Top Five Sci-Fi Destroyers 

Yay! Stargate! Carter: "The Asgard named a new ship after you." O'Neill: "Oh?!" Carter: "We had to destroy it though." O'Neill: "Oh..."

UNSC halo ships have still the best naming conventions - as they just go completely nuts with their names "UNSC Tokyo Rules" :D

Fun fact: The Halberd class destroyer was initially created by fans for a Sins of A Solar Empire mod called “Sins of the Prophets”. In fact 343 Studios commandeered a lot of the ship designs from that mod.

Oneill Class is a battleship. No doubt about it.

The Recusant has to be my favorite CIS ship. It's so unique-looking it's like a flagship of some sort.

I would have classed the O'Neil as a cruiser despite it being called a destroyer. It seems like a replacement ship of the line for the Asgard and is used as such throughout the show, acting independently from larger fleets or as a frontline ship during larger battles. the weapons themselves are OP and geared towards massive damage output and sustained combat rather than anything specialized.

Some notes on the Terminus-class: 1. Regarding the hangar, you're right. The Terminus' interior models in various parts of the game are completely inconsistent with the ships' exterior layouts. The same can be said for the Harrower-class. In both cases, the ships' layouts are positioned entirely behind the bridge, when the exterior features are all positioned in front of the bridge. 2. The Terminus-class destroyer does not feature two "wings" on top of the ship, those are Long Range Sensor Towers. 3. The turbolasers on the fore of the Terminus are not fixed, although their firing arcs should probably be more limited than they are in SWTOR itself where they habitually clip through the ship.

I hope it is frigates next

Daniel, are you familiar with the Honor Harrington books by David Weber? Weber goes into great detail about ship classification in his universe and while you might not agree with him entirely (he uses Dreadnought and Super Dreadnaught as specific classes, distinct from and larger than Battleships) I think you would find it interesting if you haven't read it yet.

Why is the O'neill class in this video? I always heard it called a mothership, never a destroyer. And the Warlock is a battleship, the "Advanced Destroyer" classification was basically politics.

Destroy-‘er? I hardly even knew ‘er!

Thank you for putting the spotlight on the Halberd and Warlock, such pretty ships. Although, my favorite Sci-fi destroyer is the Roland-Class from David Weber's Honorverse. I love a ship where the backstory of the design is that the Admiralty will not let you build a new modern class of Light Cruiser so in the mean time... Here is a destroyer that is slightly bigger and better armed than most navies light cruisers...

'They protect, They attack'! But mostly they Destroy! HALO - Halberd Class looks smexy AF.

I actually ran some of the numbers on the Halberd Class Destroyer to see how fast it is and it's engine output, and really it's crazy slow with an acceleration comically low at just a tiny bit higher than than 3.5mm/s^2 (after about 10 minutes it could make it all the way up to reaching the speed of a very slow jog) and just because they have a mass listed for the class I decided to plug that into the calculation to get he engine performance at just a tad under 6.33 mN of thrust (which is roughly equal to the power of 33 F-35s pushing a mass over 80,000 times larger than the F-35). This is a particularly good example of the effects of Sci-fi writers having no sense of scale.

Can we get a Top 5 'Hero Ships', things like the millennium Falcon, Normandy,Rosanante etc. Cool ships that get the heroes around space.

The halberd is always an awesome design. Its hard to say exactly what makes it so cool. I also always tend to like ships designed around fixed cannons. Not on a massive super weapon scale, but cruiser or smaller sized.

"It would have been very easy for them to design some hideous ship with lots of yellow bits sticking out of it to visually communicate its Vorlon/Membari heritage" *cough* *Cough* the hideous Omega-X shadow hybrids.

Battlecruiser next please, a lot of stargate fans want to see the 304s!

First, you say that you are restricting this list to proper destroyers, (not Star Destroyer-type ships) then you include the O'Neill and Warlock classes. Both vessels were mainline warships, used as battleships. The O'Neill was to replace the aging Beliskner class, which was the Asgard's most powerful ship. The Warlock was very similar, replacing the Omega class, also improperly named a destroyer. The other entries on this list are perfectly acceptable, and I fully agree about the Halberd class and Terminus class destroyers. Those ships really deserve more love than they get.

