An interesting side of space-palace type ships that you rarely get to see: the "former space palace under new management", where our plucky protagonists managed to steal an opulent palace ship and have done everything in their power to keep it floating through countless missions without proper repair facilities. Things like the Hyperion in Starcraft 2. There's a great vibe to be had, all the golden monuments in disrepair, patched up with shoestring and duct tape, but when pressed it will remind you that for all its scars the ghost of a top of the line warship still lives strong in that hull.
And then there is the Hyperion next to the Bucephalus both former flagships of Arturus Mengsk. One is now in disrepair and the other is shiny and new. Still kind of annoyed that the Hyperion isn't mentioned in this video or the Bucephalus. Shrug. Can't have it all really.
@@jimskywaker4345 Yes but according to Starcraft Lore it was the personal ship of Arturus Mengsk during his days leading the Sons of Korhal Rebel Group. Hence, it sported a vast amount of decorations and such built into it. It is in fact called a Floating Palace more then a few times in the books and once in Starcraft II.
@@mitwhitgaming7722 You're missing out! The Guanshiyin and subsequent Razorback escape sequence is one of the best in the show, even in all of sci-fi in my opinion!
yea, and best part is how they blend automotive designs of something like BMW (sleek, aggressive, expensive) with a yacht style, smaller ships leaning to the automotive side and large leaning to the yacht side, yet all are using the same design language.
Another aspect to the use of gold in spaceships is that, well, gold is HEAVY. Despite the fact that raw gold's actual value will be lower in sci-fi (asteroid mining, etc.), using significant amounts of gold (in addition to its traditional associations with power) demonstrates the power of your engines. Additionally, a gilded ship is STILL an incredibly blatant display of wealth, because of all the fuel you'd be using to move that mass around.
Whenever I see something larger than jewelry that's golden, I assume it's some ordinary material coated in gold (or perhaps some cheaper gold-colored stuff) because that's what it usually is IRL. I do love this idea of an excessively heavy ship as a sign of wealth, though. Giant marble figurehead on the bow, perhaps? Maybe a really big fish tank or fountain inside?
@@DecidedlyNinja It could be about maintenance. A thin layer of gold plating isn't going to survive reentry. So if you can afford to keep replacing it, or keep the shields on when you're just landing and taking off, or never actually land on a planet, that shows you're pretty rich.
Gold *does* have a use, though. Space is full of reactive radicals and intense photonic radiation, and gold is great at resisting corrosion and reflecting heat. That's why gold-plated mylar was used on the lunar lander.
In a realistic sci fi setting the most expensive decorative substance might ironically be something mundane like limestone or marble. Think about it, if we live on terraformed worlds, Earth will be the only one which has a long geological history involving life, certain sedimentary rocks will only be found on Earth and will be difficult to artifically replicate. I can imagine rich people galaxy wide using limestone and marble pillars to show off their wealth, since gold could prove to be very common in space
What is really funny about the over use of gold in luxurious spacecraft design, is that in an interstellar setting, gold would not be very rare because there are a lot of gold already present in asteroids, for exemple.
I'd imagine that there would be some sort of distinction for "terrestrial" gold vs asteroid gold similar to how "organic" diamond are somehow more valuable than synthetic diamonds that are identical on a chemical level
@@ICantThinkOfAFunnyHandle yeah I'd imagine the whole "I have the money to pull this very heavy metal out of a gravity well, so much in fact that I can make my ship out of the stuff" is quite attractive to the wealthy space traveler
Thats why I like using rare and limited organic resources in my RPG setting. Interiors lined with rich mahogany, dotted with amber and decorated by rare and valuable fossils from around the known galaxy, rare animal pelts, that sort of thing. Still gives off that opulent vibe while feeling a bit different. More 19th-20th century opulence rather than ancient opulence. Most of these resources are also slow to replenish or limited entirely, so it makes sense to me that this is what people would value.
@@lainhyugatha3762 in my own RPG I like to keep things scarce so when you encounter someone with a fucking green house with some home grown chillies or something the characters lose their minds over it.
Honorable mention: The Guanshiyin, Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht from The Expanse. Though not to the scale of these ships it is massive for the universe it is featured within.
The Guanshiyin appears in the video, isn't explored in detail. If I were a multi-trillionaire, I'd so buy a ship like this. It just screams luxury and influence.
I love the Guanshiyin, especially in comparison with the ships in this video, as its the only design grounded in practical considerations. It's easy to do luxury ships without any constraints, not so much when you need to be believable in-universe.
In the books Guanshiyin was showing Mao's wealth in intersting ways, like all the guest and owner areas had carpeted floors. It prevented the use of magboots but it did not matter - ship would always be cruising under thrust because Mao could afford to "waste" fuel as much as he wanted.
Space Yachts are also a great excuse for the designers to go all out without having to worry about their design needing to be practical. Modern Yachts are rarely the most efficient boats themselves after all. Also I give an honorary mention to the Enterprise D, which has a lot of the same styling as a typical space yacht, but is actually a working vessel meant to showcase how life is like in the post money Utopia of the Federation.
that entire ship is built to comfortably house everyone for long stretches of time, also it allowed the film crew to have more interesting regular locations to film
Plot, User and intent. Sci fi Yachts are going to be built based on these. So a “Yacht” for a Warrior culture is more likely to be a warship. A “Yacht” for a hedonist is going to be opulent and filled with treasures. A “Yacht” for a businessman is going to be more reserved and practical. An Enthusiast “Yacht” might be built for a specific technological. Like a solar sailer. Range will also factor as well as FTL in the universe.
Nothing beats Destiny 2 Calus Leviathan ship. Its design specifically to distil a planet down to its "essence". In which he turns it into wine. Not to mention all the gold.
With piles of gold, Jewels strewn everywhere to the point it looks like just the dust it gathers. And well, when you have your living ship eating a world because it tastes good in your wine…c’mon
Calus and his ship were excess in the extreme. Something that sticks out to me was a patrol you could do in the Leviathan during Season of the Haunted. You'd examine a statue of Calus and he'd come over the comms to talk about it. He tells you how it used to be even more stunning before it was gold plated, that he had commissioned the greatest artist in the Cabal Empire to fashion the statue out of highly rare material out of a neutron star, and that the plating was a last minute fix so the statue would stop spewing so much radiation. It was the last and greatest work of that particular artist before he succumbed to radiation poisoning, according to Calus. Greedy and opulent are definitely words you could use to describe Calus, in the same way I might call the Large Hadron Collider marginally impressive.
The giant statues in the front of ships (AKA masterheads) are also an important element to show opulence and power. Like the trumpet-wielding angel (Moroni?) of the Nauvoo generational ship in the first season of The Expanse.
And then there’s the _Pride of the Emperor,_ the _gigantic_ flagship of the Emperor’s Children. It’s studded, coated and emblazoned with jewels, marble, gold and elaborate filigree. Until Fulgrim discovered Chaos, who decided to replace all that with artwork so obscene that it challenged the sanity of all who witnessed it.
Anubis is partially ascended, meaning he could have abandoned the more trivial aspects of Gou'ld culture. Plus he's embracing the whole God of death thing
I wish we saw more Goa'Uld crafts that followed the design principles of their Lord. Like why is the Chinese coded guy also flying around in a pyramid or why isn't Baal rocking that Mesopotamian/Kaanite chick?😂
Anubis was also exiled by the System Lords. Not only did he learn many of the secrets of the Ancients by ascending, but he has no respect for the rest of Goaoul'd society. As to Goaoul'd ships all using identical architecture despite their varying cultural trappings, everything about the Goaoul'd is stolen from their hosts and conquests. They don't have the originality or intellect to design or develop any new technology of their own. Their Earth-culture fashion sense is adopted from the cultures they canonically dominated, and the human-imagined deities they impersonated.
