Bioship - On Film and Television

On Film and Television

• In the Star Trek franchise:
  • Gomtuu, nicknamed "Tin Man", was the presumed last member of a race of bioships which existed with a symbiotic (and probably telepathic) crew. It contemplated suicide after its crew was killed by radiation caused by a large explosion. Gomtuu was alone until Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid who could not control his telepathic abilities, attempted first contact. Both finding a kindred spirit in the other, Tam and Gomtuu left the area and have not been seen since.
  • In a variation on the basic definition of a bioship, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Emergence", features a story in which the Enterprise-D develops an artificial intelligence from the sum of the ship's experiences, for the sole purpose of creating a biological life form which is released into space.
  • Species 8472 pilot bioships capable of destroying Borg cubes and even planets.
  • Some species use biological components on their ships, such as the Breen, or Starfleet's bio-neural gel packs, as exemplified on the USS Voyager.
• On Babylon 5:
  • Two of the most powerful races, the Vorlons and the Shadows, use biological vessels. Vorlons have mostly green or brown colored ships that have "arms" extending to the front of the ship. These arms generate the lightning bolt-like weapons of the Vorlons. Their ships have force fields and utilize jumppoints. The Shadows, on the other hand, employ black crab-shaped ships capable of phasing in and out of hyperspace without the use of a jumppoint. The larger "Battlecrabs" fire purple beam weapons that can slice enemy vessels. They also employ smaller ships for various purposes like scouting or as fighters. The Shadows also use a titanic machine called the Death Cloud (or Planetkiller) which is capable of engulfing a planet and bombard it with missiles until the planet is torn apart from the inside out. The entire mechanism utilizes Shadow bio-technology as well.
  • The Minbari's White Star Fleet uses biological components based on Vorlon technology. The Whitestar employs a hull that can "learn", allowing it to adapt to enemy weapons fire over time.
  • The Earth Alliance is able to convert Shadow technology for use on their warships, as seen in the episode "Between the Darkness and the Light." The Advanced Destroyers were able to inflict significant damage to the Whitestar fleet, although the latter's speed and maneuverability (as well as their smaller size) allowed the Whitestar fleet to destroy the Shadow-enhanced battleships.
• Farscape: In the television series Farscape, one of the central characters is a sentient bioship named Moya, whose interior also serves as a backdrop for many of the events in the series.
• Tenchi Muyo!: the Jurai use ships grown from seeds. Their hulls are carved from the wood of giant trees, and protected by forcefields. In addition, it is possible that the cabbits Ryo-Ohki and Fuku could be considered bioships. Although not truly organic, they are certainly alive, and capable of limited reproduction.
• Infinite Ryvius: the Vaea project was designed to be able to leave the solar system using the gravimetric nature of the creatures (space squid) found in the Geould, a highly volatile sea of gas. Four were made in total; Each contains a Vital Guarder of different shape, which have high attack/defense capacity that varied from ship to ship. Each also contained a life core that was bound to a "captain", that would mentally destroy the captain if the core was destroyed. Sometimes, a dead body was used as a bio core, they are the most stable, and affect the captain least.
• Lexx: the ship LEXX is a living ship, shaped like a dragonfly with no wings, capable of destroying whole planets.
• Bio-Booster Armor Guyver: the Creators had living ships that were grown. Also, the Guyvers themselves were biotechnological armor suits.
• seaQuest: the large submersible seaQuest DSV has an organic outer skin that can heal itself.
• Alien: The derelict may be a bioship .
• Earth: Final Conflict, The Taelon Mothership was a vast bioship composed of living energy that was partially self-aware. Taelons also possessed organic shuttles, weapons (The wrist-attached skrills), warships, and buildings which grew in less than a day, all of which were subdued by their programming.
• Doctor Who: The TARDIS, The Doctor's time-traveling ship, is telepathic and apparently semi-sentient, and it is alluded several times that TARDISes are grown, not built. Several other bioships have also been seen in the series, including:
  • The Axos (in the episode The Claws of Axos) is a bioship.
  • The Zygon ship in Terror of the Zygons appears to have an organic interior.
  • The Ship from Battlefield also has organic elements.
  • The Starship UK was simply a habitable shell constructed around a captured and enslaved Star Whale which provided the actual propulsion, in the episode The Beast Below.
• Stargate Atlantis: the Wraith Hive-Ships are alive.
• Battlestar Galactica: In the re-imagined series, the newest generation of Cylon Raiders and Basestars are partly organic.
• Robotech: the ships of the Invid are mostly organic, as are most of the Invid mecha.
• In the Wild Cards anthology series, the people of Takis, including Dr. Tachyon, have domesticated a race of living starships.
• Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles shows the alien Bugs using huge "Transport Bugs" to travel between star systems.
• In G.I. Joe, the citizens of Cobra-la, introduced in G.I. Joe: The Movie, have numerous bioships, plus many vehicles and weapons, more advanced than anything possessed by the Joes but all made entirely of organic, and, indeed, mostly still-living material. The whole Cobra-la civilization was built with this sort of technology.
• In the anime Heroic Age, the Bronze Tribe exists in enormous living nests and warships which are, arguably, members of the tribe itself. Each is controlled by a single, frail individual physically connected to the ship itself and controlling subservient members telepathically.
• Space: Above and Beyond: The alien Chigs possessed ships with partially organic interiors and controls.