Merchant of Venice (June 28, 2006)

[Bandit LOAF]

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.

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Original update published on June 28, 2006

 

[Confed]

You're right about the marines wearing diving suits & it does seem that with the importance of the Venice victory endgame, we got too few cutscenes of the planet, thus it is much more likely that this artwork was intended for the planet Venice, instead of Port Hedland.
However, the ruins don't look very old to me, at least the building in the foreground is apparently in pristine condition. Maybe that is just a small Kilrathi building, with a view of the ancient ruins in the background??

 

[ChrisReid]

Yeah, the building in the left foreground could easily just be a ready-made structure dropped in by Confed forces. As far as we can see, it might not be much more than a few poles and a deck to serve as a temporary watch tower type of thing.

 

[Moonbars]

Um, the Marines are wearing space suits, not diving suits

 

[Quarto]

Um, the Marines are wearing space suits, not diving suits

Wow, really? And you can tell this how exactly?

 

[Unregistered]

Coz they are, like, space marines?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

As mentioned in the article, though, they seem to have flat face masks and air tubes... which are characteristics of wetsuits and not space suits.

 

[Lt.Death100]

I think we really don't know because these characteristics can apply to both space and diving suits.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Space suits generally don't have external body-to-helmet air tubes -- what would be the point?