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We had a ball rewatching Pulp Fiction last week; it's really a special movie, for all the discourse in every direction that has come from it over the years. This week we voted on movies that take place in the past... and decided to visit King Arthur with Excalibur (1981). You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
You are likely thinking that the connection is Wing Commander III's signature Excalibur-class fighter. But that is not the case! The Excalibur is named after the sword of legend and not the movie… but the movie IS an adaptation of Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485)... which is one of the books Paladin cited in the original Claw Marks as an inspiration for his joining the Confederation at the start of the war!
"The laddies coming out of the Academy think I was born old," says Major James Taggart, who is known as Paladin to the spacecrews. "But when I took my commission - not too long after we discovered the Empire of Kilrah - I was just a kid. I was charged up on stories of knight-errantry, on The Death of Arthur and The Song of Roland. So when we ran into the Kilrathi, I knew I was going to grab up a lance, hop into a cockpit, and change the course of history. Naturally," he jokes, "I did."
I've always loved the implication that Confederation popular culture was going through a 'knight errantry' period when the Kilrathi war started. It's the sort of thing that has happened regularly to our culture for hundreds of years so it makes sense… and it's a neat detail that's mentioned several times in the early material from Aaron Allston. Later Wing Commander IS full of references to Arthurian legends, too, and it's possible that's because the generation that started fighting the war were so interested in it! Here's a quick survey of some of the many, many Arthur references in Wing Commander continuity. Can you think of any more? Let us know on the forums!
Of course, the most famous is the Excalibur fighter from Wing Commander III. It reappears in Wing Commander IV and Secret Ops and shows up throughout the later fiction including in the ICIS manual. Excaliburs even appear on the cover of False Colors, despite only being mentioned in passing in the story!
The Wing Commander CTCG has four Excalibur cards and they each represent a different Arthur-named squadron: Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad and Merlin. More on him later!
The Wing Commander III novel continues with this theme and gives Arthurian names to several things. The final attack on Kilrah is designated Lancelot Flight and the Victory's code name is Round Table. We are also told that Flash had been a test pilot for 'Camelot Industries'! Wing Commander Arena's Star*Soldier manual follows that reference and establishes that Camelot Industries was the company that built the Broadsword bomber.
"Excalibur three-zero-zero, clear and under power," Blair said aloud. "Lancelot Flight, form on me and proceed as planned."
The other three pilots acknowledged, closing around him. Four Excalibur fighters, to attack the Imperial homeworld. It still seemed like sheer madness. But this time it was truly mankind's last chance for victory.
"Lancelot Flight, Lancelot Flight, this is Round Table," Eisen's voice crackled over the comm channel. "Good luck to you all . . . and Godspeed."
Blair didn't reply. Instead he checked his power levels, then spoke to the other pilots. "Go to cloaks . . . now!" he ordered, switching on his own cloaking system. There was no apparent effect, other than the sudden increase in the fighter's power drain. Weapons and shields were useless while the shroud concealed the craft, but detection would be nearly impossible. Already the other Excaliburs had vanished. He was all alone in an endless night.False Colors also uses Camelot and Lancelot as callsigns at one point, for the FRLS Independence and Kevin Tolwyn's flight respectively. Knowing Andrew Keith, I believe this was an intentional nod to the earlier book. The book also includes a destroyer named Caliburn, an alternate name for Excalibur itself.
"Camelot, Camelot, this is Lancelot," Tolwyn said, switching to the carrier's frequency. "Camelot, did you copy that? We've got ships incoming through the jump point . . ." He stopped as the first targets began registering on his screens. "My God, they're Cats. I'm reading a Cat task force, one carrier . . . no, two carriers now, plus cruisers and destroyers. Repeat, Cat task force with two carriers and supporting combat ships. What are your instructions, Camelot?"
But there was no response from the Independence.There's a mention of the Holy Grail in the Wing Commander IV novel:
Blair followed him towards the lift. He caught a glimpse of an odd-looking piece of equipment bolted to a portable test rack. He walked over to inspect it more closely. "Unless I miss my guess, this is a wing root from a Dralthi. What's it doing here?"
Eisen's eyes grew guarded again. He reached his hand out to pat the assembly mounted on a metal cradle. "This little jewel mounts a device that seems to channel energy directly from the main drives to the weapons. The people in the other bay have been using our diagnostic equipment on it, trying to nail down why it works."
Blair looked skeptical. Guns were generally too temperamental to handle spiking power flows that came from trying to draw directly from the engines. Capacitors acted as intermediaries on most fighters, smoothing out and delivering precisely controlled energy flows. They kept the weapons from eating a power surge that disabled them. Their major drawback was that they almost always ran out of power before the pilot ran out of targets. Blair knew the quest for a capacitor-smooth, direct-engine feed had long been a BuWeap priority.
"Do the eggheads think this gizmo is the Holy Grail, then?" he asked sarcastically.
"Well," Eisen replied uncertainly, "Tolwyn's trained monkeys seem to think so."There's also a Free Trader named Excalibur in Wing Commander II! You escort it and the TCS Bhomis, both carrying medical supplies, while returning from Niven to the Concordia early in the game.
And then don't forget the Gwenhyvar, an Exeter (or Venture on the Super Nintendo) captured by the Kilrathi in The Secret Missions. Gwenhyvar is the Welsh spelling of Guinevere, Arthur's wife.
And it's perhaps not a coincidence that Wing Commander Academy names the ship in its take on the Gwenhyvar story the TCS Morgan!
We've got star systems, too! The Wing Commander Universe map has a Camelot system that bridges Sol and Gemini and then an entire Avalon Sector which includes, where else?, the Ultima series' Britannia!
And then there's Merlin! The Wing Commander movie was originally shot with the intent to include a holographic wizard named Merlin. He's the interface for a personal computer programmed by Blair's dad. He would show up several times to make jokes and to provide needed exposition. Chris Roberts wasn't happy with the options for the Merlin effect and instead re-edited the movie to make Merlin the Rapier's computer, showing up only briefly to provide still-needed exposition somewhat more clunkily. The lore also establishes where the name came from: Arnold Blair flew an F-10 Merlin-class fighter in the Pilgrim War, a precursor to the Rapiers and Raptors of the Wing Commander I era. If you're interested in more of Merlin's strange history you can read all about him here.
Arthurian legend also extends, somehow, to the Tri-System! Louisa Philips identifies Lev Arris as "Ser Galahad" when they meet:
There's also a mission with an opponent named after the Black Knight:
And another mention of Avalon in a favorite weird CCN database entry! The Avalon Convalescence Dimension of Zib indeed.
Finally, did you know that Origin worked on their own King Arthur game? Arthurian Legends was a 'Worlds of Ultima' style tech spinoff using the Ultima VII engine. It's 1992 cancellation was seen by many as a turning point in the company's history, an early example of a project that would have been great being cut down by the corporate mothership. After Arthurian Legends was cancelled, the team set up a shrine in the office:
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Excalibur is available for rent or purchase on all of the standard streaming services.If you would like a physical copy, it was released on Blu-ray in the US in 2011 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available for download from the Internet Archive. 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.
