History Main / SpheroidDropship

* 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, stranding the colonists on a DeathWorld that they eventually [[HadToBeSharp adapt to]].

* In the Disney/Pixar movie ''Film/Lightyear'' (based off the franchise-within-a-franchise Buzz Lightyear universe inside the Toy Story universe), "The Turnip", as Buzz nicknamed it, is an intergalactic [[FasterThanLightTravel starship]] full of colonists in hypersleep. Its PowerCrystal is damaged, stranding the colonists on a DeathWorld that they eventually [[HadToBeSharp adapt to]].

* In the trailer for WesternAnimation/{{Lightyear}}, a huge Spheroid Dropship can be seen in the humans' colony perimeter. It's got thrusters on its sides and a tall antenna poking out at the top.

* The Kroot of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are known to have space-capable "warspheres". Not only are they large [[UpToEleven 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.

* In the trailer for WesternAnimation/Lightyear, a huge Spheroid Dropship can be seen in the humans' colony perimeter. It's got thrusters on its sides and a tall antenna poking out at the top.

* The alien "Gods" in ''Film/PumaMan'' is also a round sphere.

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' has [[strike: [[IncrediblyLamePun a ball]]]] tons of fun with this trope.

* The [[http://hollywoodjesus.com/movie/et/34.jpg alien spaceship]] in ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''.
* The classic [[http://davidszondy.com/future/space/aries.htm Aries trans-orbital shuttle]] that takes Heywood Floyd from Station V to the Moon in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' fits this to a T.

* ''Literature/AWindNamedAmnesia'' features an especially huge one.

* The second [[WesternAnimation/KatyLaOruga Katy Caterpillar]] movie, ''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.

* The alien "Gods" in ''Film/PumaMan'' is also a round sphere.

* TheRemake of ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008'' has a spheroid energy vessel of some sort, instead of the classic FlyingSaucer that landed on the Mall in the original.
* Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy movie has [[strike: [[IncrediblyLamePun a ball]]]] tons of fun with this trope.
* 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.

* 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.
* 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.

* Creator/EEDocSmith favoured this shape in the ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries Skylark]]'' 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.
* Peter F. Hamilton's famous ''[[Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy Night's Dawn]]'' trilogy 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.

* In the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series by Creator/LarryNiven, 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.
* 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.
* While not strictly speaking spheres, in the ''Literature/PosleenWarSeries'' by Creator/JohnRingo, the centauroid Posleen utilize Command Dodecahedron (C-Dec) and Battle Dodecahedron (B-Dec) spaceships that have landing capacity as their primary invasion platforms.
* ''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.

* Sontaran landing craft in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Almost all Sontaran spaceships are spherical, not just their drop ships.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The Didact's "combat" Cryptum in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''. It's not his main ship, though.
* ''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.

# Single-stage, surface-to-space capability. SufficientlyAdvancedAliens usually equip such vessels with interstellar capability, while more primitive variants may only be capable of going between the planet and an orbiting MotherShip.

** 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 are NotSoDifferent from us.

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'': TheMovie deals with an AlienInvasion that uses this sort of space ship.

* While not strictly speaking spheres, in the ''Literature/PosleenWar'' series by Creator/JohnRingo, the centauroid Posleen utilize Command Dodecahedron (C-Dec) and Battle Dodecahedron (B-Dec) spaceships that have landing capacity as their primary invasion platforms.

* These are present in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'', ''VideoGame/MechAssault'', and ''Videogame/MechCommander'' game series, which are based on ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech''. 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.

* ''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 ''[[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.

* The Kroot of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are known to have space-capable "warspheres".

* Bungie's new game ''Videogame/{{Destiny}}'' features The Traveller, a ''Film/{{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.

* The derelict space craft from Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheTimeTraders'' series were giant spheres. In the second book, ''Galactic Derelict'', the heroes managed to find one intact.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Frieza's Saiyan Pods are of the sufficiently advanced variety. There's also the larger ones adapted from that technology.

* The second WesternAnimationKatyCaterpillar movie, ''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.

* The second KatyCaterpillar movie, ''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.

* These are present in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'', ''VideoGame/MechAssault'', and ''Videogame/MechCommander'' game series, which are based on ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech''. For the most part, they function as a StationaryBoss, with huge amounts of armor and high-powered weapons. ''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.