@@daniellanczi-wilson9549 I was honestly thinking it was something from Star Wars Galaxies as I think that is where that ship is from. Or at least its where I first saw that design.
I'd also put in the Axiom from Wall-E. It's essentially a giant luxury cruise liner in space. It was designed and built for optimum comfort and maximum opulence.
i think the Axiom keeps losing spots on these types of lists for the fact it's playing colony ship (of debatable nice living standards, no human there can comfortably walk ffs) more then anything else
"Holy...look at that ship! It's got gold plating and marble, it's over a kilometer long, those gorgeous spires, the statues and stain glass...is that the Emperor's flagship?" "Nope. That's a Warhammer 40 escort cargo craft."
Razorback: from the expanse. Every bit of cutting edge technology available shoved into a play thing. It is literally a spacefaring luxury sports car, with no purpose beyond showing that the owner can afford to have it.
If you're going to decorate your show-off ship, gold is probably the best metal to do it in since it doesn't tarnish and is an outstanding conductor. In Star Wars the Naboo royal ships were chromed because it used to be a necessity to shield against the planet's Van Allen belts; now it's a reminder of their spacefaring heritage. A nice worldbuilding excuse to be shiny.
For most of those examples, especially the gold ones, their owner's sense of superiority is their most important feature as characters. The gold is supposed to be tacky, because it represents arrogance not good taste. Meanwhile when you want to convey actual luxury, you get the Star Citizen ships, and Lando's Yacht, and IRL yachts, elegant curves and bright white.
I think it would've been cool to explore how different settings might attribute different values to certain materials and aesthetics depending on that setting's rules. Or to highlight when one setting uses an opulent aesthetic from a slightly unexpected source. You showed Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht from the Expanse for a brief moment, and that's one of my favorite opulent scifi ships because it looks more like a fancy skyscraper than a yacht, thanks to the setting's rules about gravity and spaceship design.
I was wondering about that, like isn't gold rather abundant in space? Kinda defeats the point of using it then.😅 Personally I think a real Space yacht would feature lots of plants and real hardwood, because that's something that you would need to import from Earth which would make it expensive.
Wouldn’t mind to see more shiny hero ships for once. The run down but sturdy, charming rust bucket is a solid trope but seeing something shiny and new would be a nice change.
And depending on the setting the shiny newness could be a shorthand for the heroes being new to whatever job they're doing, either to show that they are just breaking into whatever spacefaring profession they are involved in, or that they really have no idea what they're doing.
It's amazing how little creativity sci-fi writers have if all they can come up with is "Let's put lots of gold on it". I never thought Lower Decks would be the standout in terms of actual creativity.
I'm sure theres a line in a novel where some Necron lords give humanity credit for knowing how to convey the ancient power of their Imperium through the monastery like design of their starships.
@spamviking it's the one about the flayer king, they rip an aquila off a battleship, then melt it down, purify it and plate the king and his ship with it. The gold contained the blessed bones of an imperial saint so became a psychic beacon.
Honestly, I'm surprised Gutamaya or Saud Kruger ships didn't get mentioned at all. Gutamaya ships have become the definition of an Imperial ship and the Beluga is what you'd get if you were to cross a luxury yacht with the capacity of a liner.
As The Pilot once said of the Orca "I can buy the most opulent, luxurious cabin in the galaxy, but I'm not high-class enough to actually see it. How upper-crust is that?"
One of the reasons as to why a gold plated ship in sci fi doesn't come off as tacky as other fiction is probably because gold is probably one of the most common resources you will find in space and makes decent radiation shielding.
I actually like that the Star Trek ship combined the gold with green. It looks nicer than the pure shiny gold or the gold and grey or gold and white ships.
Ah yes, Horatio. Truly a vainglorious princeling. Rich boy wouldn't stand much of a chance in the face of a Craver warband. While I can't fault him for finding beauty in deformity (if anything that's his finest quality), I can fault him for muddying his genius with a particularly unpleasant madness, one that could be described as either virulent or cancerous.
4:26 Want to know the best part about all those gold and jewel encrusted weapons from Season of Opulence? Each of them has the description of "An Earth artifact, refashioned to suit the Emperor's modest tastes."
I just finished listening to the radio drama of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', and i can think of two examples of gold: The ship that Zaphod Beeblebrox stole, 'The Heart of Gold' pretty much is self-explanatory, with it's Infinite Improbability Drive made from a large, gold nugget. And then there's the classic definition of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster: Its effects are similar to "having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."
I would put Fhloston Paradise from the Fifth Element on this list. Maybe not as magnificently opulent as the ones listed, but being a premier resort destination for the wealthy would put it up there for me.
Fhloston’s Paradise is opulent but it’s not a Yacht it’s a cruise liner. It’s a vacation resort that flys. Where a Yacht’s centered around the owner and their family/guests.
Shame there wasn't a shout-out to the Royal Tree-Ships of Planet Jurai. I feel like a space ship with an entire hyper-dimensional mountain forest for a bridge deserves note.
In spacecraft, particularly if ship mass is an actual concern, having a ton of gold also flaunts your ability to flip the bird at fuel efficiency because who needs it when you don't care about expense.
Jupiter Ascending had some amazing CGI, despite everything else. Chandeliers in a spacecraft docking bay is a flex unlike anything I've seen in a while..
The Vorkosigan books go into this. Barrayar is a (mostly) terraformed planet where wood is as abundant as it is on Earth, but there are space stations and non-terraformed planets where nobody would even consider having a fireplace in their home.
Also shoutout to Astrid from X4: Foundation. A literal space yacht covered in gold and huge unnecessary glass as hull. It also comes with an in-ship pool and bar.
Some ships not mentioned here, from The Expanse: Razorback and Jules-Pierre Mao's personal yacht. In a universe of ships shaped like flying bricks or skyscrapers on their side with greebly bits attached to the sides, those two are sleek, with pseudo-aerodynamic outer hulls, and they're painted with designs, things that aren't seen on truly utilitarian craft.
hey Hoojiwana, I find it interesting that you showed footage of The Guanshiyin, but didn't describe it's style of opulence. large rooms that hold far fewer people than could theoretically fit (similar to super-yachts), extra baths [in the context that water access is hard and expensive], non-utilitarian exterior design etc'
Damn those flying gold palaces make the 890 Jump look like a DRAKE Cutter! Also fun to see a clip from Flight of the Navigator. It was recorded on vhs at my parents place growing up. Along with some movie about these two angelic kids and their pet 3 legged alien with laser eyes getting taken in by some old farmer couple? Can't really remember...
I'd argue that for both the Amarr as well as the Protoss (that weren't mentioned?) the Gold throughout the entire faction is basically the representation of the claim of an ancieng empire - "We have ruled rightfully for a thousand generations and our power is so far beyond your comprehension, we shall rule for another thousand generations"
Just to highlight something... The white Ship @0:23 emerging out of the Clouds is the same ship than the one shown @08:03 - Just about 30 years apart 🤣
Here is a fun info drop about Warframe, the "Void" tilesets or Orokin Towers as they are sometimes called are in lore bunkers. Bunkers in the void in case the war with the sentients was not winnable. Their robots that went kill all humans and somewhat human had one weakness, the void. So yes for the high ranks of the Orokin, even their prepper bunkers are covered in gold trim. And while its in rough shape the Zariman 10-0 clearly was very opulent before it had a minor oopsie with its FTL drive.
