Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Happy Halloween! The Wing Commander movie club had a great time finishing up our Terminator journey with Terminator 2 and now it's time for something spooky! In honor of the holiday, we've chosen something called The Beast Must Die (1974). Apparently it has a part at the end where the movie stops so we can guess who the werwolf is! If you want to play along, just join us Friday at 10 PM Eastern in the Wing Commander CIC Discord!
What's the Wing Commander connection? This is another movie chosen to represent an author from the Prophecy map. James Blish was a science fiction author who is maybe best known for his series of novelizations of original Star Trek stories. He was famous for expanding the original scripts and, in the days before home video, being a reference for anyone looking back at classic Star Trek. His Star Trek work presumably is what earned him a star system in the Wing Commander Universe Map's Enigma Sector (Asimov Quadrant) but he also had a significant body of other work! Very little of which, it seems, was ever adapted into film. Which brings us to The Beast Must Die, which is adapted from his 1950 short story There Shall Be No Darkness! If you're interested in reading the original story, it's available online here.
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
The Beast Must Die is available for rent or purchase on all of the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and for free on YouTube in the US. If you would like a physical copy, it was released on BluRay in the US in 2020 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available for download from the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
How do we watch the movie together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
How can I help pick future movie club movies?
The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.
--
Original update published on October 26, 2026