Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: the Complete Second Series [DVD]

Season two is not the same as season one. It takes on a new format, a format for the worse. A sort of Battlestar - Trek hybrid. Buck and Wilma spend this series aboard the 'Searcher' a boring looking long spaceship,and Buck and crew are out searching for the lost tribes of man. Buck may as well just be somebody else, because gone is the lonely soul character from another time we saw in the first series.

This series also sees the introduction of Hawk, a ridiculous looking half bird man in black tights and some feathers on his head. Apart from Hawkmans 'look', this series is completely missing the fun camp kitsch appeal of series one. Gone are Bucks one liners too. It's hard to say the series is bad, because it sits in the middle between bad and good. However, there's nothing worse than mediocrity, and many of these episode left me checking my watch. Gil Gerard (Buck) himself has said he was not happy with the direction this series took, as it had a new producer who really had no idea what he was doing or what Buck Rogers was about. Also, for the first few episodes Mel Blanc does not do the voice of Twiki, however after viewers complained he was brought back. If you are a die hard fan of the series,Gil Gerard or Erin Gray you will have to get this anyway, and you already know that.

Series 1 was a superb mix of science fiction and seventies kitsch with characters who grew as the series developed. There were some good villains as well in Ardala and her crew. The effects were quite good for their day as well.

Then came series 2 and apart from Buck and Wilma the rest of the crew were new. Even Twiki started off this series with a new voice until fan backlash forced a change.

The casting seems odd, Hawk was an original idea but did not really have time to develop, Admiral Asimov was bland and Wilfrid Hyde-White was the old doddering scientist who ended the shows with inane puns. The other robot Crichton was a waste of time and would have been better if it was left out.

One of the stars is for Erin Gray alone.

For seventies & eighties TV science fiction fans it is interesting for anyone else stick to series 1.

While I share the sentiments of a few reviewers, I think they are somewhat harsh on the series and it would get a 3.5 if I could give that. I fully concur over the cast, not only the voice of Twiki changed temporarily but also the obnoxious and ridiculous looking robot Crichton which is the replacement I guess for Doctor Theopholis. Doctor Huer is gone and replaced by Admiral Asimov, an ok character but fairly lame, while Wilma is a rather subdued and underinvolved character because of Hawk's arrival. Worst character of the lot has to be Dr Goodfellow, jolly good-fellow or not he is insufferable the way he talks. Poor casting could arguably be the main flaw in this, I'd arguably give it 8/10 for plots, 6/10 for location and 3/10 for casting with Wilma dragging it down through change of role and Twiki dragging it down through voice issues and underuse.

But I still feel this has merits, the episodes no longer seem to be purely repetitious themes of Buck being captured and the earth being threatened. There are some very good plots, even if it suffers in a similar way to Battlestar Galactica with reusing shots and not always getting those right! It is true the Searcher is a little uninspiring, but it allows them to explore further and explore new plots let alone characters. I think the essence was lost because of the shift of characters, I say the very same of Big Bang Theory as the dynamic of the group shifted with the arrival and integration of new characters who aren't nearly as good as originals.

I think you'll enjoy this if you can come to terms with the change of cast and setting, the latter of which for me was little different to the handful of settings within New Chicago. Maybe the new direction it took cost it the viewers and cost it full stop, but I bet those people who stopped watching wish it changed rather than disappeared. I still want to know how he managed to be in an orbit of Earth for 500 years without ANYONE ever finding him......................