Buck Rogers In The 25th Century: Season 2 [DVD]

Loved watching this series when I was little , good, cheesy fun with likeable actors although second series not as good as the first series (just my opinion) but still a nostalgic fun fest.

The first Series of the 1980s incarnation of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century was somewhat claustrophobic in its setting, often placed in the same buildings in New Chicago and featuring use of the same or similar sets for different episodes. The second is based from the starship Explorer, where Buck and chums search for lost Earth colonists and try to recontact them. Thus set, it's somewhere between the Battlestar Galactica's search for the 13th colony, and the Starhip Enterprise's quest to seek out new civilisations. This means that it loses the niche held by the uniqueness of the first series and thus retreats to a familiar territory that the producers perhaps felt would be more populist. In my opinion, that's a shame, as the second series of Buck Rogers shouldn't have tried to move in that direction. (The swishing door noises from Star Trek joined the Explorer too, as did the short skirts for female crew members, though personally I have less of a problem with that!) Buck's commander is now Admiral Asimov (no doubt a nod to sci-fi writer Isaac), a bit of a stick-in-the-mud although he's always won over eventually by Buck's ideas. Colonel Wilma Deering is back as Buck's lycra-clad comrade as is the diminutive android Tweeky (although sporting a female voice for the first couple of episodes for no known reason). Added to the key crew members are the bumbling genius Dr. Goodfellow, and Chrichton - the latter a tall, bizarrely shaped robot with an extending neck, exuding a pompous attitude, who is the go-to in the series for all complex ship functions, information and data. Out of all of TV spaceship's artificial life-forms, Chrichton has to be the worst I've ever seen portrayed. (Blake's 7's Orac did pomposity much better, and negated the need for a ridiculous looking contraption to spout it.) Hawk is the main newcomer, a humanoid that evolved from avian origins and has his own hawk-shaped craft. Having the new characters is fine, however their airtime is somewhat diluted as Buck usually only takes one of them with him per episode, so while they all appear in the Explorer, they don't all appear regularly for long enough. Thus it seems that Wilma, Hawk and Tweeky are often somewhat sidelined. The plots themselves are quite good, a little Star Trek -esque (TOS), and early episodes often evoke more of a fantasy genre with riddles and quests and mythological creatures. There are some excellent episodes and some of the plot devices, while never complex, are more interesting and engaging than many in the first series. All in all while the second series lacks something that the first series had, it makes up for it a little with the plot lines, but loses again for diluting the roles of key members of the team we'd got to love in Series 1. Still good stuff though :-)

At the same time the original ultra-serious Battlestar Galactica metamorphosed into the camp and silly Galactica 1980, Buck Rogers went the other way, becoming all erudite and serious to the consternation of the fans (not to mention Gil Gerard, who didn't dig the plots, and Erin Gray, who didn't dig barely being used at all). Some storming episodes (Time of the Hawk, Mark of the Saurian, The Satyr, Testimony of a Traitor, The Dorian Secret) balanced by some abject garbage (The Golden Man, The Crystals and particularly the excruciating Journey to Oasis). Fondly remembered anyway as Saturday-evening kids' fare sandwiching Jim'll Fix It and It's a Knockout, two other shows my generation are advised to forget ever existed...

You can not beat this family sci-fi series, fun, action, happy endings even though the drama and suspense keeps you hanging. Absolutely Classic TV. I definately recommend this.

This series is not as funny as the first and Twicky got voiced by someone else with a high squeaky voice. Also the addition of a robotic coathanger called Crichton is annoying. Mel was reinstated later in the final episodes due to public pressure. A huge disappointment.

Ham acting, poor sets, terrible make up, woeful plots etc but simply fantastic.

I only wish there was more of this series retro gold & arrived without a mark , Thank you I only wish there was more of this series retro gold & arrived without a mark , Thank you I only wish there was more of this series retro gold & arrived without a mark , Thank you!!

I recently watch Season One of Buck Rogers in The 25th Century and it was great fun, full of energy, colour and an enjoyable cast. But with season two they completely changed the formula. No more Buck and Wilma sent on missions to other planets by Dr. Huer or the dastardly plans of Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley was a wonderful comedic actress). So for the second season the storyline's feel much too constricted as they're on a spaceship called the Searcher instead of been able to go anywhere they're limit to arriving at a location then going down to it. They sucked all the fun out of the show. Everyone seems in a bad mood. Twiki has become an ornament and Wilma is dressed in one of the worst Good Ship Lollipop outfits to grace the screen. New additions are Hawk who is quite good but the Admiral and Dr. Goodfellow are out of place. I'm sure Wilfrid Hyde-White was a lovely man but no matter how old the oldest person in the world is he comes across as their grandfather in Buck Rogers and he's pushed into everything with the annoying Crichton. So the first few episodes are tough going but it does pick up and the last few episodes are very good and worth the wait. Recommended if you enjoyed the first season but you'll have to go through some Grumpy-Buck's to get to the good stuff! If you just want some silly science-fiction fun stick to the first season.