Merchant of Venice

In a recent update we theorized that a water world scene removed from the original Wing Commander might be Hurricane, the water planet seen in one of the games winning/losing cutscenes. Now we have another idea: the planet might be Venice... and it might have been removed from the winning endgame! Upon arrival in the Venice System, Shotglass introduces: "So, Maverick, here we are in the Venice system, in the heart of Kilrathi space. Course, the hairballs have their own name for it… Kharak Tar, I think. Its habitable planet is a water world, like Port Hedland’s. We call it Venice ’cause of ancient ruins on it, sinkin’ into the ocean. But the Killie-cats aren’t supposed to like the water, so they put their base in the system in an orbital station. Tactical thinks if we find that station and take it out, we’ll take out the brains of the Kilrathi operations in the whole sector!" This seems unusual for a game that already features a water planet -- and the alien ruins coming out of the sea might well be the white spires seen in the removed background. Perhaps the empty space in the middle of the picture would have originally displayed the fireworks artwork or some similar action sequence? The endgame that was ultimately used had no background: it was done entirely in silhouette (right)... but look closely, the marines seem to be wearing diving suits, complete with breathing tubes and flat round facemasks.