The Mothership: Difference between revisions

** The ''Ptolemaios'' and its successor, the ''Ptolemaios Kai'', function as this for the heroes, and the Innovators have {{spoiler|the ''Celestial Being'', a 15-kilometer-long armed-to-the-teeth asteroid-ship.}} In [[The Movie]], {{spoiler|the ELS have their moon-sized planetoid which had been hiding in Jupiter for a while.}}

* The Harvester ships in ''[[Vandread]]''.

 

== Comic Books ==

** Emphasis on the ''big''. It was supposed to be 1/4th the mass of the Moon. Most asteroids are smaller. Justified if you consider the hull to be some superdense degenerate matter for radiation shielding.

* Super Star Destroyer ''Executor'' from ''[[Star Wars]]'', a nineteen kilometre long command ship.

** And, of course, the Death Stars.

* The Ko-Dan Command Ship in ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''. (Since it controlled several fighter squadrons, it may also qualify as [[The Battlestar]].)

** Fortunately for the ship and crew, including {{spoiler|Robert April, Sarah Poole (later April), and George Samuel Kirk (father of everyone's favorite [[Large Ham]] Captain and family)}}, the Romulans {{spoiler|1=have never heard of Transporter technology. 1 bomb + 1 power core = [[Oh Crap]] moment for the Romulans}}.

* The Lighthuggers from ''Revelation Space'' are four-kilometer-long spacecraft capable of reaching near-light speed. They contain numerous smaller craft and can use their onboard factories to produce more as needed, and can carry up to one hundred thousand frozen people.

* A gigantic disc-shaped automated mothership is encountered in one of ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' novels. It was created long ago by one of the [[Precursors|Precursor]] races as an exploration and terraforming craft. Due to most of the galaxy being unknown to the race, they equipped the ship with powerful weapons and defenses, as well as the capability to manufacture and launch fighter drones. When the ship returned centuries later, it discovered many other ships in the systems occupied by the race. These were later models that were not designed for combat. Treating them as hostile, the ship started a war and eventually wiped them out by using its built-in ability to replicate itself given enough resources. When first encountered, the humans have trouble defeating the ship. Understandably, they're horrified to learn that there are hundreds more just like that.

* In [[Animorphs]]'', the Yeerk pool ships.

** The Hive ships in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''.

** The catfish aliens in ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' also have motherships, though they're rather puny by comparison to ''Destiny'' (more like carriers, really).

 

== Western Animation ==

* One of the finest videogame examples is ''[[Homeworld]]'', in which the only real entity that can be called a character is the Mothership.

** The Mothership can also build [[The Battlestar|carriers]] that function like mini-motherships in their own right.

* Sovereign, from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' {{spoiler|which is actually sentient, and one of the frighteningly powerful [[Eldritch Abomination|Re]][[Abusive Precursors|ap]][[Sapient Ship|ers]].}}

** As well as Sovereign, each race in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has dreadnoughts that are extremely few in number compared to other ships in the various fleets. They're similar in size to a human carrier, but otherwise are much bigger than the ships around them. They also carry kinetic weapons capable of impacting in the multiple-dozen-kiloton range, which is what makes them so special.

** However, the name is a bit misleading since it doesn't harbor any other spacecraft. The Carrier does that instead.

* ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]'' has a hero's example, the Great Fox.

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Spacecraft]]