One of my favourite opulent ships would have to be the exotics from nms. From the way they look so sleek (or unique in the squid ships case) seems to give off this master crafted work of art theme. Along with that, a golden blade with wings that fold like a shuttle from Star Wars is just plain epic.
There is one practical use of gold metal in space ships, that would not be tied to opulence or as a sign of wealth/vanity: radiation shielding. Due to its high atomic mass and density, gold would be just as good if not better than lead at stopping ionizing space radiation like X-rays and gamma rays, an unlike lead, gold is not toxic, nor does it react with air, even when hot. Gold foil is commonly used in current space probes and satellites as it is an excellent IR reflector, and spacesuit visors have a gold layer to protect the astronauts' eyes from strong sunlight. And since it's believed that many metallic asteroids, and maybe even some small moons and rocky planets might have large deposits of gold, more than has been mined on Earth, a spacefaring civilization might use gold on their space ships and other technology, more than often than not.
To counter the people saying that gold makes no sense due to it not being all that rare: There is an episode of Time Team where they unearthed a big gold coin that had basically no wear on it. Someone lost it just after it was made centuries ago. They brushed the dirt off it and it shone bright in the sun. Centuries of being buried in the ground didn't matter at all. That is the underlying magic of gold that originally made it so appealing to our ancestors. For us today were gold as common as iron, we would put it absolutely everywhere. Also to note is that while it is fairly soft it is still a very resilient metal. Notably when it comes to acids.
To overthink it the reflective finish on the emperor's ship in dune shows how the empire and the emperor is only a reflection of the world beneath it. Is the emperor comes into land on any planet the planet is quite literally reflected in his approach.
I mean, Elite Dangerous has an entire ship line of opulent and luxurious vessels. In fact, we kind of have two. There are the passenger liners, which are the dolphin, the beluga, and the orca. But then we also have the just imperial white luxury combat craft like the cutter.
Star Trek's Baron Grime's "Festoon" is perhaps lower level posh... but it is still a Space Yacht. I notice Lando Calrissian's 'Lady Luck' Space Yacht makes a brief cameo in this video too at +7:55 .
Opulence is the ability to go "So I love beautiful things, and want a new starship. Hmmm, I do like the look of gold and silver, let's see what the designers can do with those. You will also make sure that the designers know the starship must be an beautiful piece of art in and of itself. That will quintuple the cost of the design? Does it look like I care?"
in the book i'm writing, the incredibly rich dont go for Gold, but instead a material known as "Black-Steel" (basically nuclear pasta made into an alloy) This material is incredibly expensive to produce, and is nearly indestructible. Armored suits made of this substance are worth more than most planets, and very little can be produced every year. The wealthiest of the galaxy have fortresses plated with the stuff, a thin layer like a gold overlay would be used on wood, but that thin layer is worth an astronomical amount.
I have to agree with Villeneuve there: to be perceived as an all-powerful presence, miror-finished silver is the best you can do, especially during the day. He didn't exploit this but a round miror will always catch the sun and throw it in your eyes. So the emperor's ship will never be looked at directly. And if that's not imposing a god-like presence, I don't know what is.
I remember having that luxury yacht in Star Wars: Galaxies, it was a veteran reward at some point. Always loved what people did with the interior, made it into shops, spas, a flying trophy cabinet, whatever they could think of. Since it was one of the ships you could go inside and customize like a player home, imagination was the limit. Instead of using that, I had the Nova Courier as my main ship. I turned it into a bar. Because what's the point of a gunship if you can't have a stiff drink after a good fight?
The Belshazzar from Spaceship Warlock is my go-to space yacht - the golden highlights, the pearlescent hull, the curving lines and the opulent interior with an enormous viewing deck of deep space, it's all classic stuff. Makes for a great contrast when the Warlock itself arrives on the scene for plunder, with a similar hull shape but far more menacing appearance.
I have to give a mention to the HMS Duke of Cromarty in the Honor Harrington series - where the Manticorians reacted to a sneak attack on the previous royal yacht by making a new one out a slightly-modified battlecruiser. Turns out when you reduce the magazine space to half normal, you can fit accommodations up to and including a full formal ballroom, while keeping everything else from the warship's loadout.
The 890 Jump and 300i from Star Citizen remind me of the Guanshiyin/Razorback combo from The Expanse in a way, high performance craft comparable to real world supercars attached to giant superyachts via their own dedicated hangars.
I worked on yachts IRL. One of the most interesting design features that I found is because space on a boat is limited, designers have to get really creative with its use. Add into the fact that its meant to be a luxury vessel and corners cant be cut, designers have to really be creative to make something both functional and look good. I imagine space would be no different
Great video! I like how you included the Goauld from Stargate SG1 lore in this list. Such a great realm of Sci-Fi!! Really good video - Thanks for this Hooji!!
All the focus on gold ... no one goes for diamonds or other gemstones? Imagine a ship with its exterior completely covered in gem-quality faceted sapphires!
In Stelaris Gigastructural Engering the Aeternum's Behemoth Planetcrafts are the ultimate expression of an Opulent Spaceship. The ones the other empires build look like rugged and crude machines of war. But the Aeternum's far sliker design while showing a Gaia World Biome in their weaponized mobile planets. Show just how much more powerful and ancient they are.
Check out the 890 jump from the origin manufacturer in star citizen, its an incredible exanple of an oppulent space yacht and if fully explorable in a video game
Amusingly, the first ad I got was for *_"World Class Italian made boats._* *_Handcrafted to Perfection."_* I've never had anything remotely like that in my advertising profile before. [I clicked on the link to get the company's website so I could quote it..... oh crap, I just changed my ad profile, didn't I?]
That naboo diplomatic vessel was gorgeous... it was clearly based off the old B-49, and I was incredibly disappointed at how little of it we got to see.
In one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books there’s a ship that is made entirely out of material that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation so it appears absolutely black.
"Goa'uld that just love goold!" XD My favorite space yacht is probably the Sinbad of the imperial magnate Horace Hussein al Shamlan Bury in the novel The Gripping Hand/The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye in the CoDominium/motie continuum. Made and crewed to impress the superwealthy and powerful of the Empire of Man, it's also TOTALLY NOT armed with an unnecessarily powerful communications laser, excessively powerful force field defense, and a cargo mass driver capable of sending out fifty megaton thermonuclear warheads.
I was on O.T kid and I like the pragmatic designs of Belter ships too but the polished silver of the Naboo spacecrafts are just aesthetically pleasing.
Gundam has a thing for gold, too, but not so much on ships. The Alvatore from 00 is a fully gold-clad mobile armor, which houses the also gold-clad Alvaaron mobile suit, and the only one where gold = opulence is really played straight. The first gold suit in the franchise, the Hyaku Shiki from Zeta, on the other hand justifies being gold in-universe as the color of the beam-reflecting coating it has all over and doesn't really have anything to do with royalty or wealth. The Akatsuki from Seed Destiny mixes the two by replicating the beam-reflecting gimmick but also having been built and initially piloted by a royal family.
Hell, with the Alvatore, it's owner has gold lined holographic screens, gold plated handguns. For crying out loud, the guy even made sure the exhaust of the machine is gold colored.
The funny thing is that if we would be able to traverse space with FTL and be able to build ships this size technique like asteroid mining would probably turn gold into just another metal unless people keep on valuing it's aesthetics instead of it's value derived from scarcity.
Personally I think SG1’s and the Original movie production choice was wrong. When we look at things from the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese ecta ecta. They loved bold vibrant colors. By just having all the Gou’ald use the same ships and colors they limited themselves and made it harder to tell who was who when they inevitably started shooting at each other.
