Movie Kilrathi Errata (or: Sleep With One Eye Glowing)

Last week we posted about the lore surrounding the Kilrathi characters in the Wing Commander movie. Since that post we've thought of a few more interesting things to point out… so they're collected here!

Eye See You

The first point concerns Bokoth, the "Kilrathi Admiral". Astute readers noted something in the script when he's first described: he's very explicitly said to have only one eye.

ADMIRAL turns. Its face is scarred, distorted, one eye missing. His plumes, indicative of rank, clan, and battles fought and won, flow over massive shoulders. Small smile creeps over his visage, exposes yellowed canines.

The novelization expands the description, noting that he lost his eye at McAuliffe.

Kalralahr Bokoth turned his long, pale head toward Thiraka. Bokoth's face bore the ravages of the battle at McAuliffe. He had lost an eye in that ambush, and deep scars radiated from the gloomy socket like an improbable form of black anti-lightning.

… but he certainly has two eyes in the movie! Obviously, the intent to reference the Emperor from Wing Commander II and Wing Commander III was there from the very start, well before the Kilrathi costumes were constructed… so what happened here?

The answer is that the costume actually was made with one dead eye… but the digital effects work added it back when they gave the Kilrathi glowing eyes! Here you can compare a picture of Bokoth as she was filmed to one as he appeared in the final film. If you look carefully, you CAN see the scarring around his bad eye in the final film around the digital eye.

More Toy Confusion

Last time we talked about how X-Toys made an action figure of Bokoth, the Kilrathi Admiral that was confusingly titled Kilrathi General… and that his trading card was actually a picture of the Kilrathi Marines (seen in the Pegasus attack and on the ConCom). Well, there's an additional layer of confusion here because the KILRATHI PILOT action figure (who features a card showing the Admiral) is in fact an action figure of the marine.

But… is there a Kilrathi pilot or did they just need someone to fly the (cancelled) Dralthi vehicle toy? There WAS! A Kilrathi cockpit was constructed and a Kilrathi pilot shot. The intent was to have them appear during the attack on the ConCom; we would've seen the scene from the Kilrathi perspective as the pilot dove to attack Maniac and the Diligent.

AD has used that footage to reconstruct what the scene might've looked like. In the final version, we would've seen the reflection of the battle in the Kilrathi 'eye mask'.