Display MoreThe Wing Commander movie club has kicked off October right with a spooky horror movie: the 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby. We found it to be a stunningly well made movie full of visual texture and nuance. The story is maybe more relevant than ever again, an allegory about society's belief in its right to control women. Now: the Wing Commander connection here was always slight, so we're going to lean right into it and try and collect everything we know about the character named after Rosemary's Baby's controversial director Roman Polanski.
In the 27th century, Lt. Adam "Bishop" Polanski is one of the veteran wingmen aboard the Tiger Claw in the Wing Commander movie. He was played by veteran British actor Mark Powley, best known for a long running role on television's The Bill. He is a Rapier pilot and flies ship number 35. He has been aboard the carrier for about seven months at this point in the timeline. He loves chess and is a smoker, per his introduction in the rec room.
His callsign, Bishop, seems to refer to his introduction playing chess with Rosie (rather than, say, being a nod to Aliens). Despite indications otherwise, Bishop was chosen as his callsign in the movie itself. His nose art isn't visible on screen but it does appear in the Confederation Handbook. You can read an analysis of his chess game here.
The character of Polanski was created by Kevin Droney in his first draft of the Wing Commander movie. The initial version of the script doesn't have any pilots from the games beyond Maniac, Angel and Blair. In this first take, Polanski (and another pilot named Abbot) covers the Hunter and Knight roles from the final film. He taunts Maniac and Blair when they arrive on the ship and then later is killed flying a Broadsword on Paladin's wing. So the original idea was that Polanski would get some comeuppance for his treatment of the replacement! Here's his significantly more involved introduction:
In Chris Roberts' rewrite of the draft, he completely removes Polanski, replacing him and Abbot with Hunter and Knight. But either Larry Wilson or Mike Finch opt to resurrect him by the third draft, though his death is left to Knight. This is also where he gets his distinctive facial scar!
In the final movie, Polanski is scripted to appear three times: playing chess with Rosie in the rec room, delivering the "eating suns for breakfast" line during the pulsar jump and then confronting Maniac with the other pilots after Rosie's death.
He also appears in the briefing scene and then with the group of pilots that help save Maniac and Blair after the depth charge attack.
A scene was shot of Polanski's Rapier in the 'time slice' rig for the pulsar jump sequence but it was not included in the movie. Shots of the filming have survived:
The other major backstory for Polanski comes from the Confederation Handbook which prints his pilot evaluation and includes him in an interesting little story that's somewhat hidden! His evaluation, dated January 2, 2654 and written by Commander Gerald, is very positive and believes he has command potential. It notes that he has been on the Tiger Claw for three months but has experience from tours on several carriers flying multiple types of fighters. It mentions several incidents of heroics, including one where his understanding of Kilrathi tactics turned failure into victory and one where he led five pilots home safely after an ambush in an asteroid field (for which he is to be decorated).
But there's another more tragic story hidden in the page about the Tiger Claw's casualty report. If you read through the listing you'll find that four pilots were killed on December 31, 2653: Streaker, Cassipea, Schlitterbahn and Witch Hazel. A fifth, Topdog, died the next day. The story detailed next is that a flight of six Rapiers, the previously listed pilots and Polanski, were ambushed by a full squadron of Kilrathi near Cairo III. The pilots managed to shoot down between 23 and 28 Kilrathi but were ultimately doomed. Topdog and Polanski managed to escape but Topdog died of his wounds. Polanski was recommended for the Silver Star for his actions during the incident.
Polanski is present throughout the movie sequel novel, Pilgrim Stars, remaining with Black Lion squadron and flying through all of the book's engagements. While he survives and even appears at the very end of the story, he does not appear in Pilgrim Truth. His ultimate fate remains unknown; perhaps he's the rare Tiger Claw pilot that actually died when the ship went down!
One funny bit from the viewing: we immediately starting joking about the film's continual references to Yamaha products, which turned out to be part of a major product tie-in between Paramount and Yamaha at the time. Turns out Yamaha was still making such deals twenty years later: in 1993, they arranged with Origin to display Privateer in their COMDEX booth! Here's a Point of Origin with the full story.
Sully feels that a handsome black cat is essential for any horror movie screening.
