Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

I was surprised to see there was an Australian Blu-ray boxset of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, naturally I purchased it.

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 12

Buck's Duel to the Death

S1E21

The planet Katar and a legend of a 500 year old man called the Roshan who is destined to defeat the Traybor and free the world from tyranny, it's fortunate that the fame of Buck has spread so far from Earth because once again he gets dropped right in it after accepting an offer to visit Katar. Of course it's a woman that finally convinces Buck to help although it didn't hurt that the Traybor foolishly sent men to kill Buck and more importantly failed in that task. The Traybor played wonderfully over the top by William Smith had spent time on the planet Voltron and had circuitry embedded under his skin which allowed him to store and manipulate electrical energy and then discharge at a will, mostly it had to be said in combat which made him pretty much unstoppable since modern worlds don't seem to be familiar with electricity, no idea what they use since that was never explored, cheap dodge but I guess it worked ok :) Of course Buck has his own knowledge and resources back on Earth and with the insight gleamed he uses Twiki as an insulator and capacitor and fights the Traybor eventually prevailing and all is once again right with the world.

An average episode which may be given an extra point because of how William filled the screen with his campy menace and another point for the gratuitous shots of the ladies climbing down the ladders in their tight outfits, seriously one woman just to make the point but 4 or 5 was probably overkill:)

It's Good to be King

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Flight of the War Witch, Part 1 & 2

S1 Finale

Well here we are at the season 1 finale and they do a two parter, clever idea but you would have thought it would have straddled the seasons as a cliffhanger but given how different the second season was you wonder if they thought the show wasn't coming back and well blew their wad all in one go:)

Anyhow whatever the reason the presented feature length story worked very well indeed, a message from another universe with instructions for getting there using the "Vortex" aka Black Hole and with the intent to not only bring in the military forces of the Earth but also the more violent yet predictable Draconian forces under the command of Princess Ardala.

It says a lot about tv at the time that it's taken this long for both Wilma and Dr Huer to get a strong emotional scene with Buck where both can express their feeling for the guy, Tim and Erin shine but unfortunately Gil is pretty wooden throughout, not sure if he was directed in that manner since we know he can do better but the scenes lost a little for his lack of empathy. There were some excellent (for the time) visual/optical effects for the wormhole and nice to see they tried to make this universe look different with a more varied star field and the trapped aliens around the planet of Pendar was a nice touch if never really explored. As you would expect neither the Earth Directorate nor the Draconians are happy about being manipulated but they are kinda stuck with no way back without the help of the natives. Once again credit to the location set which would be a backlot but it looked pretty good and to me it reminded me of the studio set used for the Trek episode Shore Leave and then add the very Organian approach to the more advanced locals and Trek was fairly screaming at me in a very good way:) While we are looking at contemporary shows who else would be playing the War Witch Zarina but the one and only Julie Newmar  (Catwoman and Eleen (TOS) ).

Julie Newmar

Council taking Corporeal Form

There is no surprise that Buck agrees to help nor that Ardala stabs them in the back nor that the War Witch doesn't trust anyone and is quite happy to betray Ardala but her plans are working and with the imminent attack on Pendar after the successful breach of it's shield why would she take on new allies? Of course she is taken by Buck (what woman isn't) but even though he seems to be softening towards Ardala he isn't playing ball with Zarina and there are some very good lines including "To Live One Must Be Willing To Die" which comes as a surprise from the shows writers which once again makes you wonder if they realised this episode was make or break for ongoing employment. 

As Pendar gets close to falling from the assault beyond their atmosphere by the 73,000 troops and ships carried by the War Witch's ship the infiltration by Buck which fell apart after Ardala betrayed him gets back on track with the rescue of the previously captured Kodus (Trek again?) and when returned to Pendar begins to fix the shield which gives Buck the chance to set the trap for the War Witch relying on her own anger and blindness in seeing the obvious when her goal was so close.

You know you can't really trust her!

Laughed myself silly when Ardala on her hands and knees and in a tight outfit was crawling around a cargo bay and uttered "This is so degrading" amen sister both for the character and actress, again either the writers going to town or maybe a classic adlib?  I guess the men saving the day was always going to be the case especially in this era of television and the market but at least the women were contributing even if at times they were classic damsels in distress but with the destruction of the War Witch the two enemies keep their guns holstered at least until returning to their own universe.

The Flight of the War Witch is a pretty good title and overall the episode is a very fitting conclusion to the first season of Buck Rogers, good special effects and some new ship models but looking back we see this is the farewell for Ardala, Kane and Huer who do not return for the second season.

So the second season, don't think I'll be watching it anytime soon, recall not being that impressed first time around but it's sitting on the shelf so you never know.

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 11

A Dream of Jennifer

S1E19

While out on a shopping trip with Twiki Buck spots a familiar face from his past but that can not be, after all that was 500 years ago. He spots her again at a transit station and suspiciously gets her information from the check in desk and she is identified as Lela Markeson on route to City by the Sea which used to be New Orleans. It turns out that this Lela had being surgically altered to look like Buck's girl friend Jennifer as part of an overly complex plot to derail arms and supply shipments to the independent world Vega V by the Earth directorate. The Koven who are literally very red skinned have put a lot of effort into thwarting the efforts of the directorate but it's all for nought thanks to a few surprises onboard the supply freighter and of course Buck and Wilma doing their thing.

