Relic From the Past Still Online (May 2, 2020)

[ChrisReid]

Way back in 2005, we reported on the surprising find that the semi-official Wing Commander Movie website at wingcommander.gms.lu was still live and operational - albeit untouched since 1998. These days it's common to see corporate websites taken offline rather than sit idle for years in suspended animation, which owes to both the cost of maintenance and to avoid the appearance of stale content. Even if that doesn't happen, after five or ten years, somebody pulls the plug. But a few slip through from time to time, and the Carousel Picture Company and Global Media Systems' "Wingcommander Homepage" is one of them! You can visit for yourself here. It's a simple site that primarily focuses on photos taken from the set. This leads to some amazing shots of the Rapier fighters and Kilrathi suits. The cast list still lists Ken Bones as the "traitor," which was a subplot cut from the film, although the storyline remains in the novelization and action figure line. Lastly, there's a quaint list of Wing Commander links. Pointers to the Wing Commander CIC and Dan's WC Movie site make sense, but a random link to the unofficial Secrets of the WC Universe book by Mark Minasi is a bit strange. The list must have been updated at some point in the early days, since the CIC reported about the existence of wingcommander.gms.lu on our very first opening day back in August 1998! The Wayback Machine reveals it must have been done some time between August and December of that year.




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Original update published on May 2, 2020

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Ken Bones still gets a credit in the finished cut - he's Admiral Wilson (why was it ever a good idea to credit him as 'traitor'? It's like listing David Prowse as Luke's Dad...)

One note for posterity since I've already seen this update have an unusually long reach (people love comparing things to the Space Jam website!): this is not the official site for the movie. That was at wcmovie.com and was run by Digital Anvil in 1999... it unfortunately is now long gone (though we own the domain today!) This was a site run by a company that helped produce the movie in Luxembourg.

 

[AD]

Ken Bones still gets a credit in the finished cut - he's Admiral Wilson (why was it ever a good idea to credit him as 'traitor'? It's like listing David Prowse as Luke's Dad...)

One note for posterity since I've already seen this update have an unusually long reach (people love comparing things to the Space Jam website!): this is not the official site for the movie. That was at wcmovie.com and was run by Digital Anvil in 1999... it unfortunately is now long gone (though we own the domain today!) This was a site run by a company that helped produce the movie in Luxembourg.

There was a big deal made (back in the day) about test audiences not understanding or remembering who the traitor was. However, having seen a longer version, I suggest it really doesn't matter if the audience remembers Wilson or not and that was just an excuse used to convince themselve (and maybe Moyer to convince CR) that a cut without the traitor was the way to go. Ultimately the only traitor the Audience really needs to care about is Sansky. Blair killing (Ultimately Wilson actually suicides via grenade) the traitor is also more about Blair making up his mind that his pilgrim heritage isn't an anchor. He can be a Pilgrim (genetically) and still serve his duty to Confed. Genetics don't doom him to a future of fundamentalism. It doesn't really matter who it is other than that it's a Pilgrim. Regardless, I agree it makes no sense to credit him as the traitor.


I rescued a bunch of the code from the old wcmovie.com website once upon a time. There's a handful of images missing and maybe a video file. The flash menus work and whatnot.