The Top-10 Best Space Stations from Sci-Fi

 I am an enormous Trekkie. I watched the original “Star Trek” as a child, religiously followed “Next Generation” and followed “Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager” for as long as I could, until I had to leave the state for college (and subsequently lost any free time I had for regularly-scheduled TV shows). I even watched much of “Enterprise” and can even argue in its defense. I am proud of my status as a Trekkie, as, even in the current cultural climate of geek tolerance, Trekkies seem to be outsiders (J.J. Abrams’ attempt to sex up the franchise notwithstanding). Trekkies are, therefore, the TRUE geeks, and not affected mainstreamers with vague geek interests (*cough* modern day Doctor Who *cough*). This is something to flaunt.

Because of my long-standing Trekkie-dom, and in a fit of nostalgia, I have been watching rented DVDs of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” to see if the show holds up in any capacity. A brief editorial: DS9 is a little stilted when compared to its contemporaries, and features some on-and-off acting from the mostly talented cast. It does suffer from the “X-Files” syndrome, in that the stand-alone episodes are strong, but the overall “story arc” episodes approach insufferable.

In honor of my own personal, and incredibly nerdy, look back on “Star Trek”, I got to thinking of space stations, and how they are such a strong and ubiquitous presence in sci-fi. Remote lunar bases, floating headquarters, wicked satellites… eventually any sci-fi TV show or movie will come across one of these. I’ve always liked the idea of living on a space station, so let’s jump into the vast inky vacuum of space, and take a look at some of the best space stations in fiction.

10) Thunderbird 5

from “Thunderbirds” (1965-1966)

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s “Thunderbirds” seems, these days, to be a forgotten curio, relegated to Gen-X trivia shows, and British childhoods. It’s a show about a team of elite rescue heroes, all members of the Tracy family, who fly in their souped-up machines (called Thunderbirds) to disaster sites in order to help people. And while it’s weirdly paced, a bit mannered, and possessed of a huge amount of outright vehicle fetish, it’s still one of the more entertaining children’s programs out there. The two theatrical features that were based on the show, “Thunderbirds Are Go!” (1966) and “Thunderbird 6” (1968) are actually quaintly delightful adventure stories. Did I mention that it’s made with puppets? All of the actors in the show are marionettes, and the films claimed to be shot in a process called “Supermarionation.” That’s so damn cool.

There were five Thunderbird machines in all, each with a specialty. One could travel incredibly fast. One could haul cargo. One could zip around underwater. And Thunderbird 5, manned by John Tracy, was in constant geosynchronous orbit above the North Pole, checking in on the worlds disasters. Some might say that this is a little Big Brother-ish in theory, but rest assured that the Tracys are all unscrupulously honorable men. In this era of seemingly constant earthquake, war, and hurricane, having a benevolent watcher like Thunderbird 5 is a comforting thought.

9) Daedalus

from “SpaceCamp” (1986)

Well-remembered by the children lucky enough to have seen it, Harry Winer’s 1986 film “SpaceCamp” was the unfortunate victim of current events. It’s about a group of young kids, all picked to take part in SpaceCamp in Huntsville AL, who, thanks to some rigmarole with an AI robot, are accidentally shot into space, and who must use their wherewithal and intelligence to survive and return to Earth safely. The film was, sadly, released shortly after the Challenger explosion that year, and lost gobs of money. Too bad.

The sequence most kids, and me especially, seem to remember, is the visit to the Daedelus space station, fashioned after the incomplete, real-life International Space Station. The shuttle, you see, is running out of oxygen, and they have to carefully pilot their shuttle to the station, dock safely, and get some oxygen tanks stored on board. Unlike most space station sequences, the one in “SpaceCamp” seems to really take things like gravity and inertia into effect, making docking seem like a hugely difficult task. I remember watching Lea Thompson pilot the shuttle, and wincing in suspense.

