: DISRUPTOR ARRAYS, PHOTON TORPEDO LAUNCHER. SOME WARBIRDS HAVE ALSO BEEN SEEN TO USE PHASERS. BASE OF OPERATIONS: ALPHA QUADRANT PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SUBLIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: NAKED SINGULARITY CREW: 1,500
Romulan Warbird
The Romulan Warbird sometimes known as the Dderidex class was also created by the designer of the new Enterprise, Andrew Probert. The hollowed-out design of the Warbird comes from two primary causes the need to differentiate it from Federation and Klingon designs, together with the design principles that Probert had worked out for warp engines. According to Gene Roddenberry, warp engines could only ever work in pairs. Probert went further and specied that in order for warp elds to propel a starship, the two warp engines must be able to see each other that is, there couldnt be anything between them other than empty space. Although these design principles are contradicted later in the series (after Probert left), the hollow space inside the Warbird is there to allow the warp engines to work properly. In a 2005 interview about his designs, Probert said Science ction in particular needs to be consistent. If you negate that... it all falls apart.
35
Star Trek
Deep Space Nine
The United Federation of Planets the organisation for which Captains Kirk and Picard have been boldly seeking out new worlds and civilizations has been asked to oversee the planet Bajors entry to the Federation. The operation is based on a space station known as Deep Space Nine commanded by Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko . When a stable wormhole is discovered nearby leading to the Gamma Quadrant, more than 70,000 light years away, the crew of Deep Space Nine nd themselves rst upon the threshold of a new frontier and then on the front line of a war.
Deep Space Nine

The station designated by the Federation as Deep Space Nine was originally a Cardassian mining station called Terok Nor in orbit around the planet Bajor. After the Cardassians left Bajor, the station was assigned to a mixed command of Federation and Bajoran personnel and when a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant was discovered in the Bajoran solar system, it was moved to the mouth of the wormhole.
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USS Defiant
Originally created by Stareet to ght the cybernetic assimilators known as the Borg, the Deant is a prototype warship. Much more heavily armed and armored than most ships its size, the Deant came to Deep Space Nine at the beginning of the shows third season. As well as being tasked with defending Deep Space Nine and Bajor, the Deant can be sent on missions through the wormhole and far across the galaxy. To this end the Deant is equipped with a Romulan Cloaking Device which allows it to become all-butinvisible to enemy starships. Unlike other Federation vessels of this era, the Deant has no scientic labs or noncombat facilities. The Deant was designed and built for one reason and one reason only: war.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH 560 FT WIDTH: 440 FT HEIGHT: 99 FT WEAPONS: FOUR PULSE PHASER CANNON, QUANTUM TORPEDOES, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: DEEP SPACE NINE PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: 40 TOP SPEED: WARP 9.982
SPECIFICATION
DID YOU KNOW...

THE USS DEFIANT ALSO FEATURED IN THE FILM STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT, AS UNDER THE COMMAND OF LIEUTENANT COMMANDER WORF IT ENGAGED THE BORG CUBE HEADING TOWARDS EARTH. UNABLE TO DEFEND AGAINST THE BORGS SUPERIOR FIREPOWER, THE DEFIANT WAS LEFT ADRIFT BUT SALVAGEABLE.
NAME: RUNABOUT LENGTH: 76 FT WIDTH: 45 FT HEIGHT: 18 FT WEAPONS: PHASERS, PHOTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: DEEP SPACE NINE PROPULSION: IMPULSE SE DRIVE DRIV RIVE E (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER R/ANTIMATTE R/ANTIMATT ER ANNIHILATION CREW: 2 TOP SPEED: WARP 5
Runabouts
During the rst two seasons, the only spaceships regularly available to the characters were Runabouts small warp-capable vessels not much larger than a shuttle. In the third season, the station gained its own starship, the Deant, with a greater range and more powerful weapons. Larger than a shuttle, a runabout is capable of travelling as fast as warp ve. With a crew of two, they can be used for missions both in the local area and through the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant.
DID YOU KNOW...

ALL OF THE RUNABOUTS SEEN ON STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE ARE NAMED AFTER RIVERS.
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Star Trek
Voyager
The crew of the Intrepid-class starship Voyager are ung half-way across the galaxy into the Delta Quadrant, from where it will take 75 years or more to reach home at maximum speed. Star Trek: Voyager boasted several rsts for the Star Trek franchise it launched the television network UPN (where it was the rst progamme broadcast) and remained there for the course of its seven year lifespan. This was also the rst Star Trek series to star a female Captain, and over the course of its run made the change from miniature photography to fully CGI models for its starships.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 1130 FT WIDTH: 445 FT HEIGHT: 185 FT WEAPONS: PHASERS, WEAPON WEAPO NS: P HASE HA SER SE R S, TORPEDOES, PHOTON TORPED TORP EDO ED OES ES, , TRICOBALT C OBALT DEVICES DEVI DE VICES VI CES OPERATIONS: BASE OF O PERATION PERATIO NS: DELTA D ELTA QUADRANT QUADRANT QU PROPULSION: IMPULSE P ROPUL ROPU LSIO SION N: I MPU MP ULSE (SLOWER DRIVE DRIV E( (S SLOW LOWE ER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL) POWER: MATTER/ ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: CREW CRE W: 150 TOP SPEED: MAXIMUM TOP S PEED: M AXIMU AXIM UM RATED RATED SPEED SPEED WARP WARP 9.6 (THE EXCEED ( THE SHIP SHIP CAN CAN E XCEED WARP 9.9 FOR ONLY A FEW FEW MINUTES) MINUTES MINU ES) )
The Starship Voyager

After some years of increasing the size of Star Treks precincts (from the Enterprise, to the Enterprise-D, to Deep Space Nine) Voyager returns to the idea of a smaller ship. At a mere 183 feet longer than the original Enterprise (coming in at 1130 feet all-in), the Voyager requires a crew of just 150 to operate as opposed to the original Enterprises 430. As well as the new variable geometry warp nacelles, which swing into position for faster than light ight, the Voyager is equipped with bio-neural circuitry organic circuits which can process information faster than the isolinear chips used in other Federation vessels.
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Borg Cube
First seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Q Who, these are the starships of the Borg Collective. The Borg are a hive mind of cybernetic organisms whose objective is the assimilation of races and technology to add to their own. Each Borg Cube holds many thousands of drones, all a part of the Collective hive mind. What one Borg knows, all know. The power of the Borg is shown in the design of their ships: a simple cube. With technology so powerful that it does not need the visible warp engines or streamlining of ordinary starships, the platonic solid of the ship reveals how powerful the Borg are. These creatures do not need subtlety to travel faster than light; they break through with their sheer power. Any one Borg Cube is capable of taking on and defeating a eet of other starships. The Federations rst pitched battle with a Borg Cube, at Wolf 359, resulted in the destruction of 39 of the 40 Stareet vessels sent to stop it, and the death or assimilation of almost 11,000 people .
SPECIFICATION
NAME: BORG CUBE LENGTH: 1.9 MILES WIDTH: 1.9 MILES HEIGHT: 1.9 MILES WEAPONS: CUTTING BEAMS, SHIELD-NEUTRALISING MISSILES, MAGNETOMETRIC GUIDED CHARGES. BASE OF OPERATIONS: DELTA QUADRANT PROPULSION: IMPULSE DRIVE (SLOWER THAN LIGHT), WARP DRIVE (FTL), TRANSWARP CREW: 5,000+ TOP SPEED: MAXIMUM WARP SPEED 9.98; MAXIMUM WARP-EQUIVALENT SPEED USING TRANSWARP CONDUIT OF WARP 9.99946
DID YOU KNOW...

THE ORIGINAL CONCEPTION FOR THE BORG WAS AS A RACE OF INSECTS, BUT AS THIS WAS UNABLE TO BE REALIZED AT THE TIME FOR BUDGETARY REASONS, THEIR ENTRANCE TO THE SERIES WAS AS A RACE OF CYBORGS. HOWEVER, THE CONCEPT OF THE BORG AS A HIVE MIND RULED OVER BY A QUEEN WAS LATER INTRODUCED FOR THEIR APPEARANCES IN STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT AND STAR TREK: VOYAGER.
Delta Flyer
Designed and built by the crew of the USS Voyager as a larger and more heavily armed replacement for the ships standard Class-2 shuttlecraft, the Delta Flyer is a blend of Stareet and Borg technologies. The cockpit contains a pilots station at the front of the vessel, with tactical, ops, and engineering sections behind. The Delta Flyer also features a large aft compartment with a retractable medical biobed. Two ships of this type were constructed during Voyagers travels in the Delta Quadrant, with each featuring physical controls for the pilot rather than the standard at-panel interfaces used aboard the USS Voyager and other Stareet vessels. As well as travelling through space, the Delta Flyer has successfully ventured into the atmosphere of a gas giant and deep underwater.
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Star Trek
Enterprise
A prequel to the other three Star Trek series, Enterprise (also known as Star Trek: Enterprise in its later seasons) followed the adventures of the rst starship to hold that name.
USS Enterprise NX-01

In the Star Trek universe the prex NX on a ship as also seen in the registry number NX-74205 of the USS Deant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine designates an experimental model of starship. In Enterprise, this designation is given to the USS Enterprise because it is the rst ship to reliably attain Warp 5, thanks to the symmetrical warp governor mounted centrally on the bar between its two warp nacelles. The new Enterprise was designed for the show by Doug Drexler. As part of the design process he created many things which were deliberate callbacks to Matt Jefferies original design for the Enterprise NCC-1701. The main deector dish at the front of the ship which stops things from hitting it when its travelling at speed, for example, is the same gold parabolic dish as that on the NCC-1701, but stretched from side to side. To allow maximum exibility to the writers of the show, rather than having obvious weapon emplacements on the hull, circular ports open to reveal weapons or other devices such as sensor arrays as required by the script. This means that the exact capabilities of the
Enterprise could be decided upon while in production, without having to make sure that you knew what everything on the ship did before starting lming. The interior sets of the Enterprise such as main engineering and the bridge share a bronze color scheme. This was originally intended to carry through to the exterior of the ship, marrying the two together. The outside coloring was changed to silver before production commenced, but the bronze look for the exterior can still be seen on early publicity material.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: USS ENTERPRISE NX-01 LENGTH: 738 FT WIDTH: 438 FT HEIGHT: 96 FT WEAPONS: SPATIAL TORPEDOES (LATER UPGRADED TO PHOTONIC TORPEDOES), PULSE CANNON (LATER UPGRADED TO PHASE CANNON) MAXIMUM SPEED: WARP 5 POWER: MATTER/ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATION CREW: 83
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Profile
ene Roddenberry started writing ction in the 1940s while working as a pilot for Pan Am ying from New York to Calcutta. In 1949 he moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to break into writing for television and to support his family during this time took a job in the Los Angeles Police Department. While working for the LAPD he freelanced for several television shows under the pseudonym Robert Wesley, eventually leaving the force to become a full-time writer in 1954. Roddenberrys responsibility grew over the next ten years, eventually becoming a writerproducer working on shows including Have Gun, Will Travel and creating his rst series, The Lieutenant. In 1964 Roddenberry entered into a contract with Desilu Studios to make television pilots, based on several ideas that he had pitched to them. One of those ideas was for a show called Star Trek. The production of Star Trek was troubled from the start. The pilot episode, while it was enjoyed by the network, was felt to be too
Gene Roddenberry
highbrow for viewers. The network had been promised an action-adventure show, and that wasnt what theyd received. Despite not feeling able to move on with the show that had been presented to them, the network liked it enough to commission a second pilot something almost unheard of. Star Trek was not an immediate success and for most of its rst two years received just average ratings. Facing cancellation, it was only recommissioned for a third year after a letter-writing campaign organized by its fans. Although Star Trek was recommissioned, its new timeslot was a poor one at 10pm on Friday nights, meaning that it was extremely unlikely that it would receive the ratings that it needed to survive. Roddenberry, in protest, stepped back from day-to-day production on the series during this time, believing that the network had deliberately put it into a bad timeslot to kill the show. As predicted, Star Trek did not get the audience it needed, and was cancelled in 1969. Roddenberry continued to work in television over the next few years, during which time, Star Trek went into syndication across the United States and found its popularity continue to grow. A revival of the series was developed by Roddenberry in the 1970s involving many of the original series stars and known as Star Trek: Phase II. It never went into production.
FACT FILE
DATE OF BIRTH: 19 AUGUST 1921 NOTABLE WORK: HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL, STAR TREK, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
Instead, the double-length episode which would have kicked off the series was retooled into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Although Roddenberry was not involved with any of the later Star Trek lms, he went on to create sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late 1980s, which ran for seven seasons and spawned three more television series. With a new lm released in 2009 rebooting the Star Trek universe, Gene Roddenberrys greatest creation continues to enthrall people worldwide, more than 45 years after its creation.
THE CREW OF THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE IN THE 2009 STAR TREK FILM
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UFO
Approximately ten years into the future, in the early 1980s, aliens are kidnapping humans for reasons unknown. SHADO the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation has been created to defend the Earth, operating from a secret base hidden beneath a lm studio.
the same building that was used in UFO to represent the exterior of SHADOs secret base and the ofces for the lm studios. So somewhere beneath Holby City hospital is a mothballed secret base that was once used to defend the world
Identified
When watching an episode of UFO, you might notice that the outside of the ofces for Harlington-Straker Film Studios seems somewhat familiar. The Elstree studios on Clarendon Road (at which UFO was lmed) were bought by the BBC in 1984 to use for the production of their new TV series EastEnders. Since then, the studio has been used by the BBC for production of many of their shows. So when you see the exterior of the hospital on Holby City, youre seeing Neptune House, one of the ofce blocks on the lot and
Triple threat
There are three lines of defense that SHADO uses to stop UFOs. Interceptor spacecraft, each armed with a powerful missile, are launched from a base on the moon to destroy the alien ships before they reach the planet. If a UFO makes it past the Interceptors, another attempt can be made to destroy it as it reaches the atmosphere via jet ghters launched from submarine Skydiver. Finally, if a UFO manages to escape both of these defences and land on the planet itself then mobile ATVs known as SHADO Mobiles are sent to destroy it.
ABOVE: WHEN NOT DEFENDING EARTHS AIRSPACE, SKY ONE IS MATED TO THE SUBMARINE SKYDIVER WHICH PATROLS THE OCEANS. BELOW: AN INTERCEPTOR FLIGHT LAUNCHES FROM THE MOON. THE INTERCEPTORS ARE ARMED WITH POWERFUL MISSILES TO DESTROY UFOS, BUT EACH INTERCEPTOR CAN ONLY CARRY ONE MISSILE.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: INTERCEPTOR LENGTH (INCLUDING MISSILE): 35 FT LENGTH (WITHOUT MISSILE): 25 FT WIDTH: 18 FT HEIGHT: 14 FT WEAPONS: ONE MISSILE BASE OF OPERATIONS: THE MOON CREW: ONE PILOT
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SKY ONE BEING PREPARED FOR FLIGHT WITH VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR DEREK MEDDINGS ON THE LEFT.
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Space: 1999
On September 13 1999 - more than 20 years in the future - the Moon is propelled out of Earths orbit by a catastrophic nuclear chain reaction. The survivors of the disaster in Moonbase Alpha are propelled through the galaxy with the runaway Moon, encountering alien civilisations and menaces as they go.
A life less ordinary

With the cold, detached, bright, and plasticlooking interior sets, the visual style of the rst series of Space: 1999 echoes that of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In strong contrast to 2001: A Space Odyssey, though, Space: 1999 has little grounding in the realities of space travel. The Moon routinely travels to other solar systems from week to week despite having no motive power of its own, let alone the ability to travel faster than light. The pace of the show is measured, and many of the events of the rst season have a dreamlike quality - and its stated during that season that some guiding force appears to be protecting the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, taking them to a destiny unknown. This oneiric style is perhaps best exemplied by the third episode of the series. When the moon nds itself on an inescapable collision
course with a black sun (what would now be known as a black hole), the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha prepare for their deaths. As a last-ditch attempt to ensure the survival of at least a few, a lone survival ship is launched holding just six people. Those left to die on Moonbase Alpha activate a force eld which is unlikely to protect them, and prepare to take their chances. The moon makes contact with the Black Sun, but the collision doesnt kill them. In a sequence strongly reminiscent of the nal section of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the characters age, share one anothers thoughts, solve the mysteries of the universe, and meet something which may or may not be God before being restored to their current appearances and being reunited with the survival ship a million light years away from where they were. Its of particular note that there are no aliens or monsters in this episode; just a group of people quietly preparing for their own deaths. For the second series, producer Fred Freiberger, who oversaw the third and nal series of Star Trek, was brought across from the US to oversee production and bring a more action/ adventure orientation to the show. Space: 1999 became just a little more ordinary.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: EAGLE TRANSPORTER LENGTH: 102FT WIDTH: 41FT HEIGHT: 20FT PROPULSION: ATOMIC MOTORS CREW: 2 WEAPONS: USUALLY NONE. HOWEVER LATER IN THE SERIES SOME EAGLES HAVE BEEN FITTED WITH LASER AND MISSILE SYSTEMS. BASE OF OPERATIONS: MOONBASE ALPHA
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Eagle Transporter
Theres only one spacecraft of note on Moonbase Alpha, and thats the Eagle Transporter. The Eagle consists of a command module at the front and an engine at the rear, between which nests a superstructure of girders capable of holding one of any number of swappable modules. This facility earned Eagles in the original production documentation the less catchy name of Modular Transport Unit, abbreviated to MTU.
Cellular, Modular, Interactivodular

PASSENGER MODULE
The ability to swap in different modules for different missions gives the Eagle high exibility. Here are some of the ones that weve seen in the series:
is the same as that of a passenger module.
Rescue Module
The rescue module has red vertical stripes painted on the outside, and is used whenever a rescue mission must be sent out.
BOOSTER MODULE
Passenger Module
The most utilitarian and all-purpose of the modules that can be tted into an Eagle transporter, this module is seen more than any other. It is usually outtted with eight passenger seats, though some modules replace four of these seats with a computer bank.
Pallet Module
An open framework is tted into the body of the Eagle, holding containers of nuclear waste shipped out to the Moon from Earth.
RESCUE MODULE
Booster Module
PALLET/CARGO MODULE
Cargo Module
Based on the pallet module, these are used for transporting cargo. They include a winch mechanism with mechanical grab for retrieving items directly from the lunar or a planetary surface.
For when you want to get out of somewhere in a hurry. Fitting a booster module into the center of the Eagle increases its thrust capacity, allowing it to escape at high velocity. The interior of a booster module
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llen Ripley, Warrant Ofcer on the mining ship Nostromo, is the sole human survivor of an attack by a single Alien creature which quickly chomps its way through the entire crew. In the second lm, Ripley is woken after 57 years in hypersleep to nd that the planetoid where they rst encountered the Aliens eggs has now been colonized by 159 men, women, and children. She returns to the planetoid in the military ship Sulaco accompanied by a team of Colonial Marines armed to the teeth, with the intention of destroying the Aliens once and for all. It doesnt work. Ripley spends the next two lms facing off against further monstrous xenomorphs to diminishing returns.
Alien
Loving the Alien

