 The year is 1987, and NASA launches the
last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger
Three and its pilot, Captain William "Buck" Rogers,
are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes
his life support systems, and returns Buck Rogers to Earth...
five hundred years later.
So
here is how it works: Star Wars comes out
and makes more money than what's held in all of Fort Knox.
Entertainment executives everywhere start green-lighting every
sci-fi movie or television series they can get their hands
on. Glen A. Larson decides that after the first season of Battlestar Galactica is finished (which he
also wrote and created,) updating the 1930’s character Buck Rogers (originally starring Buster Crabbe)
is the way to go. A pilot movie is cast and shot and given
a limited theatrical release to see how it would do; it must
have done fairly well because the movie was later broken into
two parts and used as the pilot for the television show. ”
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The plot was fairly simple in 1987; Captain William “Buck”
Rogers (Gil Gerard) blasts off from Earth in the Ranger 3
spacecraft for a five month mission, however not unlike Gilligan’s
three hour tour, something goes very wrong. In Buck’s
case, a meteor storm damages his life support systems and
he is frozen solid. His ship, Ranger 3, then enters into an
orbit that returns him to Earth 500 years later. Now in 2491,
Buck’s ship and his frozen body are found floating in
space by a Draconian ship that is on a diplomatic mission
to Earth… and by diplomatic, I mean they want to conquer
or destroy it. Buck and his ship are taken aboard the Draconian
vessel where he is revived and meets the extremely hot, and
eternally horny, Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) and the
ruthless Kane (Henry Silva). Aradala wants to keep Buck as
a toy while Kane sees him as an opportunity to find a way
through Earth’s defense shield. They wipe his recent
memory, put him back to sleep, and launch him on an intercept
course with the Earth, but not before placing a tracking device
on his ship.
 Buck’s
ship is once again found floating in space, but this time
by the also incredibly hot Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray).
They inform Buck that he’s pulled a major Rip Van Winkle,
that he was frozen for 500 years and in that time the Earth
suffered a major holocaust and everyone and everything he
knew or loved is gone. If that wasn’t bad enough, Buck
also has the severely frigid Colonel Deering questioning his
loyalty, despite the support of the man in charge, Dr. Huer
(Tim O'Connor ). Buck’s case isn’t helped much
when the Draconian tracking device is found aboard his ship
and he’s accused, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced
to death for being a spy/traitor all in about five minutes
(things sure work fast in the future.) At this point, Wilma
and Dr. Huer then offer Buck a chance to prove himself innocent
by becoming a spy against the Draconians. Buck accepts and
flirts with Ardala, gets help from a little robot named Twikki
(voiced by Mel Blanc) and saves the day.
 Season
One is by far the better of the two seasons as Buck, Wilma,
and Twiki defend New Chicago, the Earth and themselves from
constant threats by Ardala and other villians. Season One
also features a nice run of guest stars like Jamie Lee Curtis,
Roddy McDowell, Jack Palance and Gary Coleman. In Season Two
however, the studio obliviously got cheap because New Chicago,
the Earth, Dr Huer and sadly Princess Ardala are all kicked
to the curb. Instead we are given this backwards Galactica rip-off of a storyline in which Buck and Wilma join the earth
ship Searcher in search of the lost tribes of man who fled
the Earth after the holocaust. The only bright spot of Season
Two is the introduction of Hawk the birdman in the opener.
He eventually joins the team but is used way too little. Almost
every episode of Season Two looks like it was shot on the
same piece of dirt and it gets really boring.
All 32 episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century are presented here in a really nice set, complete with a see-through
slip cover and fold out booklet. The show itself is presented
on five double-sided discs. The show looks and sounds like
a show shot in the late seventies with only minimal work done
to clean up any problems; there is still some evidence of
grain and occasional shakiness. There are no special features
to speak of, and no behind-the-scenes or nostalgic looks back.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was never
really a very good show, but as a kid growing up, I always
thought it was fun to watch. As far as the first season goes,
I still do. The casting on this show was great. Gil Gerard
was the perfect Buck Rogers and, to this day, Erin Gray stands
as one of the most memorable figures from television science
fiction. I can’t recommend this as a “must buy”
for those that have never seen it, but if this was a childhood
favorite for you as well, then I don’t think you would
regret picking it up.
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