The Movie. Jump points. Cats. and so on...

[ELTEE]

I completely agree, regarding the banter. If I were doing my 'cat free' version, suggested above, I'd have the rec-room, mentor and relationship scenes all involve/revolve around *reaction* to the Kilrathi. Blair doesn't know what to think, he and Maniac are new and scared - Hunter hates them for killing his brother... Polanski says they're not as tough as they seem, he was at the route on Epislon IV... Paladin has the real story about what they're like from his time as a POW... etc. Build your relationships around that and at the same time build up the enemy you never see, instead of a fear of Pilgrims.

I thought this the first time I saw the movie and was going to post something quite similar at the end of this thread. It really would have added a fear and ferocity to the Kilrathi to continue to build them up without actually revealing them.

I don't think it would be bad for us (the gaming community) either. I mean, do we really have to see them in a movie just because we've encountered them face to face in the games? I would have almost treated it like an inside joke, where I knew something more than the average viewer. Plus, it would have allowed my imagination to go wild, piecing together what I thought the cats looked like and drawing on the *best* inspiration from all of the games, literature, and the cartoon.

On a side note, I always wanted to see more of Blair's dogfighting prowess in the movie. He should have come accross Thrakath or a local sector ace or something...

 

[MannPower]

In the movie, Blair could do math really well. That's really all you get from if, if you never played the games. Maniac basically got portrayed as the 'Ace' of the two...

... Which really chafes me up, actually. He was way too competent, but we all know this.

 

[AD]

Also, if they consciously intended the artificial gravity to extend down the length of the runway and beyond, why'd Maniac have to tie himself to something before he tried to leave the flight deck's air-field? He'd just need to hold his breath, since he could just walk out there. I always got the impression that the deck beyond required magnetized boots/treads (in the case of the dozer, which pushed the wreckage off the deck.. Which didn't float away.)

It's not the gravity though. It's the force of the decompression that knocks them off their feet. (besides which per the games the flightdecks are low gravity area's anyway... not that that is ever apparent in the cinematics in either the games or the movies). THe forcefield keeping the air on the flight deck lost power (per the novel) and there was a big hole in the hull / blast door.

In the movie, Blair could do math really well. That's really all you get from if, if you never played the games. Maniac basically got portrayed as the 'Ace' of the two...

We do see blair blast a number of cats on a few occasions, but you are right that it happens fast and our minds almost glaze over it. Blair blasts at least one with angel on the reconaissance mission, and then later he takes out more than one when the tiger claw is under attack. Maniac takes more risks though and the movie focuses more on those because of the consequences with rosie. Also, blair was supposed to have a scene as the diligent's turret gunner in the concom raid but his bits were cut with the traitor subplot and instead we just have a brief shot of maniac taking out a fighter or two. (maniacs wingman is supposed to be Polansky)

 

[MannPower]

Discount what I said about the Maniac / cable thing, AD; I got my scenes mixed up in my head. That was the decompression scene, and not the 'Rosie Rescue' scene.

 

[Nomad Terror]

why'd Maniac have to tie himself to something before he tried to leave the flight deck's air-field?

What?

Maniac anchored himself because BLAIR WAS BEING SUCKED OUT OF THE SHIP THROUGH A HULL BREACH. If he hadn't anchored himself he would not have been able to have the flight crew and other pilots pull the two of them back in.

When Maniac was wanting to save Rosie, all he asked for was a SUIT. There was nothing suggesting that Maniac couldn't just run out there, other than Blair yelling that if went through that field, he's "history."

EDIT: Never mind.

 

[Janet Noslen]

Yeah, I meant to point that out earlier - there are no real quasars in our galaxy... so both Wing Commander III and the movie are scientifically wrong on that point.

Unless the Loki and Dakota systems are positioned outside the galaxy and only accessible because of some oddity in jump mechanics, I guess...

I've thought about this before. My simple understanding of such things is based on reading Stephen Hawking's book where he describes the discovery of quasars in 1963: I should point out as well that I learnt the term only means "quasi-stellar" object - so they could be anything that resembles a star in the sky.

Basically they are objects showing large amounts of red shift (this gives the impression of them moving away from us). It was indeed decided that they must be the gravitational collapses of distant galactic cores because if these objects were close enough it would be disturbing the movements of local stars, and even our planets.

BUT, what if they just look like that from here, but in the distant future we get close enough to discover that they are objects that defy our current astrophysical expectations? In that case, who knows what properties they may have.

Regarding the artificial gravity pull on launching fighters, surely it creates a certain amount of inertia relative to the mass of the fighter right? So when a powered object flies off the end of the deck, the previously downward pulling force will effectively put the object on that 'downward' course forever (unless the object is a Rapier with a pilot that can make a course change immediately after leaving the deck).

Hope you don't mind this stuff...

 

[ChrisReid]

I mentioned the Rapier dip because it's the one most people don't pick up on.

You certainly don't have to ever worry about a lack of people picking up on that one.

I think it’s clear that ships in Wing Commander have some kind of artificial gravity, there has to be some force holding people’s feet to the floor. I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t extend a little ways beyond the deck, either intentionally or as a side effect.

That's always been my thought.

Even if that were indeed the case, there is nothing below the deck-plane when the Rapier leaves the runway. That being said, if the artificial gravity were still affecting the craft, it would pull it toward the 'Claw like a weak magnet, rather than just 'down'.

But with a giant engine pushing the fighter away from the deck, the dip down is all we're ever going to see.

An argument against the artificial gravity being a 'field' that extends beyond the boarders of the craft would be the liabilities it'd impose. Torpedoes moving above the gravity plane of the 'Claw would be pulled downward towards the ship.

As far as we see, the effect gets to be negligible after a few feet away.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

You certainly don't have to ever worry about a lack of people picking up on that one.

It used to show up in the pre-release stuff all the time - Chris Roberts et.al. were all really proud of it.

 

[AD]

It used to show up in the pre-release stuff all the time - Chris Roberts et.al. were all really proud of it.

I've been trying read all the possible making-of articles out there that I missed about the movie (I bought one really great one too in a 99 issue of Cinefex) and they all seem to point out how they wanted it to be like WW2 in space so they even made the fighters dip... Every little thing, almost beyond reason *is* a WW2 movie.

The SFX article talks about the kilrathi bridge being like a pillbox but sadly we only get a glimse of it in the movie. Originally blair was supposed to ambush the bridge and stop the kilrathi from scuttling the ship. And then fight the traitor as well. The existing scene is odd and pieced together from odd bits to the point where if you slow it down you can tell all the shots don't even match with their interior locations.