History Main / SpaceShipGirl

Compare with RobotGirl, SapientSteed, and LivingFigurehead. A subtrope of SapientShip and often a kind of GeniusLoci. Related to ICallItVera and LivingWeapon. Psychologically related to CompanionCube. Might become [[RoboShip a love interest]]. Compare LivingFigurehead. See also LivingShip.

Subtrope of LivingShip. Compare with RobotGirl, SapientSteed, and LivingFigurehead. A subtrope of SapientShip and often a kind of GeniusLoci. Related to ICallItVera and LivingWeapon. Psychologically related to CompanionCube. Might become [[RoboShip a love interest]]. Compare LivingFigurehead.

Compare with RobotGirl, SapientSteed, and LivingFigurehead. A subtrope of SapientShip and often a kind of GeniusLoci. Related to ICallItVera and LivingWeapon. Psychologically related to CompanionCube. Might become [[RoboShip a love interest]]. Compare LivingFigurehead.

Throughout history, many countries have observed the custom of always referring to ships and other seafaring vessels as "she." This even applies to ships named after men (e.g., the USS ''Ronald Reagan''). These traditions continued with [[TheSkyIsAnOcean the development of aircraft]], and the metaphor (in fiction at least) has also been extended to space travel.

* The Marvel Comics character ''Star Lord'' has a sentient ship with a female persona. At least in the 1980s. Yep, the ship was in love with him. (She once generated a humanoid form to assist him when he was seriously injured.)

** There was a similar episode where B'Elanna had to persuade a rogue Interplanetary Missile Girl that it was [[ColonyDrop targeting a noncombatant world]]. It wasn't just any girl, either - she'd reprogrammed it herself, and given it her own voice (the old voice was a Cardassian male which annoyed her).

* In one episode of the original 1978 ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', Starbuck flew the Recon Viper, which had extra engine power but no weapons. It was fitted with C.O.R.A., an intelligent computer controller that not only talked in a feminine voice, but also acted like an overprotective girlfriend.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]] and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] both had female voices for the ships computer- logical, since they were voiced by Gene Roddenberry's wife Majel Barrett (who also played three on-screen roles across the franchise). The ships were never completely sentient, with a possible exception in TNG "Emergence".

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]] and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] both had female voices for the ships computer- logical, since they were voiced by Gene Roddenberry's wife. The ships were never completely sentient, with a possible exception in TNG "Emergence".

** This is actually usually a thing with Smart {{AI}}s that have interfaced with ships, which aid the crews with status checks and making proper calculations for firing solutions, movement, and preparing Slipspace coordinates. In some cases, they're capable of taking complete control of said ships if they're working a skeleton crew or ''no'' crew.

* The 100-Series Observational Realians on the Durandal from ''VideoGame/XenoSaga''.

Compare with RobotGirl, SapientSteed, and LivingFigurehead. A subtrope of SapientShip and often a kind of GeniusLoci. Related to ICallItVera and LivingWeapon. Psychologically related to CompanionCube. Might become [[RoboShip a love interest]].

Compare with RobotGirl and SapientSteed. A subtrope of SapientShip and often a kind of GeniusLoci. Related to ICallItVera and LivingWeapon. Psychologically related to CompanionCube. Might become [[RoboShip a love interest]].

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary's'' starships have embedded [=AIs=] that assist in the running and maintenance of the ship, that develop a hologram avatar that gives the meatbags inside the ship something to focus on when they're trying to talk. Most of these are actually ''male'', probably to instill respect in a male-heavy military environment, but the ''Athens'' had Athena, a blue-skinned, red haired human girl. When the characters reunite with Petey and discover that his ears have become prodigious, he informs them that the algorithms determining an AI's hologram avatar are outside the AI's control, but the bigger ears indicate moving up in station, as it were. Incidentally, only two [=AIs=] aren't subject to this-Ennesby, an ex-computer virus and boy band with a separate robotic body, and TAG, the AI of the Touch-and-Go; this is because they both reside in physical units as opposed to the ship itself (although TAG does appear to have his rather firmly affixed to the floor of the computer room).
** After his recent mental breakdown, TAG has had a personality reconstruction, courtesy of Ensign Ventura. In a re-inversion of the trope, he is now a she, and she has renamed herself [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20090423.html Tagioalisi]].

