There are a couple of lists of the top 10 spaceships ever. Not very good lists.
Here is mine (in no particular order) – but there is no question about it books need to be included too.
Discovery One (2001: A Space Odyssey) – Nothing much needs to be said. The discovery sets the benchmark.
Valley Forge (Silent Running) – A wonderful mechano monster – space flight as heavy engineering. The Joan Baez soundtrack is awesome.
Sulaco (Aliens) – The giant prawn is great look for a spaceship and has been copied many many times. Pretty Cool.
Warlock Class Destroyer (Babylon 5) – Also into the giant prawn look – there is certainly a degree of homage to the Sulaco – we used to get wasted and watch Babylon 5 at university.
Cygnus (The Black Hole) – I still think this is one of the scariest films (don’t laugh) ever made – I saw it one Christmas when I was about five. A wonderful gothic nightmare of a spaceship.
Nostalgia for Infinity (Revelation Space) – The gothic spaceship against which all others must be judged.
Lady Macbeth (The Reality Dysfunction) – It probably doesn’t look very exciting but who can tell. No pictures I’m afraid.
Harkonen Flagship (Dune) – From the much (and unfairly) maligned David Lynch film Dune – based on the Frank Herberts classic novel. The shot of all the Harkonens charging out of the spaceship in those great rubber suits… wow.
Serenity (Serenity / Firefly) – The wild west with a slightly bigger horse.
Pictures to follow.
Check out the Sci Fi Book Store – it has pretty much everything anyone could want to know about fictional space ships ever.