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Vengance of the Kilrathi

Wing Commander II was my introduction to the space flight simulator genre. I'd tried the Microsoft flight simulator and other real-world style games like it, and never cared for them. Later there would come others, the X-Wing and Tie-Fighter franchises, but Wing Commander, with it's grumpy Admiral, and the giant cat people, were where it started for me. After Wing Commander II, I actually went back in time to play Wing Commander before Heart of the Tiger came out, with Mark Hamill in it.

Wing Commander gave me an interesting perspective on the mystery in space, what happens between the missions is almost as important as what happens during the missions. I've always thought it would be an interesting story to tell where the lead characters were all space pilots of some kind, and actually give them something, a war or some set of mysteries to get through on their way through a book series. You see that kind of thing in the confines of a game like this, or a book series like Rogue Squadron, but even stories like Battlestar Galactica seem to lose this element after a while. I thought that when Wing Commander became a movie that they'd make sure this wasn't lost, but I think they totally lost their minds on that one. There wasn't nearly enough space-style dog-fighting in there for me.

It's worth it sometimes, to take it easy and keep it in mind, the original draws of action in a series.

I've always liked the idea of a series that followed the exploits of a company of star fighters around, one mission at a time, with all of the drama that happens between missions, maybe occasionally having an episode from the point of view of the villains, or maybe taking a two-parter or something here and there and have the hero go off on a secret mission or something similar. Maybe I'll write one of those one day. Maybe it's a series of short stories. Time will tell