Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981)

While the Scribester is off dealing with whatever issues he has to deal with, I'm left to post whatever I want. I do apologize that its been so long in between posts. It's never my intention to leave you all hanging so long with nothing new to read. I had an urge to watch some of this recently and thought it'd be cool to review here, just because I can. Of course, Sir Scribe-a-lot is always welcome to add his take if he wants to.

GREEN'S OH, WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN REVIEW:


"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, 500 years later."

With that great weekly narration by William Conrad, we were launched into the week's adventure as Buck (Gil Gerard), Wilma (Erin Grey) and friends were off to save Earth from would be conquerors, ultimate destruction and various bad guys. The best villain was Ardala, the Draconian Princess, sexily played by Pamela Hensley, as evidenced by her appearance in six episodes.

The opening narration changed slightly for the abbreviated second season as did the weekly format of the show. This season took on a more hybrid Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek-ish feel as Buck and Wilma were part of the Earth ship Searcher crew, looking for the "lost tribes of Earth" scattered across the galaxy in the aftermath of the Nuclear War which occurred after Buck's Ranger 3 mission took off.

Since I initially posted this review I've thought about the second season's premise. The exploration format actually makes no sense at all when you consider that, according to the story, Buck's 1987 mission was as a deep space probe. Space flight was still in its infancy back then as it still is now, despite advances made. Travel between planets outside the solar system remains impossible, given the host of technological problems, the least of which is knowing where hospitible planets to earth life are located, never mind getting to them. So leaving earth to find lost colonies scatterd from the nuclear war would be a useless gesture.

This show first aired the year I turned 10 and I absolutely loved it. As a young boy the futuristic plots captured my imagination in more ways than one. Back then the campiness of it all didn't even bother me.

Both Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica television show (another personal fave of mine) were produced by Glen A. Larson, so its not surprising that some of the props and costumes were used in both shows. One of my favorite elements of this show is the look of the Earth Defense Directorate star-fighters. They are so cool looking and I often wished as a youngster that I could own and fly one.

Buck Rogers featured some excellent guest stars including: Roddy McDowall, Jack Palance, Jerry Orbach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Graves, Gary Coleman, Julie Newmar, Frank Gorshin, Marc Lenard, Markie Post, Buster Crabbe, Anne Lockhart and Dennis Haysbert.

Looking back on this series as an adult, I see that the acting was generally bad with paper thin plots and cheesy special effects. In the second season, the acting wasn't any better but the characters and plots became more serious. As a result, the show lost some of its campiness and, frankly, most of its appeal. Now the appeal is purely nostalgic. I've watched all 37 episodes multiple times and love every minute of them.

I used to think that the network cancelled the show midway through the second season due to low ratings but, according to wikipedia.org, the year was marred by a writers strike which shortened the season. NBC then cancelled the series due to "cost concerns." I'd like to think that if the show hadn't been canceled, season three would have blended the first season's campiness with the second season's more serious themes and it might have lasted a few more seasons.

The only complaints I have are centered around the DVD set itself. It contains five discs with programming on both sides of each disc, which I don't like at all. The set also contains zero special features, which as a fan of the show I would love to see. The enclosed booklet has nice episode summaries but as you unfold the pages knowing what episodes are on each disc becomes unnecessarily confusing.

The price for the complete series is very reasonable. I've seen it as low as $14.99 on amazon.com.

For all its flaws, this is an excellent television show that was cancelled way too soon.

**** out of *****

Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century" (1979-1981, 37 episodes total) starring Gil Gerard, Erin Grey, Tim O'Connor, Felix Silla, Mel Blanc (voice), Eric Server (voice), and William Conrad (narrator).