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4[[quoteright:340:[[TabletopGame/BattleTech https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dropship_6404.jpg]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:340:Note the HumongousMecha[[labelnote:*]]Approximate height for that Timberwolf is 12 meters[[/labelnote]] and the large turrets.]]
6
7->''"All hands to the Escape Testicle!"''
8-->-- '''Starship Hooters 3: Undresser'''
9
10A ScienceFiction plot calls for a vehicle that can land on an alien planet and be somewhat badass. A SpacePlane would be cool, but you'd need a runway. So instead, you have a DropShip shaped roughly like a sphere that consists of a vertically mounted rocket engine surrounded by landing struts, fuel, cargo, a control room, and usually a ramp to offload personnel and cargo. The type of engine is unimportant. It can be an actual rocket or a {{Hand Wave}}d "[[DramaticAlienVTOL antigravity generator]]" or "[[PowerFloats reactionless thruster]]".
11
12Why a sphere?
13* From an aerospace engineering perspective, there could be several good reasons:
14** A sphere is the only shape that is aerodynamically identical in any direction, a fact that might be of interest to a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien.
15** A sphere, while doing away with wings that would be useless in space, is still more aerodynamic than, say, a cube. While it might not generate much lift, it could be quite maneuverable in both space and atmosphere.
16** Spheres have been shown as an effective shape for atmospheric reentry, as demonstrated by the Soviet manned space program.
17** Of all possible spacecraft shapes with the same internal volume, a sphere has the least surface area (which also means that of all possible spacecraft shapes with the same surface area, a sphere has the most internal volume.) This might make it a good choice for both commercial and military use, as it would store the most cargo per unit of armor.
18* Spheres are also naturally an extremely strong shape (this is why many deep sea submersibles' pressurized crew compartments are spherical) which would help in the harsh conditions of both space and many planets with a thick atmosphere.
19* More importantly to [[MostWritersAreWriters writers]], spheres are ''[[RuleOfCool cool]]''.
20** Spheres are "cute". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnWsL9mWaO0 consider this commercial]].
21** Spheres are sleek, but not as stereotypical as a FlyingSaucer or RetroRocket.
22** Spheres are badass. Nothing says "we mean business" like a MotherShip that looks like a wrecking ball with guns.
23** Perhaps most importantly of all, spheres are [[AlienGeometries alien]], [[ButNotTooForeign but not too alien]]. We instantly recognize a sphere as a familiar shape, but not one we're used to seeing in the sky. They've got SinisterGeometry, but still clearly leave open the possibility we could find that their crews aren't so different from us.
24
25Requirements:
26# It ''must'' look like a spheroid. Obviously there will be some variations. Antennae, landing gear, square hatches, etc., are all fine as long as they don't detract from the fact that it's still ''basically'' a spheroid. Egg shapes and squished spheres are also OK as long as its closer to being a sphere than it is to a cylinder or FlyingSaucer. However, examples that are arguably less a sphere than a "fat vertical rocket", "rotund FlyingSaucer", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOEEZwcmrBs sphere on a pole]]", etc. should be listed elsewhere.
27# Vertical takeoff and landing. The vehicle is essentially incapable of landing like a traditional airplane. Once airborne, it can change course.
28# Single-stage, surface-to-space capability. {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s usually equip such vessels with interstellar capability, while more primitive variants may only be capable of going between the planet and an orbiting MotherShip. [[note]]Not necessarily surface-to-''orbit'' capability, either, if advanced technologies such as a TractorBeam are available on the mothership[[/note]].
29
30----
31!!Examples
32[[foldercontrol]]
33
34[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
35* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
36** The "Saiyan Pods" used by Frieza's forces are of the sufficiently advanced variety. They're person-sized and have no visible engines, but they can make year-long interstellar trips with no issue while the passenger is in suspended animation.
37** Doctor Briefs reverse-engineers this technology and builds a much larger one for Goku, which more resembles the page picture. In addition to being much roomier, it includes a training gym with multiple gravity settings, allowing Goku to grow more than ten times stronger during his journey.
38* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': TheMovie deals with an AlienInvasion that uses this sort of space ship.
39* The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Zeon]] HLV (Heavy-lift Launch Vehicle) isn't ''quite'' spherical but it is a massive, rounded ship that carries entire squads of HumongousMecha to and from Earth's surface.
40* ''Literature/AWindNamedAmnesia'' features an especially huge one.
41[[/folder]]
42
43[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
44* In the "So Beautiful and So Dangerous" sequence of ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'', the ship is a sphere with a stylized face: the front lower hemisphere looks like an open mouth, and huge viewports look like eyes and ears. The ship never actually lands (just hovers in place), but clearly demonstrates the second and third requirements above.
45* The second [[WesternAnimation/KatyLaOruga Katy Caterpillar]] film, ''Katy, Kiki & Koko'' had the shapeshifting alien use such a ship. It was not capable of taking off vertically and had to reach escape velocity by bouncing on the ground.
46* In the Disney/Pixar movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Lightyear}}'' (based off the franchise-within-a-franchise Buzz Lightyear universe inside the Franchise/ToyStory universe), "The Turnip", as Buzz nicknamed it, is an intergalactic [[FasterThanLightTravel starship]] full of colonists in hypersleep. Its PowerCrystal is damaged in a disastrous attempt at a hurried takeoff, stranding the colonists on a DeathWorld that they eventually [[HadToBeSharp adapt to]].
47[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
50* The spaceship in ''Film/AttackOfThe50FootWoman'', except the characters call it a satellite because the screenwriter goofed. (It was made when Sputnik had just made 'satellite' the latest buzzword.) The 1993 remake uses a straight-up FlyingSaucer.
51* ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008'' has a spheroid energy vessel of some sort, instead of the classic FlyingSaucer that landed on the Mall in [[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951 the original]].
52* At the start of ''Film/Dune2021'', a huge spherical dropship (though dwarfed by the Spacing Guild Heighliner that brings it to Caladan) lands with the Herald of the Change and assorted dignitaries to formally announce that Arrakis is now the fief of House Atreides.
53* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' has [[strike: [[{{Pun}} a ball]]]] tons of fun with this trope. The ''Heart of Gold'' itself is shaped like a huge sphere in its default form and has a [[https://asylumsfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/HHG-08-1140x760.jpg red colored dropship]] with bigger aerodynamic spoilers and black flame decorations to make it look like a sports car.
54* The alien "Gods" in ''Film/ThePumaman'' is also a round sphere.
55* The [[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9Q18pFWGSGw/TYWC7DSUgoI/AAAAAAAAB7U/Ibyse2TJykY/s1600/E-T-The-Extra-Terrestrial-et-the-extra-terrestrial-5079715-852-480.jpg alien spaceship]] in ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''.
56* The classic [[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/02e77317-9e1e-4459-b8df-8e6fbf3b5287/d2x1fw8-11310e4f-9748-4f5f-b2d0-4c7cf507b4c6.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzAyZTc3MzE3LTllMWUtNDQ1OS1iOGRmLThlNmZiZjNiNTI4N1wvZDJ4MWZ3OC0xMTMxMGU0Zi05NzQ4LTRmNWYtYjJkMC00YzdjZjUwN2I0YzYuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.U6ng2OYTYrMVwTj-Dxxi_AOO1_xt-Ooh_T_O1WD2oSE Aries trans-orbital shuttle]] that takes Heywood Floyd from Station V to the Moon in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' fits this to a T.
57* ''Film/{{Starman}}'' may be the TropeCodifier.
58* The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lucrehulk-class_Core_Ship Lucrehulk-class Core Ship]] in ''[[Film/AttackOfTheClones Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones]]'' are dual purpose ships. They're the central "command" core of the Trade Federation ships (with large crescent sections surrounding them as seen in Episode I), but as those cannot enter the atmosphere in their entirety, they may also detach to be used as landing craft, or fly independently.
59* The Borg Sphere in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' hovers somewhere in the gray area between trope played straight and subversion.
