Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Box-set: Complete season two   CLICK HERE to buy from Box-set: Complete season two   CLICK HERE to buy from Box-set: Complete season two German and English language   CLICK HERE to buy from Blu-ray Box-set: Complete season two German and English language Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

When Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) and company pick up evacuees from a dying planet on a space station to re-settle them, Asteria (Devon Ericson), a girl on the run from Dorian guards jumps on board at literally the last moment. She refuses to say why she was on the run, and at first Buck doesn't press her on the subject. Then though Buck's ship, the Searcher, gets caught in a Dorian tractor beam, and Dorian leader Koldar (Walker Edmiston) himself insists that Asteria is handed over, as she's accused of having killed his son. And as Buck refuses, the Dorians alternately heat up and freeze the ship to pretty much force the Searcher to hand over the girl. Buck and the higher-ups on the Searcher of course refuse to give in to what's basically torture, but the evacuees insist - only they don't know who the Dorian in their midst might be, as the Dorians are said to are mutants and invariably wear masks - but Asteria doesn't wear any and is pretty as a picture. Buck demands to be let onto the Dorian vessel and review the evidence - and that evidence is merely a video that shows that Asteria might have pushed Koldar's son off a cliff (or actually tried to save him). Talking to Kaldor's son Demeter (William Kirby Cullen), who somehow takes the side of Asteria, Buck notices there's more to the story that meets the eye, so he forces Koldar's hand, making him have Asteria executed before Demeter's very eyes - and Demeter interferes in the very last moment, admitting that shortly before his brother's death they had an argument that resulted in the brother being hurt, and when Asteria found him she actually tried to get him help when he stumbled and fell. Demeter blames the mask on it all, and suddenly Koldar comes to the conclusion that his people should never again wear masks - even if they all look the same underneath.

The very last episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and the series, an uneven late 1970s/early 80s piece of space camp to cash in on the early Star Wars movies, ended not with a bang but neither with an outright fizzle: Sure, many of the ideas here are ludicrous, and especially the arguments between the passengers have disaster movie quality, and not in a good way, while the episode as a whole centers more on Buck then usual in the show's second season, with his co-leads reduced to supporting status - especially when it comes to Erin Gray's Wilma Deering, who's portrayed as little more than a glorified stewardess in this one -, so not giving them a proper send-off. On the other hand though, this episode was directed by science fiction great Jack Arnold (even if you mustn't expect another Creature from the Black Lagoon here) and features nobody's favourite Tarzan Denny Miller (1959's Tarzan the Ape Man) as benign strongman among the passengers. Plus, the episode as such is actually one of the better ones of the series as it doesn't follow the space opera formula too rigidly. In all though by no means great science fiction, but fun nostalgia.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - The Dorian Secret at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - The Dorian Secret here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - The Dorian Secret at adultvideouniverse.com

Thanks for watching !!!