Christopher Blair

In the fictional Wing Commander Universe, Christopher "Maverick" Blair, The Heart of the Tiger and the Savior of the Confederation, is a fictional, playable character throughout much of the Wing Commander computer game series. He also appears in the Heart of the Tiger and Price of Freedom novelizations. Throughout the series Blair was portrayed as competent and cool-headed, though not unemotional, with his 'rebellious' cockpit moniker assigned him as an ironic reference to his Boy Scout personality.

In the computer games Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, Wing Commander: Prophecy, and animated television series Wing Commander Academy, Blair was played and voiced by veteran actor and Star Wars star Mark Hamill.

Personal Biography

In Wing Commander, Blair is a calm, handsome fellow who rarely speaks. When he doesn't talk, most of the action is viewed from his eyes. Despite his lack of volubility, he rises steadily into the ranks of the , eventually leading his flight wing to numerous successes. When the Claw moves into the K'tithrak Mang sector to deal with a Kilrathi command post, however, his number comes up: with the sole exception of a few pilots who had been transferred to other ships, and Blair himself who is out on patrol, the Claw is lost with all hands; no one can confirm how. Blair's flight data recorder picks up odd signals that appear to be Kilrathi fighters with cloaking devices, but it is damaged beyond repair when he engages them. Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn believes that Blair is lying to cover his own treachery, demotes him to Captain and exiles him to the backwater Caernavon Station. Blair is widely branded the "Coward of K'tithrak Mang" and reviled throughout the Confederation.

Ten years later, Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi rolls around. Blair is still on Caernavon, but when the TCS Concordia, Tolwyn's new flagship, jumps in-system and is ambushed, Blair singlehandedly rescues it. Cognizant of the need to keep the best pilots on the front lines, Tolwyn shifts Blair to active service aboard the Concordia, where he serves alongside a number of old friends from the Claw: , , , defected Kilrathi pilot , . New to the roster is Dirk "Stingray" Wright, enthusiastic and brash. drops in on occasion, but is far away doing testing on some new fighters. To dampen the mood, however, a saboteur is on the Concordia, striking material and personnel. In his time aboard the Concordia, Blair is able to finally record incontrovertible evidence of the Kilrathi Strakha Stealth Fighters, uncover and defeat the traitor, destroy the K'Tithrak Mang outpost and avenge the Tiger's Claw, and start a romantic liaison with Angel. He is also re-promoted to Colonel by a grudgingly respectful Tolwyn. More ominously, he gains the personal attention of Kilrathi Crown Prince ; he is eventually given the Kilrathi warrior name "Heart of the Tiger".

Blair subsequently becomes involved in a number of Secret Ops projects, including the TCS Gettysburg mutiny, the defense of Kilrathi rebel planet Ghorah Khar, and the testing of the new Morningstar heavy fighters. He fights at the Battle of Earth and is grounded with injuries for six months, during which time the Kilrathi push the Confederation to the wall. He resumes active duty just in time for Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger to start.

With the Concordia lost in the Vespus system and his lover, Angel, is MIA, Blair (now portrayed by Mark Hamill) is assigned to the , a carrier twice as old as he is (mid-30s) and being kept to the rear lines of the war. Despite the relatively unglamorous nature of his assignment, Blair, along with his wing of pilots including top aces Hobbes and Maniac, is able to provide at least some defense for the before its destruction at the hands of a traitor. It's from this point that Blair discovers what truly happened to Angel through a holographic recording. An unstable Blair then leads a wing that is responsible for delivering the Temblor Bomb on the Kilrathi home planet, resulting in the death of the Emperor, as well as Prince Thrakhath (engaged and defeated by Blair in the planet's atmosphere) and is able to avenge his Lair-mate. The destruction of Kilrah lead to the immediate cessation of all hostilities between the Terrans and Kilrathi. Blair is now entitled to add a new label to his roster: "Savior of the Confederation".

After the war, Blair attempts to return to his roots on Nephele and become a farmer. Tolwyn reactivates him during Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, however, to investigate allegations that the Union of Border Worlds has been causing trouble for Confed shipping (claims that Confed is doing the same thing to Border Worlds shipping are ignored). A third faction is eventually implicated, and Blair succeeds in uncovering it, though he is forced to defect to the Border Worlds to do so, since the faction appears to be supported by elements within Confed. This so-called "Black Lance Affair" results in the summary disgrace and suicide of Admiral Tolwyn.

Blair remains in the military for the rest of his life, though he accepts a transfer from Space Forces to Navy. He is the architect and main proponent of the 'super-carrier' plan, and is aboard the , the first of the new class, on its maiden voyage, detailed in Wing Commander: Prophecy. When the ship unexpectedly encounters invaders from another part of the galaxy (codename Nephilim), the Midway single-handedly beats them back, mostly led by player character 1Lt Lance Casey. Commodore Blair is, unfortunately, lost in the action against the Nephilim, missing and presumed dead on a critical mission to assist Casey in destroying the aliens' galaxy-invading wormhole.

Naming trivia
*Because Blair is Wing Commander 's player character, he had no official name for the first two installments of the series; the player was allowed to personalize the character's name and call sign. Origin Systems's in-house "bible," however, referred to him as "Bluehair", and when the full motion video cut scenes in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger required the character be given a real name, this tag was shortened to "Blair;" "Christopher," on the other hand, is the first name of series creator Chris Roberts. From WC3 on, the player was not allowed to re-name the character, though his call sign could still be specified; when the first two games were re-released as part of the Kilrathi Saga compilation, "Christopher Blair" became the default character name.

*In Wing Commanders III and IV, the player was still allowed to assign Blair a callsign, but William R. Forstchen's novelizations described him as using the call sign "Maverick," which was declared canon in Wing Commander Prophecy. The series bible indicates that other candidates for Blair's call sign included "Falcon" and "Phoenix;" the latter saw print in the pre-WC3 spin-off novel Wing Commander: End Run, the first (and only) time "Maverick" was not used. Finally, during the course of Wing Commander III, Blair finds out that he is the game's titular Heart of the Tiger, and in the Wing Commander IV novelization uses this as a public call sign (not unusual, as call signs are generally bestowed by fellow pilots or instructors to begin with). In the second novelization in an abortive trilogy based on the movie, Blair adopts the callsign "Pilgrim" in an acknowledgment of his ethnic roots.

Other media

*In the 1999 movie , Christopher Blair is played by Freddie Prinze, Jr.. The movie takes place right when 2 Lt. Christopher Blair is assigned to the TCS Tiger's Claw along with fellow pilot and James Taggart. In the movie, Blair is a half-Pilgrim, a group of people known for their innate sense for spatial navigation and a few other special abilities.

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