The Warlock isn’t a destroyer though, it’s a battleship/carrier just like the Omega

Great list! Love all of those ships. You make me want to go replay Old Republic. :)

Red vs Blue, Season 10 had a Halberd class Destroyer show up, emerging from a junk yard, and it is just so bloody cool. The lines on it are SO slick.

Great top 5 Daniel, thank you!

By you naming the Warlock class as part of this list. You broke your own rule. It is still a fighter carrier hybrid. Not only that but the ship is massive! It's almost 2000m long. Destroyers are supposed to screen for the larger ships. But the Warlock is larger than the Omegas.

Not the biggest fan of the Terminus class design, but it's a solid ship. Would have moved it to fifth place and moved the list up accordingly.

Homeworld RTS destroyer is pretty cool, especially the Vaygr destroyer IMHO.

Spacedock will you do a video on your favorite non-combat ships? You were right on point about BSG’s Demetrius in that video, and there’s an abundance of cargo ships and unconventional designs that don’t often get enough deserved recognition. As always, you do fantastic work and I look forward to seeing what you do next!

I just got to season 3 of SG-1 for the first time. Looking forward to it!

The Recusant Class Light Destroyer is my favorite Star Wars ship. With how small and skeletal it is it still carries 240 Starfighters and a whopping 102 combined Laser & point defense canons. Couldn’t be a better anti-starfighter ship.

From textual medium, there are the Roland-class destroyers from the Honor Harrington series. These things are bigger than some of the earlier light cruisers and also pack more of a punch: 4 grasers (gamma-ray lasers), 10 lasers, 12 missile launchers, 20 countermissile tubes, 30 point-defense lasers. It's also the smallest ship in the setting to ever carry the Mark 16 dual-drive missiles, giving it incredible engagement range over any other destroyer.

top job mate

Another space dock video, heck yeah

I know, I'm a Homeworld fanboy, but I love the naval but still function look of the Hiigaran Destroyer from Homeworld 2. There's just something about those big turrets turning into position to blast away an enemy frigate or resource operation that I love.

Spacedock's sci-fi ship breakdowns are the best but it makes me wish there were videos like his about real life naval ships and military aircraft.

The O'Neil and Warlock are battleships in all but name.

I thought you said you were going to eliminate battleships that were called destroyers? No Star Destroyers is what you said specifically, and if so, why the hell are you including EAS Warlock which is the Star Destroyer of the B5 universe?

In my opinion a destroyer is a ship, relatively small when compared to other ships in that universe, that uses pack tactics combined with its speed and maneuverability to take out much larger prey. It shouldn't be capable of standing on the line. A Hero ship like the O'Neill throws the classification out the window and the Warlock seems more like a pocket assault carrier than a destroyer as well.

I was all prepared to complain a out you not mentioning the Warlock, and then - bang - you did! I punched the sky. According to JMS, the Warlock was actually designed and built by the EArthforce prior to the conclusion of the series (evidently pre-civil war, when Clarke continued development of it) but hadn't entered service yet by the time of the formation of the ISA. Once the ISA happened, Minbari gravity tech was hurriedly retrofitted into the Warlock, but it was designed for zero G. Also, afaik, there was no Vorlon tech in the ships though evidently some shadowtech had been very surreptitiously worked in during the construction phase, which would have allowed the drakh to simply take them over. This is all from JMS's own short stories, so it's canon.

Good stuff

Hey, the Recusant also showed up in Republic Commando

The Hiigaran Destroyer from Homeworld 2 - I hoped it would be on the list. I like it's compact form and the fact that it orientates sideways when engaging.

Fun fact about the Warlock. While it is the first EarthForce ship with artificial gravity, it's not used the same way as some of the more advanced races like the Minbari or the Vree. It's more like the Centauri way of lowering the ship's effective mass and then propelling it using conventional engines. The Minbari and the Vree have developed gravitic engines that allow them to move effortlessly through space (Vree saucers even spin while moving).

