Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Buck Rogers : In the 25th Century - 70's Sci-Fi TV Series

The Award-Winning Sci-fi Television Series Buck Rogers: In the 25th Century, was based on the 1928 fictional character of two novellas "Armageddon 2419 AD" created by Philip Francis Nowlan, which also first published and seen on "Amazing Stories" magazine. Buck Rogers adventures became an important part of American pop culture which widely seen and heard in many mediums from 1920's until 1990's, showed in comic strips, movie series (1939), television series (ABC 1950-51 and NBC 1979-81), on computer games and heard on radio for 15 years (1932-1947).

In the 1979 Buck Rogers TV Series, the story was set in 1987 with the space mission of US Airforce pilot Capt. William Anthony "Buck" Rogers of the space shuttle Ranger III, of the NASA's five months manned probe trip around the solar system. But along the way something goes awry, a leaking gas (formed cryogenic suspension) fumed the ship and the life support system freeze taking Buck Rogers into cryogenic sleep, the Ranger 3 malfunctioned and blown out in trajectory into an orbit 1,000 times more vast and takes 500 years to return in orbit, the fresh air entered woken him up. It was year 2491 (25th Century) when Buck Roger returned to Earth, the planet was recovering from 20th Century nuclear holocust and under hostile attack of the Draconian Empire, a space borne armies from the planet Draconia, who are planning invasion and conquer the Earth. With Buck Rogers' incredible fighter pilot skills, he became a valuable member of Earth's Defense Directorate, headed by Dr. Elias Huer, and he joined the squadron headed by beautiful Colonel Wilma Deering and Buck assisted by his compatriots; Twiki (a comical robot) and a mechanical brain of "Dr. Theopolis" (one of Earth's Computer Council) in a box carried by Twiki. The first season of the show focused on Buck Rogers mission to defend the Earth against Draconian, while second season story as Buck and Wilma mission to track down the deep-space vessel "Searcher" boarding human colonies.

The adventures of Buck Rogers : In the 25th Century TV series was aired from September 1979 and lasted until April 1981 on NBC, completed 2 seasons with 37 episodes, now available on DVD.



Buck Rogers In the 25th Century Sci-Fi Series Casts:
  • Gil Gerard - Captain William Buck Rogers
  • Pamela Hensley as Princess Ardala
  • Erin Gray - Colonel Wilma Deering
  • Tim O'Connor - Dr. Elias Huer
  • Thom Christopher - Hawk
  • Wilfrid Hyde-White - Dr. Goodfellow
  • Felix Silla - Twiki
  • Jay Garner - Adm. Efrem Asimov
  • Paul Carr - Lt. Devlin
  • William Conrad - Narrator
  • Jeff David - Voice of Crichton
  • Mel Blanc - Voice of Twiki
  • Bob Elyea - Voice of Twiki
  • Eric Server - Voice of Dr. Theopolis