As a colour scheme, the application of gold depends on what it may be paired with: Pure gold usually is a sign of wealth and vanity, with ships usually being owned by stuck up business owners. White and gold are usually regal, opulent colours with ships being owned by nobles or monarchs. Black and Gold are usually martial or elite in nature, ships with this scheme are either high ranking generals or nobles/monarchs of more martial, roman influenced cultures.
In a more hard sci-fi setting gold could also represent opulence in a different way: it could show off how wealthy someone is because they don't care about how dense and soft and useless it is, how the fuel inefficiency trade-offs that come with gold don't matter to them. Making ships heavier for no reason, without any function because it's useless as structural support or as armour, just means the ship moves slower and consumes more fuel and reaction mass to get anywhere.
I'm surprised no one has done a ship made from diamonds or at least large sections with shiny jewels. Yes I know they're not really rare. Because in comparison to soft gold metal, a diamond hull would make a far stronger hull. Granted it would be more brittle unless some space magic was used. Also as bonus it could be used to amplify energy weapons and counterintuitively actually be able to absorb energy weapons depending on the shape of the diamonds and their arrangement.
I do have to point out that the Naboo royal yachts aren't silver, they're _hand-applied flawless chrome._ They actually have people putting it on and buffing out any smudge or scratch by hand.
The Imperial ships from Elite Dangerous also have a stylistic luxury flair to them - mostly from the curved/smooth surfaces on the ships. It contrasts from a lot of the more industrial aesthetics of other ships, as if the makers are saying "Hey, we are so rich that we have the time to make them look sooooo good *haughty haughty*"
7:51 As some have mentioned. Oof that is not Lower Decks. Initially I didn't know what it was. But I did know it was not LDS as that is not the art style and quality.
Great video! A video about ships that are primarily made for racing (like the Razorback in The Expanse or the racing ships in Star Citizen for example) would also be very cool! Isn't the ship shown at about 7:53 something from Star Wars? I remember seeing a ship like that once in a Clone Wars episode and the “Sorosuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000” I found after a quick search on Wookiepedia looks very similar. Unless Star Trek: Lower Decks uses a ship that looks similar. I have to admit, I never got around to watch that show.
There are other ways to make such vessels differ from more utilitarian vessels within the same setting. In most of Star Wars utilitarian and government vessels are either bricky or prickly with lots of little things sticking out since aerodynamics aren't a concern for space vessels. If you look at Star Wars: The Old Republic the player's ship when playing as an Imperial Agent is described as a personal luxury vessel with the interior converted for use in intelligence operations. Fancy vessels like the Imperial Agent vessel are the only things to get a consistently smooth surface or swoopy lines. It doesn't have to be a particular color and it definitely doesn't have to be gold. It just has to be different and for a good reason. On Earth Cruise ships and yachts look different from military and utilitarian vessels without the gold. Bright white is popular with luxury vessels while militaries favor solid gray or black and cargo ships most often use red and/or blue. Bright white looks the cleanest and makes accent colors pop but it's the hardest to maintain. The fanciest yachts in the world aren't even trimmed with gold, let alone covered in it. They still favor bright white. And only luxury vessels have a glossy finish.
For a sci-fi setting to show opulence due to the commonality of gold in the universe (as others have pointed out) it might be interesting to stick with organic things. Rare wood from trees that only grow on certain planets. Ivory from rare giant megafauna. Things like that. Opulence also comes from a disregard for efficiency. A ship that is massive with wood interiors and pointless tea rooms is a status symbol in itself.
Another way to look at it is that Anubis did have the gold fittings on his ship, but they'd lost their luster and yellow color because they'd entered a tarnished state. That or they'd been blasted away by all the wear and tear from Anubis' dormancy.
An interesting side of space-palace type ships that you rarely get to see: the "former space palace under new management", where our plucky protagonists managed to steal an opulent palace ship and have done everything in their power to keep it floating through countless missions without proper repair facilities. Things like the Hyperion in Starcraft 2. There's a great vibe to be had, all the golden monuments in disrepair, patched up with shoestring and duct tape, but when pressed it will remind you that for all its scars the ghost of a top of the line warship still lives strong in that hull.
The OPA "Behemoth" of Expanse?
And then there is the Hyperion next to the Bucephalus both former flagships of Arturus Mengsk. One is now in disrepair and the other is shiny and new. Still kind of annoyed that the Hyperion isn't mentioned in this video or the Bucephalus. Shrug. Can't have it all really.
Isn't the Hyperion a battlecruiser?
@@jimskywaker4345 Yes but according to Starcraft Lore it was the personal ship of Arturus Mengsk during his days leading the Sons of Korhal Rebel Group. Hence, it sported a vast amount of decorations and such built into it. It is in fact called a Floating Palace more then a few times in the books and once in Starcraft II.
Cat Rambo's "You Sexy Thing" bioship
We need more sci-fi movies that include heists on expensive space yachts!
Arrrrrr! i like yur thinkin
you would like the expanse
@@m1abrams1776 I didn't realize The Expanse had an expensive space yacht. 👀
🏴☠Captain Harlock welcomes new crew members
@@mitwhitgaming7722 You're missing out! The Guanshiyin and subsequent Razorback escape sequence is one of the best in the show, even in all of sci-fi in my opinion!
Star Citizen does luxury spacecraft really well. The idea of a space yacht is just really cool.
yea, and best part is how they blend automotive designs of something like BMW (sleek, aggressive, expensive) with a yacht style, smaller ships leaning to the automotive side and large leaning to the yacht side, yet all are using the same design language.
Origin is pretty hard to beat when it comes to that "I am very rich" feel
Yeah the 890 really is one of the best looking ships in the game
Well when space ship design is the only thing you can sell you get pretty good at it
This is absolutely hilarious.
Another aspect to the use of gold in spaceships is that, well, gold is HEAVY. Despite the fact that raw gold's actual value will be lower in sci-fi (asteroid mining, etc.), using significant amounts of gold (in addition to its traditional associations with power) demonstrates the power of your engines. Additionally, a gilded ship is STILL an incredibly blatant display of wealth, because of all the fuel you'd be using to move that mass around.
Whenever I see something larger than jewelry that's golden, I assume it's some ordinary material coated in gold (or perhaps some cheaper gold-colored stuff) because that's what it usually is IRL. I do love this idea of an excessively heavy ship as a sign of wealth, though. Giant marble figurehead on the bow, perhaps? Maybe a really big fish tank or fountain inside?
@@DecidedlyNinja It could be about maintenance. A thin layer of gold plating isn't going to survive reentry. So if you can afford to keep replacing it, or keep the shields on when you're just landing and taking off, or never actually land on a planet, that shows you're pretty rich.
Look at me I can afford carrying all these extra TONS of unnecessary crap to look spiffy. Not to mention paying enough people to keep it shiny
Gold *does* have a use, though. Space is full of reactive radicals and intense photonic radiation, and gold is great at resisting corrosion and reflecting heat.
That's why gold-plated mylar was used on the lunar lander.
In a realistic sci fi setting the most expensive decorative substance might ironically be something mundane like limestone or marble. Think about it, if we live on terraformed worlds, Earth will be the only one which has a long geological history involving life, certain sedimentary rocks will only be found on Earth and will be difficult to artifically replicate. I can imagine rich people galaxy wide using limestone and marble pillars to show off their wealth, since gold could prove to be very common in space
What is really funny about the over use of gold in luxurious spacecraft design, is that in an interstellar setting, gold would not be very rare because there are a lot of gold already present in asteroids, for exemple.
