AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
Which is problematic in the long run, with one major story already set in those years that doesn't mention it. Chris McCubbin's attempt to respond by moving the date of the Kilrathi war up in the material he wrote for the handbook was also frustrating...
The problem is Blair's parents. As you can see in the script draft you quoted, the original idea was a lot better--the Pilgrim War was twenty years before first contact with the Kilrathi. Blair's parents were still alive and living in a colony somewhere in that version... but when they decided to kill them in the war in a later revision suddenly the war had to take place within Blair's lifetime.
... on the other hand! I do really like the idea that Wing Commander got the equivalent of the Mexican War, this lesser known conflict where the famous leaders first met and cut their teeth. I can imagine some good stories coming out of that.
(And thank Sivar we didn't get most of that conspiracy-to-remove-a-war-from-history stuff in the finished story. VERY 1990s!)
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting touches in the third draft that make me wish they stuck with that one. But the time dilation stuff needed to be removed. And one of the elements that probably forced moving the war date up was the insistence that Paladin fought in the Pilgrim war, which doesn't make sense unless either the war wasn't so long ago, or that Paladin is a zillion years old.
They were already moving to get rid of the time dilation by the third draft but they both didn't go far enough (even in the shooting script) and introduced other problems. With the Pilgrim war not being as long ago (40 as opposed to 20 years) it's more likely that Blair wouldn't be familiar at least with the basic details.
Yeah I know - it makes me sad that everyday boring things like budgetary constraints and practicality mean that the movie doesn't come out EXACTLY as it should have in my imaginary ideal world full of boxing unicorns and transforming submarines...
I'm going to go ahead and make my final comment so I don't keep rolling this thread along too long and start rambling about nothing.
Every time I watch the WC movie I enjoy and appreciate it a little more. I challenge everyone who thinks its trash to try and find at least one thing they like about it, and see what happens.
I think this thread is great. It's not really about how the movie should have been. And it's been a refreshing change from people spouting off about how much they hate stuff without any real reason or for reasons that aren't justified.
If anything, I hope it helps others find stuff to help them appreciate the film more each time they watch it.
Also, there's nothing wrong with long threads. Maybe we haven't had any really long discussions in a while but this doesn't scratch the surface of what it was like here back in the era when the film was fresh in people's minds.