New Wing Commander Album Enters Mixing Phase

Greetings all. As we enter the holiday season I think very fondly of how blessed I am that you all supported me in the quest to create volume two of my music from Wing Commander. As I've mentioned before, all the orchestra and choir parts are recorded and awaiting mixing. As I write this I'm sending all the sessions to the legendary recording/mixing engineer Bruce Botnick so that he can gather the enormous amount of tracks involved and do his magic. I will be heading out to LA to mix the music with him during the second week of January. He will be mixing for stereo downloads, vinyl and Dolby Atmos. Once that is accomplished I will return home and begin the arduous task of creating the product that will be sent to all of you. I'm estimating that you should be receiving the music some time in February 2025.

Once again thank you from the bottom of my heart. And may all of you and yours have a blessed holiday season and an extraordinary New Year!

Musically yours,

George

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all the WingNuts that celebrate… and equivalent wishes for happiness for everyone else, as well! In honor of the holiday, we've collected twelve different Christmas-related items (many from the ghosts of CIC updates past) for you to enjoy. We'd also love for you to share your Wing Commander-related holiday memories–whether you opened a Wing Commander III in your stocking in 1994 or you read all of False Colors while sitting shivering in a Christmas tree lot the day it came out (both me) we'd love to hear about it! We also know that not everyone has a family to spend the holiday… while it's only a small company, you are more than welcome to join our community Discord if you ever need company!

Day One: Xmas Marc's the Spot

One of my very favorite Wing Commander traditions was always the warm and hilarious Wing Commander Christmas renderings that Marc used to create and send for us to post from 2006 to 2014. They never fail to make me smile to this day! Do you have a favorite? Here's the complete collection:

Day Two: To Absent Friends

We would like to take another moment to remember our dear friend Adam "Klavs" Burch who was tragically lost earlier this year. Not a day goes by that we aren't reminded of something he created or someone he influenced in the community; a terrible loss. Here are a few funny things he created for Christmas updates over the years… including a collection of 3D printed ship ornaments he made from his models!

Day Three: More Fan Art!

Here's a collection of some of the wonderful Christmas art fans have submitted to the site over the news including great work from EmuMusicFan, Music Guru, the Privateer Gemini Gold team and more!

Day Four: What You See is What You Play

In 2018, Rhesin created a playable Wing Commander I Christmas mod! In addition to adding the festive decorations seen below, the patch includes four optional holiday-themed missions that replace the ones in the Enyo System! You can download the package here and then just unzip it in your GAMEDAT directory to swap in the new graphics and missions.

Day Five: Do They Even Know it's Christmas?

Is Christmas still celebrated in Wing Commander's future? Short answer, yes! We actually see the crew of the Independence celebrate Christmas in False Colors and that story is detailed for Day Six. But Action Stations also claims of Confederation Day that "that's the biggest holiday of the year outside of Christmas." I don't think that's even true today, but go on! Three more minor Christmas mentions:

• In Fleet Action, Jason Bondarevsky notes that being kept from the DS5 system had him "feeling like a child who was being held back from looking under the Christmas tree."
• In the Wing Commander IV novelization, Blair compares the Intrepid's technicians getting the first captured Dragons (Lances) as being "like kids at Christmas".
• In the Secret Ops preview fiction, Casey's mom writes a letter mentioning how their family once went on a "Christmas trip to the Miyahira nebula resort" with a family named the Helfmans.

Now, if Christmas exists in the Tri-System, it might be a little different. It looks like coal is at a premium in that area of space…

Day Six: Christmas on the Tarawa Independence

And what would the holiday be without a Christmas story? Here is an excerpt from Wing Commander False Colors in which Jason Bondarevsky and Kevin Tolwyn hold a Christmas party with a group of Kilrathi renegades! It's kind of neat as a self-contained unit since it starts with a deceptive simulated dogfight just like the original Wing Commander and the first episode of Wing Commander Academy! Tropes on tropes. Plus, it stars an actual black cat!

Flight Wing Lounge, FRLS Karga
Orbiting Vaku VII, Vaku System
1925 hours (CST), 2670.358