Anne Lockhart as Lela / Jennifer

So Buck is gathering supplies to build a hot tub, not quite sure how the human race lost interest in such things even after a nuclear war but hey it got the plot moving and set up the market scene with a lot of extras and of course the first look at Lela played by the gorgeous Anne Lockhart. In the flash back we even get a little side boob, it says a lot that despite the times that was quite surprising on the show and the notion that Buck was in a serious relationship prior to his mission back in the day. Later he again spotted the woman who looked like his Jennifer at a space port and hey I know that guy, yes Dennis Haysbert (The Unit, 24) is playing a guard and then over the public address system we hear "Captain Christopher Pike", I pissed myself laughing:)

The main plot I guess was the efforts of the Koven led by Commander Reeve (Paul Koslo) to prevent the Earth from supplying the planet Vega V with supplies and munitions to aid in their defence but the whole convoluted plot of altering a woman to look like Buck's long lost love and to then use her to force him to destroy the supply freighter seems way over the top. They said Buck had a photo of Jennifer and they used that to create the copy complete with voice and I guess all those little things which I'm not quite sure a 2D photo would be capable of showing. I felt a little let down that Buck rejected the flirting from the alien Nola, if nothing else wouldn't we all be curious if she was red all over but then again Lela was rocking the ridiculously tight blue spandex so it's all good apart from the end which wasn't but hey a last minute joke about Jaws so the show finished on a happy note.

Overall a pretty good episode mind you the bad guys plans were a little extreme but there were laughs and everyone looked good even when the alien of the week are guys painted a garish red.

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Space Rockers

S1E20

The galaxies most popular music is being used to subvert the young folk of thousands of worlds leading to rioting and civil unrest and Buck is sent to investigate because after all he was around when music was destroying civilisation back in the 20th century. The band Andromeda perform from a former military space station controlled by Lars Mangros (Jerry Orbach) and he splices a harmonic code into the music which effects the listeners, his goal to sew chaos and then extort power from the various worlds in turmoil.

Lars Mangros

Andromeda

This really wasn't a good episode after all the very idea of a music genre corrupting the young while still the mindset of some more fringe elements in society really belongs in a bygone age, I guess the idea of manipulating the music to cause a specific effect is scifi and that has some credibility but for half the episode that wasn't a known element. I didn't quite understand why the Earth directorate has no regulatory control over the former space station, it was in freaking orbit and even when it was known to be the source of a galaxy wind terrorist attack then sod the rules nuke it! It was also hilarious how old the youth of the Earth were, not exactly teenagers looking for direction and one thing we've seen is that the human society is pretty stable and we humans are not everywhere so why would this music effect the whole galaxy? Lets not get into how this concert was being transmitted galaxy wide or why Lars would even consider that one world wouldn't take very pro-active action to prevent their society.

You know the worst thing, the music wasn't that bad:)

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 10

Twiki is Missing

S1E17

Times are tough on the mining colony controlled by Kerk Belzak having to deal with a workers collective demanding better safety and pay so despite killing his workers spokesmen he decides to buy and then steal Twiki and use his enhanced AI to create a bunch of robots to mine the mineral Blazium. He sends his enforcement unit a trio of telekinetic women to do the deed but of course Buck won't sell so they steal Twiki and Buck gives chase. Meanwhile Wilma is in charge of a moving a huge space berg through the solar system into Earth orbit and then crash it into the north pole where huge amounts of oxygen will be released to help heal the Earth after the atomic war. An ion storm diverts the space berg and it looks like it could cause devastation on Earth and in the turmoil Buck is kidnapped and Twiki goes to the rescue but Buck takes on Kerk and his goons, escapes the colony and saves the day.

Space Berg

What is a dishonest business man supposed to do with uppity workers? Well you would think that with so much advanced technology in the galaxy relying on thousands of manual workers for mining would be a thing of the past. Of course Kerk's action make him the bad guy straight away so we're good to go which leads us to the space berg, ok bringing water to the Earth from the asteroid belt makes sense, not quite sure dropping it on the north pole is going to release oxygen, even melt water would benefit a poisoned world but the explanation is a little light. Loved seeing Twiki going for a space walk and even more bizarre when he somehow got into a starfighter, took off and was wearing a helmet, not sure how but go Twiki!

As per usual the "bad" girl (there were three but we concentrate on Stella played by

Anne-Marie Martin ) turns out to have a son and is being pressured to do the naughty things which gives the story a sort of happy ending when she finally helps Buck to escape the mining colony and nick some Blazium to use to divert the space berg, somehow:)

Anne-Marie Martin

Twiki Is Missing isn't a bad episode at all but were getting late into the season and money and ideas may just be getting a little short.

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Olympiad

S1E18

Well the Olympics have moved beyond Earth and have been embraced by the galaxy and Buck with his traditional five ringed flag is invited as a guest to the latest games, as a sports fan he is up for this and is looking forward to the competition. Alas political and ideology influence has infected the spirit of the competition and two competitors who have feelings for each other are being kept apart by one of the governments who keep their "stars" under tight control with threats and intimidation. Buck is approached by Lara Teasian ( Judith Chapman ) and is asked for political asylum and after consulting the Earth directorate is is agreed and then a behind the scenes "war" goes on to keep Jorex Leet ( Barney McFadden ) competing and when the gold is won to punish him by using the brain implant he has in his skull which has been turned into a bomb.

Olympiad isn't a good episode, it pulls on the political and sporting reality of the time with athletes being symbols of a nations power and legitimacy, this hasn't gone away but thankfully many of the nations that practiced this sort of control over their people have changed. So the episode is very dated and what's worse is that they try to make the sports modern with sonic boxing and martial arts, super high jumping and astro sledding which plays a pivotal role in the story. Budget restrictions meant most of this had to take place in a single enclosed arena with ported in audience noise and it simply doesn't work, it's rather pathetic to be honest, it would have more sense to imply a huge complex and have just one or two sports in the visible arena. Of course Wilma has to save the day by stealing the explosive trigger and wears some tight tight shorts but with skin tone tights etc which kinda negates the impact but how interesting that the even has women hired to "entertain". I'm not going into how a sporting event exists with so many worlds with varying gravity and an open admission that generations of some people have taken steroids etc. It's almost as bad as the Miss Cosmos which at least had the integrity to include genetics as the main point not just looks.

