Bioship
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A bioship is a type of spacecraft described in science fiction. Bioships differ from most spacecraft in that they are predominantly or totally composed of organic or biological components, rather than being constructed from metal or artificial materials. Because of this, they nearly always have a distinctively 'organic' look.
Bioships are frequently regarded to be artifacts of the highest level of technology, superior to all other kinds of spacecraft. They tend to be able to absorb huge amounts of damage, can regenerate or heal damaged parts, and often have very powerful offensive weapons. Some bioships are intelligent or sentient, and are sometimes considered to be lifeforms.
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Bioships in fiction
Star Trek
- Gomtuu, nicknamed "Tin Man", was the last member of a race of bioships that contemplated suicide after its symbiotic crew is killed by radiation.
- 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 bioneural gelpaks .
Other fiction
- In Babylon 5, two of the most powerful races, the Vorlons and the Shadows, use biological vessels.
- In Farscape, most of the story takes place aboard a large, living vessel named Moya.
- In Star Wars: New Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong used bioships made of a type of coral because they viewed inorganic technology as immoral and blasphemous. The living planet Zonama Sekot also had bioships.
- In Tenchi Muyo!, the Jurai use ships grown from seeds. Their hulls are carved from the wood of giant trees, and protected by forcfields. In addition, it is possible that the cabbits Ryo-Ohki and Fuku could be considered bioships.
- In 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 vioalatile 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.
- In Lexx, the ship LEXX is a living ship shaped like at dragonfly with no wings capable of destroying whole planets.
- Warhammer 40,000 and Starcraft feature organic races, the Tyranids and Zerg, that use fleets and swarms of living ships to travel between worlds.
- In the comic books of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the sisterhood of the Shabda-Oud use enormous dolphin-like bioships aptly called CetaCyborgs.
Bioships in computer games
- In Bio-ship Paladin, the player flies a bioship, which has the ability to grow.
- R-Type Final has a number of organic or part-organic Bydo-based fighters which can be unlocked later in the game.
- In Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, the Gungan race uses organic technology. Most buildings are organic and large offensive units, such as their Air Cruisers appear to be organic bioships.
- In Perfect Dark, a level is set inside a large sentient Bioship, one of a race called the Cetan. The ship rests on the floor of the Pacific ocean, where it crashed millions of years before. The ship had deliberately crashed itself there to deny anyone access to the powerful weapon it contained.
External links
- http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/BrainBugs.html - a page by Star Wars enthusiast Michael Wong, which has a section that attempts to debunk the prolific view of bioships as advanced technology.