"Break left! Break left!" The voice in Bondarevsky's helmet receivers was urgent. "Come on, Captain, you can nail this guy!"
Bondarevsky pulled the joystick hard over, rolling to the left and trying to spot his quarry. The Strakha bucked and kicked as if it resented the very idea of a human pilot flying it, but he fought the controls and forced the fighter into the turn. He reached for the sensor controls to narrow the focus and try to get an accurate position estimate on the cloaked enemy fighter he knew was closing in for the kill, but a split second too late he realized he'd instinctively reached for the spot where they would have been located on one of the Ferrets he'd flown back in his days as Tarawa's Wing Commander. The sudden realization made him try to shift in mid-reach, but that sent his bionic arm into a feedback spasm.
The delay was fatal. The enemy Strakha decloaked bare meters off his starboard side, and the red flash of incoming fire washed through Jason Bondarevsky's cockpit.
The buzzer going off in his ear made him wince and grind his teeth. The cockpit opened up, revealing a crowd of men and women surrounding the simulator unit. Money was changing hands as they paid off their bets. Bondarevsky blinked in the glare of the lights.
"Bang, you're dead," Doomsday Montclair announced from the other simulator cockpit, climbing out with the aid of a pair of his squadron's younger pilots.
"I noticed," Bondarevsky replied dryly. "I've got to hand it to you, Doomsday. You haven't lost your edge."
Montclair grinned. "Didn't let them promote me out of the cockpit, skipper," he said. "But don't sweat it. You'll get the moves back. And if you don't, I'll be around to bail out your sorry ass!"
That sparked laughter from the audience. Bondarevsky started to clamber out of the cockpit, and Harper and Sparks were quick to help him. The simulator modules were cobbled together from a combination of Confederation and Kilrathi technology, mostly the former. The Kilrathi had less use for detailed simulations of flight missions than human pilots did. According to Jorkad lan Mraal, the senior pilot from the Nargrast survivors who had been working with Sparks on building the modules, the Empire preferred live-training exercises with real ships, real maneuvers, and live ammo.
Jorkad was there now, looking out of place amidst the revelry of the Flight Wing's Christmas party. The Christmas holiday was something the Kilrathi couldn't quite grasp. The message of "peace on Earth, good will toward men" was so alien to their way of life that they simply had nothing to compare it to. But a kil enjoyed a good party as much as any human, and Jorkad seemed to be developing a special fondness for eggnog.
"I was studying your performance, Captain Bondarevsky," he said gravely. Jorkad was always studiously correct and formal. At first some of the members of the wing had assumed it was a mask for some underlying hostility to the humans, but on closer acquaintance the general consensus was that Jorkad was just naturally serious and punctilious all the time. "Your instincts are good. But I fear your reactions have been somewhat slowed by your injuries. The artificial arm . . ."
"Is a problem sometimes, yes," Bondarevsky said, feeling impatient. He still didn't like discussing the plastilimb, especially not with a Cat. "I'm getting the hang of it."
He wasn't good at reading Kilrathi expressions, but he thought Jorkad's look might have been the Cat equivalent of a frown. "I believe that Hrothark and I could design an interface that would connect your arm directly into the controls of the fighter," he said. "It is possible that you could substantially improve your performance by having many of the onboard systems essentially controlled by thought—or at least by the muscular impulses associated with specific actions, such as operating sensors or firing weapons."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Bondarevsky said.
Jorkad studied him curiously. "I do not understand. Why would you reject something which could give you an advantage in combat? Particularly when it turns a current handicap around and makes it an asset instead?"
Bondarevsky shrugged. "I don't know if I can explain it, my friend," He held up his arm. "Look here. You can see that the limb is designed to look as much like a biological arm as possible. It would be a lot more efficient, and cost-effective too, for that matter, if it wasn't built this way, but you'll find most people prefer artificial limbs that don't look artificial."
The Kilrathi pilot gave a very human head nod, at the same time making the Cat grasping gesture that stood for understanding.
"The thing is," Bondarevsky went on, "a lot of us don't like to be forced to admit to something like this. I've got a machine doing the work of a limb, and I'm damned glad to have it, but I'd far rather have the original. And the last thing I want is to lose my humanity more than I already have by plugging myself into my cockpit like one more onboard system. I learned to fly by my gut, and I'd rather keep on doing it that way even if I have to work a little bit harder at it. Do you understand?"
"I believe I do, Captain," Jorkad said slowly. "Your sentiments are reminiscent of some of the passages in the Seventh Codex. You've given me much to think about."
"Glad I could help out," Bondarevsky muttered as the Cat pilot stalked away in search of a refill for his empty cup of eggnog.
"Well, well, Jason Bondarevsky trading philosophy with a Cat. I never thought I'd live to see the day." The crowd parted as Kevin Tolwyn approached, trailed by a junior lieutenant carrying a large, bulky box.
"I've swapped that kind of stuff with stranger types than him," Bondarevsky said with a smile. "In fact, I'm looking at one now."
Tolwyn's expression was one of mock horror. "I'm wounded! To be insulted so, and by my own dear mentor! Maybe I'll just call off this whole Christmas thing right here and now."
"Christmas thing?" Bondarevsky frowned. "Please tell me you didn't . . ."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to give you anything." Tolwyn grinned at him. Bondarevsky had never been much for celebrating Christmas, beyond putting in the expected appearances at the festivities held by the people in his command. Born and raised on Razin, a distant frontier world settled by Russians of mostly Eastern Orthodox religion, Bondarevsky had been brought up to celebrate Epiphany, the baptism rather than the Nativity of Christ, and even yet he still was apt to keep the Twelfth-Night holiday rather than the more traditional Christmas Day. He and Kevin had a long-standing tradition of not exchanging presents until Epiphany. "No, I brought over a gift from all of the Liberators to all of you . . . whatever it is you're going to call yourselves. Lieutenant, if you please . . ."
His assistant stepped forward and set the box down on the table. "Open it up, Jason," Tolwyn said.
He looked at the box for a long moment, half-expecting some kind of prank. Then he noticed that the lid of the box was pierced by half a dozen small holes, and that piqued his curiosity. Just what was Tolwyn up to, anyway?
Bondarevsky lifted the lid and looked inside. There, almost invisible in the shadows, a pair of green eyes regarded him curiously.
"Thrakhath!" he said. He reached in and lifted out the black cat, who responded by rubbing on his chin and purring loudly. That set off laughter from the officers clustered nearby. "Kevin, are you sure about this? I had the idea Thrakhath was kind of a favorite of yours. This one, at least."
Tolwyn grinned. "Yeah, I like him a lot better than I ever liked the one from Kilrah, but there's a dozen cats on Independence to keep our rodent population under control. And we thought you guys could use a mascot over here. Given your new home and all, it just seemed like a good idea."
Bondarevsky put the cat down on the table, but kept petting him. "Just as long as he doesn't cause as much trouble as his namesake . . ."
"Oh, he'll cause a lot more than that." Tolwyn grinned again. "And he'll bring bad luck to anybody who crosses his path. Like Ragark and his Kilrathi . . ."
"Or the confees!" one of the pilots called from the back of the watching crowd. "Or anybody else who gets in our way!"
Tolwyn looked embarrassed. "Anyway, Merry Christmas from the Liberators to . . ." He trailed off. Bondarevsky's command had been officially designated as FW-137, but it didn't have a name as yet. The carrier hadn't even received a formal Landreich Navy name yet.
"The Black Cats!" a voice from the crowd declared loudly. Commander Alexandra Travis came forward and stretched out a hand to scratch Thrakhath behind the ears. The animal looked satisfied with himself and redoubled his contented purring. "What do you say, Captain? What better name for a Flight Wing operating off a Cat carrier, with Cat fighters, and probably in Cat space, sooner or later?"
There were plenty of comments from the others, and they all sounded favorable. Bondarevsky nodded. "All right, the Black Cats it is." He paused. "Mr. Harper, I am hereby appointing you as Chief Cat-tender, with all the duties and responsibilities that traditionally go with that post. And somebody else is going to have to explain all this to Murragh. I sure as hell don't want to tell him we've got a house pet named after his cousin."
"To hear him talk," Travis said, "house pet would be a step up from what Murragh's people think of their ex-Prince." She grinned. "But you know we'll be bad luck to anybody who crosses our path!"
Tolwyn and his aid stayed on for a drink, then left to catch the tail end of the Christmas party aboard their own ship. Soon after they had taken their leave Bondarevsky stopped at a side table to refill his drink, and encountered Travis once again.
"So . . . you lost your simulator duel, huh?" she said. "The legend has feet of clay after all. I lost ten credits on you, Captain."
"Sorry, Commander," he said with a faint smile. "If I'd've known you were betting on me I would have worked harder."
She returned the smile. "Or bet against me and thrown the fight deliberately," she said, arching one eyebrow. "Seriously, though, how did it feel? Do you think it's an accurate simulation of a Strakha?"
Her interest was understandable. Alexandra Travis had been designated as squadron commander for VF-401, one of the new fighter squadrons being organized aboard the supercarrier. Once she and her pilots finished training, they'd be flying the squadron of Strakha fighters salvaged from the Kilrathi planes on board. Her previous experience had been confined to the Raptor heavy fighter, and they had little in common in terms of handling with the Cat Strakhas.
Bondarevsky was impressed by her record and by the skill she'd displayed getting her squadron in shape these last few days. Of all his new squadron commanders she was the one who seemed most in tune with him, her mind often following the same leaps of imagination that his own did as they discussed the ways and means of making the Flight Wing work.
"I don't know how accurate it is," he said, "but Sparks and Jorkad seem to think it isn't too far from the real thing. If it's anything like the simulator, the Strakha's going to be heavy going. Big and mean, but not exactly subtle . . . except for the stealth technology. I guess the Cats figured they had a cloak, so why bother making the thing nimble too? Takes some getting used to when you've come out of the high-maneuverability school."
"Sort of like trying to fly a shuttle after a stretch of duty with Hornets," she said, nodding.
"Well, not quite that bad, maybe," he said, remembering his landing on Independence and how clumsy the shuttle controls had seemed. "I figure with enough sim time it won't be too much of a problem getting these Cat planes down cold. I have to admit, though, that it's pretty strange thinking of how to use them in combat, and not just how to beat them."
She laughed. "You could say the same thing about this whole operation," she said. "A year ago a Cat was just something to shoot at. Now I'm starting to understand how they think . . . and it's starting to scare me. Sometimes I wonder how we managed to hold them off so long. They sure as hell know how to build a carrier."
Bondarevsky nodded. "I know what you mean. And working with the Cats from Murragh's bunch . . . they're not exactly what we always thought they were, are they?"
Before she could reply they were interrupted by a chord from Aengus Harper's guitar. The young lieutenant had found himself a perch on one of the tables and taken the battered-looking instrument out of its case. For a moment he contented himself with strumming chords, apparently at random.
"Well, the Bard of the Spaceways is at it again," Bondarevsky commented with a smile. "What's it going to be tonight, Lieutenant? More of your old Irish rabble-rousing songs?"
"Ah, now, sir, should I be playin' such things and ignoring the spirit of the season?" Harper replied with his easy, charming grin. "No, tonight I'll not be speakin' of the Gaels and their long struggle for freedom, more's the pity. Instead I thought I'd give you a Christmas song me auld mither taught me when I was just a lad."
He started picking the strings with practiced skill, closing his eyes and starting to sing in a soft, pleasant voice. It was a song Bondarevsky hadn't heard for years. The crowd was rapt as the young Taran sang the story of the child Jesus and his scornful playmates in Egypt, and the miracles that alarmed their mothers.
Thinking of the work they'd done on Karga, Bondarevsky couldn't help but think the lieutenant's choice was deliberate . . . and apt. They'd all worked their share of miracles out here on the edge of the frontier, and after this holiday was past they'd be right back in the miracle-working business once more.

