LeHah
212 Squadron - "The Old Man's Eyes And Ears"
A few days after Mark Hamill's NYCC announcement comes the *other* Christopher Blair! Freddie Prinze Jr will be at Rhode Island ComiCon this November. http://www.ricomiccon.com/
Freddie Prinze Jr Coming to Rhode Island ComiCon
- Thread starter LeHah
- Start date
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Hey, that makes wonder. How many Blairs were there altogether? Let's see, in order of appearance...
1. WC2 voiceovers - was it Ken Demarest III? I can't remember, and MobyGames doesn't list the acting credits for WC2.
2. WC2 3d model - supposedly this was modelled after Chris Roberts? I suppose that doesn't count, though, otherwise we'd have to try to figure out whether the 2d sprites from WC1, WC2, and SWC were based on anyone in particular.
3. SWC voiceovers - no idea.
4. WC3-WCP - Mark Hamill
5. WCM - Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Is that all, or was there another voice-overed version of WC1 or WC2 that had a different Blair?
1. WC2 voiceovers - was it Ken Demarest III? I can't remember, and MobyGames doesn't list the acting credits for WC2.
2. WC2 3d model - supposedly this was modelled after Chris Roberts? I suppose that doesn't count, though, otherwise we'd have to try to figure out whether the 2d sprites from WC1, WC2, and SWC were based on anyone in particular.
3. SWC voiceovers - no idea.
4. WC3-WCP - Mark Hamill
5. WCM - Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Is that all, or was there another voice-overed version of WC1 or WC2 that had a different Blair?
Sega Mega-CD WC1 had a voiceover for Blair too.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
There's also the Sega CD version of Wing Commander I, which does not credit the voice actor.
Ken Demarest III was indeed the Wing Commander II voice. #2 isn't a 3D model, though; Chris played the 'body' for the character in the rotoscoped cut-scenes (... which I think is just the Angel kiss for Blair?)
For Super Wing Commander, Jason Tirado is the voice of Armstrong.
AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
Wasn't there a punch scene too? I seem to remember some anecdote about them accidentally connecting even.
EDIT: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/thats-gotta-hurt-july-20-2006.19123/
Ahhh, right. Yeah there was a punch but it wasn't a Blair scene, but it was CR standing in for Jazz, hehe
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
So even just counting voice actors, there were three different Blairs across the first two games, of whom one was a game programmer, another will probably remain unknown, and only one that appears to have been a professional voice actor. Yep. Definitely the early, experimental days of video game voice acting. Funnily, Jason Tirado also played the hero in Strike Commander - that's kind of impressive, to be the hero in two separate Origin games.
Incidentally, I had a quick look at Ken Demarest III's LinkedIn profile and a couple of other places, and I get the impression that he was probably also the basis for the 2d sprite Blair in WC2, though it is of course hard to tell given that thirty years have passed.