Wing Commander Academy (1996)

Episode Summaries

1 - The cadets are training in a simulator at the academy. All are killed except for Maverick and Maniac. Maniac desperately wants to prove he is the best and attacks a carrier that he isn't supposed to and the simulation shorts out. He is really pissed off and physically attacks Maverick because he is threatened by him. Meanwhile a human pilot who failed the psyche test is stealing the simulation data and taking it to the Kilrathi. The legendary Commodore Jeffrey Tolwyn arrives and decides to have Maverick and Maniac lead the Red and Blue teams in some war games. The traitor's last act is to doctor the weapons and the shields so they kill each other. Eight fighters head out for the games, but Maniac challenges Maverick one-on-one in a Nebula cloud that will distort the sensors so no one can see. Unknown to all is that there is a Kilrathi carrier hiding in there, spying on them. Soon they figure out the weapons are on full, but have no way to signal the boys. Lucky for them that they are on full, so they can take out the carrier and earn themselves places on the Tiger's Claw, along with Archer. One funny thing is that Blair tells how he got the name Maverick, "because he's always following the rules."
Someone better get him a dictionary because it is the opposite which is true.

2 - The cadets are assigned a routine patrol to check out an uninhabited system. No confederation ship has been there since before the war when Damien Karnes, the Earth's most famous pilot, disappeared there. Karnes is Maniac's hero and wants to talk about him, but Tolwyn cuts him off with, "This is not a history lesson." Of course you knows Karnes will show up. Maverick and Maniac are patrolling when they come across a Kilrathi transport. Maverick makes them hold back and then Kilrathi fighters show up and attack the transport. The cadets are dumbfounded, but don't have time to think because they're under attack and are soon captured. They're taken to the planet below to Karnes renegade base. He explains to them that he didn't hate the Kilrathi or love the confederation, he became empty and decided to go off on his own. He came across many renegades and formed a group of them and now they hit transports on both sides for supplies to survive. Soon another transport enters the system and Karnes is off, Maniac wants to fly with him, but Maverick remains behind in a prison cell. During the attack Maniac makes an escape, but his weapons and long-range communications were disabled, he fell right into Karnes trap. Before Karnes can finish him off he finds out that HE fell into a Kilrathi trap. The transport was just bait to lead him out. The overwhelming Kilrathi force wipes out his squadron and his base. They find Maverick and keep him alive so he can tell everyone that Prince Thrakarr of the Kilrathi did this.

3 - Tolwyn gives the cadets a training mission in an asteroid belt. Before they can launch they are under attack by Kilrathi lurking there. Only four cadets are able to scramble - Maverick, Maniac, Blizzard and Payback. They stop the Kilrathi attack, but when the nearby sun erupts with solar flares all the cadets are hit before they can make it back to the Claw. The flares fried their ships and unbeknownst to them, their brains as well. Their hidden feelings come out to the surface as they become more and more delusional. Maniac is extremely jealous of Archer and totally paranoid. Payback thinks Kilrathi are on the ship; Maverick not only thinks that Kilrathi are on the ship, but thinks Tolwyn is a traitor and Blizzard, the boy with the heart of ice, professes his love for Archer. They don't trust anyone else anymore and Tolwyn wants them hauled in. They make a break for the fighters, but only Maverick and Blizzard are able to launch. They decide to blow up the Tiger's Claw with missiles. Archer and another pilot take off after them. At the last minute Maverick breaks off the attack, coming to his senses. But Blizzard is going to launch his missiles and Archer is forced to shoot him down and he doesn't survive. This is why Archer is so useless in the later episodes.

4 - Grunt has a flashback of an attack he participated in when he was still a marine. They were attacked by Kilrathi tanks and after hitting one with a grenade he was nearly blown away. After that he has neuro-paralysis, his body stays paralyised for a while. He can no long be a marine so he joins the academy. Tolwyn catches him dozing and makes him summarize the briefing. When he says it's a routine mission, Tolwyn corrects him, "Never say a mission is routine until it's completed." Maverick and Grunt go out on patrol and are jumped by Kilrathi. Maverick shoots down most of them because Grunt ejects. With Grunt attached to the ship, they had back home. But the ship locks up and they crash land as a Kilrathi is also landing at the same time. First the Kilrathi wants to kill Maverick, then Maverick is attacked by D&D type monsters. The Kilrathi gets attacked again and is saved again. He then carries Grunt up a hill so they can look down on everything. When Maverick gives the Kilrathi his weapon back, he turns on them. So much for his word of honor. Then it turns into a race/duel for the first reinforcements. Kilrathi and Terran duel in out and all three on the ground escape. Eventually the Kilrathi forces mess up and are defeated and the Kilrathi kills himself.

