Space Hotels and Cruise Ships
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Spacedock delves into the occasionally seen concept of space hotels and spaceborne cruise ships in science fiction.
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I'm shocked you didn't bring up the Axiom from WALL-E, that thing ruled
I know right?!
I was thinking this. It is actually a cruise liner in the movie!
Or Doctor Who's variation with the Titanic II, which treated planets the same way a regular cruise liner treats island ports.
Also the Bacchus from Space Above and Beyond.
The Bacchus probably did it best.
In spacedocks defence, in the context of the story the Axiom essentially had become the "generation ship" trope rather than a cruise liner in space, even if that's what it was originally.
Most of my real-world experience with ships comes from being on cruise ships.
I realized that a lot of the star freighters and working class ships in my setting I have subconsciously given a lot of the comforts usually only found on cruise ships.
However, I would argue any starship meant to be inhabited for potentially years at a time without so much as a blue sky or an ocean breeze would need such creature comforts for the sanity of their crew.
Good point there, morale matters.
While you wouldn't necessarily get cruise ship level luxury, that is definitely something that would need to get taken into account. Hell, even the nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers of the modern world have to take it into account, and they generally have chances for shore leave...once a year or so? Don't quote me on that, I'm hardly an expert.
@@ThePCguy17 Yeah, the luxuries on my main character's ship largely boil down to private crew quarters with full tubs and a mess hall/rec room that is themed like a pub complete with artificial windows simulating sunlight.
Well theres real life carriers with saunas and stuff so if its big enough
@@mitwhitgaming7722 I do the same. i figure the cost of those systems wold be so low as to basically cost the same as a blank bulkhead wall. And space is big, building a large enough vessel, crew can have their own bed or at least a space for privacy. And since hygiene is critical for crew survival, why not make the cleaning areas enjoyable as well as functional for a few extra credits and kill 2 warbirds with 1 torpedo as they say?
Maybe the fact that the Star Wars hotel had the same amount of rooms as a truck stop motel, which were tiny and uncomfortable, and were charging $3k a night to stay in them, had something to do with it's failure.
Probably. I'm honestly not sure how much thought about the customer experience really went into that one.
And it was set during the wrong era. Should have been the OT.
@princecharon agreed, wholeheartedly.
Also, Gen X was raised on thr OT, we are at "cruise age." Financiallly, going with the sequel era is beyond stupid. But beyond stupid is KK's standard operating procedure.
The Star Wars hotel was a failure of marketing. People thought "themed hotel" and thought like, those hotel rooms at the Nickelodeon resort that were just painted up, maybe had some props. But it was more like one of those role play weekends like muder mysteries and the like, with an actual story going on if you wanted to engage in it. The fact that even die hard fans barely knew this for months meant that the ones who would actually appreciate it couldn't get there and left the overall impression of it just being overpriced pointlessness. I thought it was too until I learned exactly what it was, and then the cost made perfect sense. But they didn't say one word about it in any of their press or marketing.
You make the same mistake most people make, because it was fundamentally mismarketed. It wasn't a hotel, it was a themed experience with a packed itinerary and dozens of performers.
I always liked "the restaurant at the end of the universe" from Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy
And of course, the Big Bang Burger Bar.
That is more of a destination time rather than a destination place.
@@MrQuantumInc Hello? It's called Spacetime for a reason. 😅
Amazing place, amazing book even. Also apparently some where in England there's a cafe called "the cafe at the end of the universe"
The Avenue 5 from the Hugh Laurie TV show is a fairly fun take on the Cruise ship trope.
Sometimes I forget that High Laurie is a comedian, and British.
Yeah, very surprised we didn't see that in the video.
Love that show and it's crazy antics
@@VoxAstra-qk4jz I watched and loved Black Adder. But his acting and absolute perfect American accent keeps me forgetting that he's the same person too. (I swear no other Brit can do a proper American accent. They always sound weird doing our Rs.)
THAT'S the one I was thinking of!