Says he's not gonna use things like Star Destroyers because they fit into a battleship/carrier role, then uses the Warlock-class which similarly fits into the battleship/carrier role

Warlock design deserves so much of our love! it has not aged a bit. I could see UNSC Infinity guarded by a squadron of Warlocks, hot damn.

Wow, those ships were amazing!

One Halberd class destroyer appears in Red vs Blue.. the Warlock class btw doesnt have Minbari or Vorlon tech... it got minbari tech in the form of gravitic engines and inertial dumpers and gravity.. but the armour was EA's own..so was the weapons.. they did had shadow tech but aparently it was software related.. There is one JMS short history called "Hidden Agendas" wich is canon and deals with Ivanova's ship, the EAS Titans, one of the very first Warlock destroyers and her shadow tech...

Some other destrpyer designs I like: the Yukikaze from Space Battleship Yamato and the destroyers from Homeworld games series

Just a quick correction about the Halberd-class. The Halberd is not exactly a glass cannon as it is more heavily armored than its frigate counterparts

I'd kind of like to see the 40k cobra mentioned here. It's fast and armed with anticapital torpedos- proper traditional real life navy destroyer design aimed at destroying cruisers and battleships and getting back to friendly waters fast. It being 1500m long shouldn't exclude it because with every other ship mentioned it's come down to use. I do think the cobra's more "destroyer" than the star wars and b5 ships, which seem to double up as light carriers :) Doesn't matter, I enjoyed the vid anyway :)

The Sith Empire ships are my favorite and I would love to see a redone overview of their fleet.

The destroyer is my favorite type of warship. My dad spent most of his naval career on destroyers and the Arleigh Burke class is the workhorse of the modern US Navy. As for my favorite scifi version, I don't know but leaning towards the Halo designs.

The Warlock Class had a nanotech armor plating reverse engeneered from shadow tech, that regenerates using extra power output from the 2 advanced fusion reactors. Was a behemoth that pretty much could go toe to toe except maybe the Vorlon Dreadnaught. *There is no Canon.Theres Only Legends.*

@Spacedock If you like the Halberd class destroyer from Halo, id Suggest watching season 10 of Red vs Blue, they have a good little brawl with one and its casted beautifully, with a spectacular introduction.

Viking helmets didn't actually have horns. It's a modern revision that there is no historical evidence for.

Next series: Top 5 Underrepresented Ships of [ _Insert Franchise_ ]

Terminus class also had crazy good armer and shelds that's why Mar had it as his flagship.

Recusant is my favourite CIS ship. Looks so menacing and dangerous

I really hope we get to see the Halberd more, or a next-generation destroyer with a similar shape. That design is beautiful.

My favorite destroyer design is the Vaygr Destoyer from Homeworld 2 -> awesome ship!

Yeah new video literally wait everyday for these videos

The Fury Interceptor is also a SWTOR only ship, but I LOVE its design and it's my favourite Star Wars ship hands down. Maybe someday, some of these designs can make their way into the new canon, but for now at least I can still play SWTOR.

It's from a book series and generally fairly unsexy looking, but I'd still like to nominate the Roland class from the Honorverse. These things can utterly stomp cruisers and even occasional capital ships of other navies thanks to being extremely agile and equipped with long-ranged and extremely hard-hitting missiles. They win every engagement they're ever seen in (aside from one point-blank ambush on ships in parking orbit) without taking any return fire at all, just merrily zooming around and knocking enemy ships out from a safe distance.

Also, have you ever played Nexus: Jupiter Incident? They have great ships for both hard- and soft-scifi.

