" Lowell, a crew member aboard one of these ships, the "Valley Forge", is in constant disagreement with his other, human crewmates, who are anxious to return to a bleak and deforested yet familiar Earth. However, Lowell does have a better relationship with humanlike drones who are also aboard the ships . The science and technology depicted in Silent Running are not always plausible, and Trumbull's special effects are low quality even by the standards of the time (he had a larger budget in his later film Blade Runner), but the melancholy message is powerful. The soundtrack songs are performed by Joan Baez and the film score was composed by Peter Schickele. Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. When orders come from Earth to jettison the domes that contain the plants, blow each of them up via nuclear explosions and return, Freeman Lowell decides it is his mission to save the plants on his ship, the "Valley Forge. " Each ship carries six domes. Great Running Quote When one of his crewmates comes to set a bomb in Lowell's forest, Lowell strangles him with the handle of his shovel. In the struggle Lowell's right leg is injured. "

" Lowell chooses to leave Dewey in charge of the last dome, jettison it to safety, and destroy himself and the "Valley Forge" with the last of the onboard nuclear weapons. The final, ostensibly poignant scene is of the forest greenhouse tended by the sole remaining robot, with a battered watering can. Trivia Trumbull had been involved with creating effects for Saturn for "2001" and these were recycled for "Silent Running". The cult show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" began as a spoof of Silent Running. The interiors were filmed aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45). The original "Battlestar Galactica" series used stock footage of the Space Freighters in several episodes. On that show, they were called "Agro Ships," and were the source of all the food in the Rag-Tag Fleet. Hills Quote Running Initially there were three of them, but two were destroyed by the Cylons. As an hommage in the current incarnation of Galactica, there is one "Agro Ship" in the fleet, which is of a different, but clearly derivitive design. "