One *could* look at it from that perspective, but I have my doubts. Skipper missiles didn't appear in the game until WCIII, long AFTER the fighters had been developed. Tolwyn also claimed that the board of inquiry still found Blair guilty of negligence. Had his lawyer actually been able to successfully prove that Blair's wasn't lying, then there was nothing he could have been negligent for. The TCS Tiger's Claw (what is UP with the stupid movie name "Tiger Claw", BTW?) would have been found to fail because she met with overwhelming opposition. Actual negligence would have suggested that Blair had taken explicit actions that were against his orders (perhaps not even executing his orders) which resulted in the destruction of his carrier vessel.
Blair was convicted of negligence because it was his job to defend the Tiger's Claw -- which he failed to do, whether he was defending it against Strakha, an ordinary attack or his own treason. It was a case of 'we couldn't nail him for what we wanted, but we can get him for this...'. (Someone above explained the 'story so far' blurb -- there's also a much more detailed telling of the Claw's destruction in the WC1/2 Guide).
"Tiger's Claw" became "Tiger Claw" slowly across various drafts of the script - it was probably corrected to that initially because it makes better gramatical sense (as would 'tiger's claws' -- they went for simplicity). Linguistically, it's pretty much the same word... you'd have trouble telling them apart vocally.
In terms of Skipper missile, take this as you will, but Eisen actually claims that 'the Kilrathi are testing a
new type of cloaked missile'. It seems to me (though perhaps I am under the influence of the Handbook's Skipper history) that developing a cloaked missile (that uncloaks to lock) would be a lot simpler than an invisible fighter.
Besides, am I misremembering or didn't someone in the movie say something like "Thank God there are no signs of Strakhas?" Maybe that's just my imagination.
You are misremembering -- the movie support materials (adaptation, handbook) intentionally suggest the opposite - that the Kilrathi are years from developing a stealth fighter. (They also further suggest the Tolwyn conspiracy theory introduced in Super Wing Commander.)
It is true that they never actually stated what type of shields they were. The execution, however, was highly suggestive of phase shields. My only guess is that they decided to tone it down when they published Jane's.
Like most of the promotional material, the handbook was published shortly before the movie was released. (And was, incidentally, written by the same group that did all the game manuals and official guides...).
Not quite. Freedom Flight takes place about the time of Secret Missions 2. That gives at least 10 years for him to work his way through the ranks. He already was a more senior officer with a relatively high rank. (One of the original reasons for fighter pilots to fly was that they got to bypass the Naval ranks in a hurry.) That rank would have transferred even to Special Ops. I do remember him explicitly saying that he had transferred to Special Ops in WCII.
Another factor that doesn't make sense is that a Commodore would be unlikely to be flying planes for so long. According to Claw Marks, he wrote the book on the carrier's flight operations. This paragraph in particular doesn't make sense if he just came on board:
Though an effective wingleader, Taggart is especialy appreciated for whis wingman skills. He has a reputation for protectiveness when flying wing. On an average of three times a year, pranksters get to his space-craft, scrape the name "Paladin" from his cockpit and replace it with "Mother Hen"
How could he have a reputation if he just arrived as a "free trader" transferred to flight ops? And for that matter, how could he average 3 "Mother Hens" a year if he hadn't even been on flight duty for that long?
It would flow well if we didn't already know far too much about Taggert. Free Traders don't just magically become flight officers without some serious questions being raised by the crew.
That isn't anyone's backstory for Paladin, though. He's certainly been flying for years. I was working on one of those 'pull together' backstory articles for the Paladin thread, and I think I can outline his career:
2627 - Graduates University of Cairo. Attends Space Forces OCS, Flight School and Counterintelligence School
2629-31 - Comissioned, flies fighters (with Shotglass) off the TCS Horus for two years.
2631-35 - Pilgrim War, works as a covert operative.
2635-37 - Flies fighters on the front lines.
2637-41 - Flies recon for Exploratory Services. Captured in 2638, escapes in 2641.
2642-54 - Flies combat missions, including at least one tour onboard the Tiger's Claw in 2649.
