Watching Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

[Christopher]

Slightly surprising that they didn't do a remake of Man Out of Time. OK, as a Logan's Run episode it was only about three years old, but when did that matter?
ISTR someone mentioned David Gerrold being on staff for the version that didn't happen, so maybe that would have been an issue.

The only way they could "do a remake" of that episode would be if David Gerrold had sold them a rewritten version of his script. As you say, he didn't end up working on Buck Rogers after all. And the two shows had no producers in common and were from different production companies and networks (Logan was MGM and CBS, Buck was Universal and NBC), so I don't know why you find it surprising.

This confuses me, if he didn't want to do a show with sci-fi plots, then why do a sci-fi show at all? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to just do a cop show, or spy show or something then? Did someone force him to do Buck Rogers?

Well, to borrow terminology from an online acquaintance who's a film scholar, there's a difference between the semantics of science fiction (the surface elements and concepts used) and the syntax (the way the story is structured). There are lots of things that combine the semantics of SF with the syntax of other genres -- for instance, Star Wars combines it with the syntax of fantasy, Outland with the syntax of Westerns, etc. Lost in Space was The Swiss Family Robinson dressed up with sci-fi semantics. Battle Beyond the Stars was The Magnificent Seven transposed to sci-fi. A lot of the things that are considered sci-fi in mass media only use the surface trappings of SF or space opera to tell more conventional stories. What defines a more classic science fiction story -- to use the standard in Analog Magazine's writers' guidelines -- is that it could not be told without the speculative element. You couldn't tell "The City on the Edge of Forever" without time travel, or "Tuvix" without transporters.

So Lansbury's thinking, presumably, was that the syntax-level science fiction of shows like Star Trek was too rarefied for a general TV audience that just wanted standard action-adventure comfort food, so the way to make a space/futuristic show popular was just to use the semantics, the surface elements of spaceships and robots and aliens and ray guns and mutants and superpowers, but with the syntax of regular action-adventure.

And it wasn't even just about science fiction. Season 1 Buck Rogers episodes almost never had any kind of theme or message, any underlying point to the story beyond "Hope you had a good time and come back next week." There weren't any challenging ethical questions or philosophical dilemmas. I think the closest they came to a message was in "Buck's Duel to the Death" when Buck had been mythologized as an oppressed people's hero and gave them a speech saying they had to work it out for themselves.

 

[TRON JA307020]

But both incarnations of Galactica were willing to be science fiction. Bruce Lansbury's explicit mandate as Buck's season 1 showrunner was to avoid sci-fi plots and just do conventional action-adventure plots with a superficial sci-fi veneer -- e.g. kidnappers are after a beauty queen on a cruise ship, but it's a space cruise ship and they want her for her "perfect genes." Or Buck has to infiltrate a casino to rescue a mobster's daughter, but it's a space casino. (Though ironically it was Lansbury himself who wrote the one full on sci-fi episode in season 1, the finale "Flight of the War Witch.")

it was more of a space fantasy show like Star Wars is space fantasy. Basically let’s have fun with these characters in a fun atmosphere. Also the hardware such as the space fighters were really cool because the space effects were so cool. They added little bits of science in there every now then. Remember the late 70s and early 80s we were entering a lighter hearted time. It was in our music, tv and movies. Remember all the inspirational montages like in the rocky movies with music to boot. Even movies like Scarface had inspirational montages. Entertainment was trying to be happy.

 

[diankra]

Yes, if Gerrold had stayed on staff I'd have half expected him to do the same idea for Buck (given that I think he was unhappy enough with the LR version to insist on a pseudonym). But as he was gone...

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I suspect that the success of a certain film with space monks and exploding spaceships had somehow affected their genre choice.

hehe.........

I don't remember Galactica 1980 at all. I don't think I ever watched it but I do remember the regular TV series. Where was the time travel? I thought Galactic found Earth in our present time which for them was the 1980s. I didn't think there was any time travel?

 

[Skipper]

hehe.........

I don't remember Galactica 1980 at all. I don't think I ever watched it but I do remember the regular TV series. Where was the time travel? I thought Galactic found Earth in our present time which for them was the 1980s. I didn't think there was any time travel?

They went back to the WWII in the first episode.

 

[TRON JA307020]

They went back to the WWII in the first episode.

lol. Oh yeah look at the officer second to right. You can easily tell it’s a woman. Lol

 

[RandyS]

lol. Oh yeah look at the officer second to right. You can easily tell it’s a woman. Lol

That's Jamie. Troy and Dillon brought her back with them. And it was the second episode, not the first.

 

[TRON JA307020]

That's Jamie. Troy and Dillon brought her back with them. And it was the second episode, not the first.

Yeah wasn’t she a reporter. She even has blush and lipstick on. Lol

 

[RandyS]

Yeah wasn’t she a reporter. She even has blush and lipstick on. Lol

Yes she was.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Yes she was.

it’s been a long time. I really thought the flying motorcycles were cool when I was a kid. The effect was well done for a tv budget.

 

[Mysterion]

This confuses me, if he didn't want to do a show with sci-fi plots, then why do a sci-fi show at all? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to just do a cop show, or spy show or something then? Did someone force him to do Buck Rogers?

Because they didn't give a rip about science fiction as much as they cared about trying to cash in on the post-Star Wars frenzy of the late 70's and early 80's.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

it’s been a long time. I really thought the flying motorcycles were cool when I was a kid. The effect was well done for a tv budget.

They then ripped them off for the very low budget movie Megaforce.

