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Excalibur was a very interesting movie! I still can't believe I'd never even particularly heard of it before; as soon as it was added to my brain I started noticing references to it all over the place in pop culture. None of the descriptions I had read going in prepared me for how much more like David Lynch's Dune it is. It was repeatedly called a proto-Jackson's Lord of the Rings but I don 't think that's even accurate; it's part of that earlier fantasy tradition where the movies feel darker and dreamier.

I also think it's a lot of fun to get a handle on Paladin's character. One consistent point in all of his appearances is that he's especially well read. There's the medieval stories from Claw Marks, his quoting Yeats in Wing Commander IV, listening to a Mozart opera in the movie and so on… his character has always touched on that. So it's fun to see those first person sources he references and

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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 is From Justin to Kelly (2003) 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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All the recent talk about corvettes prompted me to revisit Milk Run, the Christopher Stasheff novella that proceeds End Run, for its story about a Venture-class ship in action behind enemy lines. On re-reading it, I was struck with a question I somehow never pondered before: who is the TCS Johnny Greene named after, anyway?

The second corvette in the story is named the TCS John Bunyan after the English preacher who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in 1678. Knowing this and that Christopher Stasheff was an English professor who loved literary references I think I simply assumed that Johnny Greene was a similar figure. It turns out the real story is a little more interesting!

The real John Greene was a dear friend of legendary SFF author Anne McCaffrey, creator of the Pern series. He was killed in France in November 1988 while serving with the French Foreign Legion. An Easter Egg page quotes McCaffrey on the

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October Consortium has announced that the research initiative to collect Guardian artefacts was a success.
According to reports from Exogene Sciences in HIP 87621, the number and variety of artefacts recovered by independent pilots from across the galaxy means that the Consortium's exobiology research efforts will be accelerated greatly.
In a statement by Lexi October to Vox Galactica, she praised the efforts by all independent pilots taking part who travelled beyond the core systems to collect the rare artefacts.
"We were inundated with Guardian artefacts of every kind," she said. "With this new and expansive Guardian collection we can look forward to unravelling a few more mysteries of the galaxy."
Contributing Commanders can now collect their rewards at Exogene Sciences.

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Today we've got a preview of the original Wing Commander from the February 1st 1991 issue of Japanese gaming magazine LOGIN. It's always fascinating to see how Wing Commander was treated in different places and of course Japan has always been the place to be for gaming. They certainly make it look colorful and fun... which, of course, it was. One interesting thing to note: this magazine took its own screenshots instead of relying on the press kit. You can tell because the script is addressing the pilot as JUNE!

This also seemed like a good place to share an advertisement discovered by the wonderful X-Wing/TIE Fighter Game Series social media account: a 1996 advertisement for Wing Commander III PSX from the October issue of Jugemu. Thanks for thinking of us!

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AllTinker has another treat for Wing Commander obsessions: they've successfully extracted the 3D models from the 3DO port of Wing Commander III! The 3DO version of WC3 is a significant update to the game which reworks every single mission and changes a number of aspects of the game, some to adapt to the platform and some to finish small features that couldn't be closed out on the original release. All of the game's 3D models are reworked for the 3DO version of the engine… but that's not just to lower their resolution. Many of them, the super large objects in particular, are redesigned in significant ways… and new textures make all of the Kilrathi ships feel especially different.

• WC3 3DO Objects (ZIP, 4mb)

Some that are of special interest include the 3DO-exclusive Kilrathi gun platform, which the game uses to replace the ground missions. The Hvar'kann dreadnaught is also special because we believe you