On lazy days we will just burn through crap on that roku: five minutes each of Domino, Dragon Wars: D Wars, Rhinestone (Stallone and Dolly together at last in a movie based on a song) and The Brothers Solomon which is all one could bare to sit through. When we put on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, I expected about the same level of horridness, but instead found myself pleasantly entertained.
It's not quite as good as The V miniseries, partially because there is no asshole on the edge performance by Marc Singer – though Gil Gerard– who plays Buck does possess a more subtle Texas style swagger, but it has a similar vibe and it's a vibe I like.
I'd always heard the name Buck Rogers as a cultural reference, most often when Daffy Duck would spoof the original 1928 sci fi character by Philip Francis Nowlan who appeared in comic books, radio plays and two television shows until this 1979 series. Somehow I managed to never see any of these incarnations until now.
As with any decades old science fiction you have to give way to and enjoy some cheesy aspects. This is a very interesting view of the far future, that mostly looks like bits and pieces of other sci fi movies which is not surprising since the show was green lit to capitalized on the success of Star Wars and lots of the props were actually hand me downs from Battlestar Galactica.
So there's lots of LED lights, shiny tight costumes, and a healthy handful of late era disco – never have I seen such a dazzling array of costume store looking mustaches on a cast of extras in my life.
The sultry bad girl Queen Ardala is a Playboy.. or no make that Hustle type vixen (though as far as I know, actress Pamela Hensley never modeled for either) with a few mind blowing outfits with fringe and horns. The good girl love interest is played by the bright eyed Erin Gray, already with that sitcom mom look that she later perfected on Silver Spoons.
The real star though, is the tiny tin pageboy robot named Twiki, who carries the virtuous HAL like device “Doctor Theopolis” on his tummy but breaks out a few odd one liners in his own robotic Yosemite Sam voice like: “whatta body!” in between his beedeebeedeebeedee chatter.
What I watched was the two hour pilot, which actually played in theaters before the series began and it and the entire series is available on netflix instantly.
But what do you think?