# What movie / series is this ship from?



## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 21, 2021)

You can see a vfx shot using this ship in this documentary at 17:03:


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## Valtharius (Sep 22, 2021)

I swear I've seen that before, but I don't know where. I wanted to say Dune, but googling "Dune ship" doesn't yield anything like that.


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## Droflet (Sep 22, 2021)

Star Trek 3 TSFS???


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## paranoid marvin (Sep 22, 2021)

I'm assuming it's a low budget sci-fi movie or even made-for-tv film?


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## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 22, 2021)

paranoid marvin said:


> I'm assuming it's a low budget sci-fi movie or even made-for-tv film?



Judging by the footage in the documentary, I'd say so. The other footage in the documentary, other than from Star Wars and Tron was Roger Corman's *Android*. It doesn't appear to be from that, though.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 22, 2021)

I was guessing something from the first Battlestar Galactica.


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## Droflet (Sep 22, 2021)

Battle Beyond the Stars???


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## Vince W (Sep 22, 2021)

I'm thinking this might be something from The Ice Pirates.


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## M. Robert Gibson (Sep 22, 2021)

I've just trawled the comments on the youtube page and one mentions the film Android (1982), but I can't find any stills to confirm


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## Phyrebrat (Sep 22, 2021)

Well, clearly, it's _Ewoks, Caravan of Courage_. 

How can you not know this ...


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## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 22, 2021)

Phyrebrat said:


> Well, clearly, it's _Ewoks, Caravan of Courage_.
> 
> How can you not know this ...



You're not gonna make me actually watch it to only found out you're joking are you?


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## Phyrebrat (Sep 22, 2021)

Mon0Zer0 said:


> You're not gonna make me actually watch it to only found out you're joking are you?



Okay, okay, I couldn't be that wicked, I'll cave in and tell you I was joking.


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## Danny McG (Sep 22, 2021)

Phyrebrat said:


> Well, clearly, it's _Ewoks, Caravan of Courage_.
> 
> How can you not know this ...


A much maligned classic


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## Parson (Sep 22, 2021)

The frustrating thing is that it looks so familiar, and yet the number of S.F. I've watched is pretty small. Only a few outside of the classics.


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## AnRoinnUltra (Sep 22, 2021)

It's killing me too, I've seen it before ...a long time ago, something like Terrahawks (though that's not it, and it might be just that it's from the same era) -anyhow, great question, one for the pub quiz world championships


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## Droflet (Sep 23, 2021)

Another clue, perhaps???


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## Valtharius (Sep 23, 2021)

I think @Mon0Zer0 was asking us genuinely.


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## Droflet (Sep 23, 2021)

Valtharius said:


> I think @Mon0Zer0 was asking us genuinely.



Hmm, interesting. Is that the case, Mono? Don't you know the answer?


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## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 23, 2021)

Droflet said:


> Hmm, interesting. Is that the case, Mono? Don't you know the answer?



Yeah I'd genuinely like to know!


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## Toby Frost (Sep 23, 2021)

Stylistically, I'd say it was from the 70s or early 80s. It looks slightly like the ship that transports the assassins to kill Sean Connery in *Outland*, but there wasn't a shot of that ship flying like that. I wonder if the same model was used in two films?

By the way, I googled "Android 1982 spaceship" and got this:





EDIT: Ah, I was wrong about this. The Outland shuttle looks like this:





However, they do seem very similar in style. Ron Cobb did a lot of design for Alien's Nostromo, and Philip Harrison and Martin Bower were on the production design of Outland. Would it help to search them?

ANOTHER EDIT: I tried Google image search and was told that the original spaceship was visually similar to a cardboard box. Now that's just cold. On the other hand, I discovered that Ron Cobb was a good political cartoonist of radical persuasion, and that Martin Bower made this:


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## Dave (Sep 23, 2021)

My first thought was Red Dwarf, but it isn't. It's far too small. Those hanger exits along the side do look a lot like the Battlestar Viper launch pads. But it isn't that either. I expect it is something very niche indeed. If it was a kids programme then maybe something like Star Fleet (X Bomber in Japan, the one Brian May is into, not Star Trek) or Terrahawks. However, searching images of those online only brings up fighter craft images.