* Serves as a TomatoSurprise in a vignette in the ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' book ''Deep Beyond'', in which [[spoiler: a girl the viewpoint characte meets in virtual reality, who is a crewmember on a USAF spaceship with a crush on the captain, turns out to ''actually'' be one of the ship's smart missiles]].

* If EpilepticTrees are to be trusted (and ridiculously advanced AI is a qualifying trait for this trope, natch), Yukikaze from ''Anime/SentouYouseiYukikaze'' may be this. That is, minus the human avatar and all.

* The space train, Galaxy Express 999 gets upgraded with a SpaceshipGirl in the second series.

* In ''Literature/BlackLegion'' it overlaps with WetwareCPU, as the main body of ''Tlaloc'''s "brain", Anamnesis, is Khayon's sister Itzara. [[spoiler:She becomes more lively when she's uploaded into ''Vengeful Spirit'', becoming its SpaceshipGirl.]]

** Serena of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' as well, this time for the ''Spirit of Fire''. And in this case the ship lasts as long as the SpaceshipGirl.

* If EpilepticTrees are to be trusted (and ridiculously advanced AI is a qualifying trait for this trope, natch), Yukikaze from ''Franchise/SentouYouseiYukikaze'' may be this. That is, minus the human avatar and all.
* Eve in ''Anime/{{Megazone 23}}''. [[spoiler: The [[VirtualCelebrity beloved idol]] is actually a subroutine of the Bahamut supercomputer that controls the GenerationShip the protagonists live in. She's the one who chose 1980s Japan as the "best time to live in" for her passengers and is also responsible for evaluating whether humanity was ready to return to Earth at the end of Part 2.]]

->''"I '''am''' the Normandy now. Its sensors are my eyes. Its armor, my skin. Its fusion plant, my heart."''

** In a somewhat darker example, the Controller from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]]. She's more of a Satellite Girl, but she controls all the data coming into and going out of the Gamestation. However, is (or was) ''human'', and basically wired up to be part of the computer.

* A.L.E.X., the ''Xcalibur's'' AI hologram from TheXtacles, who is constantly fending off advances from her dim-witted crew.
* Aya from ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' was originally just the artificial intelligence of the Lanterns' CoolStarship until she created a body for herself.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
** Holly, the AI interface aboard the Red Dwarf, starts off as male but undergoes a virtual-sex change (as part of an [[TheNthDoctor Nth Doctor shift]]) between the second and third series. She disappears after series five along with the ship itself, and the male Holly returns at the end of series seven (twofold! The ship is actually a nanite recreation of the ship and its crew from a time before the accident, so its Holly serves Captain Hollister and has no relationship with the Boys from the 'Dwarf. The version of Holly on the watch Lister found, on the other hand, knows them but is suffering from 'computer senility' and is a bit less useful than Holly of old.
** In Series X, the crew members install a new ship's AI for Red Dwarf named Pree, whose avatar is a pretty young woman with facial tattoos. Unfortunately she's programmed to anticipate and immediately enact the senior officer's decisions, which happens to be Rimmer. So when she predicts that Rimmer would do a lousy of repairing the ship, she starts trashing the systems. Later on she decides to fly the ship into a nearby star.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]] and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] both had female voices for the ships computer- logical, since they were voiced by Gene Roddenberry's wife. The ships were never completely sentient, with a possible exception in TNG "Emergence".
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
** In an episode, an "upgrade" to the ''Enterprise'''s computer causes it to start talking flirtatiously and calling the captain "Dear". Kirk said that the folks the repairs had been outsourced to thought the computer needed a personality, "so they gave it one."
** In the episode "Elaan of Troyius" the women of the planet Elas have tears that make every man the tears touch fall madly in love with them. Kirk is infected, but okay by the end of the episode. Spock explains what happened: "The antidote to a woman of Elas, Doctor, is a starship. The Enterprise infected the captain long before the Dohlman did."
** Captain Kirk once bemoaned the fact that although the ''Enterprise'' wasn't a woman, it [[CargoShip took the place of one in his life]]: "Now I know why it's called 'she'."
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** Voyager's Computer had a bit more of a personality during "Q2" thanks to young Q's meddling
-->'''Janeway''': Coffee, black.
-->'''Replicator''': Make it yourself.
** "[[AliceAllusion Alice]]" in the episode of the same name. She's a SentientVehicle that establishes a [[BrainComputerInterface direct neural link]] to her pilots--Tom Paris in this case--to better control them. She appears as a beautiful woman who is only visible to Tom (an alien who sold the ship is shown to see her as a female member of his own species), and is [[ClingyJealousGirl psychotically possessive of her owner]].
** There was a similar episode where B'Elanna had to persuade a rogue Interplanetary Missile Girl that it was [[ColonyDrop targeting a noncombatant world]]. It wasn't just any girl, either - she'd reprogrammed it herself, and given it her own voice (the old voice was a Cardassian male which annoyed her).
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
** River says she has merged with ''Serenity''. [[spoiler:This is subverted when it turns out to have been a ploy to get the crew out of a rather dire situation.]]
** In an earlier episode, Kaylee states that the ship talks to her when something is wrong (at the very least, the engine does the she is the most likely to personify Serenity and takes offense whenever someone calls the ship junk, more so then Mal, the Captain). Whether there is a real voice or just Kaylee waxing poetic about the ship. Creator/JossWhedon has basically said Firefly was about 9 characters (those played by actors) who looked to space for very different reasons and the 10th character, who takes them there (Serenity), clearly demonstrating that the ship was meant to be treated as something more alive than a ship.

