Most iconic spaceships?

[MarkB]

I have heard the word, but if you showed me a picture of the Yamato I would't be able to name it. I'm not 100% sure what it is other than it's in a cartoon of some kind. Is it an anime thing?

Yes, it's an anime thing. Pretty iconic to the right audience, but prior to watching a few episodes recently I'd have had a hard time recognising it specifically.

I guess I'm biased as I can't imagine anybody in the UK not recognising the TARDIS, even if they hate Doctor Who. But I can accept I'm in a (large) bubble.

As a fellow UK resident I'd agree that it's achieved a pretty deep cultural recognition over here, well beyond the fandom of the series - though outside of that fandom, most people probably don't think "spaceship" when they see it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a lot of people who have never seen an anime!

Like I said, a big, big drop-off.

I think anime fans -- and I wouldn't consider myself one -- wildly misunderstand how niche of a fandom it is. Any thread where people start dropping anime terms into a non-anime discussion, you can practically hear everyone pausing to Google what was just said.

 

[Ryujin]

It is an anime.
It basically is the WW2 ship Yamato turned into a space ship.

The anime is known as "Star Blazers" in North America. Most likely known as "Space Battleship Yamato" elsewhere.

"Prepare to fire the Wave Motion Gun."

 

[Morrus]

As a fellow UK resident I'd agree that it's achieved a pretty deep cultural recognition over here, well beyond the fandom of the series - though outside of that fandom, most people probably don't think "spaceship" when they see it.

I think probably everybody in the country knows what it is, even if they have no interest. Like I know what Take That is, and I'm as far from the demographic they're designed for as it's possible to be. Or, like, Jonathan Ross or Eastenders. There's no way to not know what these things are, even if you're utterly disinterested. I have literally never seen an episode of Eastenders, but I know more than I want to about it!

 

[MarkB]

I think probably everybody in the country knows what it is, even if they have no interest. Like I know what Take That is, and I'm as far from the demographic they're designed for as it's possible to be. Or, like, Jonathan Ross or Eastenders. There's no way to not know what these things are, even if you're utterly disinterested. I have literally never seen an episode of Eastenders, but I know more than I want to about it!

Oh sure, but to most people it's just his "time machine". Disappears here, appears over there - or then. Not most peoples' conception of a "space ship".

 

[Tonguez]

The Yamamoto was the main ship in Star Blazers which was probably the first wildly popular anime outside of Japan. (I remember seeing it in the US in the 1970s.) While it's probably in the top 10 most recognizable ships, it's a big drop off from the top four or five.

I thought G-Force (Battle of the Planets) was the first internationally popular anime

 

[MGibster]

I thought G-Force (Battle of the Planets) was the first internationally popular anime

Battle of the Planets was released in the United States during the 1970s. Speed Racer was released to American audiences in the late 1960s. My mother can remember it coming on television when she was a kid.

 

[Staffan]

I think probably everybody in the country knows what it is, even if they have no interest. Like I know what Take That is, and I'm as far from the demographic they're designed for as it's possible to be. Or, like, Jonathan Ross or Eastenders. There's no way to not know what these things are, even if you're utterly disinterested. I have literally never seen an episode of Eastenders, but I know more than I want to about it!

Yeah, I'm with @MarkB on this. While I intellectually know that the TARDIS can physically move through space, it usually doesn't. It just appears somewhere, and is then standing there (because it's much cheaper to film a scene where the TARDIS is fading in than one where it is flying around and landing – same reason the Enterprise has teleporters). So calling the TARDIS a space ship is one of those "What? Oh, I guess?" things.

 

[Staffan]

I mean, it always does. But yeah, you don't necessarily see it doing so.

That said, do you usually see the Millenium Falcon doing so? You see it taking off and landing and in dogfights (and I'd say you see the TARDIS do random crap too) but the actual travel is always just interior people talking, maybe whizzlines out the window if they're in the cockpit. Pretty much the same. Star Wars hyperspace is pretty much the same as TARDIS time vortex. The occasional exterior whiz.

It is the teleporting in that does it. One moment we see a Scottish heath, and the next we see a Scottish heath with a blue police box. I'm not sure, but I don't think we see the TARDIS physically fly in the modern era until the 2006 Christmas episode.

But when we see the Falcon enter or leave a scene, we see it actually move. On a subconscious level, this tells me that "this is a thing that moves around", unlike the TARDIS which we just see materializing.

 

[Thourne]

Battle of the Planets was released in the United States during the 1970s. Speed Racer was released to American audiences in the late 1960s. My mother can remember it coming on television when she was a kid.

Yah, Speed Racer was in the west several years before Science Ninja Team Gatchaman(aka Battle of the Planets)