The Alien creatures are often known as xenomorphs a word Lieutenant Gorman uses to describe them on the Sulaco, from the Greek words for alien and shape. For his work on Alien, noted Swiss surrealist HR Giger won the 1980 Oscar for the Best Achievement in Visual Effects. In the later lms Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Predator: Requiem, we discover that the look of the Alien depends upon the host form which incubates the creature.
Down and dirty

The ships in Alien and its sequels are a complete antithesis to the clean, classical look of spacecraft in previous visions of the future. Whether dirty industrial ore-carriers like the Nostromo or military craft, the ships in these lms couldnt be further away from the clean and clear design aesthetic of Star Trek or classical SF. Not just lived-in, these beasts are covered on every surface in dirt and oil, and lled with steam and condensation.
THE FIRST MODEL OF THE REFINERY FEATURES ORNATE SPIRES IN A THREE WAY CROSS BETWEEN GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, VICTORIAN ENGINEERING, AND A BATTLESHIP
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SPECIFICATION
NAME: REFINERY LENGTH: 4,921 FT WIDTH: 3,211 FT HEIGHT: 2,890 FT PROPULSION: PROPELLED BY NOSTROMO MAXIMUM SPEED: AS NOSTROMO WEAPON SYSTEMS: NONE
THE FINAL MODEL OF THE REFINERY, IN WHICH ALMOST ALL OF THE SPIRES HAVE BEEN REMOVED
Highly Refined
The role of the Nostromo is, that of a tug for the renery which it guides across space. The renery itself is many times larger than the Nostromo, and contains automated processing plants. When settling on the look of the renery ship, director Ridley Scotts rst requests were that it have the feel of an oil renery with pipes and spires. Later additions to the concept involved the addition of a Victorian and Gothic feel, and this was accomplished by the addition of girders, spires, and details reminiscent of the work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the great Victorian engineer. Although the design brief for the renery changed again later, a lot of this work remains in the detailing towards the base of the towers.
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The Nostromo
The Nostromo is, effectively, a giant space tug, carrying a huge ore renery much larger than the ship itself from planet to planet. The ship has three decks a bright white A-deck containing the hypersleep chambers where the crew stay in suspended animation during their journey between planets, B-deck which gives access to the shuttles, and the dirty, dingy C-Deck, a place dripping with condensing water and lled with steam. Its perhaps not surprising that C-deck is where the Alien likes to spend most of its time. Although the Nostromo is run by a crew of seven, they spend most of the journey time in hypersleep, leaving only the ships central computer, known as Mother, awake.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: UCSS NOSTROMO LENGTH: 1,095 FT WIDTH: 705 FT HEIGHT: 320 FT PROPULSION: YUTANI T7A NLS STELLAR DRIVE MAXIMUM SPEED: 0.42 LIGHT YEARS / DAY (UNLADEN) 0.12 LIGHT YEARS/DAY (LADEN) WEAPONS: NONE BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH/THEDUS. DIVERTED TO LV426 BY ORDER OF WEYLAND-YUTANI CORPORATION
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Whats in a name?
In Alien, the Nostromo is named after the eponymous antihero of Joseph Conrads 1904 novel about a man who was believed incorruptible, yet in the end was corrupted by money, and the shuttlecraft Narcissus in which Ripley escapes is named after one of Conrads short stories. In Aliens, the Sulaco, the ship on which Ripley and the Colonial Marines travel, is named after the town in which Nostromo lives and the novel is set. And between the events of Alien and Aliens LV-426 has been renamed to Acheron, which in Greek mythology is the river across which the souls of the dead were ferried on their way to the afterlife.
THE SEVEN-PERSON CREW OF THE NOSTROMO AWAKEN FROM THEIR HYPERSLEEP CHAMBERS
THE NARCISSUS
NOSTROMOS SHUTTLE. IN ADDITION TO ITS USE AS A TRANSPORT FOR THE SHIP, THE SHUTTLE CONTAINS TWO HYPERSLEEP CHAMBERS AND CAN BE USED AS A LIFEPOD IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS.
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The Derelict
Crash-landed on the planetoid LV-426 and emitting a signal thought to be a distress call, this is a derelict spacecraft with but one pilot, of an un-named race. The pilot, 26 feet tall, sits in the interior of the craft inside a large chamber upon what looks like a control chaair of some description, his body melded into it. His chest has been burst outwards, a sign of things to come. By the chair, a hole etched by acid leads down into a large hatching chamber lled with glistening leathery ovoids hundreds of eggs, each containing a facehugger, the parasitoid form of the Alien creatures life cycle. As the ship that we have ever seen had crashed many years ago, we know little about its propulsion systems, or those who built it. But we do know that their contact with the Aliens, like our own, did not end well.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 530 FT WIDTH: 572 FT HEIGHT: 180 FT WEAPONS: UNKNOWN PROPULSION SYSTEMS: UNKNOWN SPEED: UNKNOWN
USS Sulaco
The Sulaco was designed by concept artist Syd Mead, who also worked on concept design for lms including Blade Runner and Tron. As well as transporting the characters from Earth to LV-426, the Sulaco contains two drop-ships and an Armoured Personnel Carrier. The Sulaco was deliberately designed by Mead to be reminiscent of a gun in order to echo the military themes of the lm. Its described in the Aliens screenplay by James Cameron as A mountain of steel. A massive military transport ship. Ugly, battered... functional. And it lives up to that billing.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: USS SULACO LENGTH: 1,263 FT WIDTH: 164 FT HEIGHT: 275 FT POWER: NUCLEAR REACTOR MAXIMUM SPEED: 1.76 LIGHT YEARS / DAY WEAPONS: TWO GUN EMPLACEMENTS BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH / EARTH COLONIES.
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SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 83 FT WIDTH: 41 FT HEIGHT: 20 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: USS SULACO
Drop-ship
The drop-ship is a standard Colonial Marine air-to-ship shuttle. Each drop-ship is capable of carrying an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) with marines and others strapped directly inside for immediate deployment upon landing. Drop-ships are capable of being piloted remotely from the ground if a ground station needs to be evacuated. Once a communications uplink has been established to the orbiting craft, it takes 30 minutes for a qualied pilot to prepare a dropship for launch.
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Red Dwarf
An accident entirely wipes out the crew of Red Dwarf, a mining ship owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation. Only Dave Lister, lowly technician and all around slob, survives the accident, having been put into stasis as punishment for smuggling his pet cat aboard. When a radiation leak kills everyone aboard while Lister is in stasis, he is left there for three million years so that the radiation levels can die down, during which time humanity becomes extinct. ONE OF THE SQUATTER VERSIONS OF THE MINING The only company that Lister has after the destruction of SHIP RED DWARF. THE all human life are a creature evolved from his pet cat, a senile BUSSARD RAMJET SUCKS IN computer, and a hologram of his bunkmate Arnold Rimmer INTERSTELLAR HYDROGEN who, when alive, was the most irritating man in the world. TO USE AS FUEL. This does not change because hes dead. In later series they are joined by robot butler Kryten as well as (for various lengths of time) a version from a parallel universe of the woman he fancied most in the world and the entire crew of Red Dwarf, who have been resurrected from the dead. The space sitcom was originally inspired by a series of short radio comedy sketches called Dave Hollins: Space Cadet written by creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and since its rst appearance on screen in 1988 Red Dwarf has notched up no less than four novels and nine television series, with the promise of more to come.
Blue Midget
In its original incarnation Blue Midget to begin with the only shuttle seen on the programme featured caterpillar tracks and a My Other Space Ship is a Red Dwarf bumper sticker. It was replaced by Starbug and not seen again until the eighth season, by which point it had undergone a redesign. The new Blue Midget was created in a computer rather than being a model, and had two retractable legs in place of the caterpillar tracks which enabled it to stand, walk, and in one memorable sequence engage in a two-minute dance routine. When the rst three series of Red Dwarf were remastered in 1997 for international sales and a new video release, improvements were made to sound, special effects, and picture and as part of this process the original Blue Midget model shots were replaced with the new CGI ship.
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a mining ship owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation. It also has a small NAME: RED DWARF asteroid embedded into it at the back. This may LENGTH: 6 MILES or may not be where its supposed to be. WIDTH: 4 MILES For the rst two seasons of Red Dwarf, the HEIGHT: 5 MILES main set was Rimmer and Listers quarters, a PROPULSION: BUSSARD RAMJET drab grey submarine-like affair with two bunk MAXIMUM SPEED: FASTER THAN LIGHT. beds. OCCASIONALLY, AND NEVER WITH GOOD CONSEQUENCES. Writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor added BASE OF OPERATIONS: HEADING another role to their repertoire in season three BACK TOWARDS EARTH FROM THE FAR as they became producers of the show. As well REACHES OF THE GALAXY as changing the original sombre opening music to something more upbeat and with a faster tempo, the interior of Red Dwarf was redesigned to be more colourful and visually exciting. This was explained in the series as a move to the Ofcers Quarters. For seasons six and seven, set aboard Starbug, another change of set was in order as the crewmates bunk down in the shuttle during their pursuit of Red Dwarf. In series eight, Red Dwarf has been completely rebuilt by nanobots to an earlier version of the plans explaining away yet another set redesign and a new CGI model for the ship, this time with two asteroids attached to the ship rather than one.
SPECIFICATION
A LONGER VERSION OF THE SHIP, AS REBUILT BY NANOBOTS.
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THERE ARE NO ALIENS IN THE WORLD OF RED DWARF BUT PLENTY OF OTHER MONSTERS. MEET THREE OF THE BEST:
MONSTER MASH
CURRY MONSTER
CREATED BY A DNA-ALTERING MACHINE FROM ONE OF LISTERS VINDALOO CURRIES, THIS FEARSOME BEAST CAN BE DEFEATED BY ONLY ONE THING LAGER.
GELF
Starbug
Starbug 1 is the shuttle used most often in the series to ferry characters from ship to planet. Made from three green spheres stuck together one after the other, with landing legs poking out of the bottom, the shuttle resembles a giant insect. From season three onwards, Starbug becomes the main shuttle for the programme. It replaced the previous shuttle Blue Midget, which was too small to accommodate all of the regulars after new character Kryten joined the crew. Starbug also becomes the home for our heroes during seasons six and seven after Red Dwarf itself is mysteriously stolen. For season seven, Starbug was redesigned using a much larger set, an upgrade explained in the series as the craft having grown by SIZE: 212% BIGGER 212% due to dimensional PROPULSION: UNKNOWN anomalies caused by a ght WEAPONS: LASER CANNON (GUNMEN OF THE with their future selves.
SPECIFICATION
APOCALYPSE ONWARD) BASE OF OPERATIONS: CLOSE TO RED DWARF
THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT SORTS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED LIFE FORM WAITING IN THE DEPTHS OF SPACE INCLUDING THE EMOTIONSUCKING EMOHAWK AND THE SHAPE-CHANGING PSIREN. THE PSIRENS, LIKE THOSE THAT TEMPTED ODYSSEUS, DRAW MEN TO THEIR DOOM, WHILE THE EMOHAWK IS AN EMOTION-DRAINING CREATURE WITH THE ABILITY TO SUCK ALL OF THE COOL OR BITTERNESS RIGHT OUT OF A PERSON.
MISTER FLIBBLE
WHEN RIMMER IS INFECTED BY A HOLO-VIRUS, THERES ONLY ONE PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE HE CAN TRUST TO TELL HIM WHO SHOULD LIVE AND WHO SHOULD DIE, AND THATS PSYCHOTIC HANDPUPPET MISTER FLIBBLE. ISNT THAT RIGHT, MISTER FLIBBLE?
53
Space
NASAs space shuttle, unlikely as it may seem, was launched on lm before the real thing ew into space. In 1979, the mid-air theft of a space shuttle in Moonraker was the rst of many shuttle appearances in the movies. The shuttle was not to launch in the real world until April 12 1981 and the last shuttle to y, Atlantis, made its nal landing on July 21 2011. The shuttle eet has now been completely retired, leaving the United States without functioning human-rated spaceight capacity. Ofcially known within NASA as the Space Transportation System (STS), the STS itself consists of the whole apparatus necessary to launch into space that is to say the two solid rocket boosters which parachute back to earth to be retrieved and used again, the external fuel tank which burns up in the atmosphere, and the orbiter, the spaceplane that most people refer to as the space shuttle. The original plan for the shuttle was that reusing the orbiters would make it a cost-effective way to achieve space missions. During the design phase it was anticipated than a shuttle would be able to launch again within two weeks of its return to Earth, but in practice the fastest turnaround ever achieved was 56 days. This change in capability meant that the STS actually cost more to lift cargo into orbit per pound of payload than its predecessor the Saturn rocket. The shuttle is mostly used in near-future SF lms as a way to transport personnel into orbit, for example if you need to put nuclear bombs on an approaching asteroid (Armageddon) or attack a super-villains orbiting space station before they destroy all life on Earth (Moonraker). The shuttle is also used early on in The Core to vividly demonstrate the problem with the Earths magnetic eld, resulting in an emergency landing in the Los Angeles River. Upon occasion the shuttle itself is the setting for the lm, as with the 1986 lm Space Camp in which a group of teenagers are accidentally launched into orbit.
The
Shuttle
Fact and ction intermingle with NASAs reusable Space Transportation System
54 54
SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS DOCKS WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ON MAY 20 2010
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ONE OF TWO X-71 MILITARY SHUTTLES NAMED FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FROM ARMAGEDDON. THE MESSIAH, A DERIVATIVE OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE FROM DEEP IMPACT. FIRST TO JUMP ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE BANDWAGON WAS THE 1979 JAMES BOND MOVIE MOONRAKER. CLINT EASTWOOD INSIIDE THE SHUTTLE FEATURED IN SPACE COWBOYS, SENT TO AVERT NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION
55
Profile
n 1975, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) was founded by George Lucas to create the special effects for Star Wars. Douglas Trumbull, who had worked on the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, recommended his assistant to head up the effects work on the new lm and the rst ILM team, led by John Dykstra, set up shop in a warehouse in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. Part of their work involved the creation of one of the the rst electronic motion control rigs, the Dykstraex a camera attached to a hardwired computer which could repeat the movements programmed into it. In motion control photography, rather than moving the models to show them ying through space, the camera is moved instead. This allows larger and more detailed models to be built. The ability that the Dykstraex provided to exactly duplicate the pass the camera had made over the model meant that several different passes could be shot and combined, even when making complicated movements.
Industrial Light and Magic

As well as allowing the creation of a eet of ships by moving the model into a different position, lming the shot several times, and then combining the three shots in an optical printer to make them appear to be ying in formation, the Dykstraex allowed unparalleled freedom in the original camera movement. The Dykstraex itself won an Academy Award in 1978 at the same time as the Special Effects for Star Wars were so rewarded. After the success of Star Wars, ILM moved on to Marin County, California to work on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Over the years to come they continued to rack up an impressive list of rsts, including a recordbeating 63 elements onscreen at one time in the legendary shot SB19 in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi as the Millenium Falcon moves to attack the second Death Star. Not resting on their laurels, ILM soon turned their attention to the new eld of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), again with spectacular results. The section of
ABOVE: GEORGE LUCAS, THE CREATOR OF STAR WARS AND THE FOUNDER OF INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC BELOW: HOOTING THE MOTION CONTROL FOOTAGE FOR THE SPEEDER BIKE CHASE FROM STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI
56
ILM TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS
1977 1982 1985
YEAR
STAR WARS STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES WILLOW THE ABYSS TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY DEATH BECOMES HER JURASSIC PARK JUMANJI DRAGONHEART PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST
FILM
1988 1989 1989 1993 1993 1995 1996 2006
LARGE-SCALE USE OF A MOTION CONTROL CAMERA ENTIRELY COMPUTER-GENERATED SEQUENCE COMPLETELY COMPUTER-GENERATED CHARACTER COMPOSITED INTO A LIVE SCENE. MORPHING SEQUENCE COMPUTER-CREATED THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER. PARTIALLY COMPUTER-CREATED MAIN CHARACTER. HUMAN SKIN TEXTURE GENERATED BY COMPUTER FULLY-REALISED CREATURES GENERATED BY CGI COMPUTER-CREATED PHOTO-REALISTIC HAIR AND FUR. TOTALLY COMPUTER-CREATED MAIN CHARACTER MOTION TRACKING SYSTEM TO FOLLOW ACTORS ON SET AND USE THEIR ACTING AS A BASIS FOR COMPUTER-CREATED CHARACTERS.
THE FIRST
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in which the effects of detonating the Genesis Device were shown was the rst sequence in any lm to be generated entirely on a computer, and ILM then went on to create the two-dimensional Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, the rst computer-generated character to be composited into a live-action background. Jurassic Parks dinosaurs were originally due to be created in stop motion until
a screen test proved to Steven Spielberg that ILMs computer-generated dinosaurs would be convincing. As well as its own innovations in the eld of special effects, ILM has proved to be inuential in other areas too. In 1986, its computer graphics division was separated from the main company and sold to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for $10 million. The new company formed from this was called Pixar, which went
on to create hit lms including the Toy Story series and Monsters Inc. Since its formation, ILM has created special effects for almost 300 lms, and its record of innovation and success continues today.
+LJK7HFK
Here are some of the technical advances achieved by Industrial Light and Magic since it was formed more than 35 years ago
57
Star Wars
Tantive IV
A Corellian Corvette, the Tantive IV is used by the Organa family as a consular ship, and is also sent out upon mercy missions to star systems that are under attack though these have sometimes been smokescreens to aid the Rebel Alliance. The Corellian Corvette is also known as the Rebel Blockade Runner due to its maneuverability. It contains several escape pods which can be used to leave the ship when it is under attack, although it has been known for Imperial vessels to re upon lifepods that have ejected during a battle if any lifesigns are detected within. DARTH VADERS FIRST DRAMATIC APPEARANCE ON THE TANTIVE IV
A long time ago and in a galaxy far far away, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young apprentice Anakin Skywalker try to nd the identity of the evil Darth Sidious, who plots and schemes in secret to take control of the galaxy. But Anakin is quick to anger, and nds himself increasingly tempted toward the Dark Side of the mysterious Force which binds all living creatures together - and which can be used for evil as well as good. The two Jedi fail to unmask Darth Sidious in time, and Sidious becomes Emperor. Almost twenty years later a young farmboy on the desert planet of Tattooine, Luke Skywalker, nds that his father was a Jedi Knight. After his parents are killed he learns the ways of the Force, and dedicates himself to destroying the evil Galactic Empire that Sidious brought into being.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: TANTIVE IV LENGTH: 416 FT WIDTH: 135 FT HEIGHT: 90 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: ALDERAAN WEAPONS: TWO DOUBLE TURBOLASER TURRETS, FOUR SINGLE TURBOLASER TURRETS PROPULSION: ION TURBINE ENGINES TOP SPEED: 60 MGLT
58
NABOO DIPLOMATIC STARSHIPS