How about featuring space restaurants? 'She's built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro' - Zapp Brannigan
Doctor Who (as well as a Titanic) also has the Hyperion III from Terror of the Vervoids. As with most 80s Doctor Who, I won't claim that it's spectacularly well-realized and it's mostly there as a spacey sort of location for an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, but I do feel like it gives cruise ship vibes.
I think a novel idea for a space station tourist destination would be as a historical site. Much like Civil War forts or the Alamo are here in the US or the Maginot Line and medieval castles are in Europe. Imagine DS9, after inevitably becoming obsolete, turning into tourist trap as the historical station that oversaw the Bajoran Occupation, the staging point for exploration of and first contact with the Gamma quadrant, instrumental in the Dominion War, etc.. You could also extend this to starships, much like the battleship USS Arizona here on Earth. I'm sure there'd be astronautical history enthusiasts that'd love a tour of a retired Enterprise (if only they didn't keep blowing up).
Idk, could be a fun locale to visit and even a convenient, in-world way to reveal a sci-fi world's history and technological progression.
I know for sure Lower Decks had episodes featuring the Phoenix Flight theme park & Voyager getting a planetside tour/stripdown before it gets shipped off to the museum port.
The Galactica was actually on its way to be turned into a museum when the Cylons attacked.
@@stevenscott2136 At least in the first episode, one of ship's flight pods had already been converted into a pressurized aircraft museum.
You missed the Axiom from Wall-e. It was a massive cruise ship.
Was thinking the same, the Axiom should have been mentioned.
that's more a mobile city then true cruise ship
I mean, he also forgot about the luxury cruise ship in starfield where you heist a celebrity gala as part of a main quest line, but remembered the optional casino spacestation....
They also missed Avenue 5.
Nice to see the Fholston Paradise from fifth element and Zephyr from BSG talked about. Zephyr in particular is an excellent design.
I'm so glad you included Charlie & The Great Glass Elevator. Any accurate description of any part of that book defies belief.
RE Star Wars - In the original continuity the majority of the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, including Home One and Liberty types, were originally starliners and cruise ships before being converted for military purposes, as was the Sullustan Dauntless-Class Heavy Cruiser. In addition to that many other luxury vessels show up from time to time, some examples being the Lady-Class luxury liner Lady of Mindor from Han Solo's Revenge, the Indulgent-Class luxury starliner, the Mon Calamari-built Kuari Princess, the CEC-built Queen of Empire, and many other one-off examples.
Additionally, the StarSpeeder's were among many non-luxury passenger liners dotting Legends. So yes, there was a long and rich history of starliners in Star Wars until the reboot.
Impressed over that you mentioned Starship Titanic at all. 10 out of 10 has never heard about the book, nor the game.
i think doctor who has some good ones, the resort on the diamond planet of Mis a excellent example with a low G restaurant (with bibs) and the pool with 14 foot think glass, there is also another version of the Titanic who's entire appeal was that it was a replica of an earth ship for all the aliens to cosplay in and visit the planet
Hey babe, wake up! The space guy dropped another video about space things!
A good way to space thing up
Ain't no babe watching this
@@sparkieT88 I’m watching :(
Speeeeeehhhhhs
One not too advanced idea I'd love to see more of is Cyclers. The Aldrin cycler is the go to example of an large object put into an orbit that takes it by earth and mars at a very regular cycle, making it a Cruise ship type economical way to move a lot of stuff and people between earth and mars. It also could represent a terrific setting for a murder mystery, as a large varied space with a set cast and no easy way out besides the regular dockings with ships from earth and mars.
No one has mentioned this but the Heighliners of Dune sorta count as cruise ships. While we mostly see them in their role as giant freighters and troop transports, they canonically have hitels, restaurants, and shops onboard for the passengers who dont have a fleet of transports. The luxury is there because even if transport is instantaneous, the Heighliners follow fixed routes and a passenger may need to wait a few stops, making it probably feel somewhat like a subway train. Somewhat also ironically, in Dune, the passengers who could afford the greatest decadence and luxury cant partake in what Heighliners can offer due to fears of assassination and espionage. So Paul never leaves his Atreides ship nor would say any Harkonnen be allowed to.
Haha, when he said "what can happen in space casinios?" I was going: He MUST include Cowboy Bebop here!