Day Seven: Christmas Cards!

Here are a pair of Wing Commander Christmas cards from recent years. The first one is from original Wing Commander artist Denis Loubet and was created for his Patreon members. The second one was sent out by the now defunct publisher Prima to celebrate a major anniversary. Can you locate five Wing Commander game books in their grid?

Day Eight: A Very Old Audio File

Here's another blast from the past: a 1998 vintage Christmas wav file recorded by Origin Systems' John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who at the time had just finished work as a designer on Wing Commander Secret Ops. Johnny was always so kind to the community and we used to run this file every year. It's a silly thing from a smaller era of fandom but it's pretty neat to look back on today! Plus, the idea of a developer wishing fans a 'wingcommanderific holiday' was pretty ahead of its time back then.

Day Nine: Moose Bull

And here's a Christmas-themed magazine ad from Origin! This ran in December 1996 and you will be forgiven for thinking the crazy person looks familiar: that's none other than Patrick Bradshaw, Wing Commander IV product manager and the face of Moose in the Intrepid's pilot database! Can you spot the Wing Commander III cameo?

Day Ten: Don't Forget the Ornaments!

We still need to trim the tree… and what better choice than the closest thing the Wing Commander universe has to an ornament? That's right, it's the mysterious Super Wing Commander version of the Kilrathi Dorkir. It's a retexture of the Wing Commander II supply depot model but it's not at all clear why they went with red and green balls or a giant label that rads NC-4. Adding to the mystery: the source file for the ship is labeled OLDDORK and the Lumbari is labeled NEWDORK. What was going on with those dorks?! Bonus picture: a REAL Origin ornament, an employee gift from years past!

Day Eleven: The Assault Begins

The most famous Origin Christmas story is at least Wing Commander adjacent: Chris Roberts famously promised that Strike Commander would ship for Christmas 1991… and he was so certain of this that they advertised that in the marketing material. Of course, the game slipped to early 1993 instead, quite a delay at the time. They poked fun at themselves in the manual with a parody 'coming 2012' advertisement… but it's safe to say it's a lesson Chris didn't quite learn at the time!

Day Twelve: Merry Christmas from Ginger!

Here's an exciting new gift courtesy of LeHah: a cameo from Ginger Lynn, aka Chief Tech Rachel Coriolis, wishing us all a merry Christmas!

BONUS DAY: WC:CIC Traditions

We have a few traditions here at the CIC, too! You may have noticed that we put up Christmas lights in the logo every year… usually they go up pretty late and then they stay up well into the spring, just like at home. Here are both of the versions we've used over the years… crazy how much more resolution web images need today!

There used to be a second Christmas decoration who would appear in the top corner of the old version of the site. Our jolly snowman would be added leading up to Christmas and then he would slowly melt over the next month!

Finally, back in the early days we used to do some Christmas filk with… terrible… parodies of Christmas songs. We're including these for posterity and not because anyone should ever sing them. Or read them!

The Twelve Days of CIC
(to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas)
On the first day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. rumors of Privateer three..
On the second day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the third day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the fourth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the fifth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the sixth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the seventh day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the eighth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. eight amazing updates, seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the nineth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. a brand new poll, eight amazing updates, seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the tenth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. ten thousand hits, a brand new poll, eight amazing updates, seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. the Wing Commander card game, ten thousand hits, a brand new poll, eight amazing updates, seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Johnny gave to me.. Thrakhath's severed head, the Wing Commander card game, ten thousand hits, a brand new poll, eight amazing updates, seven new episodes, movie merchandise, five.. Prophecies.., four new books, the price freedom, two Dralthi IV's.. and rumors of Privateer three..

Super the Macintosh Wing Commander
(To the tune of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)

You know Heart of the Tiger
and The Price of Freedom
Prophecy and Academy
and Privateer and Armada
But do you recall
The most famous Wing Commander of all?
Super the Macintosh Wing Commander
Had a very full speech pack,
and if you ever heard it,
You might even call it great.
All of the other Wing Commanders
Used to laugh and steal its graphics
They never let poor Super
Play on any normal platforms.
Then one foggy release deadline
Roberts came to say,
"Super with your speech so full
Won't you make the Armada intro?"
Then all the Wing Commanders loved it
And they shouted out with glee
Super the Macintosh Wing Commander
You'll go down in history!

Multi Player
(To the tune of Jingle Bells)

Dashing through space
In a one-manned light fighter
Through asteroid fields we go
Dogfighting all the way.
Taunts from furballs ring
Making Spirit bright
What fun it is to play a Wing
Commander game tonight.
Multiplayer, Multiplayer,
Why can't we have you?
Oh what fun it would be to play
This great game that way.

Wing Commander The Movie
(To the tune of Frosty the Snowman)
Wing Commander the Movie
Was a jolly happy film
With Freddie Prinze and Matt Lillard
and no S on Tiger's Claw.
Wing Commander the Movie
Was an awful film 'they' say
Reviews were crap
But the true fans clap
When they see that intro scene.
There must have been some confusion
On that old movie set
For when they filmed a traitor plot
It had to be cut out.
Wing Commander the Movie
Was as good as it could be
And the true fans say
It was better most ways
Then Star Wars TPM.

Away is the Manager
(To the tune of Away in the Manger)

Away is the manager, who cancelled Wing 6,
The little Lord Sivar will have his revenge.
The stars in the sky look down where he lay,
The little Lord Sivar will taste blood today.
The Strakha are cloaking, the target awaits.
But little Lord Khasra no sight does he make.
I love thee, Lord Khasra, come down from the sky
And fire your missiles so as he might deep-fry.
Be near me, Lord Melek, I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever, and make them all pay
Bless all the dear furballs in thy tender care,
And take them to Pasqual, to live with thee there.

