By Joshua Tyler
| Published
If you’re traveling through space, you’ll need a ship. For now, the only ships we’re actually capable of making are slow chunky rockets spewing fire. Science fiction does space travel a lot faster.
While some stories are better when things are moving slow, sci-fi is often at its most fun when things are moving at warp speed. But which sci-fi starship is the fastest?
It depends on what you’re asking. For instance, a fighter craft is probably faster than a capital ship in normal space, but a capital ship capable of entering hyperspace is an easy winner. So, for the purposes of this list we’re measuring our ships purely on how fast they can get from point A to point B.
These are the fastest starships in science fiction.
8. Lexx (Lexx)
The LEXX is a biomechanical spacecraft capable of faster-than-light travel. LEXX moves through the universe via a biologically driven propulsion system. This organic drive allows the ship to travel across galaxies and even between universes at speeds that are never precisely quantified but are shown to be far superior to most conventional starships in its universe.
While it lacks complex navigation systems typical of mechanical spacecraft, its biological design compensates with a natural affinity for movement through space. Its capability to cross intergalactic and interdimensional boundaries implies a highly advanced and possibly alien understanding of spatial physics encoded into its organic systems.
Despite its unparalleled speed, LEXX often requires guidance from its crew to determine destinations, as it lacks the cognitive capacity for strategic decision-making. The ship’s blend of organic propulsion and intuitive navigation positions LEXX as one of the most extraordinary ships in science fiction, even if it is bug ugly.
7. Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
The Andromeda Ascendant is a Glorious Heritage-class heavy cruiser designed as part of the High Guard fleet in the Systems Commonwealth. With the fall of the Commonwealth, Andromeda is the only one of her kind left.
The Andromeda’s propulsion relies on Slipstream Drive, a technology enabling faster-than-light travel through a network of naturally occurring pathways called slipstream routes. Unlike traditional FTL systems, slipstream navigation requires an intuitive pilot to chart courses through these unstable routes. Precise calculations are impossible due to the chaotic nature of slipstream physics.
Andromeda’s AI must collaborate with human pilots to navigate this complex system effectively and quickly.
6. Planet Express Ship (Futurama)
The Planet Express Ship is a state-of-the-art delivery spacecraft designed by the brilliant yet eccentric Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth.
The ship is powered by a dark matter engine, which provides near-infinite fuel efficiency and operates by moving the universe around the ship rather than the ship moving through the universe. This unique propulsion system enables the Planet Express Ship to achieve effectively infinite speed relative to itself, allowing for instantaneous or near-instantaneous interstellar travel.
The ship’s engine is fueled by dark matter, a substance refined from the excrement of the Nibblonian species, making it as weird as it is efficient.
5. Event Horizon (Event Horizon)
The Event Horizon, from the 1997 sci-fi horror film of the same name, is an experimental spacecraft designed to test a revolutionary propulsion system known as the Gravity Drive. This drive enables faster-than-light travel by creating an artificial black hole, folding spacetime so that two points connect instantaneously.
The core of the Gravity Drive employs exotic matter and advanced energy manipulation to generate a singularity, collapsing the distance between locations in space. By doing so, the Event Horizon doesn’t travel in the traditional sense; instead, it “jumps” from one point to another by bypassing the intervening space entirely. The Gravity Drive is housed in a specialized and highly creepy chamber at the rear of the ship, surrounded by containment fields and reinforced structures to manage the extreme energy and gravitational forces it generates.
That all sounds well and good, except there’s a horrific side effect. To get between two points, the Event Horizon must first pass through what is basically hell. As you’d imagine, that doesn’t go well.
Still, the Event Horizon can get you where you’re going really fast. You’ll probably just be insane or dead by the time you get there.
4. Discovery (Star Trek: Discovery)
The USS Discovery (NCC-1031) in Star Trek: Discovery is one of two Crossfield-class starships constructed by Starfleet. Both were outfitted with an experimental propulsion system called the Spore Drive, but only Discovery got it to work.
This experimental drive utilizes the mycelial network, a subspace domain composed of a vast web of spores spanning the entire galaxy. Yes, it basically flies using space mushrooms.
The Spore Drive’s biologically enhanced system integrates a supercomputer-like organic interface with a living navigator, most notably the tardigrade-like creature Ripper or later, Commander Paul Stamets, who uses injected spores to link with the network. By accessing this mycelial network, the Discovery can instantaneously “jump” to any location in the universe, bypassing traditional warp-speed constraints and enabling unparalleled tactical and exploratory capabilities.
The Spore Drive’s mechanics are based on advanced technobabble, where the ship essentially repositions itself through microscopic conduits in spacetime rather than traversing the intervening space. While normal Star Trek warp drives rely on the manipulation of spacetime via the matter-antimatter reaction and dilithium crystals, the Spore Drive operates entirely outside this paradigm, offering instantaneous travel with no time dilation effects.
3. Guild Ship (Dune)
Guild ships in Dune are colossal spacecraft utilized by the Spacing Guild for instantaneous interstellar travel, a cornerstone of the Imperium’s economy and governance.
These ships employ space-folding technology, made possible by the use of the psychoactive spice melange. This ability grants Guild Navigators the prescient ability to chart safe paths through folded space. The process, known as Holtzman Drive-powered space folding, collapses the vast distances between two points, effectively eliminating travel time.
Guild ships are operated by mutated human Navigators, who, after prolonged exposure to spice, develop superhuman cognitive abilities and physical deformities. These abilities allow them to perceive the complex, shifting pathways of folded space and avoid fatal collisions with celestial objects.
These immense cylindrical vessels can carry entire fleets or vast amounts of cargo, making them indispensable for trade, warfare, and governance.
2. TARDIS (Doctor Who)
TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The Doctor’s ride made its maiden voyage long before the events we see in screen in Doctor Who. The incredibly old vehicle is a Type 40 Time Capsule constructed by the Time Lords on the planet Gallifrey.
The TARDIS is both alive and incredibly intelligent. It exists in multiple dimensions simultaneously, which is why it’s bigger on the inside. This multi-dimensional nature allows it to sidestep the normal constraints of both time and space.
When the Doctor sets the coordinates for a new location in either time or space, the TARDIS dematerializes from its current location, travels through the “time vortex,” and then rematerializes at the destination. The process is nearly instant. The time vortex can be thought of as a highway that instantly connects different points across the space-time continuum, regardless of their distance or temporal separation in the “normal” universe.
1. Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.
So if you’re going to travel around in space, you’ll need something fast. There’s nothing faster than the Heart of Gold. Improbably, it’s number one on our list.
That’s because The Heart of Gold is powered by an Infinite Improbability Drive, a wonderful new method of crossing vast distances in less than a second without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace.
The drive harnesses the universe’s natural chaos by passing through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe almost simultaneously. While your typical sci-fi engines might fight with bending the laws of physics, the Infinite Improbability Drive tosses them out the window and has tea with the resulting chaos. It’s improbable, which is the point.
The Heart of Gold’s origins are as extraordinary and chaotic as the vessel itself. The ship was designed and built on the planet Damogran, where it was to launch with a great deal of fanfare at a ceremony attended by the President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Unfortunately, in a totally improbable move, Zaphod stole the Heart of Gold and transported off to regions unknown.
Zaphod stole it because he knows what you know now. If you’re a Hoopy Frood who knows where his towel’s at, then there’s no faster way to travel the Universe than aboard the Heart of Gold.