And it was.
But he forgot the Phule's Company series, which used the setting of a space Las Vegas to good effect.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Doctor Who special "Voyage of the Damned". The aliens riding that cruise are stopping to visit "primitive cultures" like 2007 Earth at Christmas.
That one was also a "Titanic but IN SPAAACCCEE!!!".
Visiting primitives during a pagan ritual celebration is exactly what tech advanced humans would do. You just know it. You also just know the "experts" would get it as accurate as the guy who stayed on Earth at the end of the episode. lol
I thought that was covered with Space Titanic, though the Futurama version got more attention.
That's what I was going to say!!
@@patrick_j_leeI actually thought it had more in common with The Posiedon Adventure in terms of plot.
There was that red Star Destroyer called the Errant Venture that was converted into a casino
Came here for this comment.
Steals star destroyer.
Is forced to strip weapons.
Regrets due to cost of sourcing Red paint.
Shows up when ever New Republic needs help
Gets brought back to full power to fight Vong
"Pirate" 😂
@@Tetsujinhanmaa I wouldn't call Booster a Pirate. He was a Smuggler yes.
Also the errant Venture was mostly a Trading hub. However he didn't care if the trade was legal or not.
@@LukeKenobi1 Never said he was a pirate. But he wasn't an angel either.
This.
It is also where the morons making The Last Jedi should have sent our heroes (if they insisted they needed a casino scene). Heck, it's a movable casino. It could have coincidentally been just in the next system over. Making the trip seem worth it, time wise.
No Starbase Yorktown from Star Trek Beyond? That place seemed like a transport hub, working city and resort destination all in one.
Someone speculated that the whole point may be to impress potential Federation members. A sort of Potemkin village, but without the Potemkin.
Ok but then my question is, how would you focus on the ‘resort’ experience?
@@EGRJ It partly is, a showcase of Federation prowess in the new frontier, and a "neutral" location so not to show favoritism to any planets in the region.
She’s built like a statehouse but handles like a bistro.
*steakhouse
Cyclers may have some elements of this in a hard scifi setting.
A Cycler is a space station is solar orbit, such that it passes by two planets, one shortly after the other, regularly. So you would get on as it passes by earth, and 4 months later, get off when it passes near Mars. (And if you forgot your bag, this particular station isnt going to line up with the earth/mars transfer for another 6 years)
But for those 4 months, you're in a space far larger than your transfer craft, in a stable orbit so mass is, if not meaningless, at least just a one-time cost serving multiple trips. There will probably be elements of "cruise lining" between planets for the trip.
The Axiom from Wall E came to my mind, though more thought as an arc type of ship it fitts the description of space hotel
It was also designed to move everyone off of earth. Not for tourists necessarily.
I'm pretty sure, the Axiom was explicitly designed as a cruise ship it's just that on its maiden cruise things got really bad on Earth and they were told not to come back
it gets the title of space hotel/cruise ship back once the earth is livable, until then it's a colony ship
I remember the Sorosub Luxury yacht in SWG. Nowadays you have the various luxury ships and transports in Star Citizen like the 890 JUMP, E1 Spirit, and Constellation Phoenix. Honestly, I think colony ships would also fit into this category to some degree. After all, you would want your colonists to arrive at their destination fresh and ready to go,, and maybe stasis pods don't exist in the setting.
Horizon-class Star Yacht; SoroSuub Corp
Cost: 500,000 Credits
Dimensions - 55m (L) x 35m (W) x 30m (H)
Max Accel - 3,200G
Max Airspeed - 1,200 kph (1.0 standard atmosphere)
Hyperdrive - class 0.5 & backup class 10.0 (90 MGLT)
Shield - military-grade (500 SBD)
Hull - Titanium, armored, non-reflective (250 RU)
Avionics/Counter-Measures - advanced sensor suite, ECM suite w/decoy jammers, HoloNet transceiver, slave circuit, high-grade navicomputer, programmable ID transponder, thrust trace damper.