I can't really recommend this episode at all:)

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 9

A Blast For Buck

S1E15

A mysterious object is beamed into Dr Huer's office followed by a cryptic riddle which seems to relate to Buck and has ominous implications and then the other 45 minutes is a clip show.

Yes a clip show in the first season, never really a good thing but I suppose it would have been a budget or time issue and to be honest I fast forwarded through most of it and the bits I watched were nothing special. That said I think Twiki was in fine form "Killed by a Yo-Yo what a way to go" and the has it really been 11 months since the Happy Birthday, Buck episode or did they just get aired in the wrong order:)

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Ardala Returns

S1E16

Well it's never dull when Ardala make an appearance on the show and no question Pamela Hensley not only looks fantastic but vamps the role up wonderfully. Anyhow in this episode a new Hatchet fighter is being tested and the Draconian pilots are unable to control it and Ardala suggests getting Buck Rogers to test fly the fighter, not as mad as suggestion as it sounds. Meanwhile Buck has been given a Ping Pool table yes you read that right and well it doesn't quite fit the bill for either game but the fun is interrupted when a vessel is detected in the solar system and a remote probe indicates it has a human on board and it was launched in the 20th century. Buck and Twiki investigate but it's a trap and he is taken to the Draconian flagship where once again Ardala fawns all over him but the reveals their cyborg/cloning technology and the plans to create duplicates of Buck who can then fly the new Hatchets and attack the cities of Earth.

Of course just like the Star Trek episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" the duplicates are not quite right and the initial attack on New Chicago targeting Huer, Wilma and Dr. Theopolis fails but it's upto Buck himself to thwart the attack on New Phoenix by the evil robots.

No apologies for so much Ardala  

Not surprisingly there wasn't a lot of difference between the old and new Hatchet fighters, budgets for models would have been tight but no question it seemed the Draconians has upped their game when faced with Starfighters flown by more competent pilots. For an empire I find it strange that the loss of seven test pilots would be an issue, perhaps it shows a softer side to Ardala which is an undertone to this episode but the idea to make use of Buck makes a lot of sense, he did make the difference during the first attack on Earth. Love the Ping Pool table, the scene was well written and played for laughs and even the new model/effects for the "earth ship" was well done, laughed out loud when the dummies head fell off:) It was awfully convenient that the first of the duplicates was wearing the same outfit as Buck, saved time and money and more importantly probably make filming the scenes so much faster and Twiki once again hitting the right notes with "Once a dummy always a dummy". 

It's interesting how they have played Ardala being so obsessed with Buck, granted he is probably totally different from all the men she has had contact with before and has proven himself both intelligent, capable, honourable and worthy of a Draconian princess but surely there must come a time when enough is enough. On the upside so many possibilities for her with so many variants of Buck running around the ship, at the very least a few happy hours spent in her chambers just having the time of her life but even this isn't good enough. Ardala herself realises how pathetic she has become by her desires for Buck and as the tears falls you've got to feel something for her. 

Ok not quite sure when armed with a small nuclear device the Buck sent to New Chicago didn't get the job done as soon as his targets where in the city or why it took so long for anyone to notice how weird he was acting. On the flipside real Buck acting like one of the duplicates worked well and in the grand tradition no copy can rival the talents of courage of the real thing as the Draconian attack is once again foiled but it seems every other episode has the Earth protected by different means and sometimes not at all.

This wasn't a bad episode at all, yes serious eye candy as Ardala goes through many a costume and some serious undertones of what is going on behind closed doors but it is let down a little by how poor the duplicates where in the field, mind you Kane did say the first was a prototype because Ardala rarely shows patience when her wishes are not fulfilled immediately.

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 8

Space Vampire

S1E13

In Space Vampire and yes those were the days when even the titles were cheesy we have a Buck and Wilma going on a kind of vacation and dropping off Twiki at a repair station which gets hit by a rogue freighter. The crew of the ship are dead but evidence indicates they were infected with the EL7 virus which causes fever, hallucinations and mental issues and then strange things start to happen. As the station personnel start to go mad Buck finds evidence that the ship had been invaded by a mythical entity but despite all the strange goings on Buck is believed to be suffering from the virus until it's almost too late.

Yes I Know

Ok then talk about an excellent example of it's time, this was a fun episode but a bad episode it really was. Lets begin with Buck and Wilma going on a trip, about time but it seemed strange Twiki needed to go off world for some maintenance even though they were joking it was due to all his fun and games with his "friend" from last weeks episode. Wilma smoking hot as always and maybe an old flame on the station in the form of Commander Royko (Christopher Stone) but that's cut short when the freighter comes through the stargate on a direct vector towards the station, now who in their right mind places a fixed station in the flight path of a stargate exit, you are really asking for trouble. Now I wouldn't even have bothered trying to show the collision, just stick with the shaky cam and actors throwing themselves around because the slow mo model work really didn't look that good. Anyhow the freighters air becomes mixed with the station and the presence of the EL7 virus clouds the arrival of this alien life form which is capable of controlling people and he sets his sights on Wilma in the classic Dracula plot, don't blame the guy one bit.

Oh yes

I liked how they presented this "Vorvon" via the use of an energy based entity and then the physical form although the makeup was a little well never mind:) Wilma once controlled took the hotness up a notch although the reverb in her voice would be a little off putting but so much fun seeing her "vamping" towards Buck. The episode saved it's best special effects for the shuttle and it's escape pod, that looked very nice even though the whole gate to a sun seemed bloody dangerous to me but we'll let it go.

Space Vampire IMDB

Happy Birthday, Buck

S1E14

Buck is feeling very depressed, it seems life is too easy and too uniform for him despite all his adventures and well yes all the ladies he has met this past year so Dr. Huer asks him to escort the courier Raylyn Derren (Morgan Brittany) on her assignment which gives them time to set up a surprise party for Buck. Meanwhile Cornell Traeger (Peter MacLean) after being imprisoned for 15 years by an alien species escapes and returns to earth to exact vengeance on Dr Huer armed with his new "powers" and first things first, find the courier get the security information and then strike but well he didn't plan for Buck being along.

