Edison
November 10th, 2007, 02:20 AM
Okay I will begin by stating that this movie, and yes it was a feature theatrical release before becoming a show, most don’t realize this, but it will be 30 years old in 2009, and I will provide an episode by episode review and commentary and will wrap up the show with an overall review when done.
Season 1, Episode 1: Awakening: Part 1
Original Air Date: 13 September 1979
Season 1, Episode 2: Awakening: Part 2
Original Air Date: 20 September 1979
Review: The narration sets up the whole story…
The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger 3 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.
…The first impression is I completely forgot that the opening of the feature film was NOT the classic version we all know and love, the opening narration is longer (I gave you the TV version above for sake of familiarity), and is followed by a James Bond-esq opening credits sequence, where Buck lays unconscious on a lighted version of his name, and Erin (Wilma Deering) Gray, and Pamela (Princess Ardala) Hensley roll about scantily clad in a sexy fashion on the letters as well. It also features the song that ran over the closing credits of the TV show, except it has lyrics, and is VERY touchy feely, definitely meant to evoke sympathy in Bucks timelostness and it stinks.
The movie itself runs a little odd, introducing Buck who seems way too silly to be our hero, Wilma who is nearly on the verge of snarling and kicking Buck in the nuts, she nearly seems to either hate him, or wants to sleep with him badly, Twiki who says his catchphrase, “Biddy, biddy, biddy.” A lot, seemingly Twikester was not to have many lines, but the character took on a life of it’s own, Dr. Theopolis, who beats Flavor Flave to the fashionable large clock on the neck by a few years (Theo is a round clock like robot, that counter balances Twiki’s gruff but loveable persona with a pure logic, persona, and finally on the Earth Side of our story Dr. Huer who becomes a mentor of sorts to Buck in season one. We also met Princess Ardala, Kane, and Tigerman of the Draconian Empire.
We get a story about how the Draconians are proposing peace with Earth (The Earth is recovering but still struggling after an atomic war), but the Draconians are full of crap, as their behind the ‘Pirates’ attacking Earth shipping lanes. Buck pulls a fast one on the horny princess, (he drugs her) and saves the day by stopping the Draconian plot to invade Earth via their corridor through Earths protect shield.
The moral of the story? Perhaps good ol’ silly Buck can teach these people a thing or two!
I find myself wonder, who the hell did Glenn Larson (the producer of this flick) sell his sole to get a theatrical release? Clearly riding the Sci Fi wave set from 77’s Star Wars, Larsen made Battlestar Galactica and when that folded, he made BR, even the Earth Defense Force Star Fighter is a Galactica cast off, as it was the original design for the Colonial Viper, and while it has it’s charm, and is enjoyable, it’s clearly a TIGHT budget and doesn’t come close to the production value of Star Wars. It looks like a TV show, and soon it would be.
Season 1, Episode 3: Planet of the Slave Girls
Original Air Date: 27 September 1979
Season 1, Episode 4: Episode #1.4
Original Air Date: ????
Earth’s Defense Force becomes sick due to poisoned food disks, and Buck travels to the planet of origin to stop the problem, a religious Zealot played by Jack Palence.
Wanna see Buck sweat his ass off in a gold head to toe snowsuit in the desert? Then this episode is for you! Also clearly Wilma has had a shift in character since the movie, she no longer seems to want to sleep with Buck, nor does she hate him anymore, oddly she’s just like his best friend which leads to a lot of Buck is Gay jokes from me. The producers also decided early on to get some great shots of Wilma, as they put her in slave girl cloths…not as sexy as Leia…but then again Leia doesn’t get all sweaty in a lava room….There’s a lava pit in the center of the room where her Buck and a girl are being held captive by Jack and his glowing hands of doom (no joke there)…Buck escapes by putting a grenade under a helmet to propel himself up to a vent shaft…odd you would think that would kill him not propel him upwards, but Buck finds a rope and pulls the ladies up to the shaft, where the camera man wisely gets a great shot of Erin Gray’s backside…give that man an emmy please…and Twiki and a few pilots are pressed into action to stop Jacks fleet heading to earth, including a Major Gordon, played by original Buck Rogers, Buster Crab. Buster and Gil trade some funny in jokes, and they defeat the fleet. Jack gets beaten down by his followers.