Arms - 1 x tractor beam, 2 x retractable light repeating blaster cannon turret, 1 x dorsal retractable twin laser cannon, 1 x concealed missile launcher (bow; 12 concussion missiles); 1 x Slayn & Korpil H-2 executive shuttle.
Crew - pilot, co-pilot, navigator (min crew-1 pilot or 1 pilot droid)
Droids - R6-1J astromech droid, TC-2 protocol droid, FA-4 pilot droid, GH-7 medical droid, IG-86 sentinel droid
Passengers - 10
Cargo - 50 tonnes
Consumables - 2 months not including cargo, 11 months including cargo space.
I had one of those.
I never took one to a PvP zone, sadly.
Macross 7 (and Frontier) features mobile fleet-based colonies. Besides the central City ship, there are a number of civilian support vessels featured in Macross 7 such as the Hollywood Class amusement ship, the Riviera and Mark Twain class resort ships (the Rivera even features an artificial beach while the Twain is obviously a riverboat themed casino), and the Budoukan-class concert/stadium ship. Even the agricultural vessels are ridiculously picturesque pasture land rather than sterile factory farming units and people often went to the ag ships on free time as well. These were all introduced and featured in 7 but not really shown to be in Frontier where they seemingly cram all the amenities into the City ship, though sources do say the fleet had "additional support vessels" so who knows.
Anyway, being able to take a shuttle from your mobile space city over to a giant sea shell to have some fun in the surf, then scoot over to the giant neon clad faux paddle wheeler for some adult funtime was just neat. Plus you can take your kids to the zentradi petting zoo aboard the Sunnyflower-class ag ship and let them pet the hippocows
And of COURSE macross has a whole ship class dedicated to being a concert venue
Ah, found the Macross shoutout, though tbf, I was hesitant to bring these up since they aren't technically standalone cruise/hotel ships, but given the sheer entertainment factors involved, why not. 😄
I mean, I'm sure the Rio and Mark Twain and whatnot had passenger rooms. What good casino/beach resrort doesn't?
Not quite in space, but another good example is Artemis base from _Artemis_ by Andy Weir. It is a lunar base. As such, tourists abound. The main wants to get the job of leading tourists on a spacewalk to see the Apollo landing sight.
Please tell me it also had a huge gaudy souvenir shop. With a little wind up astronaut planting a tiny flag. If not, why not? ;)
@@patrickmccurry1563 I think there was one. But it wasn’t as important to the story as the spacesuit tours. But I would’ve be surprised if it exists. That author thinks of everything. He’s made spreadsheets for his other books
The series Avenue 5 is centered on a space cruise liner gone awry; it would've been cool to hear your take on that. I hope you include it in the future!
Avalon from "Passengers"? Freeside from "Neuromancer"? Do the many "Cloud Cities" in sci-fi count? The idea shows up in Doctor Who a few times.
Everywhere I go, there Jenny is. I cannot escape her. Fine, I'll watch the 4-hour video essay.
Don't worry. The 4 hours is organized into a numbered list
You can always watch it at 1.5x speed and then you can watch a 2.6 hour video about a failed hotel instead!
yeah i saw the same video, i wanted to watch it ..but man your hitting Lord of the Rings Expanded Edition times there,
Jenny "Disney Star Wars is actually good" Nicholson
The - ill-fated - Texas Colony from Gundam Universal Century is an interesting example, as a theme park intended to emulate American frontier ranch-life as a sort of West World but without the monstrous ethical issues. It makes a lot of sense in concept, this isn't a setting where you can conveniently find other Earth-like planets to visit, while Earth itself is pretty hostile politically and environmentally to space colonists. People live their lives in crowded artificial environments, some would certainly pay money to live the fantasy of rural simplicity.
I was actually thinking about these kinds of ships the other day and now we got a video out of this. Very cool.
About the Star Wars universe, it's relevant to remember that what is now called Mon Calamari cruisers were initially luxury cruise ships. And given the size of those things, it not nothing.
I loved the "drink responsibly" message!
Awesome shout out for Mobile Suit Gundam.
When I clicked on this video my very first thought was "Better mention Fhloston Paradise!" and then you did!
