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The Wing Commander movie club can report that Ten Thousand Bedrooms was... not spectacular. In spite of it being a pretty bland movie we did make a pretty surprising Wing Commander discovery! But you'll have to wait until Friday to learn about that. This week we're going back to our roots and watching a movie that pretty much anyone reading this will love: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Star Trek II is obviously a massively important movie that clearly helped shape countless IPs including Wing Commander. But what's the specific connection? This one is a bit of a followup to our look at THX-1138: the 'other' jokey credit for a Mandarin pilot in Special Operations 2 is Mandarin #16309... which is a reference to the USS Reliant's transponder code!

We don't have a gender bending mystery here but we do have a bit more audio! Mandarin #16309,

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If you're a fan of Wing Commander composer George "The Fat Man" Sanger or mid-1990s edutainment then you may be interested to learn that he's offering the soundtrack to Pajama Sam 3 on vinyl through his Bandcamp page! These Humongous games are in the middle of a cultural renaissance right now so we'll bet it's going to be a big success. Which leads to the next question: could he put out any of his spectacular Wing Commander soundtracks physically? The fact that his team seems to have registered the 'fatmanvinyl.com' domain leaves us at least hopeful. Here's their initial announcement:

I am so excited to announce we are finally pressing George's delicious so-Fat-they're-Humongous tunes to licorice pizza. He and I both believe every turntable is born to play jazz, so we're gonna make that happen for you.

This is an EXTREMELY LIMITED EDITION (150 units total in this pressing) 12" LP featuring a selection

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of television... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! This time around we're traveling back in time to the early 1990s to celebrate some of the terrible shows the original Privateer team apparently enjoyed (or just couldn't look away from). You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!

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By popular demand we aren't going to let February 14 end without a visit from the Love Arrow... now available in three distinct styles!

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I don't know that we would say THX 1138 is a movie that you sit down and explicitly enjoy but it is pretty fascinating. As a work of art, it's superb. It follows in the footsteps of dystopian futures like the ones imagined by Huxley and Orwell mated with the same sort of 1970s washed out tomorrow you'd find in things like Logan's Run or Beneath the Planet of the Apes. There's very little handholding, either; you're expected to figure out the world and what's going on quickly and before the film gets too far away from you. It was also very interesting seeing how much of THX's future ends up in Lucas' Star Wars six years later. It's a bit like playing an early alpha of a beloved video game, in that respect!

The big literal connection to Wing Commander (and many, many other things) was the name of the movie and lead character, THX 1138. THX is played by a much younger Robert Duvall and the designation

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film, special for Valentine's Day, is Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

And don't forget our seventh Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!