Tamara Dobson as Dr. Delora Bayliss

Well it was good to hear of New Detroit and have the episode deal with the city even if only in a casual way, wasn't quite sure if using couriers and mind probes made sense given it seemed just as easy to get information if you have the know how as shown by the antics of Dr. Bayliss who was wonderfully played by Tamara Dobson. Traeger was a little over the top and so many things wrong with the plot elements surrounding his imprisonment and getting his special powers, maybe more daft than the space vampire:)

I liked the idea that psychiatry is still alive and well in 500 years although it seems most is done by machine and even then in an open environment, not exactly conductive to privacy but hey lots of screen time for some for the lovely lady extras. I laughed quite a bit with Huer and Wilma with the ballons and certinaly with the pointy hat and deja-vu with the Dagger of the Mind scenario using the mind probe machine.

Buck gets THE best presents

Happy Birthday, Buck had some good bits but I was tuning out for the most part, it just wasn't that exciting to watch.

Happy Birthday, Buck IMDB

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 7

Escape from Wedded Bliss

S1E12

An alien vehicle positions itself over New Chicago and then Princess Ardala turns up with a simple ultimatum, give her Buck Rogers to be her husband and she will not destroy every city on the planet. The council are not co-operative and Buck goes on a camping trip but eventually he goes to her warship and to prove himself he has to fight Tigerman and then he will become the husband of Ardala who is due to take the crown of the Empire from her father. 

Well Ardala returns which wasn't a surprise and no doubt Pamela Hensley is very easy on the eye and does ham it up wonderfully as the princess who really has few limits but I can't help but think if she had come to Buck openly and yes pointed out the consequence then being husband to the new Empress would not only have protected Earth but been a pretty good life, she is after all totally in to him. Nice to see Kane return albeit played by another actor and of course Tigerman:)

That said I don't think we needed the roller disco show, was there really a time when that was considered a good idea and lets hope Ardala has learnt her lesson, sleeping with Buck means literally sleeping as he drugs her and has his own adventures.

Loved Twiki at the end wearing the headphones and listening to Meatloaf but overall a silly story with one or two good bits like the orbit weapons platform which reminded me of a Xindi in Enterprise a little too much:)

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Cruise Ship to the Stars

S1E13

Miss Cosmos the most genetically perfect human in the galaxy is on a cruise and becomes the target of a woman who has telekinetic powers, Buck becomes her security chief and Wilma goes undercover to ferret out the thieves using valuable jewels as a lure. It turns out that the thief is able to morph into another human who then is unaware of her other halves activity, the perfect disguise but it's the innocent part of her that eventually approaches Buck and opens up the investigation revealing the truth.

Dorothy Stratten

Ok a Miss Cosmos in the 25th century sounds ridiculous but at least they have the twist that it's based on the persons genetic profile but time has moved on and needing her actual body to gain access to the code in our age of cloning and manipulation seems a little strange. It also begs the question how has any human who is the product of a nuked earthed can have anything close to a perfect genetic makeup or is Miss Cosmos not human human even though she would kinda have to be in the context of the story.

Wilma was rocking the heiress look, great legs on that woman and quite rare to see her without the skin tight outfits she normally wears and a nice touch to have the tragic Dorothy Stratten as Miss Cosmos, one of the beauties of her era who was murdered for who she was.

IMDB

A couple of average scifi episodes, ok for the time they were released but fall way short of what would be required for scifi today.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 6

Planet of the Amazon Women

S1Ep10

The Earth and Ruatha are in negotiations to maintain resource rights to the planet Madrea as it's a major supplier of Barbanite which is used by Earth in it's power generators. While Buck is patrolling an assigned safe route he answers a distress call and "rescues" two women and returns their ship to the planet Zantia which has a very xenophobic attitude to outsiders particularly Earth ships. Buck is entertained but becomes suspicious and finds himself taken captive and offered up for auction to the dominant female population. Wilma investigates Buck's disappearance and infiltrates Zantia and discovers the young woman who is now his "mate" intends to kidnap the ambassador of Ruatha and use him as leverage to get the prisoners of war (mostly men) who were captured when Madrea and Zantia last went to war.

Space Tarts

Feast your eyes Ladies

Planet of the Amazon Women has issues especially when viewed from the mindset of the 21st century viewer, the whole idea of the women of Zantia not wanting anyone to know their men were missing and making them vulnerable is rather silly but it's from an era when the western powers did not exploit their female population for front line military purposes. It's also a bit strange that so many men had been captured, did they give themselves up en-masse to get away from these women because it really doesn't make sense. The Barbanite, ok resources are always at the centre of political and military conflicts but we know the Earth has fusion power planets and this episode really doesn't explain what this mineral is useful for? That said it was good to see the daughter of the Zantia prime minister leading a pseudo rebellion which at least gives us one strong woman with integrity and courage which just about saves the story when balanced against the jealous woman and the space bimbos.

I loved the dedicated "Distress" alarm in the Starfighter cockpit and Buck turning his back on a dinner date with Wilma for these two women, granted looked a sure thing but come on it's Wilma she's worth any number of space hot pants wearing damsels in distress. For the lady viewers Buck did get to display his "manly" torso and the quip that he was worth more than was being bid, mind you not sure making light of the sex slave trade is something we would these days.

I was rather to surprised to see that DC Fontana had co-wrote this episode under a pseudonym but I guess a job is a job.

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Cosmic Wiz Kid

S1E11

Hieronymus Fox the president of the planet Genesia is kidnapped by a criminal syndicate controlled by Roderick Zale (Ray Walston) and his bodyguard Lt. Dia Cyrton goes to Earth for help since just like Buck it seems Hieronymus is from the 20th century. While Wilma undertakes an undercover mission to rescue the President Buck gets involved with Dia and together they lead the charge and the fun and games commence. 