The 5th Element 🥰
The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks contain a very cruise ship-like atmosphere. A General Systems Vehicle is a superintelligent starship with a population in the billions, almost always in FTL. While it's described as the Culture's equivalent of a major city, due to population density, it's still a luxury environment with huge cultural significance in its own right; and it has lots of visitors, because it's usually the fastest way to get around the galaxy, and it's happy to pick up hitch-hikers for a few days or months and let them go closer to their destination. Nobody would think of it as a luxury cruiser, but they'd use it like one!
I would suggest David Drake's novel "Starliner", which feels an awful lot like an Arthur Hailey book in space, plus some classic sci-fi adventure hijinks.
I think the reason there are no cruise ships in Star Wars is because it’s cannon that the Millennium Falcon can cross the galaxy in one day. About the same timeframe the fastest commercial jets can circle the Earth.
At those speeds a cruise on a starship becomes as pointless as a cruise on a commercial airliner. Between sleeping you’ll have no real time to enjoy whatever facilities can be fitted into such a limited space. And I imagine those facilities would pale in comparison to the rest and relaxation facilities you’d find on any planet geared towards tourism.
Even then, people will still prefer slower transports with more amenities, just like in the real world. It’s faster and cheaper to fly around the Caribbean, but since you’re going to pretty islands people will pay more to travel to each one. But yeah it also is for the plot like Han isn’t going on the Space Carnival Line to escape the Empire.
There was a recent episode of Trope Talk that focused on trains. Pointing out how they are the ideal vehicle for when you want to get characters from A to B, while also granting plenty of room for exploration and character interaction.
I won't waffle on, but thinking about it, intergalactic cruise ships feel like the equivalent of trains depending on the world building. Especially if they are not within law enforcement range in the wild west that is space, or subject to something like an FTL system that you dont have the liberty of switching off.
I think I would enjoy a bit of Space Detective Poirot.
That "drink responsibly" was the first thing in these videos that made me laugh out loud.
Again this was awesome. I hope you guys explore more civilian aspects and ships of sci fi universes.
The ship in "Passengers" was kind of like a cruise ship, well at least at the beginning and end of the voyage. And then there was "Avenue 5".
The movie Passengers 2016, which starred Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Evans had an interesting take on the space hotel/sci-fi cruise ship concept. In that film, the spaceship, Avalon was basically an old timey ocean liner but set in space. Similar to the Titanic, it had passengers divided into first class and economy class. The people with first class tickets were given luxury accommodations and better amenities than the economy passengers. It also had a set destination, which was a new planet called Homestead II, that the people onboard were being sent to colonize. Another interesting feature about this ship was that because the time of destination was about a century long. The Avalon was also a sleeper ship that placed its passengers and crew into pods in hibernation for most of the journey. They were meant to be waken up on the last leg of the journey, which was when I think the passengers could start living life again and enjoying the amenities on the ship.
My idea for a cruise liner in my Sci-fi series looks like a flying wing, as the ships move around like the Expanse. The flying wing is meant to have that long ship feeling we get on current ocean liners.
For the Titanic ship for this series, the ship is instead attacked by an enemy nation as the first outbreak of that time period's war.
So it's more like the Lusitania than the Titanic?
But isn’t a flying wing more of a “wide ship feeling” ? 🤔
@@ckl9390 The ship would have passengers onboard, not cargo or troops. Also, the Lusitania sank during a war, the Colossus was attack at the outbreak of a war, as the enemy nation have never see a ship of its size before.
@@UGNAvalon The ship flies like it is in the Expanse. If it wasn't a flying wing, the ship would look more like a flying hotel, not a sailing ship.
@@WolfeSaber9933 The Lusitania was a passenger liner. And while there was an interdiction zone newly announced when it set out on it's final journey it was, again, primarily a passenger liner carrying civilians and it was generally expected to be exempt from attack. The outrage regarding it's sinking and the loss of passengers of a particular nationality was a factor bringing that nation into the war.