SPECIFICATION
NAME: J-TYPE J- YPE 327 NUBIAN ROYAL J-T STARSHIP T TARSHIP LENGTH: 249 FT WEAPONS: NONE CREW: PILOT AND CO-PILOT BASE OF OPERATIONS: NABOO WEAPO NONE WEAPONS:
Naboo Royal Starship
QUI-GON JIN AND OBI-WAN KENOBI DISCUSS STRATEGY WITH R2D2 AND ANAKIN SKYWALKER IN TOW ON BOARD THE NABOO ROYAL STARSHIP
This chrome-clad starship transported the queen of Naboo away from her planet when it was blockaded by the Trade Federation. The ship took heavy re as she did so, resulting in damage to the hyperdrive generator. Sometimes known as the J-type 327 Nubian, the ship possesses no weapons. To make up for the lack of offensive capability, she possesses strong shields and a high-quality hyperdrive. While the T-14 hyperdrive generator used by this ship is an excellent choice for most uses, they can be hard to come across in some of the lesstravelled areas of the galaxy. The owing lines are typical of Naboo ship design, as concerned with beauty as it is with power.
SPECIFICATION
J-type Diplomatic Barge
The Diplomatic Barge is the successor to the Royal Starship in carrying on the diplomatic work of the planet Naboo. Like its predecessor, the barge carries no offensive weapons, relying instead on an accompanying ight of Naboo Starghters for protection It is improved over the earlier ship in several respects, most notably in its possession of two hyperdrives, either of which is capable on its own of making the jump to lightspeed.
NAME: J-TYPE DIPLOMATIC BARGE LENGTH: 128 FT WIDTH: 299 FT EIGHT: 22 FT HEIGHT: WEAPONS: NONE CREW: PILOT AND CO-PILOT BASE OF OPERATIONS: PERATIONS: NABOO
59

Jedi Interceptor
The Jedi Interceptor is a one-pilot assault craft. Lightly armed and armoured, the Interceptor relies on the attunement of its pilot to the Force to avoid enemy attacks. The wing tips unfold to reveal radiators designed to dissipate the intense heat developed in combat operations. While it is a powerful short-range ghter, the Jedi Interceptor is too small to carry an onboard hyperspace motivator, meaning that it is forced to rely upon a hyperspace transport ring if it needs to travel faster than the speed of light. In order to make the jump to lightspeed the pilot must y their craft into the transport ring, lock tight to it, then activate the engines within the ring to enter hyperspace.
SPECIFICATION
NAME NAME: AME: : JEDI INTERCEP IN INTERCEPTOR ERCEPTOR ERCEP OR LENGTH: LEN NGTH: 18 FT F WIDTH: 14 FT FT H EIGHT W ITH UN U NFO FOL LDED W INGS: 8 FT FT HEIGHT WITH UNFOLDED WINGS: WEAPON WEAPO NS: TWO DUAL LASER WEAPONS: CANNON, T WO ION CANNON TWO CREW: ONE JEDI PILOT AND ONE ASTROMECH DROID
Droid Tri-fighter
With an integrated droid brain in command of each ship, the droid tri-ghter is a fast and deadly opponent. As well as using main and subsidiary laser cannon to attack, the tri-ghter is armed with buzz droid missiles to incapacitate enemy ghters. The missiles y to their target, where they release their payload: small droids which swiftly attach themselves to the enemy ship and attempt to sabotage it in ight. While dangerous if left to go about their business for too long, buzz droids can be quickly disabled by a shot of electricity to the central eye.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: DROID TRIFIGHTER LENGTH: 18 FT WING DIAMETER: 6 FT WEAPONS: ONE MEDIUM LASER CANNON, THREE LIGHT LASER CANNON, TWO TO SIX BUZZ DROID MISSILES CREW: INTEGRATED DROID BRAIN
THE SEPERATIST ARMY IS COMMANDED BY THE FOUR-LIGHTSABERWIELDING GENERAL GRIEVOUS
60

Millennium Falcon
Han Solos pride and joy, he claims that this old piece of junk can outrun Imperial starships and not just the local bulk-cruisers, mind you, but the big Corellian ships at that. While that may be true after the jump to lightspeed, he seems to have a lot of problems actually entering hyperspace. Which results in an awful lot of laser bolts being red at it as the Imperials chase the Falcon while it tries to activate its hyperdrive motivator. The good news, though, is that after the Falcon enters hyperspace, no-one seems able to catch up with it. Of course, this may simply be because no-one can track any ship after it makes the jump to hyperspace. After all, Grand Moff Tarkin himself, against his better judgment, must allow Lord Vader to conceal a homing beacon on the ship before they can nd the location of the secret Rebel base The Falcon is packed full of special modications, including smuggling compartments and high-grade weapons systems. The quad laser guns which are the Falcons main weapons are reached by climbing a ladder from the main deck, with one gunport at the top of the ladder, and the other at the bottom. Once within the gunport a different articial gravity eld takes over, ipping the gunners effectively sideways from the normal up and down of the ship. So from Chewies point of view in the cockpit, Han is lying on his back at the top of the ship, while Luke is on his stomach facing downwards from the turret on the bottom. But as far as Luke and Han are concerned, theyre both sitting with their backs to each other just as they might do planetside, and its the Falcon thats sitting skew-wiff, rising between the two of them like a giant wall.
DID YOU KNOW...

IN THE NEW JEDI ORDER SERIES OF BOOKS HAN SOLO PAINTS THE MILLENNIUM FALCON BLACK.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: MILLENNIUM FALCON LENGTH INCLUDING COCKPIT: 114 FT SAUCER DIAMETER: 88 FT HEIGHT: 22 FT MAXIMUM SPEED: POINT FIVE PAST LIGHTSPEED IN HYPERSPACE, 75 MGLT IN REALSPACE. CREW: PILOT AND CO-PILOT. THERE ARE TWO GUNPORTS, SO FOR FULL COMBAT EFFICIENCY A CREW OF AT LEAST THREE WOULD BE REQUIRED. WEAPONS: QUAD LASER TURRETS, CONCUSSION MISSILES, ANTIPERSONNEL LASER BASE OF OPERATIONS: MOS EISLEY SPACEPORT, ECHO BASE
INTERNAL VIEW OF THE COCKPIT OF THE MILLENNIUM FALCON. THATS NO MOON. ITS A SPACE STATION.
62
THE MILLENNIUM FALCON ENTERING THE DEATH STAR II WITH SUPPORT OF X-WING FIGHTERS FROM STAR WARS RETURN OF THE JEDI
BIRDS OF PREY
THE MILLENNIUM FALCONS SAUCER DESIGN, WITH RADAR DISH, MANDIBLES PROTRUDING FROM THE FRONT OF THE SHIP, AND SIDE-MOUNTED COCKPIT, IS A BEAUTIFUL ONE, IF A BIT PATCHED AND RAGGEDY BUT HOW DID IT END UP THAT WAY? EARLY CONCEPT ART FOR THE FALCON SHOWED IT AS A LONG, , WITH THE COCKPIT (IN (IN MUCH THE S AME FORM SLIM VESSEL, SAME EE IT TODAY) AT THE FRON FRO NT OF THE S HIP AN A ND A L ARGE AS WE SEE FRONT SHIP AND LARGE HIS HI S VER VERS SIO ION N MADE IT ALL ALL THE ENGINE BLOCK AT THE REAR. THIS VERSION WAY THROUGH TO A PROTOTYPE S TAGE B EFORE G EORGE STAGE BEFORE GEORGE PORTER FROM SPACE: 1999 LUCAS SAW THE EAGLE TRANSPORTER AND DECIDED THAT THE DESIGNS NS WERE TOO SIMILAR. WORK ON THE ORIGINAL DESIGN WAS HALTED, AND N THE NEW MILLENNIUM FALCON WAS DESIGNED IN A VERY SHORT TIMEFRAME. THE FIRST DESIGN WASNT WASTED THOUGH, AND SURVIVES IN A MODIFIED VERSION AS THE TANTIVE IV BLOCKADE RUNNER TRANSPORTING PRINCESS LEIA AND THE DROIDS WHICH IS SHOT DOWN AND BOARDED BY THE EMPIRE AT THE BEGINNING OF STAR W WAR WARS ARS.
63
X-wing Fighter
The workhorse ghter of the Rebel eet in Episodes IV to VI, the X-wing is equally at home in space or in atmosphere. When the ship is expected to enter combat, its S-foil wings are opened, which gives the ghter its characteristic X shape. Unlike the short-range TIE ghter used by the Galactic Empire during this time, the X-wing carries its own hyperdrive motivator and can make the jump to lightspeed unaided in order to travel to other worlds. The X-wing also contains a socket for an Astromech droid just behind the ghter cockpit. As well as helping with astrogation calculations, the droid can make use of its built-in tools to make running repairs to the ship during combat.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: X-WING FIGHTER ENGTH: 41 FT WIDTH: 38 FT HEIGHT: 15 FT (S-FOILS IN ATTACK POSITION) 7 FT (S-FOILS CLOSED) MAXIMUM SPEED: 100 MGLT CREW: 1 PLUS DROID WEAPON SYSTEMS: 4 LASER CANNON, PROTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: REBEL BASES THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY INCLUDING ENDOR, YAVIN 4, AND HOTH
Y-wing Fighter
Y-wing ghters were used in the Battle of Yavin for the rst trench run on the Death Star. Their rear engine blocks had been stripped by Rebel technicians of all unnecessary shielding and weight in an effort to increase speed and maneuverability. As with the X-wing, an astromech droid can be installed behind the cockpit to aid in repairs and astrogation. Three Y-wing ghters were used in the rst trench run in an attempt to re proton torpedoes down a small exhaust port leading to the heart of the Death Star. While they managed to avoid the turbolasers guarding the trench, all three were destroyed by a TIE ghter ight led by Darth Vader.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: Y-WING YY -WI WING FI FIGHTER GHTER LENGTH: LEN LE NGTH: 53 FEET WIDTH: W IDTH: 28 FEET HEIGHT: H EIGHT: 9 FEET MAXIMUM M AXIMUM SPEED: 100 MGLT C CREW: 1 WEAPONS: 2 LASER CANNON, ION CANNON, PROTON TORPEDOES BASE OF OPERATIONS: REBEL BASES THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY INCLUDING YAVIN 4 AND THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR
64
STAR WARS JARGON

IT MAY SOUND GOOD, BUT DOES ANY OF IT MAKE ANY SENSE? LOCK S-FOILS IN ATTACK POSITION SURE, WHEN THE X-WINGS OPEN THEIR WINGS OUT INTO AN X SHAPE, IT LOOKS LOVELY BUT WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO? ALMOST NONE OF THE OTHER SHIPS IN THE FILMS NEED TO CHANGE THEIR WINGS INTO A DIFFERENT SHAPE WHEN THEYRE READY TO GET INTO A FIGHT. YOUVE NEVER HEARD OF THE MILLENNIUM FALCON? ITS THE SHIP THAT MADE THE KESSEL RUN IN LESS THAN TWELVE PARSECS. A PARSEC IS A UNIT OF DISTANCE, NOT TIME. SO UNLESS THE MILLENNIUM FALCON CAN SOMEHOW WARP SPACE RATHER THAN TRAVEL THROUGH IT, THEN THE DISTANCE ISNT EVER GOING TO CHANGE. SO HOW ON EARTH CAN HAN SOLO CLAIM THAT THE FALCON CAN CHANGE THE DISTANCE? IT IS, OF COURSE, POSSIBLE THAT HANS JUST MAKING THIS UP TO IMPRESS THE RUBES. BASED ON WHAT HAN SAYS, WE HAVE TO COME TO ONE OF THREE CONCLUSIONS: EITHER HES LYING EVERY TIME HE OPENS HIS MOUTH, THAT NO-ONE MAKING THE FILM REALLY WORRIED TOO MUCH ABOUT HOW IT WORKS, OR THAT PHYSICS IN THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE WORKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY TO PHYSICS IN THE REAL WORLD. GIVEN THAT THEY HAVE SWORDS MADE OF LIGHT THAT CAN CHOP PEOPLES ARMS OFF, AND YET STILL BE USED TO PARRY ONE ANOTHER, COMBINATION OF THE SECOND A NOTHER, OTHER, A COM TWO EXPLANATIONS EXPLA EXPL SEEMS THE MOST LIKELY. LIKE IKELY. LY. LY.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: B-WING FIGHTER LENGTH: 55 FT WIDTH: 37 FT HEIGHT: 22 FT WEAPONS: LASER CANNON, PROTON TORPEDOES, ION CANNON CREW: ONE PILOT TOP SPEED: 75 MGLT
B-wing Fighter
The B-wing, a heavy assault starghter, is a relatively late arrival to the battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, coming to prominence only at the Battle of Endor. Like the X-wing, it uses S-Foils to radiate heat and to increase the spread of its weapons re. Uniquely, the B-wings cockpit is able to rotate freely within the structure of the ship. The pilot can set an articial horizon as a reference point, and no matter how the ship moves upon its roll axis, the cockpit will remain at the same orientation to the horizon, keeping the pilot effectively upright.
SHELL SHELL MAKE POINT POIN FIVE PAST LIGHTSPEED. LIGHT IGHTS SPEED. LIGHTSPEED LIGHTS LIGHT SPEED IS IS VERY FAST FA INDEED. IN A VACUUM (LIKE (LIKE THAT WHICH EXISTS (L EXI BETWEEN BETWEE ETWEEN N THE STARS) ITS 299,792,458 SECOND OR TO PUT IT IN EASIER METRES METRE SAS ECO UNDERSTAND UNITS, ABOUT 186,282 TO UNDER U DERS DER MILES PER SECOND. MI ASSUMING THAT THE STARS IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY ARE ABOUT THE SAME DISTANCE APART AS THE STARS IN OUR OWN GALAXY, THE THEN THEYLL BE, ON AVERAGE, JUST OVER FOUR LIGHT-YEARS APART. SO IF YOU WERE TO MAKE THE JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED, ITD TAKE ROUGHLY FOUR YEARS TO TRAVEL FROM STAR SYSTEM TO STAR SYSTEM. POINT FIVE PAST LIGHTSPEED, THEN, WILL SAVE YOU A THIRD ON THAT TIME, MAKING THE TRIP ABOUT TWO-AND-TWO-THIRDS YEARS INSTEAD OF ABOUT FOUR. SO NOT THAT MUCH FASTER, REALLY.
65

SPECIFICATION
NAME: TIE FIGHTER LENGTH: 21 FT WIDTH: 20 FT HEIGHT: 27 FT COCKPIT DIAMETER: 7 FT MAXIMUM SPEED: 100 MGLT PROPULSION: TWIN ION ENGINES CREW: 1 WEAPONS: 2 LASER CANNON BASE OF OPERATIONS: CLOSE TO ANY IMPERIAL BASE THIS CAN BE A SPACE STATION, OR AN IMPERIAL CAPITAL SHIP SUCH AS A STAR DESTROYER OR SUPER STAR DESTROYER.
Tie Fighter
Early literature used to claim that TIE stood for The Imperial Empire, but this proved incorrect. Nowadays we know that the TIE ghter is named after its Twin Ion Engines, which make it fast and maneuverable, but prone to explode at a glancing hit. A short range ghter, TIE ghters do not carry hyperdrive motivators, and are therefore never found far from an Imperial Base. Compared to the Rebel X-wing, the TIE ghter is a lighter and more maneuverable craft. The greater numbers with which they can be deployed from an Imperial base or cruiser more than make up for any deciencies that each individual craft or pilot may have, however.
TIE VARIANTS
VARIANTS OF THE STANDARD TIE FIGHTER INCLUDE MODELS WITH HYPERDRIVE, INCREASED SPEED, AND BOMBING CAPABILITY DARTH VADERS TIE X1
TIE INTERCEPTOR
TIE BOMBER
TIE FIGHTERS IN PURSUIT OF THE MILLENNIUM FALCON FROM STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BAC
66
Mad Props
If youre planning to leave your spaceship at any point, you need some kind of protection from whatever may be out there and thats where the propmakers come in. Props include anything handled or worn by a character on screen, such as handguns, armor, and spacesuits.
Props that are used by the lead characters or are seen in close-up are referred to as hero props. They are nished to a higher quality than stunt or background props, and will often feature moving parts or lights. Several copies of the hero prop have to be made in case one gets damaged during lming. There is now a thriving market in lm memorabilia, and the price paid by collectors for props actually used on screen can reach thousands of dollars. This means that props seen in the lm are often sold with a certicate of authenticity to ensure that they are the real deal. For those who cant afford an original, replica props are now available for many lms and television shows, and are often cast from the original molds used on the production, such as the props provided by Andrew Ainsworth of Shepperton Design Studios.
TOP: STORMTROOPER HELMETS DRYING ON THE PAVEMENT MIDDLE: TO CREATE THE SPACE HELMETS FOR OUTLAND, ACRYLIC SPHERES WERE USED AS THE BASIS FOR THE BUILD. THE HELMETS WERE THEN BUILT UP USING CROWNS, VENTS, LIGHTS, AND GREEBLIES TO CREATE AN AIR-CONDITIONED HELMET FOR THE ACTORS TO WEAR DURING THE SHOOT. BOTTOM: TIE PILOT HELMETS FROM STAR WARS
67