60** It's definitely a spheroid, and the only reason it's not a dropship is because Enterprise destroyed it first.
61* The lifepod in ''Film/StarshipTroopers3Marauder''.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Literature]]
65* In ''The Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'', the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yevetha]]'s thrustships are spherical, based on the surface area argument quoted above.
66* The original paperback cover of ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune'' shows the no-ship as one of these.
67* In the book ''Literature/IllegalAliens'', the starship All That Glitters and the copies of it that the Unified Earth Government makes after the All That Glitters is confiscated are spherical. The All That Glitters literally drops out of a sunny day into Central Park. Also in that book the Great Golden Ones, the Galaxy's defacto police force, use multiple centehedronal battle-platforms to blockade Earth.
68* In the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series, the General Products Corporation makes two standard hulls for starships (the Type 1 and the Type 4) which are perfectly spherical. The Type 1 is about the size of a basketball and is typically used to make space probes. The Type 4 is a kilometer in diameter and is generally used to move entire colonies all at once.
69* While not strictly speaking spheres, in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'', the centauroid Posleen utilize Command Dodecahedron (C-Dec) and Battle Dodecahedron (B-Dec) spaceships that have landing capacity as their primary invasion platforms.
70* In ''Literature/{{Magnus}}'', Dragylon the Imperial Fortress is a massive, invisible, sun-sphere and headquarters of Lucifer. Dragylon also contains the GreatBigLibraryOfEverything and Lucifer's CoolChair.
71* ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' features a lot of spherical spacecraft (e.g., ''[[CoolStarship The Lady Macbeth]]''), due to the FTL drives creating a spherical area for the travel -- anything poking out is cut off. They are mostly used by the Adamists, one of the two major factions of future humanity in that series. While they are never shown to land on planets (instead preferring to ferry freight using a SpacePlane), they could presumably land on a planet vertically due to their huge fusion engines and fuel tanks.
72* ''Literature/OutOfTheSilentPlanet'': Weston's spaceship is a sphere by necessity, since he can't create ArtificialGravity and so he needed to have a core that would pull the rest of the spaceship into the center. Weston refuses to explain to Ransom (and the reader through him) how exactly he created a center of gravity so small, but the result is that the floors of one room seem to be the walls as soon as you walk out and look into it. It also means that entering a planet's orbit involves making "down" down again, which proves a harrowing experience.
73* The sphere is a reasonably common shape for starships in ''Literature/PerryRhodan''. Most notably, it's been traditionally used by the dominant [[HumanAliens humanoid races]] of the Milky Way galaxy, the Terrans themselves included, for their capital ships (basically anything above fighter/small craft scale) for thousands of years, so there are plenty to go around.
74* Mentioned in the ''Literature/{{RCN}}'' series as relatively unpopular, as they had an unfortunate tendency to roll when landed, with all the sinking that implies (all ships in the setting preferred a water landing whenever possible). Most ships in the setting are cigar-shaped, with retractable pontoons, to avoid that very problem.
75* Creator/EEDocSmith favoured this shape in the ''Literature/{{Skylark|Series}}'' universe (only ''Skylark Three'' was elongated) and for the FTL capital ships in the early part of the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' sequence. By the time of ''First Lensman'', however, the teardrop shape is becoming more prominent and the spheres are having trouble keeping up (literally). After the first space battle in that book, no more spheres are built and it's implied the ones which exist are phased out. By Kim Kinnison's era the ships are all teardrops.
76* ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'': Technically not a drop ship, but still an alien "spacecraft".
77* The derelict space craft from Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheTimeTraders'' series were giant spheres. In the second book, ''Literature/GalacticDerelict'', the heroes managed to find one intact.
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
81* Sontaran landing craft in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Almost all Sontaran spaceships are spherical, not just their drop ships.