I ran a Star wars tabletop campaign that had one stretch on a space cruise ship whose draw was that they stopped at several appealing systems in the galaxy for specialized activities. Things that a regular civilian would find too expensive or dangerous to do on their own. Activities I had were:
--Taking armored pressure vessel down into a gas giant for "sky crab fishing," inspired by the EU sequence where Lando shows how they gather gemstones from Yavin
--"Solar surfing" at a pulsar, using two-person skiffs
--Hunting expeditions on a jungle world with an expert on site for safety.
I absolutely think space cruises are underutilized because space is fuckin COOL and more sci-fi settings should be willing to explore that.
There is an excellent book by Mary Robinette Kowal called the "The Spare Man" that is set on a cruise ship going from Earth to Mars. No spoilers but its more of a detective mystery with scifi problems (such as the effect of centrifugal gravity on a dropped piece of evidence) to spice it up.
I really enjoyed this video and its rather topical. Parts of the first act of my Sci-Fi Comedy occurs on a Cycler Castle and since it is a non-fusion slowship it will take my characters a year to reach Jupiter from Venus. Thus this Cycler Castle is a long duration hotel and has crew that serve as 'cruise directors' to keep morale high and passengers out of the functional crew's way.
I love the comments of this community ! So many great add ons.
Talking of them as a setting for R&R, and shenanigans reminded me of The Bacchus in Space: Above And Beyond.
Star Wars Cruise Ship: _Queen of Empire._ It's from the old canon, specifically, the Han Solo Trilogy. Happened to get hijacked by pirates.
The Capital Ships from the Ixan Legacy Series by Scott Bartlett.
It's a giant ship, with a city of population 60-80k living within itself.
Colonial One was more like an exclusive high-end hunting lodge than a hotel. Many small groups visited, they always brought their guns, and they frequently pointed them at a different species.
The best examples of in-universe cruise liners in star Wars is the majority of the early Mon Cal fleet during the GCW. Though much of the fleet did come from skyscrapers that had engines bolted to them, in the book Tarkin a collision incident occurs with a ship described as on the scale of a Star Destroyer, if not an Imperial I or II then at least a Venator or other capital ship from the Cline Wars, that is referred to as a "Mon Calamari star liner" which goes a great way to explaining why they were such capable ship builders
Just off the top of my head I thought of Dr Who's space cruise lines(Titanic, Orient Express), and 'hotels' like the one from The End of the World, Wall-E, Avenue 5. you really didn't do this topic the justice it deserved. Hopefully you can revisit it again sometime with a bit more detail. Love the work in general though, keep up the wonderful show!
There was also a resort station in the show "Space: Above and Beyond" where the main cast was ordered to after it became apparent that their unit was being overworked to exhaustion.
Elite Dangerous 3 elite transporters are actualy tourist ships, since tourism is one of the game missions mechanic, where you need to go on special planets, tourist spots and space objects.
So yes, they can be here)
Awesome compilation.
One of the Legend of Galactic Heroes gaidens has Kircheis visiting a space casino/resort which is definitely a different and more modern vibe compared to the Galactic Empire's way more rural aristocratic sensibilities.
There's even an extended zero-g fight scene in basically a gravball arena that shows the gruesome results of toggling off zero-g midfight
I'm writing a sci-fi story where there are space-hotels but they function more like truck stops/ weigh stations. The protagonist is a cargo pilot so places like that show up a lot. There is a cruse ship in the story too, but it's been heavily damaged and will be part of this ramshackle collection of damaged ships and lifeboats trying to get to a safer part of the galaxy.
In a couple of different settings I've seen, space tourism is a big thing.
For example, the game Freelancer has an entire company based around space tourism called Orbital Spa and Cruise which maintains various space stations to serve as hotels, along with a series of cruise liners. Both of which are dockable objects and allow you to resupply, acquire jobs, etcetera.
(The cruise liners are always anchored in the game as they are stations, like all dockable capitol ships in the base game outside of the campaign, but they are supposed to be capable of movement.)
And then there's the actual space hotel, the Estrella Grande, in a one-off episode of the CGI Thunderbirds reboot series, Thunderbirds are Go.
A cruse ship that travels around some exotic location, like the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, with day visits to each, would certainly be something I would pay for! Sure, you might get bored of visiting yet another ice moon, but at least then you have the cruise ship with all it's amenities.
