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The wing Commander movie club gives The Dark Crystal a thumbs up! It's an impressive, elaborately made production with visuals that continue to impress throughout. And it's distinctive part of a vanguard group of 'dark fantasy' movies from the early 1980s that aren't so directly influenced by Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons like many films today. It seems like what is essentially a puppet show with no human actors would drag… but it's quick run time vanishes quickly and leaves you wanting more.

And The Dark Crystal is certainly full of Skeksises! The strange bird/lizard/dinosaur creatures are the story's major antagonist and they are perhaps one of its most distinctive elements. In their honor, we've done a deep dive into their pair of namesake ships from Privateer 2! To that end, the PL03 Skecis-class medium fighter is as middle of the road as you can get; truly the midpoint in Privateer

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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 is RoboCop (1987) 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!

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Have you ever noticed that Colonel Halcyon typically specifies in briefings whether you're encountering a "sport" (transport) or a tanker? That's because Wing Commander I originally had both. The idea was cut for disk space but the original design, heavily inspired by Traveller, was that there were both tanker and freighter versions of the Drayman and the Dorkir. So each briefing is written to tell you which one to expect! The variant graphics were reused in The Secret Missions as the Terran Diligent (originally the Drayman tanker) and the Kilrathi Lumbari (originally the Dorkir freighter).

We were curious what the original game might have looked like, so we poured through the original game (plus the addons and Super Wing Commander's extra campaign) and tried to identify the variant of all 41 transports that appear! You can access the inevitable spreadsheet here. As you can see, there's a lot of lore

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

October Consortium has confirmed that Radicoida unica, an enigmatic flora found exclusively within HIP 87621, has entered an active reproductive phase.
According to their scientific teams, the plant's dormant cycle has ended, triggering the growth of hardened 'seed pods' across its upper platforms. These pods hold rare biological material believed to be the main source of the species highly valued physiological effects.
Researchers say that this activation validates early theories about the plant's sensitivity to nearby life signatures, with its bloom phase perceived as a direct response to recent studies by Commanders of the Pilots' Federation. Sceptics noted that some Radicoida sites are yet to bloom, however.
Military and corporate restrictions are still in effect while oversight of the enclave is coordinated in line with the recent October Accords. October Consortium has therefore called

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Sometimes you find interesting things in small places! Case in point: this breakout from the March 15, 1991 issue of Japanese gaming magazine LOGIN covering Origin's presentation at the 1991 CES show. It looks like LOGIN sent their own photographer who snapped a rare image of Origin's booth setup... don't you wish you could get a better look at that poster? There's also a pretty great photograph of a young Chris Roberts; we expect this was taken at the show, too, given the beer cans on the table in the background.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're hard at work on wingmen! This week, we've added new pages for all 26 NPC wingmen from Privateer 2. Remember them? You can hire them to escort you from place to place using the CCN booth and each one has a usually somewhat silly bio. From the guy that refuses to leave his ship so it smells terrible to the lady wingman with an enormous chest, they're all here! But this kind of color (and there's a LOT of color!) really helps build out the universe... as does the consistent through line of crazy characters attracted to the risky but profitable life of a mercenary escort pilot.

We've created a main page about the job and mechanics of wingmen in the game and then we've crafted a comprehensive biography for each one! In every case we've included their in-game screenshots, their in-game text and their biographies from Origin's Official Guide. You can even listen to all of their in-flight comms!

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