Trips to the real-life SpaceCamp were frequently prizes on children’s game shows at the time (a friend of mine even got to go, after winning on “Finders Keepers”), so the movie “SpaceCamp,” despite the Challenger controversy, still fulfilled a lot of childhood fantasies of seeing what it would be like. Cool.

8) Drax’s Space Station

from “Moonraker” (1979)

Easily the goofiest of the James Bond movies (and that’s certainly saying something), the Roger Moore-era “Moonraker” features a hovercraft disguised as a gondola, laser guns, a super-powered blonde woman, a character named Holly Goodhead, a rare breed of flowers that is toxic only to humans, the return of Richard Kiel as Jaws, the metal-tooth villain, and one of the wackiest action climaxes ever filmed. The action climax, which takes place in space, holds the world record for the largest number of wires used to suspend actors in any one given movie scene. This seems like a dubious honor to me.

The films’ bad guy, Hugo Drax (Michael Lionsdale), has his own personal space station, you see, where he plans on using the aforementioned toxin to poison the world, and take over. Dumb plan, but whatever. He has people his station with silver-jumpsuited thugs with laser guns, and they go off perhaps a little too often for comfort in an oxygen bubble out in a vacuum. What I like about the station, though, is that it’s viewed as a super luxury for the ultra rich. Like owning your own space station is the height of plutocratic decadence. Sure, you need to be insanely wealthy to own something like that, but how convenient is it to have a lounge in space? As “Moonraker” points out, it’s super-easy, and super-awesome.

7) The Peak

from “S.W.O.R.D.” (2010)

Kind of like an inverted Thunderbird 5, The Peak is a space station designed to watch over and protect Earth, but in the case of The Peak, from any potentially invading space aliens. The Peak is the base of operations for the government organization S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), which is a space-based counterpart to Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D., itself floating above Earth in a giant airship, but bound to Earthly matters.

The Peak was, as the name implies, artificially intelligent, and the hardworking crew, led by the stalwart Abigail Brand, were able to track down and imprison some of the Marvel universe’s more notorious supporting aliens (as well as some well-known alien heroes… oops). Simultaneously remote and always involved intimately in Earth matters, The Peak seemed like an awesome place to work.

Some cursory internet research leads me to the fact that The Peak was conceived by cult TV icon Joss Whedon. A little extra boost for fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” I suppose.

6) Space Station 7

from “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1959)

It looks like an office supply painted silver, and flying saucers dock there for regeneration, They simply vanish behind it. It’s a round ball with a thick plate intersecting it, and there’s a little metal knob on the top that looks like a robotic nipple. It’s unclear where this station is (is it in the solar system? In orbit around Earth? In a distant galaxy that can be easily reached by flying saucer?), how big it is, or how it works. We know that it’s the only place to talk to the Overlord (John “Bunny” Breckinridge), and receive directions on which plan to implement. The logical plan is Plan 9, of course. It’s easy to resurrect the recent dead.

There’s something so charmingly utilitarian about this station. So little thought went into its design and function, that you can only ponder its mysteries with a quiet awe. The aliens need a station, there it is. Done and done. Unlike the other stations on this list, we get no idea as to its use, or how it works. And yet, we know, in a very abstract way, that it’s necessary. After some brief thought, the station (like many elements of “Plan 9”) becomes a surrealist trick. A Buddhist trick. A Zen koan designed to clear your mind of conscious thought. Just sit back, enjoy the film, and marvel and the illogic of the universe. Reason, it turns out, is not what drives man.

5) Babylon 5

from “Babylon 5” (1994-1998)

Although it was created using some comparatively crude 1990s computer animation, Babylon 5, the titular space station from J. Michael Straczynski’s cult TV series, still looked pretty cool. It was run by humans, but played host to a rogue’s gallery of alien politicians, smugglers, travelers, etc. The premise is not so creative, but the impact was felt.

