Best Sci-Fi Ghost Ship?

[Scout101]

Discovery, without a doubt.

Just don't see this one. It's EMPTY, certainly, but no ghosts. Also, we don't even get to enjoy the mystery part of it, because we already know what happened to the crew, having seen the previous movie. Doesn't have that edge, because of that. It's not a ghost ship, just an empty ship with a lunatic computer...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And HAL wasn't, technically, a lunatic.

 

[Silvercrest]

I vote for Cygnus, and for Jack Klugman's "Death Ship" in the Twilight Zone episode of the same name.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Regarding Discovery, Bowman DID show up aboard her in 2010, both as wierd versions of himself and as a disembodied voice. Kinda ghostly. And HAL may not have been a lunatic, but he WAS caught in a logical impasse which caused him to kill 80% of the crew, so...

I agree that it wasn't really a GHOST ship in my mind, and never really looked the part (orangey rust aside). It was an abandoned ship, and IMO not much more aside from alien-ish intervention.

Mark

 

[Scout101]

just no 'scary mystery' element there, as we got to watch 2001 first, so know exactly what happened. Sure, the characters aren't 100% sure, but there's no 'sppoky' factor to the audience...

 

[Greg Cox]

I vote for Cygnus, and for Jack Klugman's "Death Ship" in the Twilight Zone episode of the same name.

There's actually talk of remaking "Death Ship" as a feature film. Nothing definite yet . . . .

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I agree that it wasn't really a GHOST ship in my mind, and never really looked the part (orangey rust aside).

The "rust" on Discovery was actually meant to be sulphur deposited from Io's plasma torus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(moon)#Interaction_with_Jupiter.27s_magnetosphere

 

[Silvercrest]

How about the Flying Dutchman? It showed up in the original Land of the Lost once, so there's a sci-fi connection, sort of....

 

[MANT!]

Nightflyers. (1987) had a really creepy ghost ship as the setting..

http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/nightflyers.html

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM0fxTftG3M[/yt]

it's cheesy in the second half..

 

[Reverend]

just no 'scary mystery' element there, as we got to watch 2001 first, so know exactly what happened. Sure, the characters aren't 100% sure, but there's no 'sppoky' factor to the audience...

It came close to a ghost ship in that one scene where the Russian bloke smelled rotten meat and freaked out, but that was it really. The derelict in Alien wasn't really a ghost ship either, just a crashed hulk with a very nasty cargo.

Event Horizon is probably the best I suppose, though it's been ages since I've seen it but as I recall, Sam Neill's "attempted scream" rather spoilt the creepy mood. I know it's not a kind thing to say but I couldn't help giggle a bit when he did that.

The only other sci-fi ghost ship that I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Liandra on 'B5: Legend of the Rangers', but that part of the plot never made much sense.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, there was also the Demeter in the "Space Vampire" episode of BUCK ROGERS. Not sure I'd call that one the "best," though.