Death Star
A battle station the size of which has never been seen before in the galaxy, the Death Star is so large that it can be mistaken for a moon. It possesses a superlaser powerful enough to demolish an entire planet, turning it into little more than a eld of asteroid debris.
GRAND MOFF TARKIN ORDERS THE DESTRUCTION OF ALDERAAN
SPECIFICATION
NAME: DEATH STAR DIAMETER: 100 MILES WEAPONS: A FIREPOWER GREATER THAN HALF THE STARFLEET, INCLUDING TURBOLASERS, ION CANNON, AND A PLANET-DESTROYING SUPERLASER BASE OF OPERATIONS: ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY
Super Star Destroyer

More than 11 times the length of a mile-long Star Destroyer, the Super Star Destroyer is used as a command vessel in Imperial engagements. One of the rst Super Star Destroyers, the Executor, is Darth Vaders personal agship. Studded with over 5,000 Turbolasers and Ion Cannon, the Super Star Destroyer is a deadly opponent at any range.
68
SPACEPORTS
EVERY SO OFTEN, YOUR HYPERDRIVE MOTIVATORS GOING TO BREAK DOWN. AGAIN. OR YOULL NEED TO STOP OFF FOR SOME FRESH FOOD AND WATER. BUT WHERE DO YOU TAKE YOUR STARSHIP FOR A SERVICE?
CLOUD CITY
HAN SOLO, LUKE SKYWALKER, AND PROTOCOL DROID C-3PO ABOARD THE DEATH STAR
CLOUD CITY IS A SPACEPORT ON THE MINING PLANET OF BESPIN. ITS SPINNING-TOP FORM FLOATS AMONG THE CLOUDS OF THE GAS GIANT, COOLING TOWER DROPPING DEEP INTO THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE PLANET. BENEATH CLOUD CITY LIES A FOREST OF STRUTS AND ANTENNAE, DRAPED ACROSS THE UNDERSIDE OF THE WORLD. CLOUD CARS ARE DISPATCHED BY CLOUD CITY LANDING CONTROL IN ORDER TO GUIDE SPACECRAFT IN TO ONE OF THE HUNDREDS OF LANDING PLATFORMS. LANDING PERMISSION IS TAKEN SERIOUSLY ON BESPIN, AND EACH LANDING SPACECRAFT MUST COME DOWN THROUGH A STRICTLY DEFINED LANDING PATH OR BE SHOT FROM THE SKY.
MOS EISLEY
SPECIFICATION
NAME: SUPER STAR DESTROYER LENGTH: 11.8 MILES WIDTH: 3.8 MILES HEIGHT: 0.93 MILES MAXIMUM SPEED: 40 MGLT WEAPONS: TURBOLASERS AND ION CANNON BASE OF OPERATIONS: THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY
MOS EISLEY IS WELL KNOWN ACROSS THE GALAXY AS BEING A WRETCHED HIVE OF SCUM AND VILLAINY. LOCAL ATTRACTIONS, AS ON MOST OF TATTOOINE, INCLUDE DESERT, DESERT, AND DESERT. DESPITE THAT, MOS EISLEY IS A GOOD PLACE TO PICK UP BUSINESS, LEGITIMATE OR OTHERWISE, WITH 362 HANGAR BAYS SUITABLE FOR MOST SMALL AND MEDIUM STARSHIPS. YOU CAN FIND CARGO AND PASSENGERS AT ONE OF THE MANY LOCAL CANTINAS.
69
Death Star II
More than ve times the size of the original Death Star in diameter, the second giant battle station to bear that name seems to still be half-nished, showing girders and struts to space and presenting a tempting target for the Rebel Alliance. But this second Death Star is fully operational, and shielded from any attack by a defense shield generated from the forest moon of Endor. Unable to penetrate the shield and attack the station, the Rebel forces are trapped between the Death Star and an overwhelming Imperial force consisting of Star Destroyers and a Super Star Destroyer commanded by Admiral Piett. With the Death Star able to re through the defense shield and obliterate rebel cruisers in an instant, the Rebels only chance is to y so close to the Imperial forces that the Death Stars superlaser cannot be red without hitting its own ships.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: DEATH STAR II DIAMETER: 560 MILES WEAPONS: TURBOLASERS, ION CANNON, AND A PLANETDESTROYING SUPERLASER BASE OF OPERATIONS: ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY
LUKE SKYWALKER FACES THE EMPEROR IN HIS THRONE ROOM ON THE SECOND DEATH STAR. OUTSIDE THE BATTLE STATION, THE REBEL FLEET FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL AGAINST AN OVERWHELMING IMPERIAL FORCE
70
Star Destroyer
The Imperial Star Destroyer can drop out of hyperspace close to a planet and enforce the Empires will. These mile-long engines of destruction, as well as being armed with turbolasers and ion cannon, have the capability to deliver Imperial Walkers to a planetary surface and take the battle directly to the enemy. Each also carries a full wing of 72 TIE ghters for ship-to-ship combat. Seeing the wedge of a Star Destroyer appear above your planet is one of the most terrifying sights in the galaxy.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 1 MILE WIDTH: 3,332 FT HEIGHT: 1,574 FT MAXIMUM SPEED: 60 MGLT CREW: 9,235 OFFICERS, 9,700 INFANTRY, 27,850 ENLISTED WEAPONS: TURBOLASERS AND ION CANNON BASE OF OPERATIONS: THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY
71
A REBEL INFILTRATION UNIT USES A STOLEN IMPERIAL SHUTTLE TO TRAVEL TO THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 77 FT WIDTH WITH WINGS FOLDED: 46 FT WIDTH WITH WINGS EXTENDED: 137 FT HEIGHT WITH WINGS FOLDED: 80 FT HEIGHT WITH WINGS EXTENDED: 110 FT WEAPONS: DOUBLE LASER CANNON CREW: ONE PILOT AND UP TO 20 PASSENGERS
Imperial Shuttle
Although primarily used to move cargo and passengers through space, the Lambda-class shuttle is also armed with double laser cannon to aid in extrication from problematic situations or at least to delay the enemy long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The shuttle is used on bases and spaceships across the Empire, carrying troops and personnel from lowly technical crew up to the highest ranks of the Empire including even the Emperor himself.
The Need for Speed

Most ships in the Star Wars universe have their speed given in MGLT. This speed derives originally from a reference chart used during postproduction on Return of the Jedi which was used to help the special effects creators know what the relative velocities of ships would be in the space battles, and how well they would be able to maneuver. While we still dont know exactly how fast 1 MGLT is, we do know this: the more you have, the faster you go.
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SOUND IN SPACE
The sounds of Star Wars were created by sound designer Ben Burtt. In order to avoid the audio in the lm sounding synthesized and manufactured, like much of the SF of the time, Burtt instead went out and recorded hundreds of real sounds, from kitchen blenders to walrus roars, on a mono Nagra tape recorder. Once collected, the sounds were then slowed down, sped up, and combined with others in order to produce the audio environment of Star Wars. The slow rumble of the Death Star progressing through space was produced by recording an old hotel air-conditioner and slowing it down, while the scream of a TIE Fighter ying past camera is actually the sound of an elephants roar combined with that of of a car driving past on a wet road. The sound of a laser being red began with a recording of Burtt hitting a metal guy wire with a hammer, while the sound effect of the Death Stars superlaser ring was created by slowing down and altering the rst laser sound, then combining it with many others including that of a rocket being red from a jet aircraft and the loud buzz of a Tesla coil. The audio effects of lightsabers cutting through the air are made from the combination of the hum coming from an old movie projector recorded while Burtt was still a student at the University of Southern California, combined with an induced buzz caused by recording too close to an old TV set with a broken microphone cable. The nal whooshing sound as the combatants cut and parry in a lightsaber duel is made by recording through a microphone being swung in front of a speaker playing this combined tone. The doppler effect created by swinging the microphone is the same as that which changes the sound of police sirens depending on whether theyre moving towards or away from us, providing an audible sense of movement throughout the lightsaber battle.
Slave One
The ship of Boba Fett, one of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the Empire and one renowned for his overenthusiastic approach to disintegration, Slave One is as maneuverable as the Millennium Falcon, as seen by the way Fett follows the Falcon to Bespin and Cloud City unobserved. The ship was previously owned by his clone-father, Jango, during which time it was used to escape from a young Obi-Wan Kenobi during a chase through an asteroid eld.
BOBA FETTS SHIP IN

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
SPECIFICATION
NAME: SLAVE ONE LENGTH: 70 FT WIDTH: 68 FT HEIGHT: 26 FT CREW: 1 MAXIMUM SPEED: 70 MGLT WEAPONS: SEISMIC CHARGES, LASERS, MISSILES
JANGO FETTS SHIP IN

ATTACK OF THE CLONES
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Blakes 7
Liberator
A small band of freedom ghters led by Roj Blake take on the might of the Terran Federation in an attempt to free humanity from oppression.
An alien ship acquired by Blake and his crew after its abandonment in a space battle, the Liberator looks unlike any other spacecraft in science ction. While the majority of spaceship models made by the BBC at that time were designed by the BBC visual effects department, the exterior of the Liberator was created by the same man who designed the sets, Roger Murray-Leach, creating a stark visual difference between the alien Liberator and all the other starships seen in the programme. Unfortunately the ships striking design, together with the size of the original model, meant that it was difcult to mount for special effects sequences, and so was often not seen at its best on screen. Although Liberator is the fastest ship in space and armed with a unique teleport system, there is only one of it, and many Federation pursuers. The main enemy ships that the Liberator encounters in its travels are Federation Pursuit Ships capable of travelling at Time Distort 10 and armed with plasma bolts. The pursuit ships keep coming throughout the course of the series. Pursuing. Tracking. Never giving up.
RIGHT: BLAKES FIRST CREW, TOGETHER WITH COMPUTER ORAC, ON THE FLIGHT DECK OF THE LIBERATOR BELOW: LIBERATOR AT STANDARD BY EIGHT
SPECIFICATION
NAME: LIBERATOR WEAPONS: NEUTRON BLASTERS BASE OF OPERATIONS: FEDERATION SPACE POWER: ENERGY BANKS CREW: FIVE BUT THE SHIP CAN BE OPERATED BY ONE PERSON GIVING VOCAL COMMANDS TO SHIPS COMPUTER ZEN TOP SPEED: STANDARD BY TWELVE
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Teleportation
If you want to get your TV show started quickly, the best way is to beam down to the planets surface.
Teleportation is the ability to move between places without crossing the intervening distance, and reached mainstream prominence in the 1960s with Star Treks use of the transporter to beam landing parties from the Enterprise directly into the thick of the action. Having a teleport available to your heroes not only allows you to save the expense of no-longernecessary special effects shots of ships or shuttles landing on a planet, it allows you to get your characters quickly to where they need to be, saving dramatic time as well as money. Given that, its surprising that more shows dont use some sort of beam technology to move people from place to place. In Star Trek, its generally possible for a transporter operator to lock on to someones lifesigns and beam them aboard, while Blakes 7 requires the person being teleported to be wearing a teleport bracelet which also doubles as a ship-to-planet communicator. In general, the range of teleportation devices in an SF programme is not much further than planetary orbit. Dramatically speaking, if people could travel across the galaxy in the blink of an eye, what need would there be for spaceships at all? Early seasons of Stargate SG-1, though, rely on this idea the lead characters explore the galaxy by stepping through a gate on Earth to matching gates on other worlds, effectively teleporting directly from one world to another.
ABOVE: ONE WAY OF CREATING A STAR TREK STYLE TRANSPORTER WOULD BE TO SCAN THE THING OR PERSON TO BE TELEPORTED AT A QUANTUM LEVEL AND THEN TO CREATE AN EXACT COPY AT THE DESTINATION AT THE SAME TIME AS THE ORIGINAL IS DESTROYED. THIS PHENOMENON HAS ALREADY BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN QUANTUM PHYSICS AT THE LEVEL OF THE PHOTON. BUT IF WE WERE ABLE TO TELEPORT A WHOLE PERSON THIS LEADS TO AN INTERESTING PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION: IS THE NEW PERSON REALLY THE SAME AS THE OLD ONE?
75
Buck Rogers
in the 25th Century
In 1987, NASA launches the last of Americas deep space probes. A life support malfunction puts Captain William Buck Rogers into suspended animation, preserving him unharmed and un-aging across the centuries. Revived some 500 years into the future, Buck helps to protect an Earth devastated by nuclear war from those who would attack it, with the help of his commanding ofcer Colonel Wilma Deering and robot chum Twiki. The format of the show changed in the second season, as Buck, Wilma, and Twiki join the crew of the starship Searcher to seek out the lost tribes of Earth, the descendants of those who ed the global war that nearly destroyed the planet.
Ranger 3
Launched from the John F Kennedy space center in 1987, Ranger 3 was a one-man exploration vessel. The original duration of the mission was set to be just ve months, but after a cosmic force freezes the life support system and blows the ship out of its planned trajectory, Ranger 3 is lost in space for 500 years before being retrieved by the agship of the Draconian eet.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 34 FT CLASS: DEEP SPACE PROBE CREW: ONE PILOT BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH
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Earth Starfighter
The starghter (known to its makers as the Thunder Fighter) is the main dogghting spaceship used by the Earth Defense Directorate in the 25th Century. Although it only requires a single pilot to y, the standard model is capable of holding two people, one facing forward and the other aft. The starghter can also be tted with a quad cockpit, allowing four people to travel within. Armed with twin lasers, the starghter is unable to travel faster than light. To travel to other planets it must use a stargate - four stars which, when activated, are with light and produce a portal directly to another place in the galaxy. The ship ies through the stargate and instantaneously arrives at the other side. The Starghter is capable of ying in atmosphere as well as space.
COLONEL WILMA DEERING PREPARES FOR LAUNCH
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 32 FT WIDTH: 20 FT HEIGHT: 10 FT PROPULSION: TWIN ENGINES WEAPONS: TWIN LASERS MAXIMUM SPEED: SUBLIGHT ONLY BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH AND ITS COLONIES (SEASON ONE), THE SEARCHER (SEASON TWO)
Hawks Fighter
In season two, Buck and Wilma are joined by Hawk, the last survivor of a race of bird people who once lived on Earth until they escaped to the stars, eeing the human race which had tried to destroy them. Hawk has his own ship, which he brings to the Searcher. Its a one-man ghter with variable-sweep wings, as much as home in atmosphere as it is in space. As well as its weapons, Hawks ship is equipped with extensible talons which can be used to grapple another craft. The wings on Hawks ghter are able to change position according to circumstance. Known in aerodynamics parlance as a variable geometry wing, the ability to change the shape of an aircrafts planform (the shape of the fuselage and wings that the aircraft presents to the atmosphere) can make a huge difference to the performance of the craft while ying. In space, of course, theres no atmosphere and therefore no benet to changing the shape of the wings. And in atmosphere, Hawk mostly just retracts the wings when he wants to y into a hole.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 50 FT WIDTH: 60 FT HEIGHT: 20 FT MAXIMUM SPEED: SUBLIGHT ONLY BASE OF OPERATIONS: THE SEARCHER
77 77
Sunshine
Our star is dying, and the Earth is freezing to death. An attempt seven years ago to re-ignite the Sun using a stellar bomb failed, and the ship Icarus was lost in the attempt. Now the Icarus II has been sent there, armed with the last stellar bomb that can be manufactured. There will be no third chance. protects it from the Suns rays, reecting the heat away and keeping the ship in shadow. The shield also contains the payload of the ship, the stellar bomb. When the stellar bomb is initiated, the ship separates from the shield and a second, smaller shield protects the Icarus as it accelerates away and returns to Earth. Four minutes after separation, the payload CAPTION... boosters re automatically, accelerating the The Icarus Designed to approach as close as possible to shield through the coronal hole in the south the Sun without burning up, the main feature polar cap, and sending the bomb inwards to its of the Icarus is the forward-facing shield which destination and ignition point. CAPTION... As the second ship to bear this name, the ship is sometimes referred to as the Icarus II, although the ships computer responds to the name Icarus. Once the ship passes into the dead zone, through which no messages to or from Earth can penetrate, they discover the original Icarus and the reason for the failure of the rst mission. behind them. This technology can also display computer simulations of the Icarus planned trajectory and mission prole. The Earth Room is obviously a relative of Star Treks Holodeck. The Holodeck is superior, though, in that Star Treks higher technology levels allow tactile experiences to be created within the room using replicators, transporters, and force elds. The Earth Room in the Icarus only allows for the viewing of scenes, not their manipulation.
The Earth Room

Inside the Icarus is a room capable of displaying realistic moving images of earth in a 360 panorama. The Earth Room is used to keep the crew of the Icarus mentally stable and connected to the planet that they have left
CASSIE AT THE CONTROLS OF THE ICARUS II
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Icarus and Daedalus