I'd kill for a chance to have a short hike across Europa or Io!
No mention of the unnamed cruise ship stricken by "the unexpected condensation of nebula gases" from Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone? I am heartbroken... 🤣
The Great Ship from the Robert Sawyer stories is exactly what you're trying to find.
A ship bigger than Jupiter and probably older, it just flies around, serving as both a cruise ship and a destination in itself. People come to the Great Ship because all the cool sapients are doing it.
And it has cabins several acres in size and every amenity you can imagine for more species than you can think of.
The ship from the movie Passengers could be included as a Star Cruiser. Even though passengers are put into stasis for most of the journey. There are many recreational facilities when they are not in hibernation.
Just my own quick thoughts, but I think that space cruise ships might make sense for the reasons stated in the video (something distracting to take you from one place to another). Space hotels only really make sense as something to stay in for, say, a layover while waiting for another flight. Like a motel at an airport. Just my own thoughts, as I said. (Mostly making a comment for the algorithm.)
From the _Star Wars_ universe, we do have the following:
_Coral Vanda_ - a subocean liner of the planet Pantolomin (Featured in dealings with Thrawn.)
_Lady Luck_ - SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000; Lando Calrissian's private space yacht (Thrawn, SW video games, _Star Wars_ Galaxies MMORPG)
This is actually something I deal with in my sci-fi. Most of civilization lives on ships and stations, with trips to land being rare, especially "green space".
Glad to see you recognizing For All Mankind, still shocked that you haven't done a video on their race to Mars.
The thing I like most about these videos is the amount of references you use to different media. Like there's always at least one or two I haven't heard of yet, like For All Mankind in this one. Definitely sounds interesting and I have something new to watch now! Thanks, Spacedock team!
There was a space hotel-and-casino featured in an episode of Star Wars Resistance.
The idea of a destination resort in space sort of sounds like Phoenix Station in “Old Man’s War.” It’s primary function is a space dock, but it’s constructed with a transparent roof to give the people onboard a gorgeous view of the planet Phoenix above them. Not to mention all of the amenities on board like restaurants and shops and hotels within for visitors (human or otherwise)
In macross 7 and macross frontier. The colonies show have ships that travel with them that are both habitation and places of work. But also vaction spots for the people of the colony and visitors. 7 is shown to have a classic style beach resort and frontier has a ship with a literal set of tropical islands.
The Steam version of Starship Titanic works for me and it's pretty fun. You could probably finish it in a few hours with a guide, but it does contain quite a lot of moon-logic
Cruise ships touring stellar phenomena have always been on my brain when thinking about space faring sci-fi. I think maybe there something prominent about that in the old TSR "Star Frontiers" TTRPG?
Gotta admit, the first thing I thought of when I saw the title was indeed the Fhloston Paradise.
I chuckled when I saw Tom Scott's footage used. New content from him is sorely missed.
Cloud City on Bespin is a resort destination. The novelization of Dark Forces and one of the books from The Lando Calrissian Adventures both have space cruise ships as settings for significant plot elements.
One ski-fi book series I read there was accsually extended space cruise ships crossing between planets and nations being main transport of the civilians
The one example sticks out to me is the Axiom from Wall-E. It was built as a space Hotel/ cruise liner while the planet was being cleaned up, but became a long term life raft.
Star Wars Legends had a number of space cruise ships across various novels, but they tended to be fairly brief appearances, usually existing to give pirate something to attack so the main characters can either save the day, or escape dramatically.
The second I saw this I knew Fifth Element would be mentioned and sure enough: within the first min :)
Since you missed Avenue 5, I'm gonna recommend you give that a watch. Sci-fi comedy that's a mix of Red Dwarf and The Love Boat.
0:50 there were two examples of tourist destination hotel ships in Star Wars, both from pre Disney timeline (still counts)
The names escape me, but one was in Timothy Zain’s DARK FORCE RISING. A casino ship underwater.
