Wing Commander Movie Night: Westworld

The Wing Commander movie club reports that Zulu was a pretty interesting movie. It seemed like a fair treatment of history that most of us weren't particularly familiar with and it was certainly a lush production. More Lawrence of Arabia than Dam Busters, in our final analysis! For this week's movie we asked members to pick from a list of possible robots and they unexpectedly chose Yul Brynner. Which means that this week's movie is Michael Crichton's Westworld (1973), a famous science fiction scenario that also served as a kind of prototype for Jurassic Park. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

We're watching Westworld over a bit of a technicality! As we've mentioned before, the Wing Commander Universe map included in Wing Commander Prophecy filled out the Enigma Sector of space with star systems named after formative science fiction & fantasy writers. There are also a couple of systems named after film directors (Lucas and Spielberg in Enigma). But Michael Crichton is a case where he's both! He directed several films, including Westworld very succesfully, but he's best known today as the writer of thrillers like Congo and Jurassic Park. So we picked Westworld as the biggest film he'd directed, the same rule we're following for the others. With that in mind, we thought we'd kick off the week by generating a sort of 'reading list'. We've identified as many of the authors on the map as possible and tried to pick their most famous or important book in the list below.

Asimov Quadrant

• Asimov - Isaac Asimov - Foundation (1951)
• Blish - James Blish - A Case of Conscience (1958)
• Brin - David Brin - Startide Rising (1983)
• Card - Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game (1985)
• Clarke - Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End (1953)
• Crichton - Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park (1990)
• Ellison - Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1967)
• Foster - Alan Dean Foster - Spellsinger (1983)
• Gibson - William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984)
• Piper - Henry Beam Piper - Space Viking (1963)
• Pohl - Frederik Pohl - The Space Merchants (1953)
• Pournelle - Jerry Pournelle - A Spaceship for the King (1973)
• Robinson - Spider Robinson - Stardance (1979)
• Sterling - Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix (1985)
• Vonnegut - Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Isaac Quadrant

• Bradbury - Ray Bradbury - Martian Chronicles, The (1950)
• Harrison - Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat (1961)
• Niven - Larry Niven - Ringworld (1970)
• Zelanzny - Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light (1967)

Roddenberry Quadrant

• Roddenberry - Gene Roddenberry - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Adams - Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (1979)
• Blake - William Blake - Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789)
• Drake - David Drake - Hammer's Slammers (1979)
• Gerrold - David Gerrold - A Matter for Men (1983)
• Haldeman - Joe Haldeman - Forever War, The (1974)
• Heinlein - Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers (1959)
• Herbert - Frank Herbert - Dune (1965)
• Lucas - George Lucas - Star Wars (1976)
• McCaffrey - Anne McCaffrey - Dragonflight (1968)
• Spielberg - Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Steakley - John Steakley - Armor (1984)
• Stirling - S.M. Stirling - Marching Through Georgia (1988)

We'd love to hear any other suggestions if you have a signature story you think would make more sense! You can also find my full notes on the Enigma Sector names collected in a spreadsheet which includes all the systems that aren't named after authors and those where we haven't identified a reference at all: Arraman, Exile, Kalvan, Langston, Racene, Salayna and Wetland. It also lists the systems mentioned in Wing Commander II that aren't present on the Prophecy map, Fiddler's Green, Midian, Niffleheim, Sharm and Talbot. In an incredible coincidence, the sixth and final system mentioned in dialogue on Wing Commander II, Piper, accidentally appeared in the right place on the map in honor of H. Beam Piper!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Westworld is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2016 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.