Hull the Decks
(To the tune of Deck the Halls)

Hull the decks with balls of neutron,
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
'Tis the season to fire tachyon,
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Don we now our Rapier II's
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Against a Salthi we can't lose
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
See the blazing hull before us.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Strike with torps and join the chorus.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Follow me in merry measure.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
While I target shield generators.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Fast away the old ship passes.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Hail the kill ye lads and lasses
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
Scratch one flat-top all together
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la
heedless of the wind and weather.
Fa-la-la-la-la.. la-la-la-la

Merry Christmas, everyone, from the whole Wing Commander Combat Information Center team! Hope yours is Wingcommanderific.

BREAKING NEWS: The Fatman Releases Wing Commander II Album

Here's a welcome holiday surprise: George "The Fatman" Sanger has released a new 45-track album covering his work on Wing Commander II and Wing Commander Academy! It's a stunningly curated collection with an excellent introduction from Sanger and extensive notes on individual tracks. It includes not just properly formatted and recorded versions of the final music but also longer versions of tracks that were cut to save disk space at the time. Amazing stuff… and it's just the start! While this release from The Fatman represents his work on the game, curator Xeenmusic has a complete release in the works that covers all of the game's composers. You can learn more and purchase a digital copy on Bandcamp.

ABOUT THIS SOUNDTRACK

My memory of Wing Commander II is foggy and complex, and I am ready to be proven wrong on any of what I recall and say here.

Dave Govett, Team Fat's wizard of and lead composer behind Wing I, was busy on other projects when the call came in to do Wing II. And besides, I wanted to see what would happen if I took the lead on an orchestral soundtrack myself. I was ready to shift from the Govett-lead John Williams/Star Wars feeling to a galloping, hybrid of a Danny Elfman/Batman-esque theme (which I came maybe a little too close to—as have SO many composers since that score came out!) with something adventurous and triumphant, elements recalling old Western and WWII movies I grew up with. I had a Grand Vision of a main theme in that vein, a romantic theme, a blues theme, and Dave's Wing Commander I themes, all teased in an opening overture and all integrated into each other in unexpected ways throughout the game.

What I didn't realize was that other composers were writing for the game as well!

For a number of years, Team Fat and I had been the golden boys of PC music in the USA, especially where Origin and the MT-32 were concerned. But around the time of WCII, musical responsibility and control for Origin's audio was shifting to their very capable in-house team. As the listener will hear, Martin Galway as producer and the other composers did a beautiful job, and the project no doubt came out to be the thing you love because of their efforts and talents. That said, when a CD was released without my knowledge, revealing that the released product contained music that I wasn't aware existed, it was a bit of a shock. I confess I suffered the prima donna’s disappointment at not having the entire stage to myself, but more significantly the creative result was, if wonderful, not so fully integrated as what I thought I had been working on.

So it’s with delight that I come back to this so many years later, all that behind me, and realize with an open and happy ear and heart that I was part of a bigger team than I knew. As so often happens, what you thought you were going for is not necessarily what's supposed to be. The best way, they say, to make God laugh is to make plans. Time has passed and here we are, all, I hope, smiling to be able to listen to and enjoy this fine body of work from more composers, more talented than I'd realized, and so, so lovingly and painstakingly assembled by Andrew Harrington.

They say that when a drop falls into the ocean it isn't lost—it opens up and lets the entire ocean in. So it’s about time I put this message out: Hey Martin, Dana, Herman, John, Nenad and Kirk— Fantastic work. and... Welcome to Team Fat!!!!

-The Fat Man—George Alistair Sanger

5/1/2024

ABOUT THIS RELEASE

The “Just the FAT” edition of the Wing Commander II soundtrack included only the compositions done by George A. Sanger and his team, all recorded with an authentic Roland MT-32 unit. The MT-32’s limited polyphony has a tendency to cause notes to be dropped/lost when a composition more advanced than the device can handle is played. This is especially noticeable on instruments with many rapid successive notes, such as a harp glissando.
To prevent this limitation from being part of the recordings, the process for any tracks that this polyphony has been exceeded is this: Break the theme into the least number of sections necessary until there is no longer any notation lost. Then, after recording each of these sections separately, to mix them together. Therefore, the pieces may be heard without this defect being present.
While designing Wing Commander II, the programming team had a responsibility to balance and reduce memory usage, both in terms of harddrive space and RAM. As a result, many of the longer themes had their lengths reduced toward the end of development with the note “big memory spender”. Thankfully the longer versions of all of George Sanger’s tracks were able to be recovered for this release (unlike that of the other composers).
A majority of themes from Wing Commander I were reused in Wing Commander II. Wing Commander: Academy later used a selection of themes from both games, plus had additional themes composed by John Tipton and Kirk Winterrowd.

- Andrew Harrington



--------------------
Most music has been newly recorded with a real Roland MT-32 from a combination of the original MIDI files converted from George A. Sanger’s archived Digital Performer project files, as well as extracted MIDI data from the game where these do not exist.

Andrew Harrington's detailed track-by-track by track commentary, also available as a .doc file as a bonus item when the album is purchased, is combination of observable technical notes, as well as extracts from various internal correspondences between the designers. All track titles are based on the original filenames and/or titles found in these papers. For any reused tracks initially composed for Wing Commander I, commentary is lacking unless there is a notable difference between its Wing Commander II/Academy counterpart. For those tracks, the listener is advised to consult the commentary included with the “Wing Commander I – MT-32 Archival Edition”.

Go to www.patreon.com/xeenmusic to watch for the complete version of WC II music and other great rare and retro soundtracks.

credits

released December 24, 2024

MUSIC COMPOSED AND ARRANGED BY
Floyd Domino
David Govett
Herman Miller
David Sanger
George A. Sanger
Archival Edition Production Xeen Music
Recording and Editing Andrew Harrington
Linear Notes and Research Andrew Harrington
Album Cover Andrew Harrington

Annual Call For Award Nominations

Wing Commander Movie Night: Das Boot - Part One

The Wing Commander movie club gave our collective heart to a Starship Troopers! With all due deference to the one guy that was still mad that the movie didn't have the power suits from the novel, it's a heck of a movie! Now we're going to end the year by running silent and also deep with a movie you've absolutely heard of spoken in the same sentence as Wing Commander: Das Boot. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Das Boot is a 1981 film which follows the crew of a German U-boat fighting in the Atlantic in 1941. It is known for its realistic depiction of submarine life and for telling a story that isn't about heroes winning glory but ordinary men living through a terrible time. The film's success introduced director Wolfgang Petersen to the world; he would later go on to direct films like Outbreak and Air Force One.

