Living Ship: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"I'm lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship -- a living ship -- full of strange alien life forms..."''|'''John Crichton''', ''[[Farscape]]''}}

 

 

These ships can run the gamut from being completely non-intelligent (generally comparable to plants) to having animal like instincts (the crew often serves more as handlers than as pilots, in this case) or being completely [[Sapient Ship|intelligent and self aware]]. The last type tends to be viewed as female and often has a [[Spaceship Girl]] for an avatar.

The idea of a living ship also opens up plenty of story opportunities, simultaneously funny and serious. Imagine a show where the biological ship catches a cold, runs a fever, and keeps sneezing its occupants into space.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Film ==

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'': some scenes suggest this of the ''[[Flying Dutchman]]''... with the twist that it seems to ''absorb'' its occupants! Part of the ship, part of the crew, indeed.

* In ''[[Shark Tale]]'', the fish use whales like humans use buses or cars.

 

* ''[[West of Eden]]'': the Yilané have a civilization built entirely on genetics and selective breeding, and use gigantic genetically modified icythyosaurs for trans-Atlantic shipping.

* ''[[Wild Cards]]'': the Takisians use and breed sentient (or semi-sentient) ships. Dr. Tachyon's ship - which he named "Baby" - regenerates its "ghost drive gland" over a period of years or decades, after he burned it out trying to go real fast.

* ''[[Xenogenesis]]'': the gene-trading, three-gendered aliens have spaceships that are more or less plants that can be communicated with. {{spoiler|Their seeds are planted on planets where they gradually take over the entire surface before launching off as independent spaceships.}}

* ''[[Hyperion Cantos]]'': the Templar create living "Treeships", gargantuan trees fitted with star drives. The treeships are made inhabitable by force fields created by weird space creatures that may or may not be sentient themselves.

** By the end of the series, {{spoiler|''Galactica'' itself becomes one of these. When Boomer blows out a huge section of the hull due to an ill-timed jump, the rogue Cylons volunteer some of their biotechnological material to patch the empty spaces. At the same time, a brain-damaged Anders is set up as the ship's Hybrid.}}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'': there was a being called "Tin Man" (in the episode of the same name) that had been used as a living ship.

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'': The ships used by the Wraith are organic and are suspected to be grown rather than manufactured. This is confirmed in a later season when {{spoiler|Dr Keller}} is infected with a virus and begins to grow into a Wraith hive ship. Despite their organic nature they seem to possess little to no intelligence.

** The series finale reveals that the only limitation to the growth of a Wraith ship is the amount of available power. When an [[Precursor|Ancient]] ZPM module is plugged into a Wraith hiveship (already one of the largest ships in the universe), it grows to enormous proportions, thickens its hull to rival Ori shields (weapons that cut through Ori shields like butter barely dent the abnormally thick super-Hive armor) and grows larger-caliber energy weapons, turning it into the most powerful ship in the known universe.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Traveller]] 2300'': The Pentapods have living starships which they [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|engineered]] for --and ''from''-- their own species thousands of years ago.

* ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'': The Progenitor faction of the Technocracy built a living spaceship called the Vivo. Many of them find it hilarious to refer to going somewhere ''in vivo''. If you get this joke, you've spent too long in a lab.

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Achron]]'': All Grekim technology is in fact a member of the Grekim race that has morphed into the required form. This includes their spacecraft.

** The [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] are finally revealed to be this: entire civilizations distilled into biological goo (while supposedly retaining consciousness somehow) which forms the core part of a massive artificial body.

** The Leviathan of Dis, described as a "biological ship" found by the salarians, and apparently stolen by the batarians, was retconned to be yet another Reaper. Not neccessarily obvious considering the Reapers appear to be entirely mechanical on the outside AND the inside; only thorough investigation can reveal that they contain a significant amount of living matter.

* In ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] 2: Dread Lords'', the Arnor and the eponymous Dread Lords both appear to use insect-like biological ships. The Iconians as of the ''Twilight of the Arnor'' expansion can also use [[Organic Technology]] augmentation to toughen their ships, and any Good-aligned civ can get access to a small amount of Arnorian battle armor, but their ships are still almost entirely non-living.

* ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi|Musashi: Samurai Legend]]'' has the Anthedon, a large <s>space</s> sky whale carrying the city of Antheum on its back.

* ''[[Prey]]'': The world ship is part technology, part living tissue, with something that used to be human(probably) as the brain.

* ''[[UFO Afterblank|UFO Aftermath]]'': The alien ships are revealed at some point of the game to be living things.