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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Time of the Hawk
episode 2.1 & 2.2
USA 1981
produced by David J. O'Connell, John G. Stephens, John Mantley (executive) for Glen A. Larson Productions, Universal/NBC
directed by Vincent McEveety
starring Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Thom Christopher, Jay Garner, Wilfrid Hyde-White, BarBara Luna, Lance LeGault, David Opatoshu, Sid Haig, Kenneth O'Brien, Felix Silla, Bob Elyea (voice), Dennis Haysbert, Lavelle Roby, Michael Fox, Andre Harvey, Chris O'Connor, Timothy O'Keefe, Ken Chandler, Susie Ewing, Jeff David (voice)
written by Norman Hudis, based on characters by Philip Francis Nowlan, Robert C. Dille, music by Bruce Broughton, visual effects supervisor: Peter Anderson, David Jones
TV-series Buck Rogers, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Forget almost everything that happened in the first season of Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century - sure, Buck's (Gil Gerard) still a
pilot from the 20th century who got frozen in time for 500 years, and
survived it, too, sure, Wilma Deering's (Erin Gray) still by his side, as
is obnoxious robot Twiki (Felix Silla, now voiced by Bob Elya), but Buck's
now no longer the ace defender of earth but an explorer, and essentially a
space scout. He travels the galaxy on the Searcher, a ship
commandeered by Admiral Asimov (Jay Garner) that also carries eccentric
scientist Dr. Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and his haughty robot
Crichton (voiced by Jeff David). With the set-up out of the
way, the story of this episode starts with birdman Hawk (Thom Christopher)
and his wife Koori (BarBara Luna) returning to their small village from a
trip to the stars to find all of the locals slaughtered, apparently by
humans. Hawk is so enraged by this that he swears to in return slaughter
humans wherever he can find them. The crew of the Searcher learns about
this, and they send out Buck to bring Hawk to justice. He manages to find
Hawk's hide-out but only finds Koori there, so he takes her captive to
lure Hawk to him. Soon enough, Buck and Hawk are caught up in a space duel
in their respective spaceships, and their battle is only cut short when
Hawk accidently injures Koori during the fight. Buck and Hawk agree on an
uneasy truce while bringing Koori to a healer (David Opatoshu), and
unexpectedly take a liking to one another on their path to him. However
the healer can't save Koori's life. After that, the two men continue their
fight mano a mano, and ultimately fight to exhaustion, and are eventually
picked up by a search crew coming after Buck. On the Searcher, Hawk is put
before an intergalactic court, but remains stubborn and quiet during the
proceedings - until Buck can't stand it anymore and he argues since Hawk
isn't strictly a human he can't be sentenced in a human trial, and
ultimately Hawk agrees to join the crew of the Searcher - and become a
regular on the series. Exploitation favourite Sid Haig (who also graced
the series in season 1 episode Flight
of the War Witch) has a dialogue-free role as one of minor villain
Lance LeGault's henchmen. Ok, the total change of the premise
of the show, also in tone, for the new season comes very much as a
surprise - but given hos repetitive season one has become over its run,
this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and at least in its first feature
length episode (later split in two), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
shows some new spark, explores new worlds (quite literally), and shows at
least some inventiveness regarding costumes and set design. And the
central story not only shows heart, it also is bold enough to take the
standpoint of the "enemy", shows grey areas between black and
white. That said, at times the episode also tries to drive its point home
way too hard, and it's not without lengths and a certain degree of
repetitiveness. That said, with this episode the series that has grown
stale suddenly shows promise again ...
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