Das Boot was one of Chris Roberts' key influences when making the 1999 Wing Commander movie. He routinely mentioned that Das Boot was a key inspiration during press for Wing Commander. Here's a selection of quotes:

"I wanted to have something that felt like Das Boot in space," says Roberts. "There were some scenes I wanted in the movie that were the equivalent of Das Boot's depth-charging scene. I was trying very much to make a classic World War II movie, but update it and set it in space, so things that you see will register with you on a subconscious level, but instead of destroyers at sea or a submarine stuck at the bottom of the ocean, it's all in space." - It's Wing Commander, Starlog #260 (March 1999)

“For me, it's sort of like a classic, nautical World War II movie, taking elements of Das Boot, or Tora! Tora! Tora! and sort of updating it and putting it in a science-fiction universe.” - 3 Questions With Chris Roberts, Cinescape Insider Vol. 4, No. 17 (15 March 1999) 



“‘Das Boot’ heavily influenced the film in terms of its look. Films like ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ [and] ‘Midway’ -- I tried to make my film in a sort of old-fashioned World War II sense.” - 'Wing Commander' Creator Takes the Director’s Chair, Salon (12 March 1999)



"The director likened the tone of the Wing Commander plot to Das Boot and other World War II movies." - Roberts Talks 'Wing Commander', Austin American Statesman (15 November 1998)

The connection wasn't lost on the actors, either. Here's Saffron Burrows (Angel):

"There is a whole World War II element to the movie which I really like," she continues. "It's a feeling of things being beaten up and lived in, and I love that. Wing Commander was inspired by Das Boot, and has that feeling - and in fact Jürgen Prochnow, the captain in Das Boot is in Wing Commander." - When Dreams Take Wing, Sci-Fi Teen #5 (March 1999)

And it sure wasn't lost on the professional reviewers, who noted it ad nauseam. Here's the late Roger Ebert making the comparison at the start of his Wing Commander review:

Jurgen Prochnow, who played the submarine captain in "Das Boot," is one of the stars of "Wing Commander," and no wonder: This is a sub movie exported to deep space, complete with the obligatory warning about the onboard oxygen running low. "Torpedoes incoming!" a watch officer shouts. "Brace yourself!" It's 500 years in the future. If the weapons developed by the race of evil Kilrathi only inspire you to "brace yourself," we might reasonably ask what the Kilrathi have been doing with their time.

What should we look for? As Chris Roberts mentioned above, the depth charge scene in Wing Commander was a specific inspiration.

But beyond that, you're going to see similarities everywhere down to the look of the sets…

… and the ship's captain! Chris Roberts would go so far as to cast Das Boot's star, Jürgen Prochnow, as the captain of the Tiger's Claw. Prochnow was already in the Wing Commander family; he had appeared in 1996's Privateer 2: The Darkening as mutant rights activist Xavier Shondi.

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Notably, there have been several cuts of Das Boot over the years. These include the 1981 theatrical cut (149 minutes), the 1985 miniseries version (308 minutes) and a 1997 director's cut (209 minutes). We will be watching the 1997 cut which is the one Chris Roberts would've most readily had access to when making Wing Commander the next year. We are also splitting the movie into two nights because of its length. We will be watching roughly the first two hours this week and the rest of the film the following week.

Das Boot is currently available for rental or sale digitally at all storefronts. A copy is available as a free download from the Internet Archive. If you're interested in tracking down a physical copy, a BluRay version was released in 2012 and remains in print today. In Germany, there is a "Complete Edition" which includes every extant cut. If you are unable to track down a copy please ping a member of the WCCIC staff on the Discord in advance of the watch.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

Ship Confusion: Gettysburg and Waterloo

Last week, we took a look at some Civil War-related Wing Commander references… and we forgot a pretty big one: Special Operations 1's TCS Gettysburg, named after the dramatic Pennsylvania battle that marked a turning point in the war. To cover our mistake, we've decided to took a very close look at some of the confusion surrounding the TCS Gettysburg and the confusingly separate Gettysburg-class cruiser referenced in Freedom Flight. And in order to tell that story, we're going to have to start by taking a look at the TCS Austin.

Gone to Texas

The Secret Missions 2: Crusade (1991) introduces us to the Austin, another Confederation capital ship which is working alongside the Tiger's Claw during the treaty signing at Firekka. The Austin transfers Jazz and Doomsday who serve as new wingmen during the game and it is mentioned throughout the story. The Austin is named after the city of Austin, Texas, home to Origin Systems and where the Wing Commander series began. The city was, in turn, named after Stephen F. Austin a 19th Century politician who played a major role in Texas' secession from Mexico.

To begin this journey we must first answer this question: what class of ship is the TCS Austin? The ship appears in only one mission, Firekka 6, where it is attempting to retreat from Firekka under fire from a group of Gratha. The game uses the Exeter destroyer to represent the Austin but the mission layout is intentionally designed so that you can never get close enough to see or target it; it jumps out while it's still a tiny line of pixels in the distance.

You can, however, use the object camera to see that the ship in the distance is an Exeter destroyer.

A revised version of The Secret Missions 2 included with Wing Commander Deluxe Edition (1991) seems to echo this. New introductory dialogue is added in place of the first Iceman bar conversation. Instead of challenging anyone to a game of pool, he instead explains what's going on in Firekka and introduces the other ship: "A good ship, the Austin...an Exeter-class destroyer." This seems pretty decisive, although it's worth noting that the SNES port of The Secret Missions did exactly the same thing to the Gwenhyvar, changing it into a Venture-class corvette (for storage reasons).

Wing Commander Freedom Flight (1992) throws a wrench in a mix and instead establishes what has become the popular continuity: the TCS Austin is a Gettysburg-class cruiser. This is appealing for a number of reasons: the Austin's role in the story does imply that it's something larger than a destroyer… as does the fact that the Secret Missions 2 developers went to some lengths to try and keep players from seeing the actual ship.

• “Lord Ralgha! I’m detecting old jump traces in our vicinity. Computer confirms them as the jump-system emissions of a Gettysburg class ship and another ship, the readings are difficult to distinguish.”
• Aside from a few minutes of conversation and bad dirty jokes with the Deck Officer of the TCS Austin, as their patrol path brought them within sight of the smaller Gettysburg-class ship, the patrol was totally uneventful.
• The other Gratha banked close to the huge Gettysburg-class cruiser in an attempt to escape the Rapier.

Freedom Flight further notes that the Ras Nik'hra is "nearly the size of" the Austin and that its hull is "silvery". Note that these references are clear that the Austin (and the Gettysburg-class) are smaller than the Tiger's Claw! Super Wing Commander (1994) contradicts this directly by adding a conversation with Jazz in the Tartarus series where he claims the Austin is actually LARGER than the Tiger's Claw:

Jazz: Hi there, Maverick. Getting used to life aboard the Tiger's Claw has been easy. It's a smaller ship than the Austin. You know, a man could get used to this.
Maverick: We like it, Colson.
Jazz: Yes, well, I wasn't used to it. The Austin is so formal, and everyone here is so laid-back. And Colonel Halcyon is much more easy-going than Admiral Tolwyn. I don't see why the Admiral doesn't like him. He seems fine to me.

