Aside from filming aspects, WHY are spaceships big and white and covered in lights? I can understand big, but white? The most obvious color in space? And lights? Why do you eve nhave all those windows?
Not all ships are white. Look at the Alien series, from what I remember they were black, rusted or a dull grey. But I think that most ships are white in Sci-Fi as they're either the colour of the metal they're made from or it's to help reflect heat upon re-entering a planets atmosphere. And all of those windows would either be crew quarters or something so people can see the view. But in something like Star Trek when only a section of the ship is for the crew while the rest of it there's no windows to look out of ie Engineering, the bridge, all of those corridors, etc. That's kind of the best I could answer. But I would like to also add a question. Why do ships like in Star Trek always need their engines running? With no friction in space you could just do a quick burst of the engines and drift towards where you want to go. Or am I missing something?
About the color, I don't know... but for the engines, it's simple : they want to show that the spaceship is moving! Without the engines, the spectators would not think about the movement of the spaceship. That's the same with the noises during the space battles : you could not enjoy it if you would not hear the lasers' sounds even if you know that it's impossible.
Most Star Wars or Star Trek ships are white. But let's run through a quick list of shows that have different colored ships: SG-1 has big ass Gou'ld mother ships that just so happen to be gold. The Asguards mother ships look purple. On Babylon 5 the station is blue and silver. The WhiteStar fleet is purple. The Drazi ships are gray. The Narn ships are red. Most Earth Force ships are gray with some type of emblem on the sides. Farscape has derverse ships. Moya is a golden yellowish ship. Talyn is red and black. All Peace Keeper ships are black and red. Scarren ship sare freaky period. And Transport pods are the same color as Moya. ST/SW... All ships are the same color. Unless you count the Jem Ha' dar ships. Which are purple with purple neon lights. Or the Klingon Bird of Prey, which is green. Any to add? *EDIT* Lexx is a multi-colored ship.
