Wing Commander Academy

For video game spin-off of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, see Wing Commander Academy (video game).

Wing Commander Academy is a 1996 American animated television series produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, along with a team led by Larry Latham.^[1] The show was based on the Wing Commander franchise and loosely served as a prequel to Wing Commander. The show's aired from September 21^[2][3] to December 21, 1996, on the USA Network's "USA Action Extreme Team" block.^[4]

Wing Commander Academy
Title screen
Genre	Science fiction
Based on	Wing Commander by Chris Roberts
Developed by	Michael Edens Mark Edens
Directed by	Larry Latham
Voices of	Mark Hamill Tom Wilson Malcolm McDowell Dana Delany
Composer	Alexander van Bubenheim
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer	Larry Latham
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Universal Cartoon Studios USA Studios
Original release
Network	USA Network
Release	September 21 (1996-09-21) – December 21, 1996 (1996-12-21)

Cast

Main cast

• Mark Hamill as Christopher 'Maverick' Blair
• Thomas F. Wilson as Todd 'Maniac' Marshall
• Malcolm McDowell as Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn
• Dana Delany as Gwen 'Archer' Bowman

Additional voices

• Lauri Hendler as Maya McEaddens, Lindsay 'Payback' Price
• Kevin Schon as Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka, Hector 'Grunt' Paz
• Pat Fraley as Dr. Guthrig Andropolos, Gharal nar Hhallas
• Ron Perlman as Daimon Karnes, Krulan nar Ragitagha
• Jeff Bennett as Bokh nar Ragitika
• Dorian Harewood as Jazzman
• Jessica Walter as Admiral Rhea Bergstrom
• Joan Van Ark as Dr. Bronwyn Sing
• Jim Cummings as Emil 'Easy' Zoharian
• Jennifer Hale as Princess Zukara nar Kiranka
• Andrew Prine as Vidkun
• Michael Dorn as the Warrior King

Spacecraft featured in the series

The series featured many spacecraft introduced in the Wing Commander video games. The Scimitar and Broadsword were the primary fighters and bombers flown by the main characters, with the Dralthi and Grikath fulfilling those roles for the Kilrathi. As in Wing Commander I, the TCS Tiger's Claw was a Bengal class strike carrier. Individual episodes also featured cameo appearances from ships introduced in later games such as Wing Commander III's Arrow, Hellcat and Longbow and Wing Commander IV's Avenger. None of these ships are mentioned by name. A number of new capital ships were introduced by the series including the Achilles class destroyer and the Agan Ra Sivar class dreadnaught.

Episode list

No.	Title	Written by	Original release date
1	"Red and Blue"	Mark Edens and Michael Edens	September 21, 1996 (1996-09-21)
Blair and Maniac are assigned to the Tiger's Claw for training.
2	"The Last One Left"	Mark Edens (story) Michael Edens (teleplay)	September 28, 1996 (1996-09-28)
Maverick and Maniac are captured by Daimon Karnes, a missing legendary space fighter pilot who became disillusioned with the war and turned to piracy.
3	"The Most Delicate Instrument"	Mark Edens (story) Shari Goodhartz (teleplay)	October 5, 1996 (1996-10-05)
Mentally unbalanced from stellar phenomena, four cadets begin to exhibit erratic behavior.
4	"Word of Honor"	Mark Edens (story) Richard Mueller (teleplay)	October 12, 1996 (1996-10-12)
Blair and Grunt crashland on an alien world, but they're not alone...
5	"Lords of the Sky"	Mark Edens (story) Matthew Edens (teleplay)	October 19, 1996 (1996-10-19)
Blair and Maniac land on an alien world where the local savages worship the dastardly "Lords of the Sky".
6	"Chain of Command"	Mark Edens (story) Brooks Wachtel (teleplay)	November 2, 1996 (1996-11-02)
Tolwyn meets an old "friend", who just happens to outrank him now.
7	"Expendable"	Mark Edens (story) Ted Pedersen and Francis Moss (teleplay)	November 9, 1996 (1996-11-09)
Blair and Payback scout an unstable jump node.
8	"Recreation"	Mark Edens (story) Matthew Edens (teleplay)	November 16, 1996 (1996-11-16)
The crew of the Claw discovers a mysterious being in suspended animation aboard a derelict space capsule. Note: This episode is the final part of a crossover storyline that spanned the other shows in the USA Action Extreme Team lineup. The crossover began with episodes of Street Fighter ("The Warrior King"), Savage Dragon ("Endgame"), and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm ("Resurrection").[5]
9	"Walking Wounded"	Mark Edens (story) Ralph Sanchez (teleplay)	November 23, 1996 (1996-11-23)
Maniac scores guard duty on a crippled medical ship.
10	"On Both Your Houses"	Mark Edens (story) Shari Goodhartz (teleplay)	November 30, 1996 (1996-11-30)
Blair, Maniac, and Archer pursue Kilrathi fighters to a lush tropical planet where things are not as they seem.
11	"Invisible Enemy"	Mark Edens (story) Richard Mueller (teleplay)	December 7, 1996 (1996-12-07)
The Kilrathi have a new and terrible weapon: the Stealth Fighter.
12	"Price of Victory"	Mark Edens (story) Steve Cuden (teleplay)	December 14, 1996 (1996-12-14)
Blair crashes on an ice world, where he meets an unusual Kilrathi who just happens to have an agenda...
13	"Glory of Sivar"	Mark Edens (story) Mark Edens and Michael Edens (teleplay)	December 21, 1996 (1996-12-21)
Blair and Grunt land on the planet Dolos, and find themselves surrounded by fur.

Home media

In March 2012, Visual Entertainment released Wing Commander Academy - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.^[6] The series became available on the Peacock streaming service in July 2020.