Finally, the update to Claw Marks done for Super Wing Commander and Wing Commander Sega CD (1994) adds an article about Jazz and Doomsday visiting the Tiger's Claw, All Aboard, Austinites, which refers to the ship as not a cruiser but "our sister carrier assigned to a first-response patrol in Enigma sector." The phrase 'sister carrier' seems to suggest that the thought here is that the Austin is another Bengal-class carrier. That said, Freedom Flight also refers to the Austin as the Tiger's Claw's sister ship, so it may be that the phrase has another meaning in the 27th Century navy.

So what is the Austin? While all three interpretations are valid, Wing Commander fans have overwhelmingly adopted the idea that it is a Gettysburg-class cruiser which is an otherwise unseen Exeter-looking cruiser that is roughly the same size as the Bengal-class. This is also a great example of the 'fan lensing' you can see with this kind of lore; because the reference to the Gettysburg-class is so esoteric it becomes especially celebrated by fans resulting in something barely ever seen or considered by the series' creators to show up frequently in fan works!

Having decided this, the next question to address is the authorial intent in the Freedom Flight. Did Ellen Guon and Mercedes Lackey intend for the Austin to be something called a Gettysburg-class ship or did they intend for it to be the same class of cruiser, Waterloo, as the TCS Gettysburg from the recently-published Wing Commander II Special Operations 1 (1991)? We think the answer is that they did indeed intend for the two to be distinct because, as mentioned above, the Gettysburg-class is identified three times in the book and because a Waterloo-class ship, the TCS Leningrad, also appears in the story:

He remembered that conflict with a small warmth of pride, pride he cherished against the anger that sought to consume him. He concentrated on his memories of the hours of maneuvering against the Terran ship, waves of fighter assaults, culminating in the glorious explosion of the Waterloo-class ship, the blossoming fireball and drifting debris. The ship had been named the Leningrad, he had learned later, and over five hundred humans had died when it had been destroyed. Five hundred enemies. Five hundred gifts to Sivar, the War God.

That brings us to the second part of our investigation: Wing Commander II's Waterloo-class cruiser.

Carrying Waterloo

The Waterloo-class cruiser was introduced in Wing Commander II as the Terran Confederation's cruiser in the game. The design is stunning and well displayed in-game, a sort of smaller carrier with two landing bays and a submarine-inspired forward hull. Thanks to Freedom Flight and a similar reference in the Wing Commander movie novelization we know that the Waterloo-class has been around since at least the time of the original game (2654).

Historians will tell you that the Waterloo-class is named after the famous 19th Century battle that saw the defeat of Napoleon and it's likely that, internal to the Wing Commander universe, they are correct. But there's a bit of an extra layer here that actually ties the design even closer to our earlier subject: Waterloo is the original name for the city of Austin. And much like how New York is sometimes still called "New Amsterdam" in a hip sense, Austinites still shop at "Waterloo Records" and play frolf in "Waterloo Park".

Before the appearance of the Gettysburg, the Waterloo is most notable for its role as the TCS Agincourt in Wing Commander II. The Agincourt is a Confederation cruiser that is fighting in the same areas as the Concordia. You fly a mission to transport an ordnance freighter being protected by the Agincourt at one point and Blair communicates with the ship. Later, Jazz's treason is revealed when he accidentally mentions that he knows the classified fact that the Agincourt will be joining the Concordia to attack K'tithrak Mang. In one of the game's losing endgames, the Agincourt returns to Caernarvon after Novaya Kiev is captured and the Concordia is destroyed!

The TCS Agincourt is referenced again in the Wing Commander TCTG; this time, it's a Tallahassee-class cruiser! Must have been destroyed between Wing Commander II and III…

If you feel that the Agincourt seems pretty important for how little we see it in Wing Commander II, you're not wrong! In the original design for the game the Agincourt was the TCS Robert Peel, a patrol carrier that Blair spends the first half of the game aboard. That's why the flight decks are so prominent and why there was so much leftover art of the cruiser which was then used for the Agincourt encounter and the TCS Gettysburg in the first mission disk. Unused footage of the landing scenes created for the Peel also appears in early Wing Commander II marketing.

Which brings us back to the TCS Gettysburg, a Waterloo-class cruiser from Wing Commander II Special Operations 1 (1991). The Gettysburg is a Confederation cruiser whose crew mutinies when given an illegal order. Blair must reach the Gettysburg and convince its crew to surrender in the first half of the game. It's there that he meets Bear Bondarevsky, who will go on to be the hero of several Wing Commander novels. Special Operations 2's dialogue repeatedly confirms that the Gettysburg is a cruiser although you alone encounter and destroy over forty fighters supposedly based on the ship during the course of the game. You are initially told that the Gettysburg has a complement of Ferrets and Epees but later discover it is also testing new Crossbow bombers.

It's this last fact that leads to some confusion about the Gettysburg and her class. In the second Wing Commander novel, End Run (1992), the Gettysburg makes a cameo appearance and it is routinely referred to as being a carrier rather than a cruiser. Not only is it directly called a carrier but it is also considered in all of the book's talk of how many carriers the Confederation has ready for battle.

“Don’t give me that bull,” Banbridge snapped. He stood up and came around from behind his desk, coming up to Tolwyn and putting a finger into his face. “We won Vukar by the skin of our teeth. We lost the Trafalgar and Gettysburg will be in dry dock for a year. That just leaves Wolfhound and Concordia for this entire sector and you take half of our assets and go gallivanting off. Damn it, man, you almost took our victory and turned it into a disaster.”

Here's the missing link: unbeknownst to anyone in the fandom, the 1992 Wing Commander licensing bible that Dr. Forstchen was referencing attempted to explain the Gettysburg's fighter complement by establishing that Waterloos can be configured as "Jutland-class carriers" instead of cruisers by removing antimatter guns to support a greater fighter complement. This follows the precedent established for the Fralthi light carrier in Claw Marks and makes all around sense… except that their explanation for the names of the ships still leaves the Gettysburg as a cruiser!

But then the final two Waterloo-class ships, which we see in Special Operations 2 (1992), don't seem to fit the bible's naming schemes at all, either. Jazz's court martial is held aboard the TCS Centurion and then you are ordered to escort him to the prison ship TCS Alcatraz. The Alcatraz herself is something of an Easter egg; you have to manually select its nav point and if you fly there you'll discover it under attack by (completely ineffective) Sartha!

Next time on Ship Confusion: Meet the Concordias!

Appendix I: Fighter Complements

Secret Missions 2 and Freedom Flight both refer to the TCS Austin as carrying a fighter squadron rather than a fighter wing, suggesting that the complement of a Gettysburg-class cruiser is somewhere in the ten to twenty area.

The original Joan's update lists the Waterloo as having a light fighter complement which the Kilrathi Saga manual specifies to be 40. You fight forces from the Gettysburg (and the captured supply depot) in six missions in Special Operations 1. You encounter a total of 16 enemy Ferrets and 28 enemy Epees in those missions (breakdown below) as well as six friendly Epees (Bear and Bodybag in Rigel B and then the Gettysburg CAP in Rigel C). There are also at least ten Crossbow bombers: one that Colonel Ransom used to escape, three that are flown by Blair and his wingmen in Rigel D and then six that defend the supply depot in Rigel E, the optional losing scenario. Unless some of these fighters were recovered from the supply depot and flown by recovered pilots, that's at least 60 fighters aboard the Gettysburg! Which seems to agree with End Run that she must be configured as a Jutland-class carrier rather than a Waterloo-class cruiser.