Ray Walston aka Boothby

A very young Gary Coleman

Cosmic Wiz Kid benefited greatly from a fantastic performance by Gary Coleman long before he really become a major TV star on Different Strokes although the humour did drop into a stereotypical elements of African American culture that was common in the media back then. It was good to Ray Walston as the bad guy, he always offers a dry and controlled performance and his role choices work with that delivery as seen many years later on Star Trek. I couldn't really buy into another "frozen" dude from the 20th century although they did spice it up with a back story and a different technique to get from there to here. The K9 type robot was wonderfully sarcastic, the matte painting of the station has been used before in the show and was retasked for an episode of Star Trek TNG years later and I'm sure that electric buggy was repainted for use by the Banana splits:)

I was disappointed that the energy barrier was only about 8 or 9 feet high and surely they should have tested it before Buck boosted Dia over it, I guess this planet is lower than standard gravity and on that subject the assassin from a high grave planet, nice idea but didn't work very well at all. I did laugh out loud at the reference to a Ken doll and the assassin calling himself a Terminator.

IMDB

Overall both of these episode were weak but the guest stars for both were competent and Gary Coleman really shined but average episodes at best.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 5

Return of the Fighting 69th

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 8

A freighter is stolen from the hanger of the Earth Defence Directorate and is chased down by a squadron comprised of Buck, Wilma and two younger pilots on a training mission. The stolen freighter gets away and it is revealed that it was carrying some recently discovered weaponised nerve gas agent due for destruction and we learn that two arms dealers with a grudge against Wilma and the Earth now have the capability to wipe all life from the face of the Earth. Corliss and Roxanne have their base within an asteroid field making it almost impossible to navigate with modern fighters and so in an inspired twist the idea is proposed to bring out of retirement Wilma's former instructor who along with his former squadron (Fighting 69th) using slower and older fighter/bombers to raid the base and destroy the nerve gas.

Buck and Wilma are captured during the mission and the remaining ships hide in the asteroids, within the base they team up with a deaf human slave girl (Alicia played by Katherine Wiberg) who helps them to escape just prior to the base being destroyed by the relics of the Directorate.

Never too old to fly

First off I didn't buy a freighter could outrun Starfighters even with modifications, lets not even get into how it got into another star system. Once again we meet some fighter pilots who are simply not even close to being the best of the best, they were not professional and ultimately downright stupid. Interesting to see that Earth humans are slaves in some areas of the galaxy and that yes there is another spy in the directorate, how else would they know about the nerve agent and it's transportation. A good use of the bar scene from the last episode, painted yes but the same and Wilmas nick name being Dizzy Dee, never was going to be Double D was it but she's still rocking those oh so tight pants. There was some good interaction between Wilma and her former instructor who she had to force into retirement,  Peter Graves played Major Noah Cooper and it was a good touch to have what could have been a filming model used as a prop. Corliss and Roxanne were wonderfully over the top, both scarred and damaged after their ship had burnt and crashed after Wilma brought them down a few years previously.

Corliss and Roxanne

Good to know that sign language doesn't change in 500 years even though Alicia acts rather recklessly but it's perhaps a part of the story that added some depth and gave us the extra happy ending yet for all that it's pure nonsense scifi when it comes to the attack on the base. Spaceships acting like they are craft dependent upon gravity and lift to fly but in the spirit of many a story we get the big payoff with a little twist to just delay the cheering the writers expected of us:)

A rather good episode, very good if often used central plot and cheesy enough to make you smile without the need to condemn the episode from the couch.

Return of the Fighting 69th IMDB

Unchained Woman

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 9

Buck once again goes undercover for the Earth Directorate in an attempt to remove a prisoner from a prison facility on a world with no set extradition treaty with the Earth. The woman Jen Burton played by Jamie Lee Curtis was the girlfriend of the space pirate Malary Pantera and they believe she will know the identity of his source within the directorate who is supplying the shipping information allowing him to attack the convoys. The escape goes well but the bad guys thanks to their spy know of the plan and capture Wilma while Buck and Jen have to deal with a very very driven andorid guard who just doesn't know when to quit.

Big on Red

So a prison break story, had for a second the hint of a tale of turmoil within a women's correctional facility but wasn't to be yet who are the bad guys? Wilma and company illegally seize a spaceship, stun the android guard and remove the prisoner to allow Buck to take his place, they then engineer a explosive and break out again from a legal facility. It was also a little obvious who the spy within the Directorate was, he came across all shifty right from the get go but at least we had the writing and delivery to support his existence and ultimately his reveal and capture. Credit to the android guard who really has a boner for Buck, ignores dozens of escaping prisoners to follow Buck and Jen and then take on the whole town it seemed and yes a good use of an old western set on a studio backlot. The young Jamie was full of beans, a snug outfit and buns of steel when dragged covered in sand from the clutches of the sand eel (?) and lets not forget watching get on all fours facing away from the camera, oh my:)

A nice set piece as the wall exploded and the android raided the party, lucky for Wilma and Buck but a little silly to see that just removing the prison bracelet was also that was required to fool this obviously advanced android. I did laugh myself silly as Buck threw away his blaster and proceed to fight hand to hand, granted it looked good but come on.

Unchained Woman again it had it's moments, a little slow and drawn out in places but the eye candy was rather impressive, the android guard very Terminator and we had a excellent performance by Robert Cornthwaite as the Ambassador.

Who hired the stripper then?

Unchained Woman IMDB

Just Because.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 4

The Plot to Kill a City, Part 1 and 2

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episodes 6 and 7

Buck goes undercover to aid in the capture of a notorious criminal and when a threat to the Earth is uncovered he agrees to pose as this criminal and infiltrate the group who are targeting New Chicago. You know as plot synopsis goes that pretty sums up the episode and this is a two parter so hopefully a lot more was going on but surprisingly not that much.