Calling your sunbound ship the Icarus might not be the smartest of moves. In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father Daedalus were held captive by King Minos on the island of Crete for their part in killing the Minotaur that lived in the labyrinth there. Daedalus had helped Theseus and Ariadne by giving Ariadne a thread which Theseus could use to successfully navigate the maze. Imprisoned by Minos and unable to escape by sea, Daedalus fashioned two sets of wings from wax and feathers so that he and his son could y to safety. Knowing that the escape would be dangerous, Daedalus warned Icarus not to y too close to the sun but Icarus, seeing its beauty, ignored his fathers advice. Flying upwards and upwards, the wax on his wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus, wiser, escaped to safety. The Icarus in Sunshine isnt the only spacecraft in science ction which takes its name from this legend the second human-created starship in Stargate SG-1 is named the Daedalus. A much more sensible name, given that he successfully keeps his head and survives the danger of the ight.
DURING THE ICARUS FLIGHT, CREWMEMBERS CAN ENTER THE OBSERVATION ROOM AND BY REFILTERING THE PORTAL THERE TO TWO PER CENT OF FULL BRIGHTNESS CAN LOOK AT THE SUN. AT A DISTANCE OF 36 MILLION MILES, USING THE OBSERVATION ROOM WITH THE FILTER SET TO JUST FOUR PER CENT OF FULL BRIGHTNESS WOULD CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE TO A PERSONS RETINAS, BURNING THEM OUT IMMEDIATELY.
CAPTION...
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Motherships
A mothership carries smaller craft from place to place to do their jobs. Technically carriers such as the Galactica from Battlestar Galactica and the USS Saratoga from Space: Above and Beyond could be described as motherships, as each carry their own smaller craft which they launch and retrieve. Even the Death Star in Star Wars fulls the function of a mothership in this respect. In general, though, when we think of a mothership in science ction were not thinking of a carrier ship, but rather one of the big ones hovering over Earth. Motherships rst really became popularized in SF with the 1977 release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although many different Unidentied Flying Objects are seen and heard through the course of the lm, it is the mothership looming over Devils Tower at the end that is cemented in our collective memory and imagination. While that particular ship was friendly, most of these monster craft refuse to respond to venote calls of friendship and peace.
They oat bove our major cities, disgorging smaller craft to attack at an instants notice
ABOVE: A MOTHERSHIP FROM THE ORIGINAL V MINISERIES HOVERS OVER THE COLOSSEUM IN ROME. BELOW: ABOVE DISTRICT 9 IN SOUTH AFRICA, WHERE THOSE WHO CAME TO EARTH HAVE BEEN FORCED TO LIVE IN THE FILM OF THE SAME NAME
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AN ALIEN DESTROYER MOVES INTO FIRING POSITION IN INDEPENDENCE DAY
In 1983 the giant saucers of V came to the surface of the planet 50 of them, hovering over the capital cities of Earth. These motherships are more threatening than the one from 1977, and this time they do not hide in the dark but loom over our cities, a concrete manifestation of fear writ large. These giant ships returned in the 2009 remake starring Morena Baccarin, but this time they have moved on from the stock ying saucers of the original series to become stylized and silver, with a shape almost like that of a snakes head. A mothership is the last obstacle for the human resistance to overcome in Independence Day. If the mothership falls, then the rest of the alien craft can be destroyed too. Fortunately this particular mothership, like the aliens in The War of the Worlds, can be brought low by a virus. Independence Day also ratchets up the size of the ships that invade Earth; in this lm the ships that hover over Earths cities, each fteen miles in diameter and each of which would ordinarily fall in the mothership category, are dwarfed by the main craft which has brought them across space to the planet: a mothership no less than 550 kilometers in diameter and massing approximately a quarter that of the moon. Thats one big mother. The size and power of a mothership tends
to make direct attacks on them fruitless by humans, and so we are forced to use other means to drive these invaders from our planet. This usually means distracting the aliens aboard in some way in order to make the real attack, whether that be biological weapons (V) or electronic warfare (Independence Day). A mothership also features in District 9, a South African lm which, like Alien Nation, uses the aliens which have arrived in the ship to
explore a metaphor for racism and xenophobia. We rarely see motherships using weapons themselves in science ction and they are almost always immune to ours. Instead, their function is to impress, intimidate, and awe with their size and invulnerability, and to carry the smaller craft that deliver the invasion to the towns and cities of Earth. Even if those smaller craft are themselves 15 miles wide.
THE MOTHERSHIP FROM CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. THE EXTERNAL DETAILING ON MODELS SUCH AS THIS, KNOWN AS GREEBLIES, WOULD OFTEN BE SOURCED FROM COMMERCIALLY-AVAILABLE MODEL KITS. WHEN ADDING THESE DETAILS, THE MAKERS WOULD SOMETIMES INCLUDE IN-JOKES TOO SMALL TO BE SEEN ON THE FILM, INCLUDING ON THIS PARTICULAR MODEL A MAILBOX, A VOLKSWAGEN BUS, AND R2-D2 FROM STAR WARS.
81
The
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

When the planet Earth is destroyed by a Vogon Constructor Fleet in order to make way for a hyperspace express route, Earthling Arthur Dent hitches a lift with his alien friend Ford Prefect off the planet a few moments before it is blown to ashes.
ABOVE: THERE IS NO TEA ON THIS SPACESHIP. AT ALL. BELOW: THE HEART OF GOLD AT ITS MOST NORMAL
The Heart of Gold

In its rest state, The Heart of Gold is a sphere. As well as being capable of travelling through hyperspace with or without proper authorization, the ship is equipped with an Innite Improbability Drive. When the large round button that activates the Improbability Drive is pressed, the ship passes almost simultaneously through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe before appearing at its destination. Obviously this is extremely unlikely. In order to generate these levels of improbability, many more slightlyless-extremely-improbable things usually have to occur rst. This results in the Heart of Gold turning into many possible items during its travel before settling again into its ordinary state at its destination. These items can include chairs, owers, and the giant heads of famous science ction writers. Some known side effects of travel using the Innite Improbability Drive include (but are most likely not limited to): Turning into a sofa Becoming a knitted version of yourself The instantaneous creation of a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale Alas, there is no tea available on the Heart of Gold, thus making it utterly unsuitable for long journeys.
HELPFUL ADVICE ABOUT THE VOGON CONSTRUCTOR FLEET

NOTABLE FOR THEIR PLANET-DESTROYING CAPABILITIES, VOGON SHIPS ARE OFTEN CONSIDERED TO BE A BIT SQUALID WHEN SEEN FROM THE INSIDE. THIS IS EVEN BEFORE ONE TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THE FACT THAT THE INHABITANTS OF THE SHIP WOULD READ THEIR POETRY TO YOU AS SOON AS LOOK AT YOU. POSSIBLY SOONER. THE INTERIOR OF THEIR SHIPS, LIKE THAT OF THE BUILDINGS ON THE PLANET VOGSPHERE, IS DRAB AND BRUTALIST, MUCH LIKE THAT OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF LONDON IN THE 1970S OR OF A MULTISTOREY CAR PARK. VOGONS HATE HITCHHIKERS, SO IF YOU FIND YOURSELF ON A VOGON SHIP YOU SHOULD REMOVE YOURSELF FROM IT AT THE FIRST POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY.
ABOVE: THE VOGON FLEET PREPARING TO DESTROY EARTH LEFT: BY NO MEANS THE WORST POET IN THE GALAXY
82
Profile
Ron Thornton
on Thornton has created special effects for many of the classic SF series of the last thirty years. Born in the United Kingdom, his early work included stints on Doctor Who and Blakes 7, for which he built the Scorpio, the main ship used in the fourth and nal series. Emigrating to California in 1984, Thornton made miniatures for lms including Commando and Robot Jox. After working on the television series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, he was asked to pitch for the special effects work on a new show to be produced by several of the people working on Captain Power, set in 2257 aboard a space station known as Babylon 5. For Babylon 5, Thornton and his company Foundation Imaging created a one-minute teaser reel of proposed visual effects using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) to create spaceships instead of the then-standard miniature effects. This reel would prove that computer-generated spaceships could be created convincingly on a television budget. The show was picked up, and Foundation Imaging went on to produce visual effects for the pilot lm and the rst three years of the series. Their groundbreaking work on Babylon 5 was rewarded by four Emmy awards, and a further six Emmy nominations.
THE BABYLON 5 SPACE STATION WAS BUILT ENTIRELY WITHIN COMPUTERS FIRST AMIGAS, THEN LATER PCS
The Video Toaster

The move to CGI-created spaceships on television rst on Babylon 5, and later on other series was made possible by the arrival in 1990 of a piece of hardware called the Video Toaster. When plugged into the expansion port at the back of an Amiga computer, the Video Toaster was capable of creating graphics for NTSC output (the then-
RON THORNTON WENT ON TO OVERSEE THE ANIMATION OF GERRY ANDERSONS NEW CAPTAIN SCARLET IN 2005
standard US television broadcast format) at a fraction of the cost of other systems available at the time. The CGI special effects shots for the entire rst season of Babylon 5 were produced on Video Toasters and Amiga computers, with production moving to PCs from the second season until the end of the series. The 3D modelling package LightWave (which was originally bundled with the Video Toaster and later ported to PC) began to be sold separately in 1994 and is still used to create CGI shots for lm and television shows today. For the last two years of Babylon 5, the CGI models were created by Netter Digital, while Foundation Imaging went on to create special effects for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This included the creation of a digital model to replace the original miniature for the USS Voyager, enabling the pioneers in the eld of CGI to replace miniatures with computer-generated ships literally as well as metaphorically.
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Babylon 5
Babylon 5, a space station created to act as a port of call and diplomatic gathering place for humans and other starfarers, nds itself at the epicenter of two wars one against aliens of incalculable power and a second, civil war against the forces of Earth.
The Earth Alliance

The Earth Alliance consists of the planet Earth and all its offworld colonies. In the time of the Babylon 5 TV series (2257-2262), Humanity does not have access to articial gravity produced by energy elds, meaning that Earth ships must either function completely without gravity or use rotating sections to provide articial gravity using centripetal force.
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is a ve-mile-long space station which spins to provide articial gravity, orbiting the planet Epsilon III in a neutral section of space. A jump gate located close to the station allows vessels without their own hyperspace capability to stop for resupply, and the station is capable of supporting a population of up to a quarter of a million humans and aliens.
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Omega-class Destroyer
The Omega-class destroyer is one of Earths capital ships. As well as its pulse and beam weapons, the Omega-class carries Starfury ghters which it can launch to defend itself and to attack other ghters and large ships. Dozens of Omega-class destroyers were seen in the series, including the Agamemnon, Captain John Sheridans ship before he took command of Babylon 5. When the bridge of an Omega-class was seen on screen, the set used for lming was actually the main set used for C&C on Babylon 5. The pits in which technicians normally work were covered over, and the set was re-dressed and lit differently to make it look larger.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: OMEGA-CLASS DESTROYER LENGTH 5,624 FT CIRCUMFERENCE OF ROTATING SECTION: 1,509 FT WIDTH: 675 FT HEIGHT: 1,153 FT WEAPONS: PLASMA PULSE CANNON, MAIN BEAM WEAPON BASE OF OPERATIONS: EARTH CREW: 547
Starfury
The Starfury is the standard ghter used by Babylon 5, its distinctive X shape with engines at the end of each of four struts emerging from the main body making it immensely maneuverable in space but incapable of atmospheric ight. The pilot stands against the rear wall of the cockpit, to which they are strapped. The four engines allow the Starfury to swivel quickly on its axis and re in any direction, even while moving in another. Launching from Cobra bays built into the exterior of Babylon 5, the Starfuries are launched by releasing the docking clamps holding them in position, and are immediately ung away from the station by centripetal force. Starfuries can launch at different points during the rotation of the station in order to form a defensive perimeter around it, or can delay their launches until the section of the station they are in is aligned with enemy vessels, allowing them to move directly towards the source of the threat. This impetus effectively gives the Starfuries a free boost towards their initial deployment. Starfuries are equipped with a grappling hook to grasp other ships and debris, and an ejectable cockpit module which allows pilots to safely eject if the ship is about to be destroyed. Starfury pilots wear spacesuits within the cockpit in case of hull breach.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: STARFURY LENGTH: 31 FT HEIGHT: 27 FT WIDTH: 59 FT WEAPONS: PLASMA PULSE CANNON BASE OF OPERATIONS: BABYLON 5, OMEGACLASS DESTROYER AND OTHER EARTH VESSELS. CREW: 1
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Galaxy Quest
Actors from the old TV series Galaxy Quest nd a race of aliens who believe the show to be real, and are forced to become the heroes they pretended to be on television. Galaxy Quest holds a particular place in the hearts of SF fans, because it captures perfectly what its like to love something not just despite, but sometimes because of its aws. While simultaneously poking fun at all of the tropes of the original 1960s Star Trek, as well as those of fandom in general, it nevertheless manages to do all of this with love both love for the original series, and for SF fans themselves. to 1982 on the Galaxy Quest television series. The Protector II was created by Thermians from the Klatu Nebula based on the historical documents that they received from Earth. Specically, the episodes of the old TV series Galaxy Quest. The entire ship has been rebuilt, only instead of wobbly sets, this Protector works... Unfortunately Sarris of Fatu-Krey is also unaware that Galaxy Quest is just a TV show. He wants the Omega 13 device on board the Protector, and will kill anyone who tries to stop him. ALAN RICKMAN IN THE ROLE OF ALEXANDER DANE PLAYING DOCTOR LAZARUS AT THE CONTROLS OF THE NSEA PROTECTOR
The NSEA Protector II

The crew of the original NSEA Protector used it to travel to strange new worlds over the course of 92 episodes and four years between 1979
THE PROTECTORS REGISTRATION NUMBER, NTE-3120, ACTUALLY STANDS FOR NOT THE ENTERPRISE
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THE HUMAN AND THERMIAN CREW STAND READY FOR ACTION ON THE BRIDGE OF THE NSEA PROTECTOR II, AS RECONSTRUCTED FROM THE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.
Features of the Protector II

The Thermian recreation of the NSEA Protector has all of the features of the original ship as seen in the historical documents, including Point and click navigational system, for ease of use (includes Black Hole Travel). Metal hull, suitable for attracting mines. Red and Blue Particle Cannons, for ring upon enemies. Gannet magnets, ditto. Digital Conveyor, to transport crew members to and from the surface of alien planets. Omega 13 device, for destroying pretty much everything in about 13 seconds. Or possibly for rearranging matter 13 seconds into the past. One of the two. Chompers, for no good reason.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: NSEA PROTECTOR II LENGTH: 1,528 FT WIDTH: 1,108 FT HEIGHT: 373 FT WEAPONS: RESONANCE CANNON, RED PARTICLE CANNON, BLUE PARTICLE CANNON, GANNET MAGNETS MAXIMUM SPEED: MARK 16 POWER: BERYLLIUM SPHERE
ARRIVING ON THE PROTECTOR VIA INTERSTELLAR POD
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Independence Day
The aliens in Independence Day arrive with a bang rather than a whimper, announcing themselves in clouds of dust and re above each of the major cities of the Earth. They spread from planet to planet like locusts devouring everything in their path, stripping the resources from each world and moving on to a new one when the last has been exhausted. These aliens have been to Earth before, leaving behind a crashed attack ghter in Roswell in the 1950s which has been under investigation by US scientists in Area 51 ever since. While the scientists there have made some progress on the alien technology within the captured ghter during that time, it isnt until the mothership arrives that the power on the ship comes back to life and allows humans to fully investigate the craft. There are three main types of spaceship seen in the lm the alien mothership a quarter the size of our moon which remains well outside the atmosphere, the hovering saucers with their primary weapon capable of destroying an entire city, and the alien attack ghters which can outght our F/A-18s. The aliens themselves are about as frail as humans, but are armed with a much more highly advanced technology. Like the Martian War Machines in The War of the Worlds their craft are protected by shields which render them invulnerable to all of our human
ABOVE: AN ALIEN DESTROYER FIRES ITS PRIMARY BEAM STRAIGHT INTO THE WHITE HOUSE RIGHT: MARINE CORPS AIR STATION EL TORO COMES UNDER ATTACK FROM ALIEN FIGHTER CRAFT
88
LEFT: THE ALIEN CRAFT RECOVERED FROM ROSWELL HAS BEEN UNRESPONSIVE EVER SINCE BUT NOW THE ALIENS HAVE RETURNED, IT HAS STARTED TO POWER UP ONCE MORE BELOW: STEVE HILLER, AS PLAYED BY WILL SMITH, PREPARES TO TAKE ON THE INVADERS FROM THE COCKPIT OF HIS F/A-18 HORNET BOTTOM: GETTING READY TO FLY TO OUTER SPACE AND TAKE ON THE ALIEN MOTHERSHIP ARMED WITH NOTHING MORE THAN A MAC
weaponry. These shields stretch a quarter of a mile out from the destroyer craft, while smaller versions prevent missiles from getting closer than ve yards to the alien ghters, exploding them harmlessly against the shield. Although the aliens themselves are telepathic, fortunately their technology is not, allowing humans to y the captured Area 51 ghter. The alien computer technology is similar to our own, a fact which enables them to interface with and use human satellites to co-ordinate their worldwide attack. Study of this interface together with the knowledge found from the captured craft at Area 51 allows the creation of a computer virus to affect the enemy shields, bringing them down on all of the spaceships across the world and leaving them vulnerable to attack for a few minutes.
Even without their shields the destroyers are so heavily armored that ordinary missiles will not do enough damage to stop them. Once the shields have been deactivated, though, a missile exploding within the open schism of the primary weapon will cause a chain reaction capable of taking down the ship.
Raise the shields

Shields can also be seen in other lm and TV shows as a way of protecting spaceships from damage. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi a defensive shield generated from the surface of a moon can completely protect a battle station from attack, while in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace shields are also used on the surface of the planet Naboo to protect the Gungan
army from the droid soldiers of the Trade Federation. Unfortunately while shields in Star Wars can defend effectively against blaster bolts, they allow droids to walk through them, so a ground engagement is not far behind. Star Trek in all its incarnations treats shields as a protection that can be worn down by damage, so in any space battle keeping an eye on the status of your shields is a must. Once they have been taken down, little can protect your ship from disaster. This also results in the tense moments where the heroes dont think that the shields will be able to take another hit. While shields in Star Trek protect the hull from damage, some energy is always transferred through to the ship, resulting in the characters being thrown around and damage to the ships internal systems.
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Space Travel
Having a starship at your beck and call is all very well but how fast can it go? Can it land, or does it have to stay in orbit? What, in short, are the problems that face your spaceship when you take it out of the world and into the black?
RUSSIAN SPACE SHIP VOSTOK ON ITS LAUNCH PAD
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Getting up and down

While some smaller ships such as the X-Wing from Star Wars can land pretty much anywhere they like, any ship capable of carrying more than one or two people is going to take up a lot of space, and the larger ships will need dedicated spaceports. Its difcult to get your heroes straight to the heart of the action if your spaceship needs several hundred square feet or more to land in. There are two main ways of getting around this problem. One is to use a teleportation system such as Star Treks transporter to move people back or forth from spaceship to planet. The other is to use shuttles. Shuttles are small vehicles that can usually carry a dozen or so people back and forth between your ship and the planet. As they are carried by the larger spaceship, its rare for them to be able to travel faster than light. And if your shuttles perform the hard work of shifting people up and down the gravity well, then your main spaceship has no need to be aerodynamic.
The Ultimate Speed Limit