I'd imagine that there would be some sort of distinction for "terrestrial" gold vs asteroid gold similar to how "organic" diamond are somehow more valuable than synthetic diamonds that are identical on a chemical level
@@ICantThinkOfAFunnyHandle yeah I'd imagine the whole "I have the money to pull this very heavy metal out of a gravity well, so much in fact that I can make my ship out of the stuff" is quite attractive to the wealthy space traveler
Thats why I like using rare and limited organic resources in my RPG setting. Interiors lined with rich mahogany, dotted with amber and decorated by rare and valuable fossils from around the known galaxy, rare animal pelts, that sort of thing. Still gives off that opulent vibe while feeling a bit different. More 19th-20th century opulence rather than ancient opulence. Most of these resources are also slow to replenish or limited entirely, so it makes sense to me that this is what people would value.
@@lainhyugatha3762 in my own RPG I like to keep things scarce so when you encounter someone with a fucking green house with some home grown chillies or something the characters lose their minds over it.
@@lainhyugatha3762 Reminds me of "Do you know how hard it is to get wood on the Moon!?"
Honorable mention: The Guanshiyin, Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht from The Expanse. Though not to the scale of these ships it is massive for the universe it is featured within.
The Guanshiyin appears in the video, isn't explored in detail.
If I were a multi-trillionaire, I'd so buy a ship like this. It just screams luxury and influence.
I love the Guanshiyin, especially in comparison with the ships in this video, as its the only design grounded in practical considerations. It's easy to do luxury ships without any constraints, not so much when you need to be believable in-universe.
In the books Guanshiyin was showing Mao's wealth in intersting ways, like all the guest and owner areas had carpeted floors. It prevented the use of magboots but it did not matter - ship would always be cruising under thrust because Mao could afford to "waste" fuel as much as he wanted.
Space Yachts are also a great excuse for the designers to go all out without having to worry about their design needing to be practical. Modern Yachts are rarely the most efficient boats themselves after all.
Also I give an honorary mention to the Enterprise D, which has a lot of the same styling as a typical space yacht, but is actually a working vessel meant to showcase how life is like in the post money Utopia of the Federation.
I consider the Enterprise D more like a Galactic Cruise Liner than a Space Yacht.
@@Cyber_kumo maybe he's talking about the Captain's yatch carried by the Enterprise E that is shown in Insurrection
that entire ship is built to comfortably house everyone for long stretches of time, also it allowed the film crew to have more interesting regular locations to film
@@Cyber_kumo You have to keep in mind that a lot of Starfleet Captain's bristled at the mention their ships were just well armed Cruise Ships.
one thing I notice with yachts in sci fi is that either they are incredibly insane or they are just your average big yacht with minor changes
Plot, User and intent.
Sci fi Yachts are going to be built based on these.
So a “Yacht” for a Warrior culture is more likely to be a warship.
A “Yacht” for a hedonist is going to be opulent and filled with treasures.
A “Yacht” for a businessman is going to be more reserved and practical.
An Enthusiast “Yacht” might be built for a specific technological. Like a solar sailer.
Range will also factor as well as FTL in the universe.
I mean... look into food waste on modern yachts, they are insane.
Nothing beats Destiny 2 Calus Leviathan ship. Its design specifically to distil a planet down to its "essence". In which he turns it into wine. Not to mention all the gold.
With piles of gold, Jewels strewn everywhere to the point it looks like just the dust it gathers.
And well, when you have your living ship eating a world because it tastes good in your wine…c’mon
@@carpemkarzi My Titan (and myself) was momentarily struck with gold fever. I want to just plate everything I owned into gold.
@@dariustiapula It has onboard arcologies, bathhouses and gladiator pits as well.
Calus and his ship were excess in the extreme. Something that sticks out to me was a patrol you could do in the Leviathan during Season of the Haunted. You'd examine a statue of Calus and he'd come over the comms to talk about it. He tells you how it used to be even more stunning before it was gold plated, that he had commissioned the greatest artist in the Cabal Empire to fashion the statue out of highly rare material out of a neutron star, and that the plating was a last minute fix so the statue would stop spewing so much radiation. It was the last and greatest work of that particular artist before he succumbed to radiation poisoning, according to Calus. Greedy and opulent are definitely words you could use to describe Calus, in the same way I might call the Large Hadron Collider marginally impressive.
@@scienceguy8 It's also a testament to his paracausal powers, as neutronium weighs nearly 150,000 tons *per gram.*
The giant statues in the front of ships (AKA masterheads) are also an important element to show opulence and power. Like the trumpet-wielding angel (Moroni?) of the Nauvoo generational ship in the first season of The Expanse.
And then there’s the _Pride of the Emperor,_ the _gigantic_ flagship of the Emperor’s Children. It’s studded, coated and emblazoned with jewels, marble, gold and elaborate filigree. Until Fulgrim discovered Chaos, who decided to replace all that with artwork so obscene that it challenged the sanity of all who witnessed it.
The God of Excess demands no less.
And of course he didn't change the name
Anubis is partially ascended, meaning he could have abandoned the more trivial aspects of Gou'ld culture. Plus he's embracing the whole God of death thing
I wish we saw more Goa'Uld crafts that followed the design principles of their Lord.
Like why is the Chinese coded guy also flying around in a pyramid or why isn't Baal rocking that Mesopotamian/Kaanite chick?😂
@@shinyagumon7015 tbf here, pyramids are an incredibly common structure built by humans. Also little about the Goa’uld makes sense
Anubis was also exiled by the System Lords. Not only did he learn many of the secrets of the Ancients by ascending, but he has no respect for the rest of Goaoul'd society.
As to Goaoul'd ships all using identical architecture despite their varying cultural trappings, everything about the Goaoul'd is stolen from their hosts and conquests. They don't have the originality or intellect to design or develop any new technology of their own. Their Earth-culture fashion sense is adopted from the cultures they canonically dominated, and the human-imagined deities they impersonated.
Well you can't spell Goa'uld without "gold" and this is not accidental either.
@@Shin-e2w True, but why not throw a mesoamerican pyramid into the mix lol
Showing Lady Luck arriving at Bespin tagged as Star Trek Lower Decks was a low blow.
Glad someone caught this one. I believe that shot is from Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
@@daniellanczi-wilson9549 I was honestly thinking it was something from Star Wars Galaxies as I think that is where that ship is from. Or at least its where I first saw that design.
I'd also put in the Axiom from Wall-E. It's essentially a giant luxury cruise liner in space. It was designed and built for optimum comfort and maximum opulence.
You're right. The Axiom is a space yacht.
Yet, at the same time, it's rugged enough to survive centuries without a single scratch to talk about.
That's hella self-repair
i think the Axiom keeps losing spots on these types of lists for the fact it's playing colony ship (of debatable nice living standards, no human there can comfortably walk ffs) more then anything else
"Warframe? (As a good example?)"
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time..."
I've started playing last November, and Spacedock started mentioning the game around that time. Hmm....🤔
Ain't nothing slowing that juggernaut down!
It's hard to get much more opulent than the Orokin pre-ai war.
D2's Leviathan is close. but it's only one ship, not all of them plus space stations.
"Holy...look at that ship! It's got gold plating and marble, it's over a kilometer long, those gorgeous spires, the statues and stain glass...is that the Emperor's flagship?"
"Nope. That's a Warhammer 40 escort cargo craft."
I love the _Endless Space 2_ music.
HORATIO's theme to be more specific.
@@abnegazher “The We” to be _really_ specific.
Came here to say this. I started trying to Shazam the song, but recognized it before the app did. :)
@@srbrant5391 "We Were Horatio And Such"
Razorback: from the expanse. Every bit of cutting edge technology available shoved into a play thing. It is literally a spacefaring luxury sports car, with no purpose beyond showing that the owner can afford to have it.
