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We had a great time with The Birdcage! It really is a classic; wonderful actors armed with witty dialogue that, if you'll forgive the comparison, feels like the respectable ancestor of modern Marvel quips. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are so intensely likeable and their sets and costumes are particularly and perfectly evocative. And none of what was breaking a 'taboo' at the time feels out of place today… the gay aspect isn't ever treated as some joke and that holds up now that society is ever so slightly better!

The big Wing Commander connection was Robin Williams' famous visit to the Wing Commander IV shoot while he was making this movie. As anyone could've predicted, he's witty and charming to his standard incredible extreme here… and it might be his most handsome on screen role! Chris Roberts famously wanted him to appear as Merlin in the Wing Commander movie but they couldn't make contact in

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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 Dumb and Dumber (1994) 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 eleventh (!) Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!

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... but they are fun. Since the dawn of time, crummy plastic "ID badges" have been sold at science fiction conventions. They aren't really props, they aren't really well made or well designed or useful for anything... but they're such a mood, such a part of the culture. They're the kind of impulse buy you make when there's a three hour line for a calzone and the bag of Space: Above and Beyond bootleg VHSes you picked up are hurting your arm. Did you need a laminated seaQuest DSV ID that doesn't look like anything from the show? No, but it feels damn good to pick one up anyway.

I'd never seen any for Wing Commander, though, until Chris noticed this eBay listing. Woah! These are the platonic ideal of the concept. They're nothing like the ones in the movie, the information about the characters is wrong in significant ways... and damn I'd be thrilled to find these at a stand. So to be clear, not an

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Mac is back with another lovely piece of Wing Commander art! He posted the image below to BlueSky last week. He has titled it, naturally, "Just the Tip". Stunning! I bet it would even make a great lock screen in spite of it's orientation. It's exciting to see modern, professional composition meet classic Wing Commander ship designs.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Interest continues to grow among the scientific community following Ram Tah's speculation that the Guardians once cultivated Radicoida unica for their own use.
With many leading exobiologists continuing to argue over whether Radicoida unica is a direct creation of the Guardians, Ram Tah clarified that the plant is almost certainly a natural flora.
Speaking to Leon Banerjee, science correspondent for Vox Galactica, Tah reiterated that whilst the context in the Guardian Archive links the long extinct race to using the plant, there is no evidence it was a creation of genetic engineering.
"There is evidence that the Guardians cultivated the plant for their own purposes and likely cross-pollinated it with other flora millions of years ago to enhance its medicinal effects," he went on to say.
Dr. Roy Casimir, chief researcher at the Holloway Bioscience Institute, echoed Ram Tah's statement when

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... but before you watch, know that it's not an exciting one! We are always on the lookout for USA Network bumpers that include footage from Wing Commander Academy. From just before the show aired in September 1996 until at least the middle of 1997, USA used footage from Wing Commander Academy in a fair number of bumpers for their 'Action Extreme Team' lineup. We started posting them last year and keep watch for new uploads of off air dubs of USA shows from that tmie period. This one, which dates from the week of June 9, 1997, is the latest one we've found... maybe the last time the cadets showed up on TV! It's not super Wing Commander-y--it promotes a USA Kids Club summer vacation event--but it's good to add it to the collection!

If you have a source for USA tapes from that era, we'd love to see it! There are three commercials in particular we would like to rescue from obscurity:

• The original Wing