Farbourne
Rear Admiral
So the issue of the Kilrathi being derived, at least in part, from Larry Niven's Kzinti came up in the other thread, which gave me the idea for this thread. I thought it would be a good topic for discussion, and maybe people could learn from others in the know.
What elements of the Wing Commander universe do you think (or know) were inspired by/ripped off from science fiction that had gone before?
To count, said elements actually had to appear elsewhere *before* they appeared in Wing Commander (obviously), and have to be elements of sci-fi (Wing Commander's inspiration of WW2 air combat is well known).
And, what goes the other way? What WC elements do you have have showed up in other sci-fi franchises?
Off the top of my head, here's the elements that stand out to me:
* Niven's Kzinti inspired the Kilrathi
* The fundamental idea of starfighters flying off of space carriers is quite old, obviously, but really got codified first by Star Wars in 1977, and then by BSG (the original one) in 1978
* Speaking of which, the P-64 Ferret bears a striking resemblance to a Colonial Viper, at least to my eye. Other ship resemblances: The Raptor strongly resembles to my eye a Rylan Gunstar from The Last Starfighter. Actually, there aren't that many ship resemblances, or if there are, they're far enough off to be in my imagination. I think the WC art designers did a very good job of giving WC ships a unique look and not ripping off other sci-fi franchises.
* The concept of the Phase Transit Cannon, a gigantic weapon that forms the entire keel of a space dreadnought and can destroy entire capships or planets, seems a direct derivative of the Wave Motion Cannon from Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato.
* Mark Hamil flying down a canyon to drop a bomb on a special spot to destroy the entire enemy's war effort at the end of WC3, and Mark Hamil sneaking through the corridors of an enemy space station and rescuing a damsel in distress in WC4 both bear somewhat obvious similarities to other science fiction that has featured Mark Hamil.
Those are the ones that come to mind immediately. What are others that have struck other people? And can folks in the know about the development of Wing Commander shed some light on what the real, intentional imfluences and tributes are?
What elements of the Wing Commander universe do you think (or know) were inspired by/ripped off from science fiction that had gone before?
To count, said elements actually had to appear elsewhere *before* they appeared in Wing Commander (obviously), and have to be elements of sci-fi (Wing Commander's inspiration of WW2 air combat is well known).
And, what goes the other way? What WC elements do you have have showed up in other sci-fi franchises?
Off the top of my head, here's the elements that stand out to me:
* Niven's Kzinti inspired the Kilrathi
* The fundamental idea of starfighters flying off of space carriers is quite old, obviously, but really got codified first by Star Wars in 1977, and then by BSG (the original one) in 1978
* Speaking of which, the P-64 Ferret bears a striking resemblance to a Colonial Viper, at least to my eye. Other ship resemblances: The Raptor strongly resembles to my eye a Rylan Gunstar from The Last Starfighter. Actually, there aren't that many ship resemblances, or if there are, they're far enough off to be in my imagination. I think the WC art designers did a very good job of giving WC ships a unique look and not ripping off other sci-fi franchises.
* The concept of the Phase Transit Cannon, a gigantic weapon that forms the entire keel of a space dreadnought and can destroy entire capships or planets, seems a direct derivative of the Wave Motion Cannon from Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato.
* Mark Hamil flying down a canyon to drop a bomb on a special spot to destroy the entire enemy's war effort at the end of WC3, and Mark Hamil sneaking through the corridors of an enemy space station and rescuing a damsel in distress in WC4 both bear somewhat obvious similarities to other science fiction that has featured Mark Hamil.
Those are the ones that come to mind immediately. What are others that have struck other people? And can folks in the know about the development of Wing Commander shed some light on what the real, intentional imfluences and tributes are?