Not even a sports car. It's like an F1 car.
I find it interesting that Hoojiwana showed footage of The Guanshiyin, but didn't describe it's style of opulence.
Isn't that the entire point of a luxury super yacht, to flaunt its owner's wealth?
And you cannot have it.
@@vic5015 that is this entire video.
But he talks about gold, shiny silver/stainless- I was more thinking about room sizes.
Lavish water useage etc’
If you're going to decorate your show-off ship, gold is probably the best metal to do it in since it doesn't tarnish and is an outstanding conductor. In Star Wars the Naboo royal ships were chromed because it used to be a necessity to shield against the planet's Van Allen belts; now it's a reminder of their spacefaring heritage. A nice worldbuilding excuse to be shiny.
For most of those examples, especially the gold ones, their owner's sense of superiority is their most important feature as characters. The gold is supposed to be tacky, because it represents arrogance not good taste. Meanwhile when you want to convey actual luxury, you get the Star Citizen ships, and Lando's Yacht, and IRL yachts, elegant curves and bright white.
I think it would've been cool to explore how different settings might attribute different values to certain materials and aesthetics depending on that setting's rules. Or to highlight when one setting uses an opulent aesthetic from a slightly unexpected source. You showed Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht from the Expanse for a brief moment, and that's one of my favorite opulent scifi ships because it looks more like a fancy skyscraper than a yacht, thanks to the setting's rules about gravity and spaceship design.
I was wondering about that, like isn't gold rather abundant in space?
Kinda defeats the point of using it then.😅
Personally I think a real Space yacht would feature lots of plants and real hardwood, because that's something that you would need to import from Earth which would make it expensive.
Thanks for summing up why I love Mao's ship. It is a luxury skyscraper with rockets attached.
7:52: Not Star Trek: Lower Deks, that scene is from the Star Wars game Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast.
Was looking for this. I didn't know what the clip was from, but I knew that was Lando's "Lady Luck" which I first saw in SW Galaxies.
I was literally about to make that comment (except I didn't know the source, just that I'm pretty sure the Lady Luck wasn't in Lower Decks)
Wouldn’t mind to see more shiny hero ships for once. The run down but sturdy, charming rust bucket is a solid trope but seeing something shiny and new would be a nice change.
And depending on the setting the shiny newness could be a shorthand for the heroes being new to whatever job they're doing, either to show that they are just breaking into whatever spacefaring profession they are involved in, or that they really have no idea what they're doing.
It's amazing how little creativity sci-fi writers have if all they can come up with is "Let's put lots of gold on it". I never thought Lower Decks would be the standout in terms of actual creativity.
I regret not seeing Jupiter Ascending in theaters. It may have been a hit or miss movie, but im always intrigued by the visuals whenever I see clips.
Take a drink every time Hooj says gold in this video
Are you trying to get us killed?! Lol.
@@Ptaaruonn maybe
I´m surprised you didn´t even mention the ship of the Emperor from Warhammer 40k, it´s completely gold plated.
And named after a fucking horse
That's just to match his gold armor, and personal legion of greased golden supermen. Purely functional.
@@blacksage2375 Good point XD
I'm sure theres a line in a novel where some Necron lords give humanity credit for knowing how to convey the ancient power of their Imperium through the monastery like design of their starships.
@spamviking it's the one about the flayer king, they rip an aquila off a battleship, then melt it down, purify it and plate the king and his ship with it. The gold contained the blessed bones of an imperial saint so became a psychic beacon.
Honestly, I'm surprised Gutamaya or Saud Kruger ships didn't get mentioned at all. Gutamaya ships have become the definition of an Imperial ship and the Beluga is what you'd get if you were to cross a luxury yacht with the capacity of a liner.
He missed an opportunity to make a joke about it. "...if you can keep it from getting stuck in the toaster rack."
@@GoldPicard Ah mailslot shenanigans, the bread and butter of Elite lmao
As The Pilot once said of the Orca "I can buy the most opulent, luxurious cabin in the galaxy, but I'm not high-class enough to actually see it. How upper-crust is that?"
The Expanse yacht and SC 890 jump in space yacht video) Thanks, i love them both)
One of the reasons as to why a gold plated ship in sci fi doesn't come off as tacky as other fiction is probably because gold is probably one of the most common resources you will find in space and makes decent radiation shielding.
I'm surprised that second point wasn't brought up. We already use gold in the radiation shielding of spacecraft.
there's no better feeling than seeing a new video from this channel just as you grabbed some snacks
I actually like that the Star Trek ship combined the gold with green. It looks nicer than the pure shiny gold or the gold and grey or gold and white ships.
And the green has a scale pattern (particularly noticeable in the model in STO).
Ah yes, Horatio. Truly a vainglorious princeling. Rich boy wouldn't stand much of a chance in the face of a Craver warband. While I can't fault him for finding beauty in deformity (if anything that's his finest quality), I can fault him for muddying his genius with a particularly unpleasant madness, one that could be described as either virulent or cancerous.
That's the talk of someone about to have their genes spliced
*Just wait until he decides to add a drop of Craver genetics into his beautiful mix. Those FIDSI boosts without depletion go brrrrr.
4:26 Want to know the best part about all those gold and jewel encrusted weapons from Season of Opulence? Each of them has the description of "An Earth artifact, refashioned to suit the Emperor's modest tastes."
I just finished listening to the radio drama of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', and i can think of two examples of gold: The ship that Zaphod Beeblebrox stole, 'The Heart of Gold' pretty much is self-explanatory, with it's Infinite Improbability Drive made from a large, gold nugget.
And then there's the classic definition of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster: Its effects are similar to "having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."
No mention of Lando Calrissian's luxury yscht, the Lady Luck? If Futurama's Hedonism Bot were a Star Wars character, he'd be Lando.
It's shown, but mislabeled, at 07:51
Nice background song pick. Love it when ES2 themes pop up randomly in my feed.
Well, it wasn't THAT randomly. After all, this video has a part about Horatio.
@@Nazar_Melnyk made the comment before finishing the video haha. Then the man of the hour showed up.
I would put Fhloston Paradise from the Fifth Element on this list. Maybe not as magnificently opulent as the ones listed, but being a premier resort destination for the wealthy would put it up there for me.
Good pick.
Fhloston’s Paradise is opulent but it’s not a Yacht it’s a cruise liner. It’s a vacation resort that flys. Where a Yacht’s centered around the owner and their family/guests.
Goldmember: “Finallakly, A Spaseship I can Ush.”
Shame there wasn't a shout-out to the Royal Tree-Ships of Planet Jurai. I feel like a space ship with an entire hyper-dimensional mountain forest for a bridge deserves note.
Plus the whole "How closely is your Tree Ship related to our Goddess? Oh, you're only 3rd generation. I'm 2nd gen."
In spacecraft, particularly if ship mass is an actual concern, having a ton of gold also flaunts your ability to flip the bird at fuel efficiency because who needs it when you don't care about expense.
Jupiter Ascending had some amazing CGI, despite everything else. Chandeliers in a spacecraft docking bay is a flex unlike anything I've seen in a while..
When you think about it, in a space faring society, wood would be far rarer than gold.
A hand-carved wooden desk would be the height of opulence on a city world or space station.
The Vorkosigan books go into this. Barrayar is a (mostly) terraformed planet where wood is as abundant as it is on Earth, but there are space stations and non-terraformed planets where nobody would even consider having a fireplace in their home.