5 - Maverick, Maniac and Grunt, an ex marine, are sent to check out a primitive planet that has seen much Kilrathi activity. They aren't supposed to interfere, but when they are inspecting the planet, Maniac leaves Maverick on his own and he gets shot down. When Maniac goes to rescue him, he too gets captured. They primitives are flying Kilrathi fighters by the dozens, though inferior in combat they find strength in numbers. Grunt radios for help and then goes back against orders to rescue them. It turns out they are to be sacrificed to "The Lords of the Sky" or the Kilrathi. The Kilrathi are really in charge of the planet and are controlling the primitives through radio signals. Grunt is able to turn the tide a bit and the three of them are off to destroy the signal station. Reinforcements finally arrive and after the signal station is wiped out the primitives can no longer fight.

6 - Tolwyn sends out Maniac, Maverick and Archer to check out an unknown object near a pulsar. It is a Kilrathi Nav Bouy. After it attacks and almost shoots down Maniac, they destroy it. Tolwyn then selects Maverick and Payback to jump into the Pulsar across the galaxy to see where it leads. They fly bombers in and come out in the middle of a Kilrathi armada. Their orders are not to engage, but Payback doesn't listen. She takes out a few fighters and a Kilrathi destroyer before she is shot down. It takes a big risk by Maverick to pick up her pod and get back into the Pulsar. He is hit and on the way back he realizes they only have a few hours of life support left, not enough to survive. He plans on reporting Payback when they return, even if it ends her career. Meanwhile the Kilrathi launch a force to follow Maverick back. When they return their ship is completely dead and Tolwyn leaves them there. He knows they have been attacked and the Kilrathi will follow them. He replies to this with, "He is expendable, we all are. That is the way of a soldier." When the Kilrathi show up they are decimated. Maverick makes the last kill when his father appears to him like Obi-Wan Kenobi offering him advice. When they return to the Claw, Maverick covers up Payback's disobeying of orders.

7 - The Claw is positioned by the jump buoy waiting for the Kilrathi forces to emerge. Tolwyn keeps Maverick on the bridge to learn about being in command. The trap works and it seems the Kilrathi are beaten. Then a female Admiral from Tolwyn's past arrives. She thinks Tolwyn is fighting his own personal war and doesn't trust him. She orders Maverick to spy on him and report if he doesn't follow her orders. Later, Tolwyn is going to do just that when Maverick informs him of his orders. Tolwyn is plenty mad, but gives in to the Admiral's orders. She is supposed to ambush the Kilrathi fleet that Tolwyn will lead to her. The Kilrathi don't fall for it though and decimate her fleet with another fleet they held in reserve. Tolwyn has only enough time to grab survivors and make a run for the jump buoy. The Kilrathi know that is his only escape route and block the way. Tolwyn is prepared to ram the Kilrathi ship head on. At the last second the Kilrathi back off. This is the best episode because it revolves around Tolwyn. Maverick asks him at the end, "How did you know the Kilrathi would back off?" "I didn't." he replies.

8 - A superhuman who destroyed his own planet will destroy another to bring his planet back. A neutral world which is paradise becomes host to the Terran and the Kilrathi. The Terran are there for shore leave and the Kilrathi also come for shore leave, but are secretly after the orb which changed the planet from a wasteland into paradise. It can be used as a super weapon. The superhuman has been frozen for 100s of years is also after the orb to recreate his planet. It's a three-way race that will bring the planet to the edge of extinction.

9 - There are two plots in this one. Once again Archer is hesitant in battle and gets grounded. The boys are to escort a hospital ship back to the 'Claw' that was attacked by the Kilrathi. Maverick and two others investigate a new ship and leave Maniac behind. It's all an elaborate trap. While Maverick fights the new threat, the Kilrathi launch an attack on the under defended 'Claw'. Maniac is forced to play doctor on the hospital ship and Archer disobeys orders to defend the 'Claw'. Even Tolwyn proves he can man a fighter, making this the most Malcolm filled episode in the series.

