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We're introduced to an amazing creature, a living bio-ship named Gomtuu (called 'Tin Man' by Starfleet) who was observed while orbiting Beta Stromgren in TNG 3x20, 'Tin Man'. Through first contact specialist Tam Elbrun's telepathy, we learn that Gomtuu is actually a living and sentient starship. We also learn some of his backstory including the loss of his crew.

The two large space faring creatures featured in TNG premier, TNG 1x1, 'Encounter at Farpoint' don't qualify as bio-ships. Though these obviously sentient creatures can 'transform' into ships and other structures, they're not 'ships' in the strict sense.

Have there been any other bio-ships encountered in the Star Trek universe?

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    I'm not sure what you mean by "ships in the strict sense". Could you please explain.
    – user14111
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 20:33
  • In this context, 'ship' indicates it's normal configuration and composition; not a temporary transformation. It would have an internal atmosphere and layout capable of maintaining and sustaining the independent life forms of it's crew.
    – Morgan
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 21:32
  • Think Gomtuu from TNG and Moya from Farscape.
    – Morgan
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 21:43
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    What about the Borg vessels? You could consider the Borg crew and their ship to be a single organism.
    – RobertF
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 1:45
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    Don't the Farpoint creatures contain interior corridors in their natural state (the state the stronger alien appeared in when it entered orbit and that the trapped creature reverted to once it was freed)? Also, I know you're only asking about sentient bioships, but technically Federation ships using bio-neural gel packs as well as most Breen warships are bioships, as they incorporate biological components in vital roles. Even if they're not "living" ships.
    – Lèse majesté
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 16:31

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There are numerous bio-ships and numerous sentient ships as described by other but your question is very narrow if I understand you correctly, sentient bio-ships that don't morph.

If that is truly your question then here is the full list:

With your definition of sentient bio-ships that's the whole list, done, question answered.

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Species 8472's (a.k.a. the Undine) ships are made primarily of organic technology, and are even referred to as "bioships" on the show and on Memory Alpha wiki. Their ships were therefore vulnerable to Voyager's bio-weapons.

Not sure if you'd consider them sentient though.

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  • They are bioships but engineered to be non-sentient. "The vessels used by Species 8472 are also organic lifeforms, possessing a similar genetic structure to one another, allowing for the assumption that the bioships are genetically engineered by Species 8472 to be the perfect, non-sentient, combat and transport lifeforms using their own perfect genetic coding as a guideline."
    – Morgan
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 4:59
  • Bio-ship, yes. Sentient nope
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 9:20
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Would you consider the Enterprise itself during a very unusual encounter?

In Emergence, the Enterprise becomes sentient, and even gives birth to an intelligent spaceship. The status of THAT starship is definitely sentient, though whether or not it's "biological" is uncertain, as is whether or not the Enterprise is "biological" in nature.

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    Sentient, probably. Biological? Nope.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 9:20
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A possible candidate would be the Crystalline Entity which appeared in the "Datalore" and "Silicon Avatar" episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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  • The Great Crystalline Entity was a powerful, spaceborne creature characterized by a crystalline structure that resembled a large snowflake. It had warp speed travel capability, formidable size, and the ability to consume all life on a planet or starship. (TNG: "Datalore") Memory Alpha: Crystalline Entity

What we know about the Crystalline Entity:

  • The entity is enormously powerful. It was able to be detected by the Enterprise sensor while in a planetary atmosphere at a distance of nearly a light year. At warp 8, Melona Four was still 6 HOURS away. (.7 light-years distance)

  • It converts matter to energy, seeming to prefer organic matter, and able to strip a planet of all its organic material in a matter of hours. We are not sure if it used any material besides organics but in the scene where the Enterprise crew leave the cave, there were deep and terrible gouges in the surface of the planet. Perhaps the creature uses mineral resources as well.

  • Its dietary habits were also quite strange considering it consumed all organic matter, trees, grass, insects and even bacteria from the soil and water. Given this was a planet of at least Earth size, that alone would be a considerable amount of energy if converted in a perfect conversion from matter to antimatter.

  • These two factors alone indicate a creature capable of generating incredible energies at least as powerful as a warp core. We learn the creature emits anti-protons both as it feeds and as it travels, this also makes sense if the creature is capable of warp travel since it is a common practice of Alpha Quadrant races to use matter-antimatter reactions to power their warp field generation.

  • It was theorized the Crystalline Entity could possibly be a Von Neumann Probe-like machine or an actual living starship, but it was destroyed before any further analysis could be completed.

Apocrypha

In the non-canon novel "Orion's Hounds" the USS Titan encountered a number of these creatures, along with the entities seen in "Encounter at Farpoint" and other spaceborne lifeforms. These beings were given the collective term "cosmozoans".

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    That's an awesome pic! Though the Crystalline Entity is a bad-ass space faring creature, it's not a bio-ship... that we know of.
    – Morgan
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 21:36
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    It's possible that Lore rode upon the Crystaline Entity, since he was allied with it...but whether or not that constitutes a Bioship is debatable, since Lore could ride on a surfboard and survive in space (Note: Save idea for newest Silver Surfer/Star Trek fan fiction)
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 13:07
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    This is not a bioship.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 9:19
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The episode Galaxy's Child (Season 4, Episode 16) from Star Trek: The Next Generation featured a bio-ship that latches onto the Enterprise to feed.

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    Close but, a large space faring creature does not a bio-ship make.
    – Morgan
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 21:39
  • What if the large spacefaring creature is inhabited by humans, living as parasites, and using it to migrate to another world?
    – user14111
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 22:47
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    @user14111 I think it's not a ship unless it's engineered, in the same way that a horse is not a vehicle, though it has the same use.
    – Brian Ortiz
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 19:38
  • This is not a bioship.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 9:20

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