Season 1, Episode 5: Vegas in Space
Original Air Date: 4 October 1979
Buck and Directorate agent Marla Landers travel to Sineloa, a gambling city that Buck finds resembles old Earth's Las Vegas. Their mission from the Earth Defense Directorate is to locate and return to Earth a kidnapped girl being held prisoner by the city's ruler, Velosi. The young woman has critical knowledge that Velosi must extract in order to destroy Armat, his competitor. Learning of their plans to rescue his prisoner, Velosi offers the Earth Directorate a deal: in return for keeping the girl, he will turn over blueprints of Princess Ardala's Draconian Hatchet fighters that have been attacking Earth's defenses.
It’s Vegas in space. VEGAS IN SPACE.
I’m not sure where Wilma is in this episode…oh she’s there alright, but they felt the need to pair Buck up with someone else…and they gave him disappearing Silly Explosive Putty.
This episode also continues it’s guest stars with Caesar Romero.
Season 1, Episode 6: The Plot to Kill a City: Part 1
Original Air Date: 11 October 1979
Season 1, Episode 7: The Plot to Kill a City: Part 2
Original Air Date: 18 October 1979
Buck's home of New Chicago may be destroyed if the Legion of Death is successful. They plan to self-destruct the city's anti-matter/matter reactor in retaliation for a Defense Directorate agent killing in self defense of one of their members. Learning of their plans, Buck is sent out masquerading as an assassin looking to join the group, but he is soon discovered to be an impostor."
You have to love the high tech warehouse settings and the ultra cool guy who becomes intangible, not to mention the parade of Batman guest starts continuing with Frank Gorshwin.
Not a bad two parter, if not a bit long. It suffers from a rewriting of what is already been stated…Earths defense shield is now missing, and the intangible guy’s turn is pretty easily seen coming early on, plus you’d imagine an anti-matter / matter reactor would be better guarded after a nuclear war.
Also missing is Earth had been portrayed as a mostly wasteland outside of Chicago but they start changing that with this episode.
Were also introduced to our generic faceless robots played by anyone at this point, which will pop up from time to time and are easily dispatched.
Season 1, Episode 1: Awakening: Part 1
Original Air Date: 13 September 1979
Season 1, Episode 2: Awakening: Part 2
Original Air Date: 20 September 1979
Review: The narration sets up the whole story…
The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger 3 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.
…The first impression is I completely forgot that the opening of the feature film was NOT the classic version we all know and love, the opening narration is longer (I gave you the TV version above for sake of familiarity), and is followed by a James Bond-esq opening credits sequence, where Buck lays unconscious on a lighted version of his name, and Erin (Wilma Deering) Gray, and Pamela (Princess Ardala) Hensley roll about scantily clad in a sexy fashion on the letters as well. It also features the song that ran over the closing credits of the TV show, except it has lyrics, and is VERY touchy feely, definitely meant to evoke sympathy in Bucks timelostness and it stinks.
The movie itself runs a little odd, introducing Buck who seems way too silly to be our hero, Wilma who is nearly on the verge of snarling and kicking Buck in the nuts, she nearly seems to either hate him, or wants to sleep with him badly, Twiki who says his catchphrase, “Biddy, biddy, biddy.” A lot, seemingly Twikester was not to have many lines, but the character took on a life of it’s own, Dr. Theopolis, who beats Flavor Flave to the fashionable large clock on the neck by a few years (Theo is a round clock like robot, that counter balances Twiki’s gruff but loveable persona with a pure logic, persona, and finally on the Earth Side of our story Dr. Huer who becomes a mentor of sorts to Buck in season one. We also met Princess Ardala, Kane, and Tigerman of the Draconian Empire.
We get a story about how the Draconians are proposing peace with Earth (The Earth is recovering but still struggling after an atomic war), but the Draconians are full of crap, as their behind the ‘Pirates’ attacking Earth shipping lanes. Buck pulls a fast one on the horny princess, (he drugs her) and saves the day by stopping the Draconian plot to invade Earth via their corridor through Earths protect shield.