10 - The boys are too busy competing to get a woman that they don't see that she is totally using them. They are tracking a Kilrathi pilot they shot down in the nearby jungle and agree to let her capture the pilot while they relax. But she has a sinister plan to infect the pilot with a plague to wipe out the entire Kilrathi race. Of course Archer is the only one who can see through her.

11 - The Kilrathi have a cloaking device. Tolwyn doesn't believe it and the boys will break the rules to prove it. When Maniac loses his wingman he gets grounded and no one wants anything to do with him. They think he was too busy going for the kills and they don't believe his talk of a cloaked enemy. But when the same thing happens to Maverick both sneak away to prove their innocence.

12 - Maverick is shot down on an ice planet and the other cadets are forced to leave him behind. Maniac and Archer want to go rescue him, but Tolwyn won't allow it because of the Kilrathi carrier in the area. Meanwhile Maverick must survive on his own, but it was a Kilrathi empress who shot Maverick down and she will stop at nothing to get him. Also there is a power struggle going on with the Kilrathi race that will lead to civil war. One Kilrathi finds Maverick, but doesn't kill him. He wants to defect to stop the civil war. Reluctantly Maverick believes him. Of course Maniac and Archer ignore Tolwyn's orders and go and rescue Maverick. Thanks to the Kilrathi traitor he escapes. Maverick goes to convince Tolwyn of the Kilrathi's plan to defect, but things it's a trap. He turns the tables and launches a surprise attack on the carrier. Like the red shirted crew members in 'Star Trek', pilots you never heard of die in the battle and the Kilrathi is outraged at his betrayal. Maverick is also saddened at his loss. This is the best episode plot because it really captures the lack of trust that enemies have for each other, even when they agree to put their troubles aside to fight a greater enemy.

13 - Maverick and another cadet are to go to a planet whose whole race is enslaved by the Kilrathi. They are forced to construct a temple for Sivar, the Kilrathi Emperor, unbeknownst to them they are all to be sacrificed upon the completion of the temple. Maverick's mission is to organize an uprising against the Kilrathi so a marine landing can easily occur. But the real story is Tolwyn set them up. He wants them to get captured by the Kilrathi and confess the story of the marine landing. This is exactly what happens. Maverick is betrayed by the people he came to help, but they turn on the Kilrathi when they finally understand they are expendable. They Kilrathi land all the forces to overthrow the invading marines which never come. Their battleship, their fighters and their temple is eventually destroyed. Tolwyn played the situation perfectly, even if he made no friends on the deal. As they say, "Win or lose, war is hell."

My Thoughts on WCA

     After not thinking I was never going to see this series, I finally got a chance every Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 7AM. I was excited at the prospect of spending time with Malcolm on a weekly basis just like the year before with "Pearl". But after three weeks my enthusiasm was gone. It is for good reason. This show sucks.
     Malcolm only gets to provide the setup. It goes something like this, "OK, here's your mission. The Kilrathi are blah, blah" and that's it for Commodore Tolwyn. The series takes place 20 years before the time of the video game. The plots always center around the competition between Maverick and Maniac and to a lesser extent the highly annoying Archer. When you think academy you think school right? Wrong. There is no school, they fly missions just like in the games, but they are called cadets. No one would send cadets out all the time on important missions like these, are there no experienced pilots? Especially when Maniac's only goal in life is to show off and up his kill total. The character of Archer is extremely unrealistic. She is fed up with the war and can't even get the courage up to finish off the enemy even when her wingmen might die. She wouldn't last a day in combat. So that's about it.
     Maverick and Maniac spend most of the time attempting to outdo each other and doing whatever they want in the meantime, usually breaking orders in the process. This would never happen in a real army.  The most they might get is a slap on the wrist, if anything. Archer spends most of the time bitching to anyone who will listen that "aren't they tired of the war and the killing?" etc.
     After the fourth episode we learn why Archer is such a pain in the ass. She was forced to fire on a fellow pilot and killed him. Only later in the run are there a few good episodes that showcase Tolwyn more, but these weren't enough to keep the series going. It was cancelled after half a season, no more episodes were ordered.
     There you have it. Poor animation. Boring two dimensional stereotyped characters. Weak stories. Unrealistic flying, like if an enemy is on your tail then just do a loop and finish them off. Bad sound. Recycled characters. And two minutes of Malcolm all adds up to another disappointing series.

Rating 2.5/10

Pictures and Press Release © 1996 USA Channel
Rest of page © 1997-02 Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net