Danish astronomer Ole Rmer was the rst person to prove that light didnt travel instantaneously. When taking measurements of Jupiters moon Io entering into and emerging from eclipse behind Jupiter, Rmer found that the times of the
DANISH ASTRONOMER OLE CHRISTENSEN ROMER (1644-1710), ROYAL MATHEMATICIAN AND PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY AT COPENHAGEN UNIVERSITY. HE MADE THE FIRST QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT IN 1676.
been measured increasingly accurately. The main body of thought at that time held that light waves traveled through a medium known as the luminiferous aether in the same way that sound waves travel through air. In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper in which he made the assumption that the speed of light in a vacuum is invariant regardless of the motions of the emitter and observer of the light. This has since been conrmed by experimentation. One consequence of the speed of light being constant is that the closer an object gets to the speed of light, the more massive it becomes. And the more massive it becomes, the more energy is needed to accelerate it. What this means is that we can never pass the speed of light in order to even reach it, we would have to spend an innite amount of energy accelerating our starship. So it will never actually reach the speed of light, let alone exceed it, no matter how hard we push.
Breaking the Speed Limit

If were going to have galaxy-spanning adventure and starships whose heroes dont spend most of their lives accelerating rather than ghting aliens and injustice, then were going to need to cheat the speed of light. On the following pages are some of the ways that science ction shows have allowed their heroes to break the speed limit.
D B C
observations seemed to slowly change from the values predicted for them. As Io was orbiting Jupiter at the same speed, something else must have been causing the change and that something was the fact that it took a nite amount of time for the light to cross the distance between Io and his observatory on Earth. For this to happen, then light itself must have a speed at which it travelled. As the Earth moved in its own orbit around the sun, it would move further away from Jupiter, and so the time taken to observe the eclipse would change from the predicted value. By the early 20th Century, the speed of light had
H L G
A F
ILLUSTRATION FROM THE 1676 ARTICLE BY RMER IN WHICH HE COMPARED THE DURATION OF IOS ORBITS AS EARTH MOVED TOWARDS JUPITER (F TO G) AND AS EARTH MOVED AWAY FROM JUPITER (L TO K).
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Warp Drive
This type of drive whether its called a warp drive, stardrive, or never mentioned by name allows a ship to travel through the ordinary universe, but just much faster than it would ordinarily be able to. With a warp drive, the starship forms a bubble of spacetime around itself within which it travels. Popularized by: Star Trek, Blakes 7
ABOVE: EINSTEINS LATER WORK ON GENERAL RELATIVITY INVOLVED THE APPLICATION OF RELATIVITY TO THE THEORY OF GRAVITY. IN GENERAL RELATIVITY, MASS IS CONSIDERED TO WARP SPACETIME AROUND IT, AS ILLUSTRATED ABOVE. IF SPACETIME IS SHOWN AS A GRID IN WHICH OBJECTS OF INCREASING MASS PRODUCE INCREASINGLY LARGE DISTORTIONS, OUR SUN, AT BOTTOM LEFT, MAKES ALMOST NO IMPRESSION. A MUCH DENSER AND MORE MASSIVE NEUTRON STAR (LOWER CENTRE), CREATES A SLIGHT DISTORTION WHILE THE ENORMOUS GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF A BLACK HOLE (BOTTOM RIGHT) CREATES A YAWNING CHASM, WARPING THE FABRIC OF SPACE FOR LIGHT YEARS AROUND.
Hyperspace
Hyperspace is a different realm in which distances are shorter. So to travel faster than the speed of light, a ship enters hyperspace, travels to the place there which matches their destination in real space, and then returns to our own universe. As the distance is shorter in hyperspace, it takes far less time to reach the place you want to be. Popularized by: Star Wars, Babylon 5
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FTL Jump
The starship has the capability to make a faster-than-light jump disappearing from its original location and appearing in a new one many light years distant. The key difference between using a jump drive and the other ways of cheating the speed of light is that once the drive has been spun up and is ready to go, the travel time between departure and destination is effectively immediate - no time need be spent travelling through hyperspace or normal space to reach your destination. Most jump drives in science ction have a limit to the distance that they can safely cover in one jump and take some time for the drives to be activated, as otherwise the spaceship would be able to move from one end of the galaxy to another in a moment as well as escaping from their enemies at the touch of a button neither of which is a recipe for adventure. Popularized by: Battlestar Galactica, Farscape
ALBERT EINSTEINS WORK ON SPECIAL RELATIVITY LED TO THE DISCOVERY THAT NOTHING CAN ACCELERATE TO FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT IN A VACUUM.
DID YOU KNOW...

ALTHOUGH THE LAW OF SPECIAL RELATIVITY PROHIBITS ANYTHING FROM ACCELERATING TO THE SPEED OF LIGHT, IT DOESNT PROHIBIT ANYTHING THAT IS ALREADY TRAVELLING FASTER THAN LIGHT. THESE THEORETICAL PARTICLES ARE KNOWN AS TACHYONS, AND IF THEY EXIST, ARE TRAVELLING TOO FAST FOR US TO DETECT
Wormholes
A wormhole connects two points in space, allowing travel between one end of the wormhole and the other. Some wormholes, such as the one in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are xed and will only ever lead between the same two points, while others such as those created by a stargate in Stargate SG-1 can lead from one xed point to a number of destinations. Popularized by: Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
CONCEPTUAL COMPUTER ARTWORK SHOWING A WORMHOLE LEADING FROM EARTH (UPPER CENTRE) TO ALPHA CENTAURI (LOWER CENTRE), 4.3 LIGHT YEARS AWAY. WORMHOLES ARE A THEORETICAL SOLUTION TO EINSTEINS EQUATIONS THAT DESCRIBE THE PROPERTIES OF SPACETIME, THE CONTINUUM OF UNIFIED SPACE AND TIME, AND ARE ESSENTIALLY A SHORTCUT THROUGH IT. PASSING THROUGH A WORMHOLE (YELLOW ARROW) WOULD BE A MUCH FASTER METHOD OF TRAVEL THAN THE STANDARD ROUTE THROUGH SPACE (RED ARROW).
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Event Horizon
The Event Horizon was the rst of a new line of ships employing gravity drive, which would allow it to cheat the speed of light by connecting two points in space together. By using the power of the black hole at its heart, the Event Horizon could travel from one point to the other without crossing the space between them. The ship vanished when the gravity drive was activated for the rst time. Seven years later, the Event Horizon reappeared near Neptune, and a team including the original designer of the drive was sent to nd out what has happened to the ship, and if any of the original crew had survived. Unfortunately for the rescue team, no-one thought to ask where the ship goes during the transit from one point to another And something terrible is waiting for each of them on board the Event Horizon.
ABOVE: THE GRAVITY DRIVE THAT SITS AT THE HEART OF THE EVENT HORIZON ISNT JUST A GATEWAY ACROSS SPACE. GETTING TOO CLOSE MAY TAKE YOU ON A TRIP TO PLACES THAT NO-ONE SHOULD EVER SEE. LEFT: THE CREW OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK ARRIVE AT NEPTUNE TO INVESTIGATE THE SUDDEN REAPPEARANCE AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF A SHIP EVERYONE HAD THOUGHT WAS LOST.
DID YOU KNOW...

DIRECTOR PAUL WS ANDERSON WENT ON TO DIRECT OTHER SF MOVIES INCLUDING SOLDIER, ALIEN Vs. PREDATOR AND RESIDENT EVIL
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Outland
The newly-appointed Federal District Marshall to the Con-Am 27 mining base on Io, the third moon of Jupiter, nds that workers are committing suicide after taking a new synthetic drug which lets them work harder and longer. After making enemies within the mining station when he nds the people importing the drug, the marshall discovers that men are travelling to Io on the next weekly shuttle to kill him.
Blue Collar and Low Tech

The mining base which is the setting for Outland is a tightly-packed warren guarding against the vacuum outside. Here, 2,114 miners, each on a tour of duty lasting for a year, are crammed into bunk beds when not on shift, or spend their money in the company-owned leisure club or with the base prostitutes provided and health-checked by the company itself. A staff of 894 support the mining operations. In order to work, a group of miners must suit up and descend in the depressurised elevator to the pit face, where they mine ore containing a large amount of titanium. The atmosphere within the base is kept fresh through plants kept in a large greenhouse structure to one side, separated from the vacuum on the moons surface by glass panes.
ABOVE: A FIGHT TO THE DEATH OUTSIDE THE MINING COMPLEX BASED ON JUPITERS MOON IO.
Transport to and from Io

Travel to far-distant Earth from the vicinity of Jupiter takes a year, most of which is spent asleep. Locally a shuttle travels weekly between a space station and the mining town, bringing new supplies of necessities, personnel, video, and music to the base as well as transporting those wishing to travel to Earth back to the space station for onward passage .
As the shuttle doesnt need to travel within an atmosphere at any point during the 70 hour journey from the space station to Io, its body is blocky and unstreamlined, maximising cargo space. The landing platform at Con-Am 27 uses rings of light to guide the shuttle into its designated docking port, landing on rocket thrusters and bringing life to the dead moon. A countdown clock keeps everyone on the base apprised of when the next shuttle will arrive from the space station with its cargo of goods and people.
THE SHUTTLE WHICH BRINGS SUPPLIES TO IO
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Space: Above and Beyond

In the year 2063, humanity makes rst contact with aliens. This contact is not friendly, and soon humanity nds itself at war. Space: Above and Beyond follows ve rookie marines and their commanding ofcer as they battle with the alien Chigs, rogue Articial Intelligences, and human prejudice. Space: Above and Beyond was created by two alumni from The X Files, Glen Morgan and James Wong. Despite being nominated for two Emmy awards it ran for just one season in 1995-1996.
The Fine Print

When making instrument displays and controls which will never be seen in close up, production designers will often put in-jokes onto them. Many of the Enterprise NCC-1701Ds control panels in Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, are labeled with the initials of the crew working on the show, while the commissioning plaque situated on the bridge contains the names of 24 of the production staff. In the case of Space: Above and Beyonds SA-43 Hammerhead ghter, one of the panels is marked SERIES/ STAT (for series statistics) and includes indicators for the major television awards including EMY (Emmy), SAT (Saturn Television Award), and GGA (Golden Globe Award). Another panel, SYMP/ALRT lists the names of 15 characters from The Simpsons.
SA-43 Hammerhead Fighter

THE SHOW FOLLOWS THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS SPACE AVIATOR CAVALRY, 58TH SQUADRON
The Hammerhead is the main United States ghter in Space: Above and Beyond. Named after their nose which is said to resemble that of a Hammerhead shark, the SA-43 is a one-person ghter capable of ight in both space and atmosphere.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: SA-43 HAMMERHEAD FIGHTER LENGTH: 38 FT WIDTH: 41 FT HEIGHT: 6 FT WEAPONS: RAILGUNS AND MISSILES BASE OF OPERATIONS: USS SARATOGA AND OTHER UNITED STATES SPACE CARRIERS CREW: ONE PILOT
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USS Saratoga
The USS Saratoga is a John F Kennedy class Space Carrier Vehicle. Its function is to deliver ground troops and SA-43 Hammerhead ghters to wherever they may be needed. The Saratoga carries a crew of almost 6,000 and is able to travel faster than light by travelling through naturally occurring wormholes.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: USS SARATOGA LENGTH: 1,724 FT WIDTH: 608 FT HEIGHT: 804 FT WEAPONS: KINETIC PARTICLE WEAPON, LASER PULSE CANNON, MISSILES, TORPEDOES PROPULSION: HELIUM 3 FUSION ENGINE TOP SPEED: .96C USING SUBLIGHT ENGINES CREW: 1,176 OFFICERS AND 4,800 ENLISTED
THE SARATOGA IN HISTORY

To date six United States naval vessels have been named after the Battles of Saratoga in the War of Independence, the second battle of which ended in a decisive defeat for the British army and news of which convinced the French to enter the war as an ally of the rebels. The fth USS Saratoga, designated CV-3 as the third aircraft carrier to be ordered by the US Navy, was the rst of the ships to carry ghter craft. It was originally ordered as a battle cruiser but was converted to an aircraft carrier during building and served in the Pacic during the Second World War. After decommissioning it was used to test the effects of atomic blasts on naval vessels at Bikini Atoll, and after successfully surviving the rst test blast was sunk by the second.
USS SARATOGA (CV-3) RUNNING FULL POWER TRIALS IN PUGET SOUND, WASHINGTON, FOLLOWING BATTLE DAMAGE REPAIRS, 15 MAY 1945.
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Battlestar Galactica
The Cylons were articial beings created by and for the Twelve Colonies of humanity. More than 50 years ago the Cylons rebelled, ghting a war against their creators. After the war, they withdrew and were not seen again until the launch of a devastating nuclear attack which wiped out almost all of humanity. Now the last survivors of the human race ee their destroyed homeworlds, trying to survive attacks from the pursuing Cylons as they search for the lost thirteenth colony: Earth.
Battlestar Galactica
A survivor of the rst Cylon war, the Galactica is so old that it does not use the networked computers which allowed the Cylons to shut down the computer systems of all the other ships in the eet. This electronic warfare attack incapacitated most of the defenders of the Twelve Colonies, leaving their ships dead in space and allowing the Cylons to bombard the colonies with nuclear weapons. A museum piece in all senses of the word she was about to be turned into one on the eve of the Cylon attack the Galactica is the only Battlestar (a capital ship and ghter carrier) to survive. The Galactica takes the lead in defending the ragtag eet that survived the Cylon attacks in their search for a new home. In combat, one-person ghters known as Vipers are launched from tubes in the ight pod on one side of the Galactica to engage enemy forces. On their return, the Vipers enter the landing bay, also in the ight pod. The starboard ight pod is out of action for the majority of the series, forcing pilots to use the one on the port side of the ship. The ight pods are normally extended to allow viper launches and landings, but must be retracted towards the center of the ship in order for the Galactica to safely make an FTL jump and travel faster than the speed of light. In addition to its Vipers and the Kinetic Energy Weapons mounted on its hull, the Galactica is armed with conventional and nuclear missiles.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: GALACTICA LENGTH: 4,720 FT WIDTH: 1,762 FT HEIGHT: 602 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: EN ROUTE TO EARTH CREW: 2000 PLUS WEAPONS: KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS, CONVENTIONAL MISSILES, NUCLEAR MISSILES
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Battlestar Galactica: Then and Now

The original Battlestar Galactica was created in 1978 by Glen A Larson and ran for just one season. The pilot was also re-edited into a lm shown in cinemas outside the United States. In both versions of the series, the Cylons a machine race treacherously attack the Twelve Colonies of humanity after signing a peace accord. Almost all of humanity is killed in the attacks, leaving only a ragtag eet led by the Galactica, the last surviving Battlestar. Led by the Galactica and avoiding attacks by the Cylons who are determined to eradicate them, the eet travels through space in search of the mythical thirteenth colony a planet known as Earth.
After the cancellation of the original series a spinoff, Galactica 1980, ran for ten episodes. Despite several attempts to revive Battlestar Galactica over the years, it wasnt until 2003 that Ronald D Moore, previously a writer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine got involved. The re-imagined incarnation of the show did not follow the continuity of the original, but re-told the story
of the destruction of humanity. Like much of the best science ction, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica engages with the issues of the time, featuring episodes dealing with questions including the morality of suicide bombers and torture. The new Cylons also have one more advantage over those in the original series the ability to return, after death, in an identical new body.
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Pegasus
Thought lost with the rest of the eet after the attack on the Twelve Colonies, the Pegasus was able to escape undetected. Without a civilian government to hold back their desire for revenge, the CO of the Pegasus attacked Cylon ships wherever they could be found, continuing the war despite the overwhelming odds against them. The Pegasus is a newer model of Battlestar than the Galactica. Despite being much larger, it requires a smaller crew to operate.
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 28 FT WIDTH: 15 FT HEIGHT: 9 FT WEAPONS: KINETIC WEAPO ENERGY WEAPONS, MISSILES BASE OF OPERATIONS: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CREW: 1
Mark II Viper
Like the Galactica, the Mark II Viper rst saw service during the Cylon War. A one-person ghter, they are too old to have networked computer systems, rendering them immune to the electronic attack used to disable the more modern Mark VII Vipers. The Galactica initially has a wing of 40 Vipers which are launched from the ship on catapults to propel them quickly into combat. Later, more Vipers are added to the eet through acquisition or construction. Each Viper is piloted by one person, their callsign emblazoned upon the side of their craft. Vipers are capable of turning quickly and ring in directions other than that in which theyre moving. They are armed with Kinetic Energy Weapons, effectively ring bullets at the Cylons. While predominantly a space-based vehicle, Vipers are also capable of ight in atmosphere. They cannot make an FTL jump, however, and must land on a carrier ship equipped with an FTL drive before they can travel faster than light.
VIPER VARIANT VARIANTS
MARK VII VIPER
BLACKBIRD (LAURA)
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Colonial One
Laura Roslin was sworn in as President of the Twelve Colonies as the only surviving member of the government. The civilian passenger liner on which she was travelling at the time became the seat of her government and was redesignated Colonial One. Having no weapons of its own, Colonial One usually stays close to the Galactica.
PRESIDENT LAURA ROSLIN
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 5,872 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: ATTACKING THE CYLONS; LATER EN ROUTE TO EARTH WITH GALACTICA CREW: 1,750 WEAPONS: KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS, MISSILES, NUCLEAR MISSILES
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 277 FT HEIGHT: 72 FT WIDTH: 49 FT WEAPONS: NONE
SPECIFICATION
LENGTH: 29 FT WIDTH: 18 FT HEIGHT: 10 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CREW: TWO PLUS EIGHT PASSENGERS WEAPONS: USUALLY NONE, BUT CAN MOUNT MISSILES ON HARDPOINTS
Raptor
Raptors are the designated reconnaissance vessels of Galactica. Operated by a two-person crew, Raptors are also capable of holding eight passengers. Unlike Vipers, Raptors are capable of short FTL hops, allowing them to scout ahead of the main eet. They cannot leave the Galactica from a launch tube catapult, and must instead exit the Battlestar by ying out from the ight pods.
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SHIP TO SHIP
Cylon Raider
Cylon Raiders are the standard Cylon ghter craft. Each Raider is a biomechanical being enhanced with technology to survive the rigours of space. Like other Cylons, Raiders are capable of returning to life in another body after their destruction, and the resurrected Raider retains the memories of their previous existence, meaning that they become more deadly as they are able to learn from the mistakes that resulted in their death. Not as intelligent as an ordinary Cylon or human their intelligence level is closer to that of an animal a trained pilot can outgun and outmaneuver most Raiders.
WHILE BATTLESTARS, BASESTARS, AND THE VIPER FIGHTER KEPT TO MOSTLY THE SAME ROLE AND DESIGN IN BOTH VERSIONS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, CYLON RAIDERS IN THE ORIGINAL SERIES WERE A PURELY TECHNOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT WITH A CREW OF THREE CYLONS. LIKE THE RAIDER IN THE REIMAGINED SERIES, HOWEVER, THEY WERE RARELY EQUAL TO A TRAINED PILOT IN A VIPER. A THREE-CYLON-PILOTED CRAFT WAS OCCASIONALLY SEEN IN THE NEW SERIES IN HOMAGE TO THIS ORIGINAL CRAFT.
KARA STARBUCK THRACE ATTEMPTS TO FLY A CYLON RAIDER
SHIPS AND CHARACTERS IN THE ORIGINAL SERIES FIRED LASERS RATHER THAN THE KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS SEEN IN THE RE-IMAGINED SERIES.
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SPECIFICATION
NAME: CYLON BASESTAR DIAMETER: 3,382 FT HEIGHT: 870 FT WEAPONS: MISSILES, NUCLEAR MISSILES
Basestar
The capital ship of the Cylons, Basestars contain hundreds of Cylon Raiders and Heavy Raiders. Capable of travelling faster than light via FTL jumps, a Basestar appears as two triangular arrowheads mounted one above the other and joined by a central pylon. Basestars are equipped with both conventional and nuclear missiles.
SPECIFICATION
NAME: CYLON RAIDER LENGTH: 29 FT WIDTH: 18 FT HEIGHT: 5 FT BASE OF OPERATIONS: CYLON BASESTAR CREW: THE SHIP ITSELF IS ALIVE AND SELF-PILOTING WEAPONS: KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS
The inside of a Basestar is drab and utilitarian, with plain grays and blocky walls broken up with the occasional chair or bed. Each Cylon, however, perceives the interior of the Basestar completely differently so that, to them, it appears that they are deep within a forest or other environment. At the heart of each Basestar lies a Hybrid, an almosthuman-looking Cylon partially submerged in a pool of milky liquid and connected to the Basestar with biomechanical connections. The Hybrid controls all major functions of the ship including FTL jumps, and speaks in nonsense phrases. Some of these phrases seem to relate to the status of the Basestar, some are nonsense, and some appear to be fragments of prophecy. Unfortunately, like most prophecy, it is impossible to properly understand what the Hybrid means by their prediction until after it has occurred.
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Space Weapons
If the essence of drama is conict, and if (as Napoleon Bonaparte would have it) God ghts on the side with the best artillery, then what are the weapons of choice for waging war in the future?
Lasers
The word laser is an acronym created from the words Light Amplication by Stimulated Emission of Radiation and since its creation in 1960 has been a common weapon in science ction. A laser is a powerful beam of coherent light. When electrons have been excited (pumped, in the vernacular) to a high energy level, then when they drop back to a lower energy level they shed some of that energy in the form of photons, particles of light. By using full and partial mirrors to bounce the photons back and forth, they are emitted in only one direction, forming a laser beam. Lasers are most commonly used as a weapon in SF from the 1970s. Although the guns shown in series such as Space: 1999 and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century are called lasers, they obviously dont work in the same way as real lasers their beams leave the guns at far slower velocities than the speed of light, and they often have the capability of stunning people in a way that real-life laser beams dont. As it has become clearer over the years exactly what lasers can and cant do, theyve lost popularity as the name for the generic ray gun. More recent shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Firey have even done away with energy weapons altogether, with heroes relying instead on good old-fashioned bullets.
A SECURITY OFFICER FROM SPACE: 1999 HOLDS A LASER THAT CAN BE SET TO STUN OR KILL
THEODORE HAROLD MAIMAN BUILT THE FIRST WORKING LASER IN 1960, A SOLID-STATE LASER THAT USED A SYNTHETIC RUBY CRYSTAL TO EMIT A BEAM OF RED LIGHT. THE COMPUTER ARTWORK ABOVE SHOWS THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE DEVICE, WHICH WAS FIRST OPERATED AT HUGHES RESEARCH LABORATORIES IN CALIFORNIA, USA, ON 16TH MAY 1960. TODAY, LASERS ARE USED IN EVERYDAY DEVICES ACROSS THE WORLD AS COMPONENTS OF CD PLAYERS, TELEPHONE EXCHANGES, CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEMS, BARCODE READERS, AND MUCH MORE.
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Kinetic Energy Weapons