Party got out of hand.

So the episode in a little more detail, not quite sure why Buck was helping Wilma capture Raphael Argus since as we know he is not officially part of the the defence force infact they make a point of asking for his help when he poses as Raphael. We'll let it pass otherwise there wouldn't be a show called Buck Rogers and come on who would want to miss Buck hairy chest an all not to mention Wilma rocking the slinky dress as they go on their mission. The Legion of Death were a little bit comic book and hard to take them seriously, there is nothing about them that really provokes fear and since the Directorate have files on them it seems strange they are freely moving around the galaxy but I guess in this "universe" the Earth is really a second rate player. Anyhow Buck successfully infiltrates the group and even dodges the proverbial bullet when he meets Joella Cameron played by Markie Post a former girlfriend of Argus who for her own reasons plays along with Buck, fortunate that:)

Joella with Twiki

The Directorate is attacked once again when it's launch bays are sabotaged revealing a paid traitor in their midsts, it seemed strange the guy was casually watching the mayhem considering if the place blew he was going with it but it does explain how bombs were being planted in the complex. It seems easy for any bad guys to directly enter a secure complex or simply bribe a human into acts of treason but again it has to be or the story goes nowhere. Buck having passed the initiation is learning of the ultimate goal of striking New Chicago via it's power generation complex which uses a matter/anti-matter system which to me seems suicidal on a planetary surface, I would have thought cooling would be a serious issues since it's built in a wasteland so no water and of course no benefit from the vacuum of space.

Well to cut a long story short and believe me this two parter had plenty of padding Buck is unmasked but successfully convinces the League his is a freelance assassin looking to score big which gives him time to make an escape with the aid of a Varek and eventually follows the League back to Earth where they have already secured access to the power plant by threatening one of the few engineers who have access. Now this was very clever, intelligent use of influence to get what they want combined with convincing the mark they are thieves rather than terrorists. It was however a little silly how such a high value facility is so lightly protected especially considering we know the galaxy is a dangerous place and Earth no longer seems to have a defence shield. So the terrorists disrupt the magnetic containment of the matter and antimatter and then Varek again makes the decision to act and a fight breaks out which gives the defence force enough time to arrive and secure the control room. It was rather amusing how often these bad ass Legion of Death use stun weapons, I thought the engineer had bought it but no he was up and about in time to offer the almost suicidal task that was required to prevent the explosion. Varek again steps forward and phasing through the containment and resets the controls but is tagged by a stray atom of antimatter, no sure how he survives but it gives us that "all will be well" moment as Wilma treats him as normal person and offers help to ease his pain. 

It's not done though, the rest of the Legion flee the planet and Buck and Wilma in their starfighters give chase, now we get the ridiculous use of telekinesis to control Buck's ship which given the speed, mass and range seems a little bit much. Not to worry though Wilma saves Buck and the crowd cheered, even a couple of decades ago the hero being saved by a sidekick let alone a woman was rare in an action show. The episode wraps up with a comic moment as the gang get together and we see that Joella will be starting a new life and Twiki may be channeling Buck a little too much:)
The Plot to Kill a City isn't a bad episode, the plot isn't good enough to sustain two episodes though which is where your attention could end up going bye bye, edit it down and it would be a pretty tight story with some very good ideas. On the eye candy front they went to two, Markie and Wilma were rockin' and even the naughty Sherese could turn a few heads if she smiled once and a while:)

Just Because:)

The Plot to Kill a City: Part 1 IMDB

The Plot to Kill a City: Part 2 IMDB

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 3

Vegas In Space

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 5

A young woman Felina Redding is kidnapped by rivals of her employer as she has seen some critical data that will allow them to undermine the criminal operation she is unknowingly involved in. Her employer the often investigated by never proved crime lord Amos Armat approaches the Dr Huer with an offer, rescue the girl and he will turn over all his records which include the smuggling, slave trading, extortion etc etc he has been involved in and as a bonus the specs for the latest design of Hatchett fighter that is proving to be too good for the Earth's Starfighters. Buck along with Major Marla Landers go undercover at the huge gambling city that is run by the criminal syndicate controlled by Morgan Velosi and who is responsible for the kidnapping. Buck is in heaven out playing the computer based gambling machines and befriends a hostess Tangie but the mission eventually is discovered and they have to fight their way out of the tightly controlled city with the help of Tangie and with the successful rescue Armat provides the proof and data he agreed to and we find that for his daughter he would sacrifice everything.

Buck with Tangie

Vegas In Space was entertaining but lets go into a little more detail. Loved the kettle drums in the opening sequences, very 2001 and really added value to the show, a nice callback (and money saving idea) to continue with the Hatchett fighters but with new operating software which was also central to the plot. How great was it to see Cesar playing the bad guy of course but really grabbing the scenes he was in and of course Alicia became a familiar face from the more popular US soaps and really hit the mark with her scream not to mention looking stunning. I did think it was a little much that Buck was practicing his putting in his room with a hole in the floor, not sure how sensible that was but of then Wilma appeared in the spandex and well everything else became background:) I'm pretty sure it was Major Landers who went on the mission with Buck because Wilma couldn't get out of those pants fast enough to join him but interesting at this stage to sideline a lead actor.

Landers in disguise with Velosi

I loved the idea that computers couldn't cheat, poor deluded fools and of course surely card counting was not reintroduced to this century by Buck Rogers but good to know prostitutes and indentured slaves are still a viable proposition as we see with Tangie showing quite a bit of skin for a family scifi show. The rescue was pretty well done, it relied on the stupidity of the goons of course and some strange designs of the complex with no sound proofing, two doors on private rooms but not to worry. I laughed myself silly wondering where Tangie was supposed to hide the blaster, there are limits and Buck seemed to have little regard to casualties when blowing up the hidden charges he had placed earlier. Finally we get the conclusion with Felina meeting Amos and the bargain being honoured and we learn why he was willing to sacrifice everything, family it seems despite his own terrible crimes meant something to him and the line "Good, it's best that you don't" sums up the episode nicely.

