Space Station: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

An artificial structure in space, where people live and work. Unlike the [[Cool Starship]], the Space Station is usually fixed in orbit around a planet or at a particular point in space. It also allows for the construction of a standing studio set and avoids expensive location shoots.

 

== [[Fanfic]] ==

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The wheel-like Station Five seen in the opening space scenes of ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' is perhaps the most famous of all sci-fi movie space stations.

* [[Star Wars|The Death Star]] is a cross between a space station and a starship because it can travel between star systems under its own power, but is huge (and round) enough to be [[That's No Moon|mistaken for a moon]]. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|EU]] is absolutely in love with space stations, using them for everything from shipyards and defense platforms to casinos. A great many of them end up in little bitty pieces by the end of whatever work they appear in...

* ''Conquest of Space'' (George Pal's 1955 sci-fi flop after his previous blockbusters ''[[Destination Moon]]'' and ''When Worlds Collide'') had The Wheel, whose design was taken from the famous illustrated book of that name.

* The space station over Solaris in ''[[Andrei Tarkovsky|Solaris]]'' is large, but falling apart due to madness and disuse.

* Disney Channel "Zenon" movies, a lot of the action is based in Space Stations.

 

** It came back briefly in the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'', when someone tried to use it to fire at Vong worldships but missed and hit some allies. And then they refused to use it again.

** A considerable part of ''[[Legacy of the Force]]'' is about the Corellians, trying to secede from the Galactic Federation of Free Worlds, commanding Centerpoint Station, which was destroyed eventually.

** Most of the third book, ''The Short Victorious War'', centers around Hancock Station, and the defense of it during the opening hours of the First Haven-Manticore War.

** ''Mission of Honor'' depicts the destruction of {{spoiler|''all'' of the major space stations in the Manticore system, with a death toll in the ''millions'', including civilians.}}

** Various fluff even call all ''Babylon'' stations ''O'Neill''-class.

** The other human stations are wheel-shaped. Centauri stations look like two pyramids attached at the base.

*** Plus Spacestation K-7, which had a problem with Tribbles...

* ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'''s [[The Empire|Terran Federation]] has a giant ring-shaped space station as the headquarters of their evil version of Starfleet.

* ''Destination Space'' (1959). Pilot for a TV series that was never taken up. Involved a space station damaged by a meteorite and efforts to send a rescue mission.

* [[Thunderbirds|Thunderbird 5]], used to monitor all the world's emergency communications. At the time, I guess no one thought an unmanned satellite could do the job. Operated by a single person, almost always Gerry Anderson's [[Unfavorite]], John Tracy.

* ''[[Stargate]]'' showed a few space stations, including the ISS. The only Goa'uld space station shown was in the Hasara system and used as a meeting place for the System Lords. It was later destroyed by the Replicators.

** ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' also featured a moon base.

* Many space stations of various shapes and sizes are shown in ''[[Andromeda]]''. The largest one is the Arcology, a massive space habitat filled with [[Technical Pacifists]]. The Arcology does have a [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|slipdrive]], although it's ancient (almost [[Steampunk]]-like) and non-functional.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Stations are one of the types of constructs that players can design and build in ''[[Star Ruler]]''. They can carry massive defensive weapons, function as a trading hub, orbital refinery, a dry dock, or any combination of the above. Typically placed in orbit around planets, but it's possible to tow them to a new position using a massive carrier, or by yanking it out of orbit with a tractor beam.

* Building them is a major part of playing ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', and they all have different specialized functions.

*** The True geth build a massive space station in orbit of Rannoch (quarian homeworld) to serve as a giant server to house all geth programs. When the quarians attack in the third game, one of their first targets is the space station. Many programs are destroyed in the process.

** The fleets of the Systems Alliance (human government) are headquartered on the Arcturus space station. Unfortunately, it's one of the first targets of the Reapers in ''Mass Effect 3''. All you find is the debris field.

* The GDSS ''Philadelphia'' from the [[Command and Conquer Tiberium]] series is [[The Federation|GDI]]'s heavily defended orbiting command center, from which they run all of their operations of Earth. Until [[Big Bad|Kane]] [[Nuke'Em|nuked it]], that is.

* The game ''[[Startopia]]'' is [[Incredibly Lame Pun|revolved]] around restoring abandoned spinning wheel-shaped stations. Strangely enough, all space stations in the galaxy appear to have the exact same design. The stations have 3 decks: engineering, pleasure, and bio. Biodeck is the innermost one and uses "nanosoil" to recreate any planetary environment to the point where you can actually grow plants in it. The pleasure deck is all for the entertainment of tourists and employees. The engineering deck (outermost) includes power stations, factories, docks, security stations, communicators, sick bays, sleeping pods, bathrooms, etc.

* ''[[Star Trek Elite Force|Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force]]'' has several space stations, including the Forge and one made up of various ships trapped there welded together. One of the ships making up the latter is a ''Constitution''-class starship from the [[Mirror Universe]]. Fans of TOS get a nostalgia fix walking through the halls of the ship, albeit with the [[The Empire|Terran Empire]] logo on all doors.

* Two types of stations can be built in ''[[Haegemonia]]: Legions of Iron''. Both types can move prior to deploying, at which point they are unable to be "undeployed", although the [[Expansion Pack]] fixed that. Mining bases are unarmed and position themselves over resource-rich asteroids in order to process them. Military bases can be built of different types, depending on the type of weapons you want them to have (missile, proton, ion, quantum). They cannot use weapons when mobile. They also repair friendly ships in the vicinity. The campaign also has resort and hospital stations, as well as the Darzok HQ, which must be destroyed to win the game. You also find abandoned [[Precursor|Solon]] stations with active defenses.

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has orbital defense satellites (it's not clear if they're automated or manned) of various sizes with expansions adding large specialized space stations (e.g. command, industry, science, trade, habitat, sensor). In the sequel, you can also build hidden defense bases in asteroid fields in order to launch system defense boats at unsuspecting invaders.

* Several space stations are shown throughout the ''[[Space Quest]]'' series. Galaxy Galleria is a large circular mall in space with a zero-gravity area in the center. The [[The Federation|StarCon]] Academy is located aboard a large space station. There's also Molly's Chug & Glug SpaceBar, which you end up destroying, Monolith Burger Fast Food Dive, Shar-Pei's station, Xenon Orbital Station 4, Vohaul's Asteroid of Doom, etc.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==