Appendix II: Fighter Compliments

Those are some really nice fighters!

Flight Deck Lighting Gets a Stylish Upgrade

I recently bought an addon called Glared from the Blender Market. I've been so in love with it recently that like they say in commercials for Franks Red Hot Sauce: "I put that s*** on everything.

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Starship Troopers, a project which both inspired and haunted the Wing Commander movie's production. You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: Glory

Greetings WingNuts,

The Wing Commander movie club is marching on! We greatly enjoyed last week's screening of Glory, a movie most of us hadn't seen in many years (or at all). We found it was still very solid, a great example of that just-before-the-blockbusters era that produced movies like Memphis Belle. It's a timeless true story without too much exaggeration, one that it would be good for more people to know today. Matthew Broderick does kind of stick out today as you do not associate him with a heroic soldier today but the rest of the cast, with Denzel Washington in particular, is spectacular. The story of African American soldiers proving themselves in the face of racism remains powerful, though we couldn't help but notice that a great deal of the northern racism is treated as something that happens off screen. SOMEONE doesn't want the regiment to be paid or to fight on the front line… but not any of the characters we actually see. It was also interesting to me thinking about the movie in terms of how it every-so-slightly predated Ken Burns' The Civil War; as such, its Civil War shorthand (visual, audio, etc.) feels slightly different. We wouldn't associate the war with endless violins and sepia-toned photographs for another year!

Our big reason for picking Glory was to follow up the note from the Wing Commander II team that Denzel Washington's character, Silas Trip, was the basis for Downtown. We put together a dossier on Downtown during the leadup to the movie and now we can pretty definitively say we understand the connection. Like Downtown, Trip escaped slavery as a young man and then took up arms against his oppressors (and ultimately dies a hero fighting against impossible odds). Downtown's original character description says that he was "fiery and impulsive" just like Trip. We don't actually see this in the final game where he's actually something of a peacemaker, so it seems he learned the same lesson between his escape from Ghorah Khar and the events of Wing Commander II.

Our other big Wing Commander surprise while watching the movie was an appearance by none other than Pliers himself, character actor Richard Riehle, playing a corrupt quartermaster. There's a special joy to seeing particular actors show up in places, especially unexpectedly. Here's hoping it happens again!

There's also an appearance of Raymond St. Jacques as abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Admiral Tolwyn actually quotes Douglass in Fleet Action when he's confronting Baron Jukaga before the final battle: "Better to die as free men then live as slaves."

Beyond those notes, I thought it would be fun to collect some notes on other Civil War-related Wing Commander connections that don't necessarily tie back to Glory directly. It's not often we have an excuse to watch a movie set in the era! The most notable of these connections is a pretty simple one: the decision to name the new faction the Union of Border Worlds in Wing Commander IV. By having the enemy of the CONFEDERATION (itself established as such simply to be slightly different from Star Trek) be the UNION the writers were signaling American players a big clue as to what was going on in the story. Not every Civil War is based on the American Civil War (for instance, the five-way Kilrathi Civil War going on during Wing Commander IV) but the Wing Commander IV setup did take a fair amount from history. Similarly, the Border Worlds militia and its path to independence is based on real history, where the Confederacy was able to build an army from its states' lawful pre-war militias.

When I did the Star Soldier manual for Wing Commander Arena, I decided to give the Union of Border Worlds a little taste of their own medicine by having Hellespont secede in a news story based on South Carolina's attempt to exit the United States:

Rebellion in the Hellespont System

The Hellespont government has announced that it will withdraw from the Union of Border Worlds immediately, following highly charged elections which ended with a secession convention. Local lawmakers cite rising tariffs and increased government centralization in their official announcement, though many observers believe that the decision has more to with the increased political representation allowed less industrialized UBW planets, which suffered less during the Nephilim invasion. In a bloodless handover, Hellespont Militia units moved quickly to take control of the system’s shipyards and fortifications.

The situation is by no means isolated, with similar unrest evident in other founding Border Worlds including Orestes and Peleus. Spokesmen for Governor Hodge insist that these actions will not be treated lightly and that the Outerworlds Fleet Reserve will be activated if it becomes necessary to hold the star nation together by force. Hellespont is responsible for 5% of the Union’s gross exports and is home to the Second Fleet’s drydock facilities.

Wing Commander Academy has several Civil War references and one of them is quite strange: Chain of Command has the TCS Trafalgar escorted by "a Manassas-class light cruiser". Manassas was the Confederate name for the battles at what the Union referred to as Bull Run. So it's a bit weird that the show chose the losing side's name for the battle! The Manassas-class itself is something of a fun oddity: it's the rare ship we've seen but also have no idea what it looks like! There was no model sheet available for the ship when it was referenced in Chain of Command and so the storyboard artists pulled a cool trick: only showing the ship at extreme distance (the tiny triangle in the distance) or incredibly close so it's just a hull filling the entire screen!

It was actually scripted and boarded to appear in act three of the episode but in the final version the sequence is shortened and reordered… and the shots of the Manassas are seemingly replaced with the Trafalgar! Compare the original eight shots planned in the boards to the five final shots in order:

There's also a scene in Expendable where Maverick tells Payback that one of his ancestors was a Blair who served as a general in the Civil War. A little research suggests that this would have to be Union General Francis Preston Blair. Blair was a congressman who resigned to serve as a Colonel (what else!) when the war began and he was part of a notable political family that were steadfast supporters of President Lincoln; his older brother, Montgomery Blair, was Lincoln's Postmaster General. Here's a neat article on their connection to the president.

The Civil War also had an interesting repeated impact on Wing Commander's ship prefixes. The developers had initially chosen CSS (Confederation Space Ship) but changed to TCS (Terran Confederation Ship) during development to avoid matching the Confederate States of America's CSS (Confederate States Ship). Wing Commander has generally (but not alway) been careful to use 'Confederation' instead of 'Confederate' to avoid the connection and this was an extension of that idea. One was missed during the editing, though: the Kurasawa series has a Shotglass conversation where he talks about the CSS Suffolk!

Then, it happened again! On the Wing Commander movie, the mostly European art department on set in Luxembourg again decided on CSS for the Confederation capital ships in the movie and used the designation on props like the shoulder patches. During post production the team in Austin decided instead on CS (used in licensed material) and finally went back to TCS for the supertitles in the final cut.

Department crew gifts still used CSS, though (along with the equally confusing CNV-2654)!

The movie also gives us another unusual Civil War-named ship. As we sweep into Pegasus in the opening, we hear on the comm: "TCS McClellan requesting flyby." General George McClellan is an odd namesake for a starship: President Lincoln put him in charge of the Army of the Potomac but eventually dismissed him after he repeatedly failed to take the offensive… and it's not common to name a warship after someone that served in the army!

And we'll note just one more unusual Civil War-adjacent namesake came even earlier: Custer's Carnival in the original Claw Marks is named after George Armstrong Custer, a dashing Union officer in the Civil War who would later meet his fate battling Native Americans after the conflict. Here, though, the name makes more sense as it's being used to refer to the Confederation's disastrous failed invasion of the G'wriss System.

