Space may be the final frontier for us in real life, but through the magic of science fiction, we’ve been traveling throughout the galaxy for decades. In that span of time, we’ve seen the inside of starships and the outline of rockets. We know how to tell a flying saucer from a space frigate, and we know our hyperdrives from our warp cores. Oh, and we have opinions on which version of the USS Enterprise was the coolest. Basically, we’re spaceship snobs who’ve never even left Earth.
This past weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy introduced us to a new generation of heroes and acquainted us with our new favorite spaceship: the Milano. So, how cool is Peter Quill’s beloved ship? Does it beat out Boba Fett’s Slave I from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back or one of Starbuck’s beloved Vipers on Battlestar Galactica? We thought it would be fun to pit all of our favorite spaceships from TV and film together and to definitively rank them not by their firepower or speed, but by how “cool’ they are.
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20) The Battlestar Galactica is only shepherding the last remaining living human beings to a new home. No big deal. SyFy
19) The Nostromo from 'Alien' is one of the most popular cinematic space ships amongst hard-core fan boys. 20th Century Fox
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18) Leave it to Luc Besson to set the most brutal battles in 'The Fifth Element' on the Fhloston Paradise, a slick luxury liner on an alien world.Gaumont Film Company
17) The Discovery One from '2001: A Space Odyssey' is big, impressive and boasts a (literally) killer robot.Everett Collection
16) The Vipers from 'Battlestar Galactica' might look like your average combat space ship, but Viper pilots have a certain edge of cool that you have to think comes from the craft itself.SyFy
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15) Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his cohorts hop around the galaxy in the majestic Milano in the new film, 'The Guardians of the Galaxy.'Marvel
14) In 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' Douglas Adams describes the Heart of Gold as looking like a shoe, but no matter how it looks on the outside, what makes this ship so awesome is what's on the inside: The Infinite Improbability Drive.Everett Collection
13) Between his dark blue leisure suit, devil-may-care attitude and martial arts mastery, 'Cowboy Bebop' hero Spike Spiegel oozes interstellar cool. Naturally, his ship, the Swordfish II, is equally as fly.Sunrise
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12) Sure, the Nostromo in 'Alien' is pretty cool, but it's got nothing on the design of the imposing warship, Sulaco, in 'Aliens.'20th Century Fox
11) Count Dooku isn't the coolest of 'Star Wars' villains, but his Solar Sailer might be one of the sweetest rides in the Old Republic.Lucasfilm & 20th Century Fox
10) The X-Wing is the dogfighter of choice of the 'Star Wars' universe. Can you imagine Luke Skywalker in anything less ragtag cool?Everett Collection
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9) Klaatu’s ship in 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' may not have had a name, but its iconic design has influenced every flying saucer and spacecraft made on film since.Everett Collection
8) Yeah, the Eagle 5 from 'Spaceballs' is just a space Winnebago, but that's what makes it so cool!Everett Collection
7) The Serenity on 'Firefly' was more than just a cool spaceship with a lot of character -- it was a character.Fox
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6) The TARDIS might look like a dusty old police box, but it can take the heroes of 'Doctor Who' anywhere they want to go in all and space and time. Oh, and did we mention that it's bigger on the inside?Everett Collection
5) Yeah, Boba Fett's cool because he barely talks in 'The Empire Strikes Back' and because he wears cool Mandalorian armor, but really the coolest thing about Fett is his ship, the Slave I.20th Century Fox
4) The Klingon Bird of Prey doesn't just have a cool sounding spaceship name. It's also cool to look at -- and cool not to look at. Its biggest tactical advantage is that it's usually the one class of ship in the 'Star Trek' universe with a cloaking device.Paramount Pictures
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3) 'Star Trek' broke new ground for science fiction storytelling on television and the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) set a high standard for what our ideas of space travel could be. NBC
2) We're giving the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' a slight edge over its namesake if only because it's got Ten Forward, sweet holodecks and more upscale interior design.Paramount
1) If you don't think that the Millennium Falcon from the original 'Star Wars' trilogy is the coolest spaceship in history, then you are clearly either dead inside, or you're trying to prove a pretentious point about how much you know and love spaceships. Everett Collection
Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