The second was a vessel watching underwater mining run by lando calrissian himself in a later zahn story during the caamaas document incident
There's a couple from smaller games that make a pretty good setting, both social deduction games, oddly enough. There's Deceive Inc, a 70's sci-fi spy setting where one of the missions takes place on a Space Hotel/Convention Center and First Class Trouble, a more classic style Social Deduction game where the AI of a space cruise ship had replaced passengers and trying to kill the rest. Both of them are very pretty settings.
The Mon Calamari vessels in Legends were always said to have been converted cruise ships. Their all white and curved interiors really fit that aesthetic, to be honest.
The original BSG had the Rising Star, which had apparently been in use as a cruise ship moments prior to the destruction of the colonies.
In Star Citizen, there are several ships that could be used as a mini-cruise-ship-in-space, such as the Constellation Phoenix or the 890 Jump.
Another franchise that features cruise ship - like spacecraft is Macross 7. Most of these are part of a colony fleet, but there are hotels onboard some of the larger ships, and smaller ships provide sightseeing while transporting passengers between the larger ones.
And then there's Galaxy Express 999, which features a passenger _train_ in space.
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The best thing about cruise ships and hotel in space is that no one can hear them scream of they make great set ups to showcase the horrors of deep space.
They could also be used as a location to introduce characters. Sometimes stories do need a moment of downtime, and that can be a chance to focus on the characters of the story.
You may also meet some pretty unusual characters on a cruise!
this hole video i couldn't stop thinking of cowboy bee boob. i remember them going to a lot of space hotels/cruise ships. but it could just be the like twelve years since i last watched it be scrambled in my memories.
The anime series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, had the Riviera-Class resort ship, this massive vessel in the shape of a seashell, which contained a tropical beach resort. These were attached to these colony fleets, that were being sent into deep space and were typically partnered up with another ship, the Hollywood-Class entertainment ship, which was loaded up with bars, casinos, theme-parks ect.
Yeah, you pretty much ticked all my boxes when contemplating space hotels and cruise ships. Although, how about that training ground for species 8472 in the delta quadrant. It was practically a playground for space nerds!
Star Wars has a bunch of (former) cruiseships in the form of the mon calamari cruisers which are either converted from or based on passanger ships
Spaceship Warlock, a Macintosh/Windows game, featured a luxury spaceship cruise liner in the form of the Belshazzar. It gets attacked by space pirates (of course) not too long into its journey.
In Star Wars, we start with Lady of Mindor (Han Solo's Revenge, 1979).
Lando and Han's ex-lover Brea Tharen were both on one bound to Bespin - where Lando lost one ship he owned to Han Solo.
And the MC-80 Cruisers were a refit of the MC-79 Luxury Liners.
Errant Venture was a Imperial Star Destroyer, turned into a Hotel-Casino
The Wheel was an ancient space station with similar purpose.
Really surprised you didn’t include the Avalon from the 2016 film Passngers.
depending on the setting, if there aren't a lot of habitable worlds space hotels make more sense to have in the gaps between habitable worlds as rest stops etc, if space travel is rare/harder to pull off cruise ships are more justifiable for wealthier characters.
Thanks for the content.
Personal opinion. When you consider the vast range of space and the reality of travel Space Hotels basically become Airports. Where you wait for your next flight out.
Maybe they have some amenities but really it’s just a glorified lounge to keep you occupied until the next PanGalactic clipper to Alpha Centauri docks.
Space cruises I think would be broken into two categories. Short cruises like the ship from the Fifth element these are like modern cruises a few weeks out and back seeing the sights.
And Transolar liners. The Titanic was a transoceanic ship it wasn’t a cruise ship it was a means of getting people to destination. It had amenities like the modern RMS Queen Marry does but it main purpose was to move you from port to port like an airliner just with more comfort due to the prolonged time of travel. Which makes more sense in Sci-fi as you could be days, weeks, months from Earth to Vulcan. A joke I had a thought of though is the Spirit Starlines of Scifi. Where the passenger are put on the ship in cryo and travel the whole way that way until they are unloaded and wake up in a lounge.
I'd like to add the Lyran Queen from Buck Rogers In The Twenty Fifth Century. It appeared in the episode Cruise Ship To The Stars, while the model was later adapted into the exploratory Searcher.