[Bandit LOAF]

The Wing Commander movie club knew going in that Star Trek II was a timeless classic and… well, it was. It's very hard to argue that it isn't the best Star Trek movie and even when there's no clear behind the screens quote it's pretty obvious that everything from how it envisions a future military academy to the dramatic, imposing capital ship battles influenced Wing Commander and countless other pieces of similar media over the years. Which is to say we had a great time… now we just need to find a little connection to include The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier!

Here's our excuse for including Star Trek II, the Reliant's prefix code that gives us that first jolt of hope after Khan's attack.





This is a little joke I had never noticed before our group viewing: the planet where the Trafalgar is going to ambush the Kilrathi in Chain of Command is "Seti Beta 1" which is a little play on "Ceti Alpha 5" from Star Trek II.





And of course you can't think about Star Trek II without the spectacular nebula battle.This is absolutely what they were going for in Wing Commander III and IV… though the effect never quite worked as well as anyone would like. The series of 'jammer' missions in WC4 did get it a little bit better!

Lumi clearly trusts Sully to preserve her katra.​

--
Original update published on February 27, 2026

 

[capi3101]

I'm assuming you're talking about connections that haven't been used for other Trek films, right? My first thought was the inclusion of John Schuck and David Warner in Trek IV and V respectively, but I'm pretty sure that connection was used for other Trek films...

 

[AD]

I'm assuming you're talking about connections that haven't been used for other Trek films, right? My first thought was the inclusion of John Schuck and David Warner in Trek IV and V respectively, but I'm pretty sure that connection was used for other Trek films...

Simply sharing a couple of actors isn't really the kind of connection we're talking about. In the outset LOAF mentioned a "clear behind the screens quote". Star Trek as a whole definitely had an influence on Wing Commander, but for the most part, in our movie club series the films and shows we've pulled on have had specific quotes from WC devs saying that they drew inspiration from a specific movie for a specific reason. Or at times the games or movie will quote a specific work or reference it in it's prose.

The Motion Picture was included because it was the reference note CR gave for the WC1 theme
The reason for ST2 is listed at the top of this thread "Here's our excuse for including Star Trek II, the Reliant's prefix code that gives us that first jolt of hope after Khan's attack."
Star Trek 3 was included because it was the inspiration for Perry in Privateer
Specifically the thing that gets ST6 on the list is the Praxis explosion which is was used as a reference for the WC movie explosion shockwaves