Honestly, it was always Picard's Enterprise (D I think...?) from TNG.

I always really liked that take on a capital ship. They're usually military vessels or logistics craft, what else do you need something that big for? The Enterprise was well-rounded though, and perfect for deep space serial adventures around more complex moral and ethical issues.

Moya from Farscape. Creepy, organic, but strangely lived in. Also very temperamental.

There are so many awesome ships, but my favorites by far are from Star Wars

Ebon Hawk from KOTOR:

Stinger Mantis from Fallen Order:

I think the reason I really love both if these is how they just feel intimate and cozy, like proper homes in space.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of bigger ships as well. For example, I love the Normandy from Mass Effect. But in the end, nothing can beat small crew ships for me.

The Normandy from Mass Effect

I always liked the designs of the ships in Babylon 5 as each culture had a distinctive aesthetic that told you a bit about them - human craft were chunky and practical, Minbari ships were elegant, Vorlon vessels were organic, etc.

I've always liked just about any sentient/thinking ship. Oddly enough, I can't think of any examples where a thinking ship has been paired with a wicked design. Although I might just be overlooking something.

But some examples from sci-fi fiction:

• Gay Deceiver (Robert A. Heinlein - he was using the term "gay" in its original sense)
• Helva, from Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang (she's technically a human "Brain" installed in a ship...but the series is written as if she's the ship in many ways)
• Zora (Star Trek: Discovery . I really wish she'd gotten more time, a Star Trek ship that is sapient is something we should've been able to explore in lots of detail)
• ART - Asshole Research Transport, aka Perihelion, from Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries

Edit: Sorry about the spam, all us social media lemmings are making things slow and buggy, poor lemmy.world can't keep up with us.

I’d have to go with the Galactica from Battlestar Galactica.

Basically an aircraft carrier in space, and it didn’t hurt that I grew up on watching the original series. Watching the vipers launch out of the Galactica was pretty cool when you’re young.

I've always been a fan of the B-Wing

Maybe it's because I'm old, but BSG's vipers.

Oh, and the Lexx!

The Disaster Area stunt ship described in "The restaurant at the end of the universe" always fascinates me!

Persepolis Rising (book 7 of The Expanse) the introduction of the Laconia magnetar-class ships were always really cool in my imagination, haha. They just seemed so powerful and impossible to take on.

The Y-Wing. It's old, it's run down, it's clunky, but it's not totally obsolete and can still get the job done.

Maybe this says a little too much about me, but I love the personification and romanticism of Firefly's Serenity. She's a bucket of bolts, but she's home.

I really like the ship designs of Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Especially the flagship Brünhild

The R-9A Arrowhead from the R-Type games. I remember thinking that the blue canopy looked so unexpected and elegant as kid.

From Halo, my favorite ship is probably the Heart of Midlothian, followed by the Spirit of Fire. There's something I like about the slabbed, angular bow.

From Mass Effect, the Tempest, bar none the most attractive ship I think I've ever laid eyes on. I think she looks better when you can walk around her, it's hard to get a good angle on.

And an odd one out, the Taiidan Destroyers from Homeworld are particularly badass, even if their gun layout is objectively hot garbage. Could say the same about most Taiidan ships, they look less functional and more like the product of an unchallenged imperial navy. Kushan vessels feel comfortably realistic but aren't visually distinct.

(HD artwork by Jayden Morris on Artstation)

You gotta hand it to Ten-chan's spaceship. And it can warp of course.

"Terran Trade Authority Handbook: Spacecraft 2000 – 2100 AD" - it is full with cool spaceships like this.. I love this book.

The Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect.

The Defiant, Sovereign, and Akira classes from Star Trek.

The Pegasus from Battlestar Galactica.

Yes, I have a type. Big gun beauties who stomp into a fight not giving AF are my thing.

The black cruiser from before the fall of the Hegemony in the Hyperion Cantos tends to be the one that appears in my dreams the most, even 30 years later. Also the fucking tree ships.

A lot of the aforementioned. But mine would be the Nostromo. Rough, old, charismatic. Great sounds, great details like pictogrammes, ...

Zeke and Edsels ship from Heavy Metal.

https://heavymetalmedia.fandom.com/wiki/Spaceship?file=Spaceship.png

Can you name a happier ship?

USS Voyager, NCC-74656 will always be top of my list. Seeing her in S3 of Picard made me even happier than seeing the Enterprise D (though hearing Majel Barrett as the computer again was another favourite moment).

The SSV Normandy from Mass Effect (either the SR1 or the SR2 — they're both beautiful galaxy-saving vessels).

The Ebon Hawk from Knights of the Old Republic, even if it is an unoriginal design for the franchise.

The TARDIS from Doctor Who.

I like the main ship from Battle Beyond the Stars

@Izzy The generation ship Asteria from Record of a Spaceborn Few. It sticks with me because every character has a complex and touching relationship with the ship, whether as a home, an object of duty and responsibility, a idyllic myth to live up to, or an anthropological puzzle.