This came out at a great time. My players are about to come into possession of a crime lords space yacht
I'm saving up spacedock videos (the last 3) for when I'm feeling down. Then I'll watch them all.
Also shoutout to Astrid from X4: Foundation. A literal space yacht covered in gold and huge unnecessary glass as hull. It also comes with an in-ship pool and bar.
Thank you for mentioning the Astrid. I love that ship so much.
Some ships not mentioned here, from The Expanse: Razorback and Jules-Pierre Mao's personal yacht.
In a universe of ships shaped like flying bricks or skyscrapers on their side with greebly bits attached to the sides, those two are sleek, with pseudo-aerodynamic outer hulls, and they're painted with designs, things that aren't seen on truly utilitarian craft.
hey Hoojiwana,
I find it interesting that you showed footage of The Guanshiyin, but didn't describe it's style of opulence.
large rooms that hold far fewer people than could theoretically fit (similar to super-yachts), extra baths [in the context that water access is hard and expensive], non-utilitarian exterior design etc'
Damn those flying gold palaces make the 890 Jump look like a DRAKE Cutter!
Also fun to see a clip from Flight of the Navigator. It was recorded on vhs at my parents place growing up. Along with some movie about these two angelic kids and their pet 3 legged alien with laser eyes getting taken in by some old farmer couple? Can't really remember...
Navigator...same thing. Old VHS copy. Loved it as a kid
I'd argue that for both the Amarr as well as the Protoss (that weren't mentioned?) the Gold throughout the entire faction is basically the representation of the claim of an ancieng empire - "We have ruled rightfully for a thousand generations and our power is so far beyond your comprehension, we shall rule for another thousand generations"
Just to highlight something... The white Ship @0:23 emerging out of the Clouds is the same ship than the one shown @08:03 - Just about 30 years apart 🤣
Here is a fun info drop about Warframe, the "Void" tilesets or Orokin Towers as they are sometimes called are in lore bunkers. Bunkers in the void in case the war with the sentients was not winnable. Their robots that went kill all humans and somewhat human had one weakness, the void. So yes for the high ranks of the Orokin, even their prepper bunkers are covered in gold trim.
And while its in rough shape the Zariman 10-0 clearly was very opulent before it had a minor oopsie with its FTL drive.
Horatio liked this video.
ESPECIALLY the music.
Special mention: the treasure planet yachts.
We need more good looking luxury ships, they're just fun to look at.
One of my favourite opulent ships would have to be the exotics from nms. From the way they look so sleek (or unique in the squid ships case) seems to give off this master crafted work of art theme. Along with that, a golden blade with wings that fold like a shuttle from Star Wars is just plain epic.
There is one practical use of gold metal in space ships, that would not be tied to opulence or as a sign of wealth/vanity: radiation shielding. Due to its high atomic mass and density, gold would be just as good if not better than lead at stopping ionizing space radiation like X-rays and gamma rays, an unlike lead, gold is not toxic, nor does it react with air, even when hot. Gold foil is commonly used in current space probes and satellites as it is an excellent IR reflector, and spacesuit visors have a gold layer to protect the astronauts' eyes from strong sunlight.
And since it's believed that many metallic asteroids, and maybe even some small moons and rocky planets might have large deposits of gold, more than has been mined on Earth, a spacefaring civilization might use gold on their space ships and other technology, more than often than not.
To counter the people saying that gold makes no sense due to it not being all that rare: There is an episode of Time Team where they unearthed a big gold coin that had basically no wear on it. Someone lost it just after it was made centuries ago. They brushed the dirt off it and it shone bright in the sun. Centuries of being buried in the ground didn't matter at all.
That is the underlying magic of gold that originally made it so appealing to our ancestors. For us today were gold as common as iron, we would put it absolutely everywhere.
Also to note is that while it is fairly soft it is still a very resilient metal. Notably when it comes to acids.
To overthink it the reflective finish on the emperor's ship in dune shows how the empire and the emperor is only a reflection of the world beneath it. Is the emperor comes into land on any planet the planet is quite literally reflected in his approach.
Am a real sucker for Goa’uld ships, especially Ra’s ship, which is essentially a mobile palace
I mean, Elite Dangerous has an entire ship line of opulent and luxurious vessels. In fact, we kind of have two. There are the passenger liners, which are the dolphin, the beluga, and the orca. But then we also have the just imperial white luxury combat craft like the cutter.
YEAH! Saud-Kruger and Gutamaya reign supreme as the most elegant manufacturers!
Star Trek's Baron Grime's "Festoon" is perhaps lower level posh... but it is still a Space Yacht.
I notice Lando Calrissian's 'Lady Luck' Space Yacht makes a brief cameo in this video too at +7:55 .
Opulence is the ability to go "So I love beautiful things, and want a new starship. Hmmm, I do like the look of gold and silver, let's see what the designers can do with those. You will also make sure that the designers know the starship must be an beautiful piece of art in and of itself. That will quintuple the cost of the design? Does it look like I care?"
in the book i'm writing, the incredibly rich dont go for Gold, but instead a material known as "Black-Steel" (basically nuclear pasta made into an alloy) This material is incredibly expensive to produce, and is nearly indestructible. Armored suits made of this substance are worth more than most planets, and very little can be produced every year.
The wealthiest of the galaxy have fortresses plated with the stuff, a thin layer like a gold overlay would be used on wood, but that thin layer is worth an astronomical amount.
I like the yacht from the Expanse. It is obviously opulent, but still practical because of technological limitation of the setting.
I have to agree with Villeneuve there: to be perceived as an all-powerful presence, miror-finished silver is the best you can do, especially during the day. He didn't exploit this but a round miror will always catch the sun and throw it in your eyes. So the emperor's ship will never be looked at directly. And if that's not imposing a god-like presence, I don't know what is.
There is something so beautiful about 2000s sci fi shows/movies
I remember having that luxury yacht in Star Wars: Galaxies, it was a veteran reward at some point. Always loved what people did with the interior, made it into shops, spas, a flying trophy cabinet, whatever they could think of. Since it was one of the ships you could go inside and customize like a player home, imagination was the limit.
Instead of using that, I had the Nova Courier as my main ship. I turned it into a bar. Because what's the point of a gunship if you can't have a stiff drink after a good fight?
The Belshazzar from Spaceship Warlock is my go-to space yacht - the golden highlights, the pearlescent hull, the curving lines and the opulent interior with an enormous viewing deck of deep space, it's all classic stuff. Makes for a great contrast when the Warlock itself arrives on the scene for plunder, with a similar hull shape but far more menacing appearance.
Man, what a coincidence, I was just remembering the Spaceship Warlock trailer I saw when I was a kid, then you go on and mention it.
I have to give a mention to the HMS Duke of Cromarty in the Honor Harrington series - where the Manticorians reacted to a sneak attack on the previous royal yacht by making a new one out a slightly-modified battlecruiser.
Turns out when you reduce the magazine space to half normal, you can fit accommodations up to and including a full formal ballroom, while keeping everything else from the warship's loadout.
The 890 Jump and 300i from Star Citizen remind me of the Guanshiyin/Razorback combo from The Expanse in a way, high performance craft comparable to real world supercars attached to giant superyachts via their own dedicated hangars.
Reinhard and his Brunhilde screams: "LOOK AT ME! SEE THE FIREPOWER I CAN BEAR UPON THEE!! PEW PEW EPW!"
I worked on yachts IRL. One of the most interesting design features that I found is because space on a boat is limited, designers have to get really creative with its use. Add into the fact that its meant to be a luxury vessel and corners cant be cut, designers have to really be creative to make something both functional and look good. I imagine space would be no different
Great video! I like how you included the Goauld from Stargate SG1 lore in this list. Such a great realm of Sci-Fi!!
