WC Influences

[Farbourne]

So the issue of the Kilrathi being derived, at least in part, from Larry Niven's Kzinti came up in the other thread, which gave me the idea for this thread. I thought it would be a good topic for discussion, and maybe people could learn from others in the know.

What elements of the Wing Commander universe do you think (or know) were inspired by/ripped off from science fiction that had gone before?

To count, said elements actually had to appear elsewhere *before* they appeared in Wing Commander (obviously), and have to be elements of sci-fi (Wing Commander's inspiration of WW2 air combat is well known).

And, what goes the other way? What WC elements do you have have showed up in other sci-fi franchises?

Off the top of my head, here's the elements that stand out to me:

* Niven's Kzinti inspired the Kilrathi

* The fundamental idea of starfighters flying off of space carriers is quite old, obviously, but really got codified first by Star Wars in 1977, and then by BSG (the original one) in 1978

* Speaking of which, the P-64 Ferret bears a striking resemblance to a Colonial Viper, at least to my eye. Other ship resemblances: The Raptor strongly resembles to my eye a Rylan Gunstar from The Last Starfighter. Actually, there aren't that many ship resemblances, or if there are, they're far enough off to be in my imagination. I think the WC art designers did a very good job of giving WC ships a unique look and not ripping off other sci-fi franchises.

* The concept of the Phase Transit Cannon, a gigantic weapon that forms the entire keel of a space dreadnought and can destroy entire capships or planets, seems a direct derivative of the Wave Motion Cannon from Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato.

* Mark Hamil flying down a canyon to drop a bomb on a special spot to destroy the entire enemy's war effort at the end of WC3, and Mark Hamil sneaking through the corridors of an enemy space station and rescuing a damsel in distress in WC4 both bear somewhat obvious similarities to other science fiction that has featured Mark Hamil.

Those are the ones that come to mind immediately. What are others that have struck other people? And can folks in the know about the development of Wing Commander shed some light on what the real, intentional imfluences and tributes are?

 

[t.c.cgi]

* Speaking of which, the P-64 Ferret bears a striking resemblance to a Colonial Viper, at least to my eye. Other ship resemblances: The Raptor strongly resembles to my eye a Rylan Gunstar from The Last Starfighter. Actually, there aren't that many ship resemblances, or if there are, they're far enough off to be in my imagination. I think the WC art designers did a very good job of giving WC ships a unique look and not ripping off other sci-fi franchises.

The super fighter from WC1 (Rapier) bears a striking resemblance to the titular super fighter of the movie Firefox.

 

[Red Baron]

I'll be so bold and say the avian wing design (and function) of the Lance is pretty much borrowed from the Klingon Bird of Prey.
Hell they even both sweep their wings down when in "battle mode".

 

[FekLeyrTarg]

I've also noticed similarities between the Raptor, the Ferret and the X-Wing from Star Wars.
And the Confed Starbase from WC2 reminds me on the one from Star Trek III.

 

[Flashpoint]

I always felt the brown flight juackets in WC1 was inspired by the original Battlestar Galactica. The launch tube thing aswell, now I think about it.

 

[Mace]

Buck Rogers used the launch sequence too... hell he even used the props from galactica... And they had a bird-alien.. that was a just a guy with feathers for hair.

 

[Kyle Maverick]

I've also noticed similarities between the Raptor, the Ferret and the X-Wing from Star Wars.

You could throw in the Starfury from Babylon 5 as being part of that grouping too

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The Raptor and the Ferret both predate the Starfury.

 

[FekLeyrTarg]

The Salthi also looks similar to the klingon Bird of Prey.

 

[Dondragmer]

While this is a fun game to play, many WC designs seem simply logical (for visual media, not for real spacecraft).

- Need a threatening thing that flies? Model it on a predatory bird. It worked for the Klingons, and it can work for you. More generally, any spaceship that looks like an airplane can be made more futuristic and more threatening by sweeping the wings forward. To make it visually interesting, animate something when it goes into action. The most distinctive feature is the wings, so fold them.

- Many, many starbases are rotationally symmetric - probably to make it clear that they're stationary. Once you make that choice, it's really hard not to end up with a giant mushroom.

- It's probably easier to list the science fiction franchises that don't launch fighters out of tubes. What would Freud say?

- To make your characters look like pilots, model their uniform on a real air force. The WC1 uniform looks a lot like US Army Air Force uniforms from the Second World War, except that it lacks a tie. (Incidentally, I just replayed the WC2 and SO2 openings. Both Maverick and Jazz wear a dress uniform during their respective hearings. It's a nice touch that I never noticed before.)

 

[Sylvester]

The Wing Commander 2 Confederation dress uniforms were always my favorite out of the entire series. The regular duty uniforms for WC2 were okay, but I think they would have looked better if the jacket and trousers weren't the same tone of blue.

 

[Bob McDob]

- Many, many starbases are rotationally symmetric - probably to make it clear that they're stationary. Once you make that choice, it's really hard not to end up with a giant mushroom.

I constantly wonder if Perry Naval Base and New Constantinople don't rotate on their vertical axis and we only think of them as that way because of our VDUs.

 

[Dondragmer]

Spinning Space Stations

I constantly wonder if Perry Naval Base and New Constantinople don't rotate on their vertical axis and we only think of them as that way because of our VDUs.

Yes, I should have acknowledged real-world plans for mushroom-shaped space stations using centripetal force to simulate gravity, like Wernher von Braun's 1946 design. For fixing them in the our imagination, we should also acknowledge Chesley Bonestell. 21st century computers and medicine are nifty, but I'd trade them for Bonestell's future in an instant.

Space stations don't have to be circular to achieve this - you could just have a single habitat module attached to a counterweight with a long cable. However, circles are better because you can move around inside without nauseating gravity changes. Even in a future with artificial gravity, spinning may take less energy or be more reliable. (On the other hand, docking with a spinning station would frustrate pilots. If Perry Naval Base rotates, that Paradigm must have taken great skill to park. Most plans for spinning space stations include a stationary dock.)

In the WC Universe, rotation also means an attacker can't concentrate fire on one segment of shields and armor. Curiously, the WC2 demo includes a view from within a spinning space station, but it's static in the acutal game. The gravity must be artificial - if it weren't, the characters would be standing on the window.