Sapient Ship: Difference between revisions

Despite the problems that can arise from the setting having a mind of it's own, there are narrative advantages. Having the ship able to take over roles such as pilot, and navigator cuts down on crew requirements (and thus cast size) which in turn cuts down on life support and accommodation requirements, sometimes to the point where a crew may be an optional extra. The level of sentience and independence will determine just how much of an advantage this is.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Comic Book ==

* ''[[The Authority]]'': The Carrier - a spaceship that, while being made of metal, is fully sapient. However, it has only once spoken directly to anyone (and then it was only to tell hapless assassin Kev Hawkins what a prick he is).

* The original ''X-Factor'' team liberated a Sapient Ship that was enslaved by Apocalypse, named, appropriately enough, Ship, which had a long and varied career in the various X-Titles over the years. It happily became friends with X-Factor after they freed it from Apocalypse, and served as their base of operations, home, and long-range transportation. Ship was a several thousand year old piece of Celestial technology and the size of a large skyscraper, being so huge that, while in it's usual docked location of standing on-end in a building lot, it became a well-known part of the New York City skyline. The physical form of Ship was later destroyed in a final battle with Apocalypse, but the artificial intelligence survived by downloading itself into a small module. It soon traveled into the future with Cyclops's son Nathan, who later became Cable, and the intelligence of Ship eventually became Cable's space station Greymalkin, and then eventually his floating island Providence. At one point a copy of the AI was even downloaded into Cable's techno-organic bionic arm.

** Fantomex's nervous system externalises itself as a UFO-like techno-organic ship called E.V.A.

* The ''[[Transformers Classics]]'' story "Cheap Shots" features a sentient (non-transforming) space battleship looking for her kidnapped [[Psychic Link|binary-bonded]] organic pilot.

* Shalise, the sinister female personality of the police clone training ship in ''[[Megalex]]''.

 

== Film ==

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'': are giant space ships that are programmed to [[Omnicidal Maniac|kill every form of life in the universe]]. They are quite good at it, but don't consider themselves "alive" due to not being organic.

* ''Nightingale'': the titular hospital ship in [[Alastair Reynolds]]' short story is sapient. Also, the {{spoiler|''Nostalgia For Infinity'' after the melding plague takes over.}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Many Chaos ships are infused with Daemons, in many cases giving them sapience. Some extreme examples of this slowly devour, or even forego entirely, human crew.

** ''[[Spelljammer]]'': features a legendary [[Living Ship]] known as... well, "''the'' [[Title Drop|Spelljammer]]". It also spawns little cute Smalljammers - unarmed, but very agile living boats with [[Glamour|magical mimicry]] abilities.

** ''Voyage of the "Princess Ark"'' story published as a series of ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine articles, was about an Alphatian vessel set out to explore the world of [[Mystara]]. Although initially a "plain" sailing ship enchanted to fly, the Princess Ark eventually had a spirit of an extraplanar creature bound to it, and later became its new "body", acquiring a new layout, the capacity for self-direction and self-defense, and a quirky personality.

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has the Skyship Weatherlight, which gains sentience as its engine is upgraded with new pieces of the Legacy.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Love and Rocket": the Planet Express Ship gets a new AI, which quickly falls in love with Bender.

* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', it turns out that Optimus's team's ship is {{spoiler|Omega Supreme, one of the largest bots created in the previous war who can transform into a ship}}. For most of the first and second seasons, he was in stasis lock and therefore was not sentient until Ratchet revived him with the help of Sari's key.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Spacecraft]]

[[Category:Travel Cool]]