After Action Report: It's a Wonderful Life

It's hard not to love It's a Wonderful Life, even if its specific vision of hope is increasingly specific to a 1940s America that we don't necessarily support today. As we noted, it's almost like a long Twilight Zone episode, complete with that same sense of our grandparents' nostalgia that that show is sometimes steeped in. It also flies by very quickly even though the 'point' of the movie isn't reached until very close to the end.

The major connection to Wing Commander is that Pilgrim Stars has a flagship named the TCS Bedford Falls after It's a Wonderful Life's setting. The two 'versions' of Bedford Falls are the crux of the story, with Jimmy Stewart's character seeing what an impact his seemingly small life had on his town (which becomes a dystopian nightmare in the timeline where he never existed). Wing Commander could take place in either world!

With that in mind, I thought I'd make a quick list of the other capital ships named by Pilgrim Stars... and it's pretty interesting! Where Dr. Forstchen and Andrew Keith use familiar 'military' terms (familiar things like Defiant or Gettysburg), Peter Telep chooses much more unusual names for capital ships. Many of them seem related to his own life in Florida... or they're outright unknown! Here's our quick attempt at identifying them all, we encourage you to try and figure them out on the forums.

• TCS Barnicket Light - Unknown - possibly the town of Barnegat Light, New Jersey, USA
• TCS Beacontree - Bengal class Strike Carrier - possibly the hamlet of Beacontree Heath, Essex, UK
• TCS Carraway - Exeter class Destroyer - Nick Carraway, narrator of The Great Gatsby
• TCS Chippewa - Unknown Destroyer - alternate term for the Ojibwe tribe of North America
• TCS Drayton - Unknown - a common name for places and people, impossible to specify further
• TCS Fosubius - Concordia class Supercruiser - unknown
• TCS Halstov - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Mitchell Hammock - Exeter class Destroyer - road in Oviedo, Florida, USA
• TCS Oregon - Exeter class Destroyer - US state
• TCS Rigaria - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Scrimshaw - Drayman class Transport - art made from whale bones
• TCS Talmud - Exeter class Destroyer - Jewish holy book
• TCS Tricaliber - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Windmar - Unknown Destroyer - unknown