A fun episode with a nice idea behind it despite the cheese with Buck being the gifted one bringing his "human" touch to this world computerised gambling systems, he thinks for himself as he says but it's basically a variant of card counting. An excellent line up of guest actors starting with Cesar Romero playing Amos Armat and Richard Lynch as Morgan Velosi, Juanin Clay played Maj Marla Landers, Pamela Susan Shoop played Tangie and Ana Alicia was Felina Redding.

Vegas In Space IMDB

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 2

Planet of the Slave Girls

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 3 and 4

A virus spreads throughout the Earth's defence force and even into other cities around the planet, as a search for a cure goes on investigations lead to a planet which was the common link between all the food products that were being imported. The planet Vistula is an agricultural world which supplies Earth and has a governor appointed from Earth and a native population who it seems are happy to export their worlds produce so Buck and Wilma in the guise of returning an ill pilot to his homeworld arrive looking for answers. As it turns out things on the planet are not all sunshine and roses, the native population are being dominated in fact in some cases enslaved to work in the fields and processing plants and a local leader called Kaleel is fanning the flames of rebellion from his base in the Sea of Stone. Ryma a young native woman helps Buck to gain access to a processing plant but she is then captured along with Wilma and taken to Kaleel, Buck and Duke attempt to follow into the desert but are shot down and while they eventually reach the "secret" base it's decided that Duke will steal a fighter and warn Earth of the threat and Buck will rescue Wilma. Kaleel it seems has been dosing the food to weaken the Earths defence force with the aim to launch a major attack on the planet with the aid of a former Earth officer renowned for his tactical ability. Buck rescues Wilma but is unable to prevent the launch of the attack force but it is met in battle by a handful of pilots who are fit enough to fly including one very special pilot making a cameo in the series. Despite being outnumbered the tactical choices being made by Duke thanks to taking in some of the lessons given by Buck thanks to his Air Force days allows them to wipe out the attacking fleet. Back on Vistula Buck faces down Kaleel who is quickly losing his hold on his followers and once confronted and unable to use his "powers" his rebellion is broken. 

 A Stargate In Operation

Planet of the Slave Girls while very much in line with pulp scifi titling is pretty inaccurate for the episode, yes the planet has slaves but their gender is not a plot point yet the idea of colonialism and external control is rather deep for a show such as Buck Rogers. It seemed obvious that Earth wasn't asking too many questions as to how it's food was being grown and delivered nor how their appointed governor ( Roddy McDowall ) was running things when even a brief glimpse would have by his own actions and status indicated something was very wrong. That said overall the episode worked pretty well so lets get into some specifics both good and bad.

I really hate a preview of an episode to kick off the broadcast, I want to be surprised and amazed as I watch not before hand thank you very much. Anyhow I liked the Stargate method of covering vast differences in this scifi universe, credit to actually considering a method of travelling to distant star systems with a nice special effect to boot. When Wilma and Buck come across Major Duke and his charge Regis Saroyan under attack I simply did not understand why Duke was upset with their intervention, the young pilot who is being trained was in a battle for his life, it isn't a do or die test of his abilities at this stage or any stage. The ongoing conflict between Duke and Buck (Wilma in the mix doesn't help matters) is at times fun but doesn't make any sense whatsoever. In practical terms the tactics Buck proved worked and the computer combat systems having proven unreliable it was ridiculous not to embrace the new combat options. It was made worse by Major Duke himself openly negated the teaching which was fed into the younger trainee pilots, simply bad military discipline throughout. I did like the AI named Carl who had a very dry character and of course his "death" also worked pretty well making the sabotage of the search for a cure have a little more drama. When we get to meet Kaleel played wonderfully over the top by Jack Palance we see he has some sort of ability, it's not clear if he is a mutant or even native to Vistula but as an evil villain he works very well for this pulpy sort of scifi.

Kaleel - Jack Palance

The Sea of Stone which his the secret base of Kaleel and his strike force was also a clever idea, on the surface it seems strange that there is such a large desert area on this agro world but it makes sense that you can't have a planet that is all moderate climate ideal for agriculture, you have the opposite. It was also a nice twist to find out it's Kaleel himself that is supporting the slave trade for his own material benefit with the side effect of stoking the rebellion coupled with his ability to kill with glowly hands. I'm not quite sure where they got the infrastructure to build such advanced vessels in the middle of nowhere, nothing indicates they were bought in but we'll let it go but they also had a weapon that could leech power from aircraft/spacecraft which seemed a pretty good device to have. All that aside we know the Earth has a defence shield so regardless of how many fighters the Earth could send into orbit it's not as if any alien fighter was going to get through to attack the planet directly. 

Governor Toban Saroyan

A big thankyou to the writers and director for the wet look Wilam and Ryma, great idea to stick the two women into a very hot prison cell which had them perspiring like crazy and lots of skin on display, of course Buck blowing up a grenade inside a helmet to throw himself into rafters was rather silly. I also felt sorry for the women who were still no doubt sticky when they had to perform in the desert, that could not have been comfortable at all. That said both Wilma and Ryma (Brianne Leary) were strong characters who achieved a lot themselves despite being saved by a man but credit where it's due for making a good attempt to provide good female role models. The big easter egg in the episode was one of the pilots who came out of retirement to defend the Earth against the approaching alien fleet, a certain Brigadier Gordon played by the one and only Buster Crabbe and the interchange between the two characters/actors was fanboy nirvana:)

Overall a fun episode with a lot of flaws.