Agreed with the Warlock class Advanced Destroyer also my favourite EA ship. Was also designed to have Shadow bio organic armour

My attempt: 5. Gallente Algos class destroyer/drone carrier (EVE Online) A cool little ship, it looks futuristic (although the windows look like a WW2 bomber), the launch bays are looking good and the fuel tanks on the sides provide nice extra detail, my only issue with the design are the engines being off the center off mass (typical problem of sci-fi ship designs). 4. MCRN Morrigan class (The Expanse) The healthy dose of Expanse's realism packed in MCRN color scheme, I don't think I have to say anything else here. 3. Kushan Revelation class destroyer (Homeworld) Liked this ship since my first one came out of Motherships production facility. Revelation is simple design combining a cool looking spaceship with a bit of WW2 stylization. From gameplay perspective, it is well armed and can take some punishment (I took the mission with Taiidan launching an asteroid on the mothership as my failiure, when half of my Revelations went down in swarm of Taiidan ships, it was the first time I lost them). 2. Taiidan Skaal-Tel class destroyer (Homeworld) OK, I'm not exactly sure why I like this ship so much (it was hard to decide, whether it should be first, or second). Possibly it's because of it's unusual shapes and somewhat futuristic look. It is a great example of how ship designs in HW1 were better than in HW2 (not that they would be bad, they just don't suceed in being distinctive most of the time and they're missing class names). If you say Homeworld, there's a good chance that the first thing that came into my mind was Skaal-Tel. 1. Garmillas Kripitera class astro destroyer (Space battleship Yamato 2199) A beautiful combination of a spaceship, alien organic shapes and WW2 stylization. This ship has it's super-cool appearence of an agressive predator I can't get enough of and looks apropriate for an expandable ship designed to operate in large numbers. From tactical standpoit, this ship could be your enemie's worst nightmare, if serving under the right commander, being able to vaporize entire battlegroups of cruisers with a single barrage of fusion torpedoes, while using it's powerful RCS thrusters to dodge enemy fire (too bad, that well over 95% of garmillas commanders are total idiots and Kripiteras end up being a cannon fodder most of the time 😢). Flaws? Aside from replacing bad commanders, this ship could really use some bloody PDCs for extra defense and computer guidence for all beam weaponary (Or you know what? Automate it completely to save lives of soldiers and just give it commands from your flagship, Garmillas have advanced enough AI to pilot ships), other than that, I wouldn't really change anything about this little beauty.

The Halberd class does show up in season 10 of Red Vs Blue as the 'Staff Of Charon', not strictly halo but heavily based on it.

Can you do a top 5 battleships and straights list. Also could you give us too 5 bombers, interceptors, freighters, and top 10 fighters and hero ships. Love the video...

tbh i've never had a problem with the name Star Destroyer until this channel pointed it out. Always thought of it more as a destroyer of stars type deal not the ship class

Holding out for the Blakes 7 Liberator in the hopeful battlecruiser video.

Would love to see more Homeworld ships on this channel. I think the Kushan Destroyer would be able to make this list

I think the Staff of Charon from Red vs Blue is a Halberd Class, so we get to see it in action (sort of) in visual media even if not in the main Halo universe.

I want the term "refit" to become a new norm for Spacedock. Instead of reuploads or 2.0 versions of topics, just call them refits.

So glad that the O'Neill Class and Halberd made it on the list.

This comment will likely go unnoticed, but have you ever considered doing a series analyzing the weapins and equipment used in Sci-fi? You could call it something like "Spacedock Quartermaster" or "Spacedock Armory". I think it would complement the others very well, particularly Planetside. Just an idea, keep doing what you're doing regardless of whether or not you see this, let alone entertain the idea.

if you had not mentioned that the star destroyer was realy a battleship carrier hybrid so did not qualify I would have had no problem with this list, unfortunately you did so this may be a silly question but how does a ship that at the time of its creation was the most powerfull and durable ship in service with any known faction qualify as a destroyer? The O'Neill was a battleship, designed to beat the replicators, the only ships which would have stood a chance against it 1 on 1 were a Wraith Hive Ship, Ori battleship, BC304 with all the upgrades and an Atlantis class city ship. With regards to the Warlock, that is a battleship carrier hybrid the same as a Battlestar, Star Destroyer or Mon Calamari Crusier, it was supposed to be more powerful than anything else in service with the younger races at the time it was launched. as with a Star Destroyer calling it a destroyer does not make it so.