And don't forget the novels! The second Wing Commander novel, End Run, features a pretty ridiculous Civil War reference. Early on, the Tarawa's up-and-coming pilots are introduced thusly: "A young pilot named Chamberlain, with the call sign of Round Top, and another sporting the call sign Mongol seemed to have a natural flair." This is a very silly joke: the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg is often credited to Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine Infantry Regiment's holding a hill called Little Round Top. Round Top is killed flying a Broadsword in Fleet Action.

Where did this dad joke come from? The answer is that Wing Commander novelist Dr. William Forstchen is himself both a Maine man and a historian whose professional work has focused on the Civil War. His 1994 dissertation even covered very similar territory to the movie Glory: "The Twenty-Eighth United States Colored Troops: Indiana's African Americans go to war, 1863-1865". He has also written the nine-book Lost Regiment series, a science fiction saga about a Civil War regiment transported to fight in an alien war, the Gettysburg trilogy with Newt Gingrich, an alternate history that imagines what would have happened if the Union lost the Battle of Gettysburg, and We Look Like Men of War, a "factually based narrative" (historical fiction) baked on his doctoral work. If you're looking to make the transition from pulpy science fiction to Civil War history, the works of Dr. Forstchen are a reasonable path! (Incidentally, the other pilot, Mongol, is a reference to the author's time spent doing archaeological work in Mongolia.)

GOG Winter Sale Discounts Wing Commander

Spotter's Guide: Drones On and On…

Drones have been in the news lately so we thought we'd offer a public service by creating a short inventory that will allow you to properly identify any kind of drone you might spot in the night sky! For our purpose, a ship must have been specifically referred to as a drone rather than just acting by a specific definition.

The Steltek Drone

The Wing Commander universe's most famous drone is also its most deadly: the Steltek drone was abandoned in an asteroid field in the Troy System when the Steltek left the galaxy over two billion years ago. In 2669, Grayson Burrows accidentally activated it with an errant missile strike and sometime later his acquisition of a Steltek gun caused the drone to lock on to his ship and begin destroying everything in its path to reach him. Burrows would ultimately assist the Terran Confederation Navy in ambushing and destroying the drone (a feat only made possible thanks to a boost to Burrows' gun from a present-day Steltek scout).

TOBY Drone

Wing Commander Prophecy opens with several TOBY drones scanning the remains of Kilrah for minerals. It's not completely clear why TOBYs are even considered drones since they carry at least one crew; perhaps their actual flight was automated or handled remotely from the Devereaux!

Decoy Drones & Long-Range Communications Drones

The Wing Commander movie introduces two types of Terran Confederation drones frequently carried by capital ships and bases: long-range communications and decoy drones. We see both during the movie: Pegasus launches a communications drone to inform Admiral Tolwyn that they're under attack and then the Tiger Claw launches a decoy drone to distract the destroyers hunting it in the asteroid field using electromagnetic signatures. The 'Claw later attempts to launch a communications drone but finds the drone launching system is offline. Peter Telep developed this two-drone system significantly, using them throughout Pilgrim Stars and Pilgrim Truth. The Kilrathi also use both types of drones. Kilrathi decoy drones are cone-shaped; a Snakeir is capable of launching eight at once during a battle.

Nephilim Remoras

The Nephilim Ray Node cluster is surrounded by a cloud of seven Remora interceptor drones. While orbiting the Ray, the mother ship generates power for the Remoras. In the event of their Ray's destruction, the Remoras will swarm its attacker with their single light burst maser weapons.

Simulated Kilrathi

Put this one in the maybe-qualifies category: in Wing Commander Prophecy's first simulator mission, the flight instructor refers to the Dralthi you are using to learn to target as a drone. But of course in reality it's completely simulated!

Dynamite Productions' Ecantona

One of Privateer 2's BBS missions features a request from a television producer named Buddy Carlson who wants to hire you to re-enact a historical space battle with the Papogod cruiser Rarmus One for a show called Space Jox. The Rarmus One is defended by five drone-piloted Papogod Ecantona fighters.

Sex Robots & CosmoDrone & Custard Pies

Privateer 2 also uses the term done in several news stories to define… uh, well, sex robots, tiny robots that do your makeup and machines that create… pies. Check them out:

The Tarawa's Makeshift Drones

In End Run, the Tarawa crew use a landing craft and a Ferret to create a pair of drone ships. These ships carry a pair of atomic mines that would be detected by the Kilrathi. The hope was to divide the enemy force by making them think the drones were trying to launch a suicide run against Kilrah.

Other Drone Types

The Baen Wing Commander novels, especially End Run and Fleet Action, establish a number of drone types that are used by different navies for different specific roles. We've collected them below:

• Automated Stratospheric Defense Drone (Pilgrim Alliance): these drones provide planetary defense; an automated stratospheric defense drone killed Major Arnold Blair during the Siege of Peron.
• Drone Probe (Free Republic of the Landreich): Atmospheric drone for recording and transmitting live footage offworld. A drone probe relayed damage to the Hell Hole to President Kruger following the 2668 Kilrathi attack.
• Intelligence Drone (Terran Confederation): unlike reconnaissance drones, intelligence drones physically return gathered data instead of transmitting it home. In Pilgrim Stars, Admiral Tolwyn received an intelligence drone from K’n’Rek indicating a Kilrathi battlegroup had been destroyed by the Olympus.
• Messenger Drone (Union of Border Worlds): messenger drones transmit physical items between two ships. Sosa sent Blair a physical chip via messenger drone from the Princeton while he was preparing to infiltrate Axius.
• Reconnaissance Drone (Terran Confederation): recon drones stealthily enter enemy territory, gather signal intelligence for one week and then transmit it back to the Confederation via burst signal. The signal would alert the Kilrathi to their existence and result in their destruction.
• Relay Drone (Terran Confederation): relay drones are used to relay messages where intersystem communications systems have not been established. Admiral Tolwyn left a relay drone between Hari space and the Landreich to allow the Tarawa to transmit messages back.
• Remote Sensing Drones (Empire of KIlrathi): remote sensing drones are used to detect traces of jump transit. Prince Thrakhath monitored a remote sensing drone to track the Tarawa in End Run.
• Surveillance Drone (Terran Confederation): surveillance drones are used to monitor subspace transmissions in deep space.
• Remote Surveillance Drone (Terran Confederation, Empire of Kilrah): remote surveillance drones guard distant jump points that do not warrant a garrison. They are dropped off and maintained by picket ships. In Fleet Action, the Bannockburn arranges for 'an accident' which destroys a Kilrathi remote surveillance drone.
• Scout Drone (Terran Confederation): a scout drone is a surveillance drone which is left hidden in the path of expected enemy movements. The Confederation developed a tactic to hide surveillance drones in minefields which would be avoided by the Kilrathi, but by End Run they had become wise to the ploy.
• Target Drone (Free Republic of the Landreich): an automated drone for target practice and weapons testing
• Unnamed Exploratory Drone (Kilrathi): soon after the Iason incident, the Kilrathi used exploratory drones to locate and investigate McAuliffe. These drones dispatched information via radio signal which allowed the military to begin plans to attack the base there.