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Original - 04 - HD
🕑 Added 2022-04-30 07:41:03 +0000 UTCSerious business!
Commentary
I never really gave that much thought to the difference between a starship and a spaceship before, and this strip gave a unique opportunity for me to look into that.
I essentially wanted to reference engineers on Star Trek in the last panel without making it a direct Star Trek reference, and I wasn't sure how to do that. After trying "spaceship", it occurred to me that that's not what the ships are called in Trek, and many other things. They're called starships. Why is that?
It's because starships travel between solar systems, hence the "star" part. Unless there've been some advances in recent years that I wasn't aware of, that's pretty sci-fi by default, so hooray! Tedd says starship.
Comments
ijuinkun
A starship has interstellar capability. A spaceship does not.
Alex
Why is a it Shipment in a car and Cargo in a Ship?
Daryl Sawyer
Is this a glimpse into Dan's writing process? :p
Cat Tillinghast
Interesting! Probably because prior to Einstein, the concept of "space" outside of our atmosphere didn't really exist in popular imagination: it was all aether theory and phologistan. The *stars* existed, though, and it was imagined we could travel between them, but just *how* varied greatly between fiction authors... from mental projection to "aether wings" to star-ships.
wargrunt42
A starship is where you build a Dyson Sphere around a star and start driving the entire solar system around the galaxy. A spaceship is what Malcolm Reynolds and Hon Solo use to zip around outer space.
Matt R
When it comes to shipping, she must be a genius
Narzain
I think the old pulps and serials just called them "rockets."
Brooks Moses
Wikipedia's article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship) says the term is far older than either, going back to at least 1882, but also notes that "The most prominent cultural use and one of the earliest common uses of the term starship was in Star Trek: The Original Series." I think "rocket ship" may actually be newer, at least in the sense of "ship propelled by rockets" as opposed to "ocean-going vessel that carries rockets as armament". I couldn't find any definitive sources, but I did find a claim of 1927 for the first use.
Thisguy
“Spaceship” is more a generic ‘out of universe’ term, which these days has been somewhat superseded by ‘starship’. It’s not quite as old timey as “rocket ship” but getting there. I wonder who first coined the phrase “starship”? I know it’s used in both Star Trek and Wars? Either way, I don’t think it’s specific to any franchise at this point.
Astariel
Ashley is just the best.