Speaking of SWTOR The Eternal Empire, you should do a short piece on the Eternal Empire Flagship that you showed near the end of this video. I know there probably isn't much in the way of details on it yet but any info you can dig up would be interesting. Plus it is a very nice looking ship, and it's how I imagine a more human ran Eternal Empire fleet would look if they had constructed their warships themselves and not gotten access to the mainly automated Eternal Fleet.

While it's typed as a frigate, and its class is called corvette the type of the Rocinante in the Expanse could be looked on as a highly effective light destroyer. It has excellent point defense from its six Gatling cannons which can also rip into enemy ships in CBQ, but what makes me want to look on it as a destroyer is the main armament consisting of an excellent package of missiles to include nukes. The lack of rail-guns (the main form of mid to long range gunnery in the Expanse) is something of a weakness, but probably a necessary trade-off to keep the size limited in keeping with its role which to me very much suggests destroyer. All that plus an excellent sensor package and extremely maneuverable allowing it to punch way above its weight when commanded well and very able to sustain a crew for long patrols. A great ship no matter how we class it.

The halberd class is shown in the red vs blue series around season 6 and so on. More specifically the Staff of Charon.

The Warlock was designed to match the Minbari Sharlin. It is clearly a battle/warcruiser

The halberg looks really nice and a more military looking ship than the others.

Hey, just wondering, would you consider examining ships from the Starcraft games?

The Recusant. Wow. Saw it in Revenge of the Sith. I was really intrigued.

Alantis/city ship should have been on here but I'm happy they put the O'Neill

The nebula class from the old Star Wars expanded universe is one of my personal favorites.

The Terminus looks like it inspired the Federal Corvette from Elite Dangerous.

the warlock :D nice thats on the list. big B5 fan and i love the warlock, and it was such a shame we bearly got to see it. i think it would have seen more screen time if crusade had continued

You are the first and to date only person I have ever heard say anything nice about the _Terminus_-class. I surely respect your opinion but, like. That's noteworthy.

Ooooh, the terminus. Nice.

The halberd class shows up in red vs blue a good few times

nice you mentiones the halberd :)

I don't think you can consider the Warlock as an actual destroyer, it's the successor to the Omega, which- while not a battleship per se, should not be considered a destroyer- it's possible to have gotten the info from a game, or something or someone, but still- I wouldn't call the Warlock a destroyer.

I'd really like to see a video on colony ships or seed ships. Basically ships designed to support massive civilian populations for extended periods of time, sometimes even for many generations, while they go in search of habitable planets for one reason or another. My personal favorite in that category would have to be the Sidonia, from the manga and anime Knights of Sidonia. Forged straight through an asteroid and designed entirely for functionality over form, with planetary-scale artillery and mecha fighter support called Gardes. The scenes in the anime depicting the emergency acceleration maneuvers in order to alter its trajectory are particularly harrowing, with the internal view it gives the the viewers of the insane gravitational effects it has on the civilian column.

The Warlock always reminded me of the Taiidan Qwar-Jet heavy cruiser from homeworld.

i find myself with problems to consider what ship classes has to acomplish. what is the difference between a destroyer and a frigate? shows like star wars and BSG crippled this topic for me a bit, because we encounter "multi-role" starships like the venator class or jupiter class battlestar (wich both are cruiser/carriers right?)

Sins of a solar empire rebellion has a halo mod and the Halberd class is a great fleet support ship. No covy ship could stand up to a dozen of those wicked little ships

I have multiples halberds thanks to my buying into the halo fleet battles game, it plays more focusing on macs(ie boosting formations Mac dice) great wee model and I painted mine black because it should be dark

Kind of weird you exclude the Imperial Star Destroyer for being a battleship/carrier but include the Warlock which is also a battleship/carrier

@Spacedock Do u have a Top 5 Video SciFi Long Range Explorer Ships with the Intrepid Class USS Voyager

I love the Imperial Raider which definitely fits the destroyer role.

9:55 not sure if it was thrown in on accident, but the ship that shows up here isn't a Terminus-class destroyer, but Arcann's flagship.