Really good video - Thanks for this Hooji!!
All the focus on gold ... no one goes for diamonds or other gemstones? Imagine a ship with its exterior completely covered in gem-quality faceted sapphires!
In Stelaris Gigastructural Engering the Aeternum's Behemoth Planetcrafts are the ultimate expression of an Opulent Spaceship.
The ones the other empires build look like rugged and crude machines of war.
But the Aeternum's far sliker design while showing a Gaia World Biome in their weaponized mobile planets.
Show just how much more powerful and ancient they are.
The Axiom from WALL-E is a giant cruise ship in space. The Rubicon from Foundation tv show also fits.
Loved the opulent and beautiful designs of Jupiter ascending ❤
Check out the 890 jump from the origin manufacturer in star citizen, its an incredible exanple of an oppulent space yacht and if fully explorable in a video game
Amusingly, the first ad I got was for *_"World Class Italian made boats._*
*_Handcrafted to Perfection."_*
I've never had anything remotely like that in my advertising profile before.
[I clicked on the link to get the company's website so I could quote it..... oh crap, I just changed my ad profile, didn't I?]
That naboo diplomatic vessel was gorgeous... it was clearly based off the old B-49, and I was incredibly disappointed at how little of it we got to see.
This episode: Gold!
Also the thing about gold is that they are used in space flight for their anti corrosive properties and also in electronics.
In one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books there’s a ship that is made entirely out of material that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation so it appears absolutely black.
Perfect for stealth!
"Goa'uld that just love goold!" XD
My favorite space yacht is probably the Sinbad of the imperial magnate Horace Hussein al Shamlan Bury in the novel The Gripping Hand/The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye in the CoDominium/motie continuum.
Made and crewed to impress the superwealthy and powerful of the Empire of Man, it's also TOTALLY NOT armed with an unnecessarily powerful communications laser, excessively powerful force field defense, and a cargo mass driver capable of sending out fifty megaton thermonuclear warheads.
Nice try at a Lazer Pig impression at 00:30!! 😂
I was on O.T kid and I like the pragmatic designs of Belter ships too but the polished silver of the Naboo spacecrafts are just aesthetically pleasing.
Gundam has a thing for gold, too, but not so much on ships.
The Alvatore from 00 is a fully gold-clad mobile armor, which houses the also gold-clad Alvaaron mobile suit, and the only one where gold = opulence is really played straight.
The first gold suit in the franchise, the Hyaku Shiki from Zeta, on the other hand justifies being gold in-universe as the color of the beam-reflecting coating it has all over and doesn't really have anything to do with royalty or wealth.
The Akatsuki from Seed Destiny mixes the two by replicating the beam-reflecting gimmick but also having been built and initially piloted by a royal family.
Hell, with the Alvatore, it's owner has gold lined holographic screens, gold plated handguns. For crying out loud, the guy even made sure the exhaust of the machine is gold colored.
Amarr spaceships are GOLD!!!!!!!!!
The funny thing is that if we would be able to traverse space with FTL and be able to build ships this size technique like asteroid mining would probably turn gold into just another metal unless people keep on valuing it's aesthetics instead of it's value derived from scarcity.
Personally I think SG1’s and the Original movie production choice was wrong. When we look at things from the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese ecta ecta. They loved bold vibrant colors. By just having all the Gou’ald use the same ships and colors they limited themselves and made it harder to tell who was who when they inevitably started shooting at each other.
As a colour scheme, the application of gold depends on what it may be paired with:
Pure gold usually is a sign of wealth and vanity, with ships usually being owned by stuck up business owners.
White and gold are usually regal, opulent colours with ships being owned by nobles or monarchs.
Black and Gold are usually martial or elite in nature, ships with this scheme are either high ranking generals or nobles/monarchs of more martial, roman influenced cultures.
Love the use of Flight of the navigator!!!!
In a more hard sci-fi setting gold could also represent opulence in a different way: it could show off how wealthy someone is because they don't care about how dense and soft and useless it is, how the fuel inefficiency trade-offs that come with gold don't matter to them. Making ships heavier for no reason, without any function because it's useless as structural support or as armour, just means the ship moves slower and consumes more fuel and reaction mass to get anywhere.
I'm surprised no one has done a ship made from diamonds or at least large sections with shiny jewels. Yes I know they're not really rare. Because in comparison to soft gold metal, a diamond hull would make a far stronger hull. Granted it would be more brittle unless some space magic was used. Also as bonus it could be used to amplify energy weapons and counterintuitively actually be able to absorb energy weapons depending on the shape of the diamonds and their arrangement.
I do have to point out that the Naboo royal yachts aren't silver, they're _hand-applied flawless chrome._ They actually have people putting it on and buffing out any smudge or scratch by hand.
That's surprisingly violent for Star Wars. Chrome plating requires all kinds of nasty, toxic chemicals and lethal amounts of electricity.
The Imperial ships from Elite Dangerous also have a stylistic luxury flair to them - mostly from the curved/smooth surfaces on the ships. It contrasts from a lot of the more industrial aesthetics of other ships, as if the makers are saying "Hey, we are so rich that we have the time to make them look sooooo good *haughty haughty*"
Keep it up! Your vibe is fantastic!
7:51
As some have mentioned.
Oof that is not Lower Decks. Initially I didn't know what it was. But I did know it was not LDS as that is not the art style and quality.
Great video! A video about ships that are primarily made for racing (like the Razorback in The Expanse or the racing ships in Star Citizen for example) would also be very cool! Isn't the ship shown at about 7:53 something from Star Wars? I remember seeing a ship like that once in a Clone Wars episode and the “Sorosuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000” I found after a quick search on Wookiepedia looks very similar. Unless Star Trek: Lower Decks uses a ship that looks similar. I have to admit, I never got around to watch that show.
It's Lando Calrissian's ship, the Lady Luck. The caption saying that clip is from star trek is incorrect.
The ship is indeed the Lady Luck from Star Wars. It was mislabeled as a Star Trek ship.
There are other ways to make such vessels differ from more utilitarian vessels within the same setting. In most of Star Wars utilitarian and government vessels are either bricky or prickly with lots of little things sticking out since aerodynamics aren't a concern for space vessels. If you look at Star Wars: The Old Republic the player's ship when playing as an Imperial Agent is described as a personal luxury vessel with the interior converted for use in intelligence operations. Fancy vessels like the Imperial Agent vessel are the only things to get a consistently smooth surface or swoopy lines. It doesn't have to be a particular color and it definitely doesn't have to be gold. It just has to be different and for a good reason.
On Earth Cruise ships and yachts look different from military and utilitarian vessels without the gold. Bright white is popular with luxury vessels while militaries favor solid gray or black and cargo ships most often use red and/or blue. Bright white looks the cleanest and makes accent colors pop but it's the hardest to maintain. The fanciest yachts in the world aren't even trimmed with gold, let alone covered in it. They still favor bright white. And only luxury vessels have a glossy finish.
For a sci-fi setting to show opulence due to the commonality of gold in the universe (as others have pointed out) it might be interesting to stick with organic things. Rare wood from trees that only grow on certain planets. Ivory from rare giant megafauna. Things like that. Opulence also comes from a disregard for efficiency. A ship that is massive with wood interiors and pointless tea rooms is a status symbol in itself.
Another way to look at it is that Anubis did have the gold fittings on his ship, but they'd lost their luster and yellow color because they'd entered a tarnished state. That or they'd been blasted away by all the wear and tear from Anubis' dormancy.