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## HareBrain (Sep 23, 2021)

Mon0Zer0 said:


> You can see a vfx shot using this ship in this documentary at 17:03:


There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.

@Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?


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## Toby Frost (Sep 23, 2021)

I had a try to find Midland Production Company, but failed to get any decent info. I don't recognise the film, but maybe one of the lower-tier post-Star Wars films has something like that. I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do? That would seem a bit elaborate, though.

(Thanks to this thread, I now want to see _The Ice Pirates_, which is probably not a great idea.)


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## HareBrain (Sep 23, 2021)

Toby Frost said:


> I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do?


Yeah, I wondered if maybe it was a demo. It seemed strange that other film titles were given in the video but not that one.


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## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 23, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.
> 
> @Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?



It was posted on the starship modeller group on facebook. One of the guys there has been tasked with repairing it and the owner doesn't seem to know anything about it, other than it was in the documentary attached.


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## Mon0Zer0 (Sep 23, 2021)

Toby Frost said:


> Stylistically, I'd say it was from the 70s or early 80s. It looks slightly like the ship that transports the assassins to kill Sean Connery in *Outland*, but there wasn't a shot of that ship flying like that. I wonder if the same model was used in two films?
> 
> By the way, I googled "Android 1982 spaceship" and got this:
> 
> ...



I think Martin Brower was mentioned in the original thread.



Toby Frost said:


> (Thanks to this thread, I now want to see _The Ice Pirates_, which is probably not a great idea.)



 Red Letter Media did a rewatch of that recently - it was Rich Evans' favourite movie as a kid, apparently!


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## Dave (Sep 23, 2021)

The company is "Midland Production Corporation" rather than "Company" and has been around since 1961, though I couldn't find a Californian office for it. In 1994, it was in arbitration together with "Robots of Mars, Inc." v "Ridefilm Corporation" and "IMAX Corporation" over two film projects commonly known as "Fun House Express" and "Crashendo".

Fun House Express is a short (4 minutes) released in 1995 by Imax and Midland. Director: Yas Takata Writer: John Groves

Crashendo is another short (4 minutes) released in 1996 by Imax and Midland. Director: Yas Takata Writer: David Crane
It starred Matthew Troncone as Alfred.

From the imdb page for Midland: With Midland Productions (Sorted by Popularity Ascending) - IMDb

The film that they made in 1983 is "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" (John Carpenter said it was an influence for Big Trouble in Little China.)

I thought I had found it, but that doesn't appear to involve any spacecraft. (I now need to get back to what I really wanted to do today!)


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## Vince W (Sep 23, 2021)

Toby Frost said:


> I had a try to find Midland Production Company, but failed to get any decent info. I don't recognise the film, but maybe one of the lower-tier post-Star Wars films has something like that. I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do? That would seem a bit elaborate, though.
> 
> (Thanks to this thread, I now want to see _The Ice Pirates_, which is probably not a great idea.)


It is not.


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## paranoid marvin (Sep 23, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.
> 
> @Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?




Yes, it mentions the ship crashing into a  space colony base in a crater on the planet. That's a pretty specific scenario and should narrow the search down quite dramatically.

I'm now thinking that it's a demo model and a demo film showing what can be achieved. It's a highly detailed model, but if you're going to sell yourself you want to showcase your talents.


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## HareBrain (Nov 7, 2021)

Any news? I NEED CLOSURE DAMMIT.


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## JunkMonkey (Nov 7, 2021)

I can't see the original images.


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## AnRoinnUltra (Nov 7, 2021)

Hope you can see that @JunkMonkey , and best of luck finding where it landed from or went to -tis a mystery worthy of Columbo himself.


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## JunkMonkey (Nov 7, 2021)

I see now thanks.


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## AE35Unit (Nov 8, 2021)

Enemy Mine?


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## paranoid marvin (Nov 8, 2021)

The thing to remember here is that the look of the ship is unimportant, as in a movie (with all the special effects) it could look different.

The video tells us that it's a spaceship that crashes into a colony base that's in a crater on a planet. There can't be too many movies where that happens?

If it wasn't for the fact that the company is based in America, I would have been thinking of a low budget tv scifi show along the lines of Doctor Who or Blakes 7, but (as I mentioned above) I would be surprised if this wasn't just a demo for prospective clients.


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