The moral of the story? Perhaps good ol’ silly Buck can teach these people a thing or two!
I find myself wonder, who the hell did Glenn Larson (the producer of this flick) sell his sole to get a theatrical release? Clearly riding the Sci Fi wave set from 77’s Star Wars, Larsen made Battlestar Galactica and when that folded, he made BR, even the Earth Defense Force Star Fighter is a Galactica cast off, as it was the original design for the Colonial Viper, and while it has it’s charm, and is enjoyable, it’s clearly a TIGHT budget and doesn’t come close to the production value of Star Wars. It looks like a TV show, and soon it would be.
Season 1, Episode 3: Planet of the Slave Girls
Original Air Date: 27 September 1979
Season 1, Episode 4: Episode #1.4
Original Air Date: ????
Earth’s Defense Force becomes sick due to poisoned food disks, and Buck travels to the planet of origin to stop the problem, a religious Zealot played by Jack Palence.
Wanna see Buck sweat his ass off in a gold head to toe snowsuit in the desert? Then this episode is for you! Also clearly Wilma has had a shift in character since the movie, she no longer seems to want to sleep with Buck, nor does she hate him anymore, oddly she’s just like his best friend which leads to a lot of Buck is Gay jokes from me. The producers also decided early on to get some great shots of Wilma, as they put her in slave girl cloths…not as sexy as Leia…but then again Leia doesn’t get all sweaty in a lava room….There’s a lava pit in the center of the room where her Buck and a girl are being held captive by Jack and his glowing hands of doom (no joke there)…Buck escapes by putting a grenade under a helmet to propel himself up to a vent shaft…odd you would think that would kill him not propel him upwards, but Buck finds a rope and pulls the ladies up to the shaft, where the camera man wisely gets a great shot of Erin Gray’s backside…give that man an emmy please…and Twiki and a few pilots are pressed into action to stop Jacks fleet heading to earth, including a Major Gordon, played by original Buck Rogers, Buster Crab. Buster and Gil trade some funny in jokes, and they defeat the fleet. Jack gets beaten down by his followers.
Season 1, Episode 5: Vegas in Space
Original Air Date: 4 October 1979
Buck and Directorate agent Marla Landers travel to Sineloa, a gambling city that Buck finds resembles old Earth's Las Vegas. Their mission from the Earth Defense Directorate is to locate and return to Earth a kidnapped girl being held prisoner by the city's ruler, Velosi. The young woman has critical knowledge that Velosi must extract in order to destroy Armat, his competitor. Learning of their plans to rescue his prisoner, Velosi offers the Earth Directorate a deal: in return for keeping the girl, he will turn over blueprints of Princess Ardala's Draconian Hatchet fighters that have been attacking Earth's defenses.
It’s Vegas in space. VEGAS IN SPACE.
I’m not sure where Wilma is in this episode…oh she’s there alright, but they felt the need to pair Buck up with someone else…and they gave him disappearing Silly Explosive Putty.
This episode also continues it’s guest stars with Caesar Romero.
Season 1, Episode 6: The Plot to Kill a City: Part 1
Original Air Date: 11 October 1979
Season 1, Episode 7: The Plot to Kill a City: Part 2
Original Air Date: 18 October 1979
Buck's home of New Chicago may be destroyed if the Legion of Death is successful. They plan to self-destruct the city's anti-matter/matter reactor in retaliation for a Defense Directorate agent killing in self defense of one of their members. Learning of their plans, Buck is sent out masquerading as an assassin looking to join the group, but he is soon discovered to be an impostor."
You have to love the high tech warehouse settings and the ultra cool guy who becomes intangible, not to mention the parade of Batman guest starts continuing with Frank Gorshwin.
Not a bad two parter, if not a bit long. It suffers from a rewriting of what is already been stated…Earths defense shield is now missing, and the intangible guy’s turn is pretty easily seen coming early on, plus you’d imagine an anti-matter / matter reactor would be better guarded after a nuclear war.
Also missing is Earth had been portrayed as a mostly wasteland outside of Chicago but they start changing that with this episode.
Were also introduced to our generic faceless robots played by anyone at this point, which will pop up from time to time and are easily dispatched.