• Planet of the Slave Girls IMDB
• Jack Palance
• Buster Crabbe

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 1

Awakening 

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 
Episode 1 and 2

A long time ago in a world which indeed seems far away young Michael got took to the pictures with the rest of his family to watch a science fiction movie, not usual but rare since his father was not keen on the genre. Years later an older and wiser Michael who is still a huge fan of science fiction can look back and see that maybe dear old Dad knew a little about Erin Grey and Pamela Hensley because there was something compelling about those two up their on the big screen:) The time is right to have a rewatch of the Buck Rogers television series, the movie which certainly did ok on the big screen was like Battlestar before it a Glen A Larson production and the packaging of a movie and tv edit paid off in revenue and promotion, pretty clever really. I'm going to be watching the movie edit, it's that different to the tv version but there are few things the censors of the day though inappropriate for network television. The film kicks off with some split screen video and narration before entering into a very interesting if dated opening credit sequence and then into the story proper. Buck frozen for 500 years is found in deep space by an alien ship and brought onboard, revived and interrogated they return him to his original state and plant a tracker on his ship believing he will be safely taken to Earth and thus reveal the design layout of the planets energy based defence shield. On Earth Buck is viewed with some suspicion but one of the computer AI's who control the worlds infrastructure believes Buck's story and then benefit of the doubt leads him into a reckless adventure in the ruins of "old" Chicago. The tracker is discovered on Bucks ship and he is sentenced to be executed but when the Draconian ship under the command of Princess Ardala approaches Earth Buck along with a defence squadron led by Colonel Wilma Deering fight off a pirate attack yet the Princess denies knowing Buck again raising further suspicion. Buck gets a life line when the princess personal asks for him to attend the welcoming gala and he proceeds to boogey on down which rather shocks the more restrained humans who now like in "new" Chicago and he uses his seduction techniques to flee Earth with the princess with the aim to find the proof he needs to save himself and protect Earth. Eventually the Draconian deceit is revealed and the Draconians are sent packing with the bad guys shaking their fists vowing to return with Wilma and the council embracing Buck as one of their own albeit 500 years out of his own time. Ok then first off like BSG this is a dated show but if you can get over that style of tv production and yes even the movie felt like a tv show and of course the fashions then Buck Rogers is a lot of fun but not without it's flaws:)

We'll kick off with the opening credits, very cool but a little blatant in the sexualisation of two of the main stars but then again nothing that Bond wasn't doing so we can let that pass. It was a little silly saying Buck was frozen at temperatures beyond imagination, pretty sure they knew what absolute zero was back then but even worse the Draconians using Earth based time units, easier for the audience but come on. Also as with BSG I don't think they even attempted to convey how big the universe is, the Draconians have conquered three quarters of the universe, I don't think so, even a quarter of the galaxy would be impressive. I was seriously impressed how powerful the Earth's defence shield was, they have some uber power generation on planet which does get addressed in a later episode. It was very interesting to see that the humans have allowed AI's to make decisions on how the planet and it's cities are run yet still allow the humans the freedoms to live as they please and of course we get Twiki the little robot who acts as a mobility device for the AI's, cute and funny but networking would surely be the more efficient method.

Twiki

When we are introduced to Colonel Wilma Deering she is the by the book military commander, she isn't overly impressed with Buck yet is very pro-treaty which doesn't quite make sense, from purely a military perspective an envoy from a race that has used force to gain territory and resources can't really be trusted. Buck's little trip to old Chicago did feel totally wrong, it's amazing so much was left intact after the nuclear war and the existence of the mutants made little sense, they were obviously healthy in their own reality but where was the food and water and the environment outside of the city was not viable. They messed it further up with the existence of the black market, so economically driven mutants then who value the precious metals in Theo the AI, nah doesn't work.
We now enter space and I do like the design of the Earth fighters, they do look like they are viable for both atmospheric and space flight at least upto a point and it was a good idea to have them so dependent upon combat computers rather than manual flight control, it does gel with the AI's on the plant. However as we see that pirates are fully capable of defeating the predictable tactics of the computers and only Buck saves the day even though why would he be so proficient with a vehicle he really had no right knowing how to fly with the skills required. All that is forgotten though as Princess Ardala the woman with little or no self image issues or lacks confidence thanks the Earth squadron for destroying her own ships (that's a secret) and also gets Buck off the hook with her demands for his attendance at the gala. Ah the gala in which we have to put up with some music and dancing which had no place in civilised society but no denying that Pamela looked stunning and played the role wonderfully as did Erin in dress uniform who suddenly realised she was acting a little protective of "her" man.

Hubbahubba

It was a nice twist to have Kane ( Henry Silva ) as a human, not quite sure how he got such an high position in the Draconian fleet but my guess is he betrayed his heritage and people died, he certainly wasn't to be trusted and of course he has designs on Ardala himself so not fan of her dancing display and reminds her there are 29 other daughters of the Emperor who would be happy to serve. Oh I loved the freeze ray, well Buck needed something to explain how he defeated the huge "Tigerman" and Princess and a little amusing that she suddenly got all shy and covering herself up when things started going wrong.
So Buck took it upon himself to sabotage the Draconian attack fleet by sticking a banana in their tail pipe, I kid you not that's what he did but the banana was a munition, thankfully the guards on the hanger deck were too busy doing something else. With the destruction of the fighters and the warning given to Twiki and Theo (who stowed away on the Draconian Shuttle) the Draconia comes under attack from Earth's fighters and is destroyed but Ardala and Kane escape and you know I'm fine with that, both of them are a little over the top but good comic book style villains.

Twiki looks happy

Overall I enjoyed Awakening, I don't think the movie edit is really that much of a must see over the tv edit but obviously the whole show is produced to a level of camp and tongue in cheekiness which over the years has been the downfall of too many scifi production but works quite well for Buck Rogers.

• Wilma Deering - Erin Gray
• William "Buck" Rogers - Gil Gerard
• Princess Ardala - Pamela Hensley
• Dr Huer - Timothy O'Conner
• Kane - Henry Silva
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century IMDB
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Wiki