A massive Kilrathi armada attacks Pegasus Station, a remote but vital Confederation base, and captures a navigation computer, through which it locates Earth.

Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn recalls the Terran fleet to defend Earth, but expects it to arrive two hours too late.

Tolwyn orders Lieutenant Christopher Blair, whose father he knew from a previous conflict called the Pilgrim Wars, to carry orders to the carrier TCS Tiger Claw in the Vega Sector, under the command of Captain Jason Sansky, to fight a suicidal delaying action to buy the needed time.

Pilgrims were the first human explorers and colonists and had developed the innate ability to navigate space by feel despite obstacles such as black holes.

Despite several setbacks, the Tiger Claw's personnel successfully attack and board a Kilrathi communications ship with the Diligent.

In the attack, they find the stolen navigation computer and learn the coordinates the Kilrathi fleet will use to approach Earth.

The Tiger Claw, however, is heavily damaged and can do nothing more to prevent the assault, except to send Deveraux and Blair in fighters to find their way back to Earth.

Deveraux's fighter is disabled in combat after destroying a missile, but she convinces Blair not to rescue her but to continue his mission.

As his fighter begins to run out of fuel, he transmits the information Earth needs to defeat the Kilrathi assault.

[4] As the film served as something of a prequel to the Wing Commander games, Mark Hamill was deemed too old to reprise his role as Blair.

He had previously re-imagined the Kilrathi between Wing Commander III and IV, going so far as to completely redesign the Melek character between the two games.

The website's consensus reads: "The low budget may explain Wing Commander's cheesy special effects, but can't excuse the lame dialogue or the movie's obsessive reliance on sci-fi cliches.

"[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 21 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

In addition, Wilson provoked a knife fight on board the Kilrathi ConCom between Blair and Commander Gerald.