82* M78 Space Garrison Commander Zoffy arrives in a bright red energy sphere as ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' [[spoiler:lies unconscious after Zetton damaged his Color Timer in the last episode.]] They both leave Earth soon after. This is a Callback to the first episode, as Ultraman himself was traveling in one of those when he accidentally collided with Hayata's ship.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Podcasts]]
86* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', the Bureau of Balance uses glass spheres with seats inside to travel from their base on the moon back to the surface of the planet below; they are shot out of the bottom of the moon via cannon and return by deploying a large balloon to float back up to the moon. What's remarkable about this is that ''Balance'' takes place in what is otherwise a standard fantasy universe, not Sci-Fi.
87[[/folder]]
88
89[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
90* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'''s Sphereoid-type dropships are the TropeNamer. Sphereoids have superior cargo capacity over conventional [[SpacePlane Aerodyne dropships]] and do not require any runways to land or takeoff. However, they have no lift surfaces, making them totally dependent on their fusion rockets for ascent, descent, and directional control; if they fail, the ship drops like a rock, destroying anything on board and anything within [[ColonyDrop several hundred meters]]. Not all models of dropship with this design paradigm are "spheroid" either, a more apt descriptor for some of them would be "ovoid".
91* The ''Broadsword'' class mercenary cruiser in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}''. While a starship in its own right that comes with two more conventionally rocket-shaped dropships it can also land on planets itself.
92* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Kroot are known to have space-capable "warspheres". Not only are they large even by the standards of a series that considers a MileLongShip "small", but they are in fact capable of ''landing'' on a planetary surface and taking off again, something that might surprise others considering the Kroot's LowCultureHighTech image. Naturally, they leave the area they land on a blasted wasteland in the wake of their thrust exhaust.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Video Games]]
96* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' features The Traveller, a ''Literature/{{Sphere}}''-like being that uplifted Humanity, which got mysteriously smacked down a few decades later after exploring the Solar System. The Traveller's [[BlueAndOrangeMorality motives are unknown]], though it seems generally helpful.
97* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The Didact's "combat" Cryptum in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''. It's not his main ship, though.
98* These are present in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'', ''VideoGame/MechAssault'', and ''Videogame/MechCommander'' game series and the 2018 ''VideoGame/BattleTech'' game by Harebrained Schemes, all of which are set in the ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'' universe. For the most part, they function as a StationaryBoss, with huge amounts of armor and high-powered weapons. In ''Mechwarrior Living Legends'', they are present in some custom maps as a base with built-in mech hangars and defensive turret arrays. ''Mechassault 1'' starts off with a ComingInHot landing by a sphereoid dropship after it was damaged by anti-air fire, causing it to smash into the ground and damage or destroy most of its [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]]. The ships' idiot technician cannibalizes parts from heavy battlemechs to repair a ''Cougar'' scout mech, much to the annoyance of the commander.
99* The Access Ark from ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' is the PlanetSpaceship-sized version of this trope, with five massive, spider-like legs that the central sphere uses to attach itself to other planets. It belongs to the [[MegaCorp Haltmann Works Company]], the invading force of PlanetLooters that Kirby must defeat. [[spoiler: This massive ship doesn't just serve as the Haltmann Works Company's headquarters. It's also the reactivated body of a '''[[DeusEstMachina Galactic Nova]]''', and it [[FusionDance fuses together]] with [[AIIsACrapshoot Star Dream]] to become the FinalBoss.]]
100* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' featured a few of these as escape pods, used both in the story for a quick getaway and in gameplay to take you to a different part of the level. They would not be featured again, however ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Into the Nexus]]'' would reveal that it was rather luxurious as it had a holo-screen, wet bar, games console and massaging seats. It would also explain why it disappeared: activating all the features at once would cause it to explode, forcing a recall.
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder:Real Life]]
104* The first crewed spaceship to reach space, the Soviet Vostok used a sphere-shaped capsule for reentry, because the capsule could not be steered while reentering and had to be protected from all sides. Subverted, as the capsule didn't actually land safely, the cosmonaut bailed out using an EjectorSeat and then parachuted down to earth.
105** The later iteration of the spacecraft, the two-man Voskhod played this trope more straight, with the crew staying in the capsule all the time. (Except spacewalks, that is.)
106[[/folder]]
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