When I was watching Serenity the other night, I was wondering why spaceships in the movies and on TV always have such a cold and unfriendly interior design. I’m not much of a Sci-Fi geek1, but I have been watching an awful lot of Sci-Fi lately. And I keep noticing the same thing: depressingly gray rooms made of metal and concrete, grills in the floors and zero comfort. How exactly does River Tam handle being barefoot in that thing all the time? And why do spaceships hardly ever have wooden floors, or carpets, or tapestries?

Though the Serenity, a Firefly, is 80% cold, uncomfortable steel as any other spaceship, it does at least have two comfortable zones: the kitchen and Inara’s shuttle. Both of those have the usual gray steel walls and floors, but at least they are nicely decorated! The kitchen has kitschy flower decorations on orange background on the walls and in the doorways. Those definitely give the place a little warmth, and I really wonder why they didn’t have something like that in every room or hall of the Serenity. And since it’s not only Sci-Fi but also Western, why don’t the spaceships look more like saloons?

Inara did a great job at decorating her shuttle: it looks nothing like a stereotypical spaceship anymore. It’s a cozy little den emanating love and -er- love. Every wall is hidden by thick curtains in friendly colors, there are carpets and rugs on the floor, and comfortable sofas in every corner. The lighting may be a little too atmospheric for my taste, but I’d certainly enjoy staying on a spaceship decorated that inviting!

The Battlestar Galactica on the other hand, is the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. If I had to live on that ship for a few months, I’d suffer from serious depressions. No wonder Colonel Tigh is an alcoholic and Admiral Adama is always so grumpy. There’s not a single room on the Galactica which looks inviting at all – even the sleeping quarters of all the officers are cold and gray, as they obviously didn’t put any effort into decorating them.

A few of the other ships in the Colonial Fleet under the command of the Galactica are a little less depressing – the Colonial One for example looks a little more inviting with it’s brighter interior. If I’m not mistaken, it even has carpet on the floors. I also vaguely remember a ship that had a park inside of it or something – lots of nice green plants! Spaceships definitely need more plants! And parks! And maybe even a zoo!

The Cylon Ships are slightly more modern in their design, but not necessarily inviting either. Some of the organic ones looked pretty cool, where all the walls and floors were made of flesh, blood and bone. But most of the others were just as uncomfortable as any given spaceship, with their lack of seating and their Knight Rider Vision-esque things on the walls.

The Event Horizon is probably a bad example, because if the Event Horizon weren’t cold and unfriendly, the movie would only be half as creepy. Contrary to most other spaceships, this is actually a good use of those steel and concrete walls and those grills in the floors, as they amplify the feeling of that shadow creeping up behind you. Add a little blood splatter here and there and you’ll be certain that you’re never gonna get outta there again.

The spaceships in Star Wars don’t look much different from the Event Horizon, though, as we all know, it’s definitely not Horror. There’s even not much of a distinction between Imperial Ships and Rebel Ships – all of them look very stereotypical with their gray interiors. The only exception is Bespin, the cloud city – though it’s technically not a ship. But I like those big windows they have there a lot. Spaceships definitely need more windows. I’m aware that it’s usually kinda dark in the universe, but a little bit of stargazing can’t hurt, can it?

The Tardis in Doctor Who (2005) is a big improvement over all the usual spaceships. It’s got a very organic look to it, emphasizing that a Tardis is “grown, not built”. The colors are friendly and warm, making it a much more cozy place to spend your life traveling in than most other spaceships. Unfortunately we’ve only seen the control room and the wardrobe so far, so we don’t know how other rooms in the Tardis look like (like the Doctor’s room, or his companion’s rooms). But the Tardis is not perfect either. Even the Tardis has those incomprehensible grills on the floor, and the entire control room doesn’t have a single comfortable looking chair or sofa or something (and don’t tell me that thing in there is supposed to be a chair).

Other ships in Doctor Who keep up the stereotype. Unlike the Tardis, most of them are just as gray as ships in any other Sci-Fi movie; steel walls, grilled floors, tiny dark rooms, icy atmosphere. But some of them are quite innovative though, for example the gigantic ship of the Sycorax from “The Christmas Invasion”. That thing doesn’t look anything like a spaceship, instead it’s one giant flying rock with huge caves inside. Kinda comfy too, in a primordial way. At least it’s got atmosphere.

The Heart of Gold in H²G², as my friend Jerry pointed out, is probably the only spaceship in the movies which is not stuck in the 70s. It’s interior design is very contemporary: friendly, bright colors, illuminated walls, comfortable rooms, not in any way depressing whatsoever. Now that’s a spaceship! Why aren’t there more spaceships like that out there?

Presumably the stereotype of gray metallic spaceships was born out of the horrible post-war architecture in the 50s-70s. Unfortunately we have a lot of that eye-offending architecture here in Germany because a lot of cities have been bombed to the ground in World War II. Instead of rebuilding the cities “old style”, the architects decided to feel ‘creative’ and built houses that looked like a mixture of a concrete brick and a dungheap fly. If you’ve ever been to Kassel, you know what I mean. I assume that stuff like that exists in the US too, and even if not, they must have had architects with the same ideas there, who then told the film producers that ‘disco’ would be cutting edge in the year 5000. It’s very unfortunate that so few film & TV producers take a more contemporary approach to spaceship interior design.

My perfect spaceship would have lots of wooden floors with rugs, illuminated white walls and ceilings, curtains in bright colors, plants everywhere, huge windows whereever they’re possible, pictures on the walls and cozy seating arrangements. Imagine a mixture of the Heart of Gold, Inara’s shuttle and a luxury cruise liner. What do you think?