Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

December 11, 2004

Rated: NR Runtime: 1800 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

How we remember the television shows we grew up with is a tricky thing. Special effects are always better in our minds, we didn’t know good acting from bad, and what we found funny sometimes wasn’t. It’s all good though, we were just kids! The problem comes when we go back and watch some of those older shows and try to reconcile them with what we remember. My memories of Buck Rogers included Wilma in tight white pants, Princess Ardala in almost nothing, cool space dogfights and nifty laser guns. I’m happy to report that even in my formative years I have a keen memory of the female form. As for the other things, well, not so good.

This DVD set isn’t just season one, it’s the entire series, including the theatrical version of the pilot movie. Yep, you get it all in one big boxed set for a very reasonable price. We’re talking 30 hours or material here, though nothing extra is included, just the shows. I have not watched it all yet, truth be told I’ve only watched about 5 hours worth, but I believe that’s enough to form my opinions. Besides that, I refuse to watch any episodes with Hawk in them.

The special effects are laughable, no getting around that. Most of these space stuff is left over from BattleStar Galactica, it’s like we weren’t supposed to notice that the launch tubes were the same, only this time lit up in disco colors. In addition, the acting is really bad in some parts, and I mean REALLY bad. There’s also some story issues that I never thought of as a kid. For one thing, Earths defense forces live in one city, in one dorm. So there’s a hundred of them at most. An entire planet defended by 100 fighters. OKï¿½ sure.

But all of this really doesn’t matter as you aren’t watching this to be wowed by the effects and storylines, you’re wanting to relive the past and in this respect the show holds up quite well. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the pilot movie, especially Princess Ardalaï¿½ and Wilma is just as hot as I remembered. Tight white pants really need to come back into fashion, especially these days since the style seems to be drifting towards g-strings or just plain old commando among the ladies. But I digress.

The important thing is that I sat and watched for 5 hours with a smile on my face. Sometimes I shook my head at something silly, and sometimes I laughed out loud at something that wasn’t meant to be funny, but I always had a smile on my face. What more can you ask for when walking down memory lane?

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, DVD, Erin Gray, Gil Gerard, NR, Pamela Hensley, SciFi, Tim O'Connor