Display MoreHappy summer! It's time for another thrilling edition of our monthly Wing Commander cartoon party! This time around, we're looking at examples of the various television shows that the Wing Commander III team credited for keeping them sane in the game's quotes files… which means it's time to party 1990s style! Last time we looked at thirty years of TV that inspired Wing Commander Armada… but it looks like the WC3 group were younger and more hip! Here's the actual line from the game's hidden credits. We've picked an appropriate episode for each one (that had to have aired before the game shipped).
Mystery Science Theatre 3000; The X-Files; The Tick; Nietzche; Double Dave's Big Fucking Cokes; Not Money ; Not Short Hours; Doom ; X-Com; People On Fire; Two-Fisted John Woo Action; Doom II; Dilbert ; Simpsons; More Doom; Seinfeld; Net Doom; Star Trek (so sue us)
The Tick (s1e07): It's a bit of a surprise to see The Tick credited so prominently in Wing Commander III. Not because it's not great or exactly what the kind of nerds making the game would've loved… but because it was BRAND NEW. The show started airing just a few months before Wing Commander III went gold and they were only midway through the first season when this document would've been locked down for eternity. We've chosen "The Tick vs. The Tick" as a good introduction and a standout story from the limited number of episodes available!
The Simpsons (s5e14): It was no surprise that the team credited The Simpsons here; it's a show that drove a lot of creative people at the time! Our generation grew up with Simpsons references as a sort of lingua franca, after all… and that was extreme in 1994, where concepts like bars you went to specifically to watch a new Simpsons on Thursdays were a major thing. To go with Wing Commander's general theme we're watching "Deep Space Homer".
Seinfeld (s2e11): Seinfeld getting such a major credit surprised us! Not because it wasn't an excellent show but because it doesn't seem like the kind of show that some grubby sci fi nerds would necessarily admit to loving. We went with "The Chinese Restaurant", one of the all time classic sitcom scripts.
The X-Files (s1e19): We absolutely jumped at the chance to program a classic early episode of The X-Files, a show that defined a lot of our teenage years. It was extremely hard to choose, but we settled on "Darkness Falls" as a pitch perfect early non-mythology episode.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (s3e15): We have already spent two marathons focusing on Star Trek but since it was so prominent here (sue us!) we thought we'd run one more classic episode… without the need for a direct connection to a specific Wing Commander Thing. And for that we chose "Yesterday's Enterprise" which is an incredible story and also maybe the closest vision of 24th century war we had… in 1994, anyway.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (s6e12): It's no secret the Wing Commander team loved MST3k so we've selected one more to honor this reference! I went with "The Starfighters" for at least the slight topical connection. Could this be the last time we have an MST3k on this series? It's possible!
So JOIN US on Saturday, June 13th at noon Eastern when we'll explore more of the depths of old television together! Feel free to drop in and out (or just stop by to talk Wing Commander).
We've uploaded a zip of all six stories together locally that you can grab in advance if you would prefer to play them locally. You can get that here.
How do we watch the shows together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Saturday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the shows in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should download their own copies from the CIC and we will count down to play them one at a time together starting with the short at noon EST on Saturday. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
Will there be custom certificates made for the attendees this time?
Yes.
Not even trying on the cartoon thing anymore, are you?
The Simpsons is a cartoon, jerk. Hey, and so is The Tick! That's even a Saturday morning cartoon. What the hell dude.
I love these events but want to do better long term planning. Do you have any others coming up?
We do! Here's the upcoming schedule. And if you have any idea for a future lineup, please feel free to suggest it on the forums!
- Marathon 12 - Earth's Last Best Hope - July 18
- Marathon 13 - Music to My Ears - August 15