A very effective way to inict a great deal of damage to a starship is to drop a large amount of kinetic energy into its hull by means of a lump of metal delivered at high speed. Both ghters and capital ships in the new version of Battlestar Galactica use kinetic energy weapons (KEW) as opposed to the lasers used in the original show. Kinetic energy weapons can be red either by means of a chemical explosion to propel the ammunition (in the same way that a bullet is red from a gun), or through the use of magnetic elds to pull ammunition down a barrel or along a rail towards its target before releasing it. This second type of KEW is often known as a railgun, and can be seen on later models of Earth ships in Stargate SG-1
GALACTICAS MAIN BATTERIES CONSIST OF A SET OF GUN TURRETS EACH OF WHICH HAS TWO GUN BARRELS. AS WELL AS FIRING ROUNDS TOWARD ENEMY CAPITAL SHIPS, THE MAIN GUNS CAN BE LOADED WITH FLAK AMMUNITION TO PREVENT FIGHTERS FROM CLOSING AND ENGAGING WITH THE BATTLESTAR. THE GALACTICA ALSO POSSESSES POINT DEFENSE GUNS TO PROTECT THE SHIP AT CLOSE RANGE.
Particle Beams
This weapon accelerates particles such as hydrogen atoms close to the speed of light before releasing them as a coherent beam. As well as being seen onscreen in Babylon 5, it seems likely from their nomenclature that the Neutron Blasters in Blakes 7 were particle beams. The damage from a particle beam comes from the particles hitting their target and transferring their kinetic energy to it. Although each particle is small in itself, the speed at which they travel makes them deadly.
Nuclear Weapons
A nuclear explosion is set off when certain types of atom, such as Uranium-235, are hit by a neutron. The large atom ssions into smaller, different atoms, and a large amount of energy is given out, together with more neutrons. When a large enough supply of ssile material is gathered in a small area, the reaction can become self-sustaining, growing exponentially and rapidly consuming all of the ssile material. This energy is then delivered outwards in the form of an enormous explosion. Cylon and Human forces in the revived Battlestar Galactica use nuclear weapons, which have been seen in both ship-to-ship combat and planetary bombardment.
Plasma Bolts
A plasma is a gas in which many of the particles have become ionized that is to say the particles hold a positive or negative charge and is associated with enormous temperatures. The Sun, for example, is a giant ball of plasma. Weapons capable of discharging plasma bolts, then, damage their targets through the delivery of heat energy.
ABOVE: TRANSFORMERS ARE ARMED WITH PLASMA CANNON BELOW: THE BFG 9000 FROM DOOM. BIG FRIENDLY GUN. THATS IT.
As well as their use in spaceship-to-spaceship combat, plasma weapons often appear as handheld weapons in science ction. In Babylon 5 the weapon of choice for security forces is the Phased Plasma Gun, or PPG, which res a burst of superheated helium. A plasma gun also appears in the lm Doom, based on the series of games by id Software and featuring one of the classic guns from those games, the BFG 9000. What the acronym stands for is an utter mystery, and one that may never be satisfactorily resolved.
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ABOVE: THE ENTERPRISE LANDS A DIRECT HIT WITH ITS PHASERS RIGHT: A PHASER RIFLE, AS MODELLED BY LT. CMDR. WORF
Phasers
Phasers are so strongly identied with Star Trek that no other series uses this word to describe their weapons. The weapons used in the original pilot were described as lasers, despite their ability to do more than just cut or heat. When the series moved to full production it was realised that using the word laser would date the show and deny the writers the ability to allow the weapons to, for example, stun enemies rather than kill them. Thus when it came to the series proper, they were replaced by the similarly-sounding-yet-made-up phasers. Phasers in the various Star Trek series range from portable and easily-concealed ones the size of a cigarette packet, through phaser ries, up to the enormous phaser arrays mounted on starships for offense. The personal versions can be set to stun or disintegrate.
Photon/Quantum Torpedoes
Another Star Trek weapon, photon torpedoes contain a magnetic bottle lled with antimatter. They are red from the ship, often in volleys, and the containment elds separating matter from antimatter are collapsed when the torpedoes reach their target. An explosion results as the matter and antimatter annihilate each other, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process. Newer Federation vessels are also equipped with the more powerful quantum torpedoes.
THE LATEST SHIP TO BEAR THE NAME ENTERPRISE LAUNCHES ITS QUANTUM TORPEDOES FROM ONE OF THE FORWARD TORPEDO TUBES
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Firefly
Captain Mal Reynolds and the crew of his Fireyclass ship Serenity move cargo from world to world on the edges of the law, in a future that owes more to westerns than to science ction.
The Battle of Serenity

The show began with a two-hour pilot lm to introduce the story and characters. In it we learn that Mals ship is named after the Battle of Serenity Valley a battle on which Mal fought for the losing side. Unfortunately, the network didnt like the pilot, considering that it didnt have enough action, and told creator Joss Whedon on Friday that if they didnt have an alternative pilot script in their hands by Monday the show wouldnt be picked up. Whedon and showrunner Tim Minear wrote the second pilot over the course of a single weekend, and Firey was greenlit. Sadly, Firey was never able to build its audience, with episodes being shown out of order and frequently pre-empted for sporting events. After just seven episodes, the show was cancelled before its time.
WASH TAKES THE CREW OF SERENITY OUT OF THE WORLD AND INTO THE BLACK.
Although unsuccessful on television, all of the episodes lmed were released on DVD and were an enormous hit. The box set sold so well from word of mouth that a lm based on the series, Serenity, was released in 2005.
The Western Front

In the universe of Firey, the people might travel from world to world in spaceships, but outside of the high-tech core worlds everyone is just scratching a living where they can. The western aesthetic of the show goes much further than that of a Wagon Train to the stars
in the worlds of Firey, a solid stock of breeding animals can make a man rich, while the guns are old-fashioned slugthrowers that will kill you just as dead as a laser beam and far more cheaply. Transport in the outer worlds is usually by horse, and the whole design of the show echoes and reinforces the western theme high boots, leather jackets, and revolvers abound, as do trains and sheriffs and duels. Despite its unusual fusion of science ction and western or perhaps because of it Firey remains one of the best-realized and best-loved future worlds there has been.
Serenity
As a Firey-class transport, Serenity isnt new, or shiny, or fast. But shes a beautiful, scrappy little ship thatll hold together when you need her to, and get you where you want to go. The two independently swivelling engines allow the Serenity (with an insanely talented pilot and engineer working at the top of their game) to pull a Crazy Ivan: reversing one of the maneuvering engines while keeping the other facing forward, and ring both at the same time in order to swivel 180 degrees in a second. The ships design is reminiscent of the insect that the class is named after. The majority of the lower deck before the engine room the thorax of the beast is taken up by a large cargo bay, while the centerpiece of the upper deck is a large dining room in which the crew gathers for home-cooked meals. As Mal says of his ship: Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you shes hurting fore she keens. Makes her a home.
REAVERS
THEY LIVE OUT ON THE EDGE OF SPACE, WHERE NO-ONE WILL GO, OR EVER WANTS TO. IF THEY COME FOR YOU AND THEY MIGHT YOUD BETTER PRAY THAT YOU DIE QUICK, BECAUSE IF YOU DONT THEN BEING EATEN ALIVE IS THE BEST OUTCOME YOU COULD HOPE FOR. REAVERS ARE THE BOOGEYMAN. THEIR SHIPS ARE OLD, PATCHED TOGETHER, AND OFTEN COVERED WITH THE BODIES OF THE SLAIN, BOTH THEIRS AND
OTHER PEOPLES. EACH REAVER SHIP IS A PATCHWORK AGGLOMERATION OF PARTS, WITH NO PROPER CORE CONTAINMENT, FLOODED WITH RADIATION THATLL KILL SOONER RATHER THAN LATER AND FILLED WITH CANNIBALISTIC MURDERING PSYCHOTICS WHO HAVE NO FEAR AT ALL. A REAVER SHIP CAN USE A MAGNETIC GRAPPLE TO GRAB ONTO ITS TARGET BEFORE BOARDING. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT IS BEST LEFT UNSAID.
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Model Citizen
Cant wait to own your own spaceship? Over the next two pages we take a look at some of the model kits currently on the market, and their manufacturers. With these, you can nd something to build whatever your skill or budget.
Revell
As well as producing models of aircraft, cars, and ships, Revell also offer model kits of spaceships from Star Wars and Star Trek for you to build at home. The Revell range of models starts with easykit or SnapTite kits for younger modellers, which require no glue or painting, and will generally take an hour or so to assemble. Many of these model kits feature moving parts. The next range up are a bit more challenging to build and will require the use of glue to stick parts together and a steady hand to paint. All of the kits have excellent detail and engravings with easy to understand assembly instructions and suggestions for painting. These more complicated kits also feature waterslide decals to kit out your spaceships. Among the Star Trek kits available from Revell of Germany are the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Voyager, and the Klingon D-7, while Star Wars kits from Revell include the Millennium Falcon, Republic Star Destroyer, and X-wing. www.revell.com
Moebius Models
Moebius Models make and distribute models of DC and Marvel characters, together with a selection of movie monsters. But as well as these gures, Moebius also make spaceships such as the Space Clipper and Moon Bus from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Mark II and Mark VII Vipers from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica as well as the Galactica itself. The Battlestar Galactica series of models in particular put a lot of effort into giving you the ultimate BSG experience, even to the point of printing the instructions on paper like that used by the characters on the show. While these models are of excellent quality, the ships require a lot of detailing and are designed for medium to advanced model builders, so may not be best suited to beginning modellers. www.moebiusmodels.com
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Fantastic Plastic
If classic SF spaceships are more your thing, then Fantastic Plastic is the place to go. Their models include Rocketship X-M and the Luna from Destination Moon as well as more recent ships such as the SA43 Hammerhead from Space: Above and Beyond, the Phoenix Warp Ship from Star Trek: First Contact, and Colonial One from Battlestar Galactica. The collection also includes a series of Concept Space Craft Instructions and packaging are simple but dont detract from the models themselves. www.fantastic-plastic.com
LEGO
As well as their standard bricks, with which you can make any starship you can imagine, LEGO also provide a large selection of Star Wars models covering all six lms. The simplest ones such as the Clone Trooper Battle Pack will take minutes to put together, while larger models such as the T-6 Jedi Shuttle and the Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship will take around two hours to build. Or if you want something really challenging, then the LEGO Millennium Falcon has 1,254 pieces to put together, including quad laser cannon, a detachable cockpit cover, and hull plates that open to reveal the detailed interior together with six LEGO gures. For those that wish to keep the local systems in line, larger sets include a Super Star Destroyer with more than 3,000 pieces, and even the Death Star itself. And of course every LEGO ship can be broken down to create hundreds of other ships to your own designs as well as those pictured on the outside of the packet. www.lego.com
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Could any of the fantastic technologies seen in science ction ever occur in real life? We take a look at a few of the staples of the genre to see if they could ever come true.
PORTRAIT OF THE BRITISH THEORETICAL PHYSICIST PAUL ADRIEN MAURICE DIRAC (19021984). THE BLACKBOARD DISPLAYS A QUANTUM MECHANICAL MODEL OF THE HYDROGEN MOLECULE. DIRAC WAS A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE THEORY OF QUANTUM MECHANICS. HIS GENERAL THEORY OF 1926 WAS FOLLOWED, IN 1928 BY A RELATIVISTIC THEORY OF QUANTUM MECHANICS THAT EXPLAINED ELECTRON SPIN. HE USED HIS THEORY TO PREDICT THE EXISTENCE OF ANTIPARTICLES SUCH AS THE POSITRON, WHICH WAS OBSERVED IN 1932. DIRAC SHARED THE 1933 NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS. AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Fact and Fiction
Antimatter
The reaction between matter and antimatter, modulated by the ubiquitous dilithium crystals, powers the ships of Star Trek. Antimatter was rst predicted in 1928 when physicist Paul Dirac attempted to integrate quantum theory with Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity and derived an equation which described the behaviour of matter at the quantum level. This Dirac Equation, though, had two possible solutions: one in which the electron held a negative charge (as in our world), and one in which it instead had a positive charge. This positively charged electron became known as a positron, and was experimentally veried in 1932. Other forms of antimatter exist as well, such as the antiproton a proton with a negative charge. An antiproton and an antielectron could combine to create antihydrogen, and there is no theoretical reason why much larger combinations could not happen, leading to whole worlds, suns, and star systems made entirely of antimatter. When a particle meets its antiparticle,
they destroy each other instantly, mutually annihilating each other in a burst of energy. It is this energy that is harnessed in Star Trek to power the Enterprise and other ships. According to the current model of physics, though, matter and antimatter should have been created in exactly equal proportions during the Big Bang in which the universe came into being. But looking out into the universe, everything that we can currently observe is made of matter rather than antimatter. One of the current great mysteries of physics, then, is: what happened to all the antimatter?
BUBBLE CHAMBER PHOTO OF THE PRODUCTION OF MATTER AND ANTIMATTER. AN ANTIPROTON ENTERS THE PICTURE AT BOTTOM AND COLLIDES WITH A PROTON IN THE BUBBLE CHAMBERS LIQUID. IN THE RESULTING ANNIHILATION, THE ENERGY RELEASED REMATERIALIZES AS FOUR POSITIVE PIONS, WHICH CURVE ANTICLOCKWISE IN THE CHAMBERS MAGNETIC FIELD, AND FOUR NEGATIVE PIONS, WHICH CURVE CLOCKWISE. THE TWO LOWER PIONS ARE LESS ENERGETIC AND THEREFORE CURVE MORE. THE NEGATIVE ONE TRAVELS A SHORT DISTANCE AND IS CAPTURED BY A PROTON; THE POSITIVE ONE DECAYS INTO A MUON (BOTTOM RIGHT) AND AN INVISIBLE NEUTRINO. THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN IN THE 72-INCH BUBBLE CHAMBER AT THE LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY, CALIFORNIA. LAWRENCE BERKELEY LAB/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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Warp Drive
In 1994 Miguel Alcubierre proposed a way of travelling faster than the speed of light sort of. We know that its impossible to accelerate a starship to the speed of light, because you would need to spend an innite amount of energy to get there. Instead, the Alcubierre Drive proposes changing spacetime around the ship itself. By compressing the area of spacetime in front of the ship and expanding the area behind it, the starship in effect surfs within a bubble of spacetime. As the ship is effectively at rest within the warp bubble itself, there are no relativistic problems involved, and the ship can travel faster than the light which is outside the bubble. There are one or two minor engineering problems that need to be solved rst before our hypothetical warp drive can transport humanity to the stars, though. Firstly, the equations behind the Alcubierre Drive require the use of whats known as exotic matter matter with a negative energy density none of which has yet been shown to exist. Secondly, it currently seems as if the energy cost of making a warp bubble a hundred meters in size (large enough for a small starship) would be greater than the mass of the known universe converted to energy.
MIGUEL ALCUBIERRE REALIZED THAT IF THE SPACETIME BETWEEN TWO OBSERVERS WERE EXPANDING THEY COULD MOVE AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AT AN ARBITRARILY HIGH RELATIVE SPEED EVEN THOUGH EACH INDIVIDUAL WOULD NOT THEMSELVES BE TRAVELLING FASTER THAN LIGHT
THE ABOVE DIAGRAM SHOWS AN ALCUBIERRE SPACETIME WARP BUBBLE. THE SPACESHIP IS CONTAINED IN THE CENTER OF THE BUBBLE. AS SPACETIME CONTRACTS IN FRONT OF THE BUBBLE (ON THE RIGHT), THE SPACETIME BEHIND THE BUBBLE EXPANDS, THUS MOVING THE BUBBLE FORWARDS AND CARRYING THE STARSHIP WITHIN. ALTHOUGH AN OBSERVER OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE WOULD SEE THE SHIP MOVING FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT, WITHIN THE BUBBLE THE SHIP NEED NOT MOVE AT ALL AS IT IS DRAGGED TO ITS DESTINATION. THE ENTERPRISE ENTERS WARP SPEED IN STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
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Other Successful Predictions
Although we may not yet be able to travel faster than the speed of light or teleport ourselves from place to place, there are plenty of science ction predictions which have already become reality.
Rocket travel to the moon became a reality on July 20 1969.
The touchscreen iPad was predicted by Star Treks PADDs.
Forbidden Planet was 10 years in front of the fashion world with the introduction of the miniskirt
Communicators are now more usually known as cell phones.
Siri, part of the iPhone 4S, can respond to verbal instructions.
Bluetooth earpieces allow wireless communication as worn by Lt. Uhura.
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Not just a spaceship...

