Spaceship sci fi It isn’t often that Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer, or Battlespace Galactica are in the same galaxy, let alone the same planetary system. But here they all are in one giant visualization. Compiled by DeviantARTist Dirk Loechel, this visual compendium of sci-fi spacecraft collects what seems to be every single ship in the history of the genre, from film (Starship Troopers, Independence Day) and television (Babylon 5, Red Dwarf) to video games (Halo, EVE), anime (Robotech), and books (Star Wars: Expanded Universe). Space, it seems, isn’t lacking in cool.
Culling wiki pages and fan sites for accurate dimensions and images, Loechel assembled his constellation of starships as a simple comparison table to gauge the respective ambitions of fictional space civilizations. At times, he writes on his profile, he came across conflicting measurements, forcing him to pick between the inconsistencies. Safe to say, there is a slight margin of error here, but don’t let it distract you from zooming in and pouring over each of the ships.
And how do they measure up? In sheer numbers, it’s hard to say–that, and I just don’t want to count. Both EVE Online, a game consisting exclusively of warring spacecraft, and Star Trek battle for supremacy; where the former dabbles in brobdingnagian excess, the latter is more typologically diverse. Warhammer 40K, the dystopian tabletop wargame, comes close, packing several dozen ships that share, among other things, a penchant for Gothic filigree.
As for the largest ship, the title goes to the “City Destroyer Invasion Mothership” from Independence Day, which spans a ludicrous 24,000 meters (78,740 feet) in length. Apart from its incredulous size, it’s unremarkable and utterly pales in comparison to the runner-up, the Galactic Empire’s Super Star Destroyer. Officially christened the Executor-class Star Dreadnought, the ship is 19,000 meters long. But what it loses in area, it makes up for in design–it’s easily the sleekest and most elegant of the lot, if you discount the creepy Fascist overtones of the sharp, austere geometry.
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Loechel recently updated the graphic to include ships from Battlestar Galactica, Halo, and Stargate. It’s his second revision, which he swears is his last, though he continues to make edits where needed or whenever higher-resolution images make themselves available. Go ahead and dig in (close-ups in the slide show above). And as Loechel advises, “[f]ull view is massively advised.”