I liked the design of the station a lot. It was cylindrical, and rotated constantly, producing centrifugal gravity, adding a small bit of hard science to an otherwise otherworldly show. I did watch a few episode of “Babylon 5” back in the day, and saw the pilot episode many times off an old VHS tape that I made myself (the label read, merely “SCI-FI”). I didn’t get into the intrigues of the show’s later episodes (I do know that Bruce Boxleitner eventually joined the cast), but, from what I understand, it was very good about creating a huge tapestry of political intrigue and weirdly spiritual mythologies.

4) Deep Space Nine

from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” (1993-1999)

Much like “Babylon 5,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” was about a station, in this case recently liberated from some wicked alien overlords, that stood out on the edges of Federation space, and played host to a rogue’s gallery of traders, smugglers and politicians. It was run partly by the human commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) and the Bajoran major Kira (Nana Visitor), and was constantly teetering on the brink of conflict with other aliens, including the Cardassian overlords who built the station. When anyone mentions the Kardashian sisters, I can only think of “Deep Space Nine.”

The station seemed spacious and easy to get around, and yet still kind of oppressive and alien. It has an open public promenade, which is a cross between a Vegas hotel, and a farmer’s market in space. There’s a Ferengi-owned bar, a tailor, a school (!), a police station and a hospital right on the public thruway. It, like a lot of the ships and station on the various “Star Trek” series, seems like a place that would be awesome to live in. I loved the design of the station a lot, and I’ve been pondering buying a scale model of it to build and hang from my ceiling. I haven’t yet, as I’m not sure if I’m prepared to be the 33-year-old married white guy who builds models of space stations from old sci-fi TV series.

I know there is a rivalry between “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Babylon 5.” I will not discuss it here. For one, I am biased, and for another, I will leave that discussion to people more qualified.

3) Space Station 5

from “2001: A Space Odyssey“ (1968)

Not so much a station rich in character or backstory, we only see a few shots of Space Station 5 near the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s indispensable sci-fi classic “2001.” We see people wandering around inside the wheel-shaped station, looking out over the spacial landscape, and chatting comfortably on the telephone. Not much goes on at the station, as it is, just like in real life, not visited too often.

What the station represents, however, is an important vision of the future, taken from the covers of old sci-fi pulp magazines, and codifying the images for all future science fiction movies and TV shows. The gigantic rotating wheel, the large, spacious interiors, the casual ease with which people can move through space, these all paved the way to just about every proceeding space opera, including future incarnations of “Star Trek.” Homage must be given to the standard-setter.

2) The Death Star

from “Star Wars” (1977)

That’s no moon…

1) Spaceball 1

from “Spaceballs” (1987)

Okay! Okay! I know! Technically it’s a ship. It is not stationary. It can travel. Indeed, it can travel at ludicrous speed. Perhaps, though, when the ship transforms into MegaMaid, it is a station, only capable of vacuuming air off of a planet. So I’m going to squeeze in Spaceball 1 at number one on a technicality. Hey. It’s my list. I make up the rules.

This is a ship so vast and terrifying that the ominous music that accompanies it gets bored while it soars quietly by. It is overseen by the dreaded Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), and run by a race of assholes called Spaceballs. It has a circus, a zoo, a freakshow, restaurants, carnivals, a sassy AI system, and the ever-convenient self-destruct button (why do so many space stations and ships in sci-fi have a self-destruct option? Are there really that many situations where it would be needed?). You could live out several lifetimes on a ship so big.

I admire that the model for the Spaceball 1 was built before the era of CGI, meaning that a team of technicians had to spend literally months constructing the insanely long model for one of the best visual gags in a film that is stuffed with them. The original “Star Wars” showed how powerful the Empire was by showing how big the ships were. By that standard, Spaceball 1 is the most powerful and scary ship in the galaxy.

Witney Seibold writes sometimes. He has his own ‘blog, Three Cheers for Darkened Years!, where he reviews films, he has his own series of articles on Crave Online called Free Film School, where he teaches you film lessons, and he is half the voice of Crave’s B-Movies Podcast. Read the first two, and listen to the third. Fortify his ego.