And then there are ways of travelling from planet to planet that dont involve setting foot upon a starship at all. Like teleportation, these story engines allow the heroes to step straight into the heart of the action but this time, they dont even need to travel across space using a ship in the rst place.
Stargate
As seen in the feature lm Stargate, together with television spin-offs Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, the titular device offers near-instantaneous travel to any of the thousands of other stargates in the galaxy. The stargate is a giant ring standing on its edge so that people can walk through it. Directly in front of most gates stands a Dial Home Device (DHD), a low pillar topped off by a panel covered with symbols. By punching a known series of symbols into the DHD, followed by the symbol representing the area from which they are dialling, users create a stable wormhole between their own stargate and the one that they have connected
to, through which matter can pass in one direction. They can then travel to wherever that other stargate is located simply by stepping through the one in front of them. The connection can be held open for up to 38 minutes, after which it will automatically terminate. To disrupt travel through a stargate for example if you dont wish to be invaded by Jaffa warriors set to conquer your planet its necessary to create a barrier extremely close to the front of the gate which will prevent the formation of a stable wormhole. This can be done by a force eld, a metal iris, or in extremis, by burying the stargate itself. Stargates are made from Naquadah, a superconducting material not found on Earth.
The Tardis
From the outside, the Tardis from Doctor Who looks like a
battered 1960s police box. Once through its wooden doors, however, you are confronted by a huge room at the center of which stands a hexagonal console and the room is much larger than the police box within which it sits. Doors lead off from the console room to many more spaces within the ship, including bedrooms, a library, and a swimming pool. Although the Tardis can travel through space, it generally makes its trips by dematerialising from its starting point and then rematerialising at its destination with a wheezing, groaning sound. When in ight the time rotor in the center of the console moves up and down. A Tardis is not built, but grown, and each Tardis can be considered to be a living being with a mind of its own. The Tardis can travel through the time vortex to any point in time and space. And occasionally it even arrives when and where its supposed to.
BELOW: STEPPING THROUGH A STARGATE, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME RIGHT: THIS IS WHAT AN OUTER PLASMIC SHELL LOOKS LIKE
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NOTES AND FURTHER READING

All starship sizes have been rounded to the nearest foot. When researching information about spaceship size, speed, weapons, et cetera, we have used the following order of canonicity: 1. Film or TV programme itself 2. Scripts 3. Contemporaneous production information 4. Licensed technical manuals 5. Ofcial website 6. Other website Computer games, novels, and comics have not been used as sources. Books Brimmicombe-Wood, Lee Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual, Harper Paperbacks, 1996 Hard Eight Pictures Space: Above and Beyond Technical Manuals, Unpublished internal document, 1995 Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Gareld The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Pocket Books, 1994 Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Gareld The Art of Star Trek, Pocket Books, 1995 Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Gareld Star Trek Phase II, Pocket Books, 1997 Mandel, Geoffrey and Tim Earls Ofcial Serenity Blueprints Reference Pack, QMx, 2007 Moore, Ronald D Battlestar Galactica Series Bible, Unpublished internal document, 2003 Mortimore, Jim with Allan Adams and Roger Clark Babylon 5 Security Manual, Del Rey, 1997 Reynolds, David West, Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, Dorling Kindersley, 1998 Reynolds, David West, Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore Star Wars: Episode 1 Incredible Cross-Sections, Dorling Kindersley, 1999 Roddenberry, Gene Star Trek: The Next Generation, Unpublished internal document, Paramount Pictures Corporation, 1986 Roddenberry, Gene The STAR TREK Guide, Unpublished internal document, Desilu Studios in association with Norway Productions, 1967 Saxton, Curtis, Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections, Dorling Kindersley, 2002 Saxton, Curtis, Hans Jenssen, and Richard Chasemore Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections, Dorling Kindersley, 2005 Sternbach, Rick and Michael Okuda Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, Pocket Books, 1991 Sternbach, Rick and Michael Okuda Star Trek: Voyager Technical Guide v1.0, Unpublished internal document, Paramount Pictures Corporation, 1994 UFO Super Visual Town Mook, Tokuma Shoten, 1980 Whiteld, Stephen E and Gene Roddenberry Star Trek: The Making of the TV Series, Ballantine Books, 1968 Zimmerman, Herman, Rick Sternbach, and Doug Drexler The Star Trek Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, Pocket Books, 1998 Star Trek Websites drexles.wordpress.com Alien/Aliens ex-astris-scientia.org time.absoluteavp.com www.startrek.com Babylon 5 www.trekplace.com babylon5.wikia.com Star Wars www.midwinter.com/lurk www.starwars.com www.b5tech.com starwars.wikia.com www.themadgoner.com/B5/ B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm
PICTURE CREDITS
Front Cover: Death Star in orbit of Yavin with Star Destroyer and tie ghters from Star Wars Episode Vi/ USS Excelsior in Pursuit of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek III: Search for Spock - Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. When Worlds Collide/ Space Shuttle Atlantis docking with ISS - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES Welcome: Forbidden Planet/2001: A Space Odyssey/ Colonial Viper MKII from Battlestar Galactica Pictures courtesy of SNAP/EVERETT COLLECTION/ NBCUPHOTOBANK/REX FEATURES 1900-1950s: Le Voyage dans la Lune/Female and astronauts p15/Rocketship-XM poster p12 - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Flash Gordon/Destination Moon/The Day the Earth Stood Still/When Worlds Collide/ It! The Terror From Beyond Space/War of the Worlds/This Island Earth/Forbidden Planet - Pictures courtesy of EVERETT COLLECTION/ REX FEATURES. Conquest of Space - Pictures courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE George Pal: Pictures courtesy of SNAP/EVERETT COLLECTION/REX FEATURES Gerry Anderson: Gerry Anderson/Fireball XL5/ Thunderbird 3 - Pictures courtesy of ITV/REX FEATURES. Thunderbird 3 Docking with Thunderbird 5 - Courtesy of MARTIN BOWERS Space 2001: A Space Odyssey; Interior shot - Courtesy of MGM/EVERETT/REX FEATURES. Discovery One - 5.5 Foot DISCOVERY mastered by Atomic City Models - Courtesy of KUHN GLOBAL. Aries 1B - 1:48 2001 Aries 1B by Adam K Johnson of AJA Models - Courtesy of MODELER MAGIC Gene Roddenberry: Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES Space 1999: Eagle Transporter - courtesy of REX FEATURES. Eagle Transporter variations built and photographed by E. JAMES SMALL. UFO: Pictures courtesy of ITV/REX FEATURES Aliens - The Renery original and nal version built by Martin Bowers for the movie Alien. - Pictures courtesy of MARTIN BOWERS. Internal shots of the Nostromo/ Interior and exterior of the Alien Derelict/Internal view of the Sulaco with crew members - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES. External view of the Nostromo landing/Narcissus/External view of the Sulaco, built and photographed by E. JAMES SMALL. Dropship & APC built by Ian Lawrence - Courtesy of MODELER MAGIC. Star Trek: USS Enterprise off New York City during the early 1890s - Courtesy of NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND. Kirk, Spock and Bones from the original TV series/USS Enterprise from the original TV series/The USS Enterprise from the lm Star Trek released in 2009/The Romulan commander in Balance of Terror/Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser used in the original series/USS Enterprise (CVN 65)/The USS Enterprise facing a Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/On the bridge of the USS Enterprise D with Picard, Riker and Data/External view or the USS Enterprise D/The cast of TNG celebrating the 100th episode/Captain Sisko and Major Kira on DS9/ Captain Jonathan Archer, Sub-Commander TPol and Ensign Travis Mayweather from Star Trek: Enterprise - Pictures courtesy of PARAMOUNT/SNAP/EVERETT/ REX FEATURES. External view off a Klingon Bird of Prey Leaving Vulcan in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home/ Internal view of Klingon Bird of Prey with Commander Kruge and crew from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/ USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) as seen in Star Trek: Generations/DS9 Station next to opening Wormhole/USS Deant/Captain Kathryn Janeway with Tom Paris and crew member on the bridge of the USS Voyager/External view of the USS Voyager/Borg drone Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Galileo Shuttle Craft Kit by Randy Cooper Models/ CG Enterprise 1701 Ret by Tobias Richter/ Romulan Bird of Prey built by Richard Long/ Romulan Warbird built by Michael Provenzano/Stareet Runabout Art by Warren Zoell/Scratch built Star Trek First Contact Borg Cube by Jeff Pollizzotto/ Enterprise NX-01 built by Steve Neill (with assist by Doug Drexler) - Pictures courtesy of MODELER MAGIC Threats to the Federation: Studio Scasle Ferengi Marauder/ Galore Class Cardassian Warship composite by Warren Zoell/ DOOMSDAY Machine U.S.S. Constellation by Barry Yoner - Pictures courtesy of MODELER MAGIC. USS Enterprise aproaching Vger from Star Trek the MOtion Picture - Picture courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Shuttles: The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station - Picture courtesy of NASA/ REX FEATURES. Space shuttle from Armageddon/Space shuttle from Deep Impact/Clint Eastwood in Space Cowboys - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Independence Day: Motherships destroying the White House/Alien ghters attacking an Army base/Jeff Goldblum in the interior of one of the Alien ghters/Will Smith in an F-18 getting ready to ght the alien invaders - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES/20THC.FOX/EVERRET Alien ship in the hanger of Area 51 - Picture courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Red Dwarf: Mining Ship Red Dwarf/Mining Ship Red Dwarf re-design from season seven onwards/ The Blue Midget/Starbug landing in Red Dwarf/The Curry Monster from DNA/Gelf from Emohawk - Polymorph II/Mister Flibble from Quarantine PICTURES GRANT NAYLOR PRODUCTIONS LTD. Lister, Kryten, Cat and Rimmer on board Starbug Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Vogon & Interior of Heart of Gold - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Heart of Gold and Vogon Fleet - Pictures courtesy of ALAMY ILM: George Lucas/The Abyss/Dragonheart/ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Poster - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES. ILM lm special effects for Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi - Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE Star Wars: Original Star Wars: A New Hope poster/ Darth Vader entering Tantive IV with Stormtroopers/ J-type Diplomatic Barge which appears in Star Wars Episode II/Qui-Gon Jinn with a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on board a J-type 327 Nubian royal starship in Star Wars Episode I/Interior of the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in Star Wars Episode IV/ Exterior view of the Millennium Falcon with X-wings in support in Star Wars Episode VI/TIE Fighters in pursuit of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars Episode V/Grand Moff Tarkin with Darth Vader and Princes Leia inside the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV/Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and C-3PO on board the Deathstar in Star Wars Episode IV/Superstar Destroyer with Imperial Shuttle approaching/External view of Cloud City/R2D2 and C-3PO at Mos Eisly/Star Destroyer and Deathstar II orbiting Yavin in Star Wars Episode VI/Han Solo, Luke Sky Walker, C-3PO, Princess Leia and Chewbacca on board an Imperial Shuttle - Pictures courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. Tantive IV escaping from a Star Destroyer in the opening scene of Star Wars Episode IV/Squadron of X-wings and Y-wings in battle formation intercepting the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV/External view of Cloud City from Star Wars Episode V/Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine in the throne room of the Death Star from Star Wars Episode VI - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Naboo Royal Starship scratch built by Richard Long/CG Rendering of a Droid Tri-Fighter/ TIE Bomber from the Hector Rosales Collection/ Lambda Class Shuttle CG Build by Ansel Hsaio/ Imperial Star Destroyer built by Ansel Hsiao (Fractalsponge)/ Imperial TIE Fighter built by Ansel Hsiao/Studio Scale Y-Wing by John Jesse/B-Wing Composite Art by Robert Watson/Studio Scale Imperial TIE Fighter from the Hector Rosales Collection/ The Death Star mastered by Lasse Henning/CG model of Jango Fetts Slave One by Douglas E. Graves (deg3D)/Boba Fetts Slave 1 Studio Model - Pictures courtesy of MODELER MAGIC. Mad Props: Pictures coutesy of ANDREW AINSWORTH. Blakes 7: Pictures courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. Teleportation: Kirk and crew transporting Courtesy of PARAMOUNT/EVERETT/REX FEATURES. Teleportation artwork - Courtesy of SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Buck Rogers: Ranger 3/Buck Rogers/ Col. Wilma Deering in Starghter cockpit - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES. Hawk - Courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Earth Starghter model built by E. James Small/WarHawk Fighter built by Stephen Hoyle - Courtesy of MODELER MAGIC. Sunshine: Exterior shot - Courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. External shots and poster - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES Motherships: Close Encounters - Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. District 9/V - Pictures courtesy of SONY/EVERETT/SNAP/REX FEATURES Ron Thornton: Captain Scarlet/Babylon 5 - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES Babylon 5: Pictures courtesy of MARMOR/EVERETT/ REX FEATURES Galaxy Quest Alexander Dane at the controls of the NSEA Protector/Jason Nesmith, Gwen DeMarco, Alexander Dane on board the Protector - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES. The crew arriving via interstellar pod - Courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE. The crew of the NSEA Protector on the bridge - Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. NSEA Protector, model by Pegasus models and picture taken by BILL DOLAK Space Travel: Ole Christensen Rmer/Albert Einstein/ Warp Drive illustration/Worm hole illustration Courtesy of SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Event Horizon: Exterior shot - Courtesy of ALAMY. Interior shots - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Outland: Sean Connery on the exterior of ship courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Shuttle Con-am 27 - Courtesy of MARTIN BOWERS Space: Above and Beyond: Shot of Lt. Nathan West and Lt. Shane Vansen - Picture courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE SA-43 Hammerhead Fighter. CG Rendering by Mark Dickinson - Courtesy of MODELER MAGIC. USS Saratoga front/rear 1:1400 U.S.S. Saratoga built by E. James Small from an ACME 360 model. USS Saratoga (CV-3) Running full power trials in Puget Sound, Washington, following battle damage repairs, 15 May 1945 - Picture courtesy of NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND Battlestar Galactica: Admiral William Adama on the bridge of BSG/ Colonel Saul Tigh, Lt. Felix Gaeta, and Captain Aaron Kelly on the bridge of BSG talking tactics./Battlestar Galactica ship in space/The Cylons from the original TV series/The Battlestar Pegasus/ President Laura Roslin/Lt. Sharon Boomer Valerii and Captain Karl Helo Agathon inside a Raptor/Captain Kara Starbuck Thrace inside a Cylon Raider/Cylons on the bridge of one of their Basestars - Pictures courtesy of NBCUPHOTOBANK/REX FEATURES. Apollo and Starbuck from the original TV series - Courtesy of THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE. Colonial Viper Mark II/Battlestar Galactica from the original TV series Pictures Courtesy of Flint Weiss. Colonial Viper Mark VII built by Peter Matthews of ProBuilt SciFi/Colonial Blackbird Stealth Viper: a limited edition model produced by QMx/CG Rendering of Colonial 1 by ZOIC/ CG rendering of Cylon Basestar and close-up by ZOIC/ Cylon Raider built by R.L. Bleecker - Pictures courtesy of MODELER MAGIC Weapons: Space 1999/Battelstar Galactica weapons/Doom BFG/Optimus Prime - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES. Illustration of the rst laser ever built - Courtesy of SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY. Enterprise attacking in Star Trek II/Lt. Commander Worf with Phaser Rie/Enterprise E - Pictures courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Serenity: Interior of Serenity - Courtesy of THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION. Serenity landing/Reaver ships - Pictures courtesy of UNIVERSAL/EVERETT/ REX FEATURES Fact and Fiction: Physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac/ Bubble chamber photo of the production of matter & antimatter - Courtesy of SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY. The USS Enterprise accelerating to warp speed from Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Courtesy of REX FEATURES Not just a spaceship: Stargate and Tardis - Pictures courtesy of REX FEATURES
Battlestar Galactica en.battlestarwiki.org Space: Above and Beyond www.space-readyroom.de
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Spaceships of Science Fiction

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Spaceships of Science Fiction

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Science Fiction

SCI-FI FOCUS VOLUME ONE 7.95

s c i s s a l C m l i F & V T f o s r a Over 100 ye