2654 - Tolwyn, citing Taggart's covert ops experience, his knowledge of Pilgrim Culture and his familiarity with Kilrathi language asks him to serve with Naval Intelligence to help investigate rumors of a Pilgrim/Kilrathi relationship. He serves in this capacity for less than three months (.056-.130).
2654-55 - Serves as a squadron commander onboard the Tiger's Claw.
2655-56 - "Retires" from active duty at the behest of Tolwyn, who wants him to work with Special Operations in the Enigma Sector. In his first mission (of sorts), he preserves the treaty with Firekka by rescuing prisoners taken during the Kilrathi retreat.
2656-57 - Paired with Ralgha nar Hhallas, Taggart provides Confederation logistial support to the rebellion on Gorah Khar.
2657-67 - Continues to serve as a spy in the Enigma Sector, gathering information on Kilrathi movements.
2668 - Events of Fleet Action.
2668-69 - Makes the General list, made commander of Covert Operations.
Etc. My understanding of the commodore rank in the movie is that it's something he's been given specifically by Tolwyn (a brevet rank?) so he can order around individual naval assets in the Vega Sector.
Seriously, though, it wouldn't have caused such problems if Taggert wasn't French. Remember, Claw Marks clearly states "Taggart, 45, is a native of Ares, the self-sufficient space station built in permanent orbit around the planet Venus; his parents were terraforming engineers from Wick, Scotland."
I don't think that's a definitive source for whether or not he really has a Scottish accent, though (particularly if it's a put on - that's hardly something Claw Marks would know or be able to reveal). I certainly think that in a case where the Wing Commander IV adaptation states it isn't real, that this isn't enough to contradict that.
Actually, all accents in games are forgivable. In movies, far less so. Especially when you've got a Scottsman speaking French. It's called casting, and I have to say that the WC movie didn't do all that great of a job of it.
Well, forgive me for asking the obvious question, but why is that? Shouldn't games, designed with a more loyal fanbase in mind, be *more* responsible for continuity than movies made to appeal to the general public?
I've got to disagree in terms of casting - in my mind, that's one of the few things the Wing Commander movie did a very good job of. The young American rookies contrasting a very international cast of veterans was a very cool technique. Would I rather Paladin didn't have a French accent? Sure... though Tcheky Karyo is a very good actor, and accent withstanding did a great job of the role.
So you're assuming that there were two phase shield technologies, both of which just happened to have the exact same advantages and disadvantages? That doesn't make much sense.
and
The torpedos needed a *phase lock*. You don't get much more irreconcilable than that.
My assumption, based on AS, Wing Commander II and particularly the Wing Commander III adaptation's use of the term in relation to fighter technology is that 'phase shields' is a term which can refer to any type of shielding. Every class of shielding is based on the same principle, and regardless of whether or not the current level of guns can penetrate them, torpedoes lock onto their phase signature in order to skip through them. (That is to say, a torpedo fired at a Ralari in 2654 will obtain a phase lock just as it would a Ralatha in 2665.)
The "phase shields" in Wing Commander II represent a new, better iteration of this same technology... and the Mark III and Mark IV torpedoes of that era represent a better response to it. The same thing applies eight years later in Wing Commander IV forward. (The Midway's "phase shields" are a new, better interation of Wing Commander II's technology... and the torpedoes of 2681 represent a similar advance.)
FWIW, the Vesuvius was not an instance of development of a new shielding technology. Rather, she was such a large ship that her generators were capable of regenerating shields faster than a fighter could damage them.
I don't think anything like that is ever stated -- note that a Kilrathi dreadnought (WC3) of a similar tonnage *can* be damaged by guns. The Vesuvius is supposed to have the latest in shield and armor technologies, which is used to explain why you have to fly inside the bay to flash-pak her.
I'm straining to remember here, but shouldn't the "alien technology" bend come in to play here? I mean, the Nephilim designs were like none we'd ever seen before. My guess is that since neither side yet knew the other's capabilities, we were attempting to use all the force of a hammer, and none of the elegence of a nail.
It'd be a reasonable explanation -- except the same technology shift applies to the human and Kilrathi designs in the game as well. You can't gun down a Pelican or a Fralthi II.