Shiny-Looking Spaceships: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Royalcruiser 1856.png|link=Star Wars|frame|[[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|OOH SHINY!]]]]

 

For ships that never enter the atmosphere of a planet, this is actually (semi-)realistic. There is no mud or dust in interstellar space that would leave grit or dirt on the outsides of passing spaceships, though there are micrometeorites that gradually erode the surface, so older vessels would have more of a matte hull. Also, having a reflective surface means that [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] will have a harder time burning a hole in your hull, and you have some degree of innate heat-shielding.

 

Contrast [[Used Future]], [[Zeerust]]. See also [[Ascetic Aesthetic]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

 

== Film ==

 

* Any ship from the planet Naboo in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels, which were not just shiny, but ''chromed''. [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|This was intentional]], to contrast with the [[Used Future]] of the original trilogy. See the picture above.

** The ''chrome'' paint job was reserved only for royal ships. As the Naboo [[Space Fighter|starfighters]] are only half chrome.

** Especially [[Egregious]] for ''[[Voyager]]'' since the ship was far, far away from support facilities and starbases. Outside of a few special episodes, the ship spent most of the series looking fresh out of drydock. Glad to know they're using their replicator rations for paint.

** Was averted in the Xindi arc of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'', where the ship keeps (most of) its battlescars from episode to episode.

* ''[[Andromeda]]''

* The Minbari in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', in keeping with their [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]/[[Our Elves Are Better|Space Elves]] characteristic. The Centauri, in keeping with their pompous [[Bling of War]], has elements of this. [[All There in the Manual|Narns have exotic looking ships to make them look more advanced than they really are]]. Human vessels on the other hand, are rather more functional-looking.

** At least a few Minbari like to poke fun at the humans for taking this entirely in the opposite direction, claiming that humans think the only colors that should be anywhere on a starship are green or grey. The Narn and Centauri ships at least can back up their flashy looks with actual performance, although the Centauri tend to come out on top, presumably because their use of [[Artificial Gravity]] allows their ships to be much faster <ref>Compare the sluggish movements of the Earth and Narn ships, with their reaction drives, versus the Minbari and Centauri ships, which use gravity-based drives</ref>

** The Eagle, workhorse spacecraft of Moonbase: Alpha, was eminently functional in form, but it was also usually squeaky-clean. This seems incredible considering the amount of moondust kicked up by its engines every time it takes off. The real Apollo astronauts had to frequently wipe the moon dust from their helmets just to maintain visibility.

*** In behind-the-scenes photographs it's obvious that the miniatures were heavily weathered. Unfortunately, it just didn't show up very well on TV.

* An odd juxtaposition of Shiny-Looking Spaceships and [[Used Future]] can be seen in the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', episode 820 - ''[[Space Mutiny]]''. The control room of the ''Southern Sun'' seems white, pristine and shiny (like a movie set), and the action scenes in the rest of the ship look as though they were filmed in a grungy, 50-year old bottling plant. (With brightly lit exterior windows to boot. Hmmmm....)

** That would be because the Cylons meant for the Basestars to be more straight-up aircraft carriers ([[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!!]]), relying on their Raider wings and long-range missiles to attack their enemies, while the Colonials with their less sophisticated technology preferred to built their Battlestars as... well... [[The Battlestar|Battlestars]], using their Vipers to protect the mothership while she pressed the attack at closer ranges with heavy cannons.

** The blacker-than-black spaceship they stole from the Restaurant's parking lot was even shinier—an amazing feat for a surface that absorbed all incident light.

*** Actually, Hotblack Desiato's ship was perfectly frictionless. The light just sort of... slid off it.

== Tabletop Games ==

 

** Eldar, of course, have the aforementioned 'cleaner robots'(like the small 'warp spiders' that maintain each ship's Infinity Circuit-the aspect warriors were actually called after those, apparently), and goodness knows what else keeping their psychically alive spacecraft made out of a self-regenerating material clean. And tau? Well, this is the race with the caste system that makes them consider the guy that cleans out the latrines to be on par with a bureaucrat.

*** They really only stand out because by contrast the Ork "ships" are salvaged junkers called Space Hulks held together by garbage and good feelings, while the human ships are basically city-sized space-faring cathedrals.

** Tau ships aren't ''shiny'', per se, but along with the rest of their tech they have a clean, brightly-coloured aesthetic to them.

* In [[Traveller]] one option is to give your ship a coating that allows you display screensavers on the hull. Thus your ship can be as shiny as you want. This can also be done on interior bulkheads too, though naturally that would be more for crews quarters, wardrooms, etc, then for the hold. On the other hand maintenance and cleaning are as constant a job as they would be in [[Real Life]]. Traveller averts the assumption that [[Big Damn Heroes]] are immune to mundane considerations.

 

== Web Comics ==

* The pulp fiction stylings of ''[[Red Alert 3 Paradox]]'' demanded this. Soviet spacecraft are even chromed against radiation.

* The Thul ships in ''[[Dark Star One]]''. Since they want to prove that they are better than the other races (especially the Terrans, who they were descended from) in every way, it's natural that they make their ships look much better than all of the rest.

 

== Real Life ==

[[Category:Spectacle]]

[[Category:Spacecraft]]