* The Cylon ships in the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 reboot]] have Hybrids as their central computer hub. Hybrids take the form of women laying in a cloudy tub similar to a regenerating tub. Hybrids are not supposed to be sentient and generally their speech is a string of ship operations. [[spoiler: Some models and humans believe that the Rebel Hybrid also spouts prophecy.]]

* On ''Killjoys'' John and Lucy the ship have a very special relationship. Lucy gets a body in one episode, portrayed by the same actor who voices her.

** The episode ''The Doctor's Wife'' confirms that the TARDIS is indeed sentient and female. (Guess who his "wife" is.) The 'soul' of the TARDIS in the body of a human gets to actually walk around, and it is as CrazyAwesome as you'd expect. The Doctor's companions, on the other hand, are less impressed.
--->'''Amy:''' Did you wish ''really'' hard?\\

** Also, to keep himself focused when dying (exceedingly painfully) from poison, the Doctor has the TARDIS create a holographic interface, which is capable of looking like anyone. He finally settles on the child version of current companion Amy. However, she ''definitely'' doesn't act like Amy, speaking more like a standard ComputerVoice (but giving one moment of Amy-ness as moral support.) Interestingly, a comic book miniseries involves the TARDIS manifesting holograms of companions, but it's... different. Read above in that section if you dare.
** In a somewhat darker example, the Controller from "Bad Wolf." She's more of a Satellite Girl, but she controls all the data coming into and going out of the Gamestation. However, is (or was) ''human,'' and basically wired up to be part of the computer.
** The MonsterOfTheWeek of the episode [[spoiler: Curse of the BlackSpot]] turns out to be one.
* Gypsy from Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000, who was directly wired into the Satellite of Love and controlled its higher functions. A more literal example was the Magic Voice.
* Sandstrom from Series/{{Hyperdrive}}.

* In ''Series/{{Silversun}}'', Pancha is this, despite being born as a normal human and initially believing herself to be one. A mechanical implant in her brain gives her a telepathic connection to the ship's computer.

* In the Creator/{{CBC}} radio comedy series Canadia 2056 the main computer of the ship, the Canadia, starts off having a female voice simply because he captain chooses it, while the French-Canadian Commander Margaux prefers the voice of a French-Canadian man. Latter in the series, the computer becomes sentient do to the interference of a Wish-Granting Sentient-Cloud being, and soon develops a crush on the captain, eventually leading to her crushing an American captain with a car, all because she thought he was trying to steal the captain from her. Actually, not very comedic sounding...

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

* On ''Killjoys'' John and Lucy the ship have a very special relationship.

* In Creator/JimButcher's CinderSpires, Captain Grimm's ship ''Predator'' is revealed to be at least semi-sentient, though only once awakened by an Etherealist.
* Played with in [[Literature/{{Okuyyuki}} "Okuyyuki"]], since [[TalkingWeapon Audrey]] is not a spaceship, but she does have a "human" manifestation that works like one of these.