Love how the BSG team land on the German side.

 

[Christopher]

They went back to the WWII in the first episode.

Yeah, that was really weird. "Galactica Discovers Earth" was a 3-part premiere, but they stuck in that random time-travel subplot that was split across parts 2 & 3 and lasted about one episode's worth of runtime, so it was basically a 2-parter with a 1-parter inserted into it. It makes me wonder if it was originally planned as a 2-parter but got expanded and needed to be padded out.

 

[TRON JA307020]

They then ripped them off for the very low budget movie Megaforce.

Love how the BSG team land on the German side.

The special effect or the idea?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

The special effect or the idea?

The idea. You see flying motorbikes in Megaforce with little pop out wings that just wouldn't work and terrible effects, but it's a fun movie

 

[Skipper]

Yeah, that was really weird. "Galactica Discovers Earth" was a 3-part premiere, but they stuck in that random time-travel subplot that was split across parts 2 & 3 and lasted about one episode's worth of runtime, so it was basically a 2-parter with a 1-parter inserted into it. It makes me wonder if it was originally planned as a 2-parter but got expanded and needed to be padded out.

Wikipedia says that their original intention was to do a time travel every week where they chased Xaviar through history, but the network, after the pilot, asked to drop it.

 

[N-121973]

Wikipedia says that their original intention was to do a time travel every week where they chased Xaviar through history, but the network, after the pilot, asked to drop it.

More or less. It's my understanding that originally the idea was it would be Apollo & Starbuck pursuing Baltar through time, but none of them were willing/able to reprise their roles so they invented Troy (a grown-up Boxey), Dillon and Xavier. By the way, time travel was referenced in 'Space Ball' when Xavier who was played by Richard Lynch in 'Galactica Discovers Earth' and played by Jeremy 'Sherlock Holmes' Brett in the latter was said to have returned to our time, I can't remember the exact line, but it definitely referred to the fact Xavier was a time traveller.

Back on topic I'm halfway through watching season one having just finished 'Space Vampire'. The episodes are fun if you let your brain go to sleep, the logic flies out the window with some of them. For instance in 'Vegas in Space' Buck and 'not-Wilma' travel together to a casino space station in an Earth Defence Directorate Starfighter, wearing uniforms when they're supposed to be undercover and as such aren't supposed to know each other. Meanwhile the paranoid villain again played by the aforementioned Mr Lynch who runs the place like a police state with surveillance everywhere, doesn't realise this. But it was fun all the same.

Something else I've noticed is that most of the time the villains were never killed, even when it looked like it had such as with Frank Gorshin's character in 'Plot to Kill a City', there was a line or two of dialogue to confirm, though somewhat the worse for wear, they were alive. The impression i get was that it wasn't so much censors wanting to make it family friendly, as the producers wanting to keep their options open for characters to return.

 

[Skipper]

The impression i get was that it wasn't so much censors wanting to make it family friendly, as the producers wanting to keep their options open for characters to return.

I don't know. If I remember correctly, continuity was virtually not-existent. The only recurring villain was Princess Ardala.

 

[N-121973]

I don't know. If I remember correctly, continuity was virtually not-existent. The only recurring villain was Princess Ardala.

Actually, I'm surprised how much continuity there was. Don't get me wrong I'm only talking about a line or two of dialogue here and there as opposed to sequels to episodes. There've been a number of references to Gary 'Different Strokes' Coleman's character from 'Cosmic Whiz Kid' and indeed he popped up again in a clip show mid-season. In fact in the episode I just watched 'Space Vampire' at the beginning of the episode its stated Buck and Wilma are on their way to visit Coleman after they drop Twiki off for maintenance and Buck teases Twiki about his 'girlfriend' Tina who appeared in the previous episode 'Cruise Ship to the Stars'.

 

[Christopher]

For instance in 'Vegas in Space' Buck and 'not-Wilma' travel together to a casino space station in an Earth Defence Directorate Starfighter

From what I can tell, that actress (Juanin Clay) was originally meant to be Erin Gray's replacement as Wilma Deering, when Gray had second thoughts about staying on the series after the pilot. "Vegas in Space" was apparently the first post-pilot episode filmed, so I think what happened is that they went ahead and had Clay playing Wilma Deering during production of the casino scenes, and then when Gray decided to come back after all, they redubbed the footage to change "Wilma" to "Marla" and shot a new frame sequence with Gray's Wilma introducing Buck to Marla as his partner for the mission. And that's why we weirdly have a "not-Wilma" substitute in that one episode.

I don't know. If I remember correctly, continuity was virtually not-existent. The only recurring villain was Princess Ardala.

There were actually some nice continuity touches in season 1, as N-121973 said. There were several cases of a planet introduced in one episode being referenced in a later episode, e.g. Aldebaran II from "The Plot to Kill a City" being referenced in "Cosmic Whiz Kid." "Kid" also had the main female guest character Dia recruit Buck for the mission based on his reputation from the events of "Unchained Woman," and mentioned Buck going out with the woman he rescued in "Vegas in Space."

There was also some nice character continuity here and there with Dr. Huer and Wilma as they struggled to make sense of Buck's 20th-centuryisms and gradually adjusted to them. There was a fun running gag across several episodes where Buck gave Huer a potted plant as a gift and Huer had no idea how to take care of it. The plant was in his office in an episode or two, then there was a bit in "Space Vampire" where the plant died and Huer had it replaced with a different one in a futile attempt to fool Buck, and then an episode later the new plant was seen in Huer's office, clearly dying.