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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Shgoratchx!
episode 2.10
USA 1981
produced by 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, Tommy Madden, Felix Silla, Mel Blanc (voice), Alex Hyde-White, John Edward Allen, Tony Cox, Billy Curtis, Harry Monty, Spencer Russell, Charles Secor, Jeff David (voice)
written by William Keys, 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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Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) and Hawk (Thom Christopher) are sent to
inspect a derelict spaceship and find it populated by a crew of little
people (Tommy Madden, John Edward Allen, Tony Cox, Billy Curtis, Harry
Monty, Spencer Russell, Charles Sector) who are on a centures-long mission
to dispose of a bunch of quickly destabilizing bombs, and since the bombs
in their present form are starting to emit radiation, Buck and Hawk take
them all with them to the Searcher and have the little people's ship towed
via tractor ray. Problem is, the new guests have a talent to get into
trouble, and thus at one point almost destroy the ship, then damage the
brain of super-robot Crichton (voiced by Jeff David), develop the hots for
Wilma Deering (Erin Grey) in a pretty sleazy way, and ultimately have the
ship hit by a meteor, damaging its controls so that it heads for a nearby
sun. The only one who could help now is Crichton, but as he's damaged,
diminuitive robot Twiki (Felix Silla, voiced by Mel Blanc) offers to have
his brain transplanted into Crichton to help out. That works, and now that
the ship's saved, the little people are allowed to undo the damage on
Crichton's brain and restart Twiki via telepathy, a talent that comes
natural to their race. Now if you're looking for political
correctness, go somewhere else, as there are many things in this episode
you couldn't do anymore today, and for good reason. That said though, this
is a more comedic episode, and intentionally so, with many jokes actually
hitting the mark, from the outset that the little people are six generals
and a private (Tony Cox), who to avoid confusion never listens to any of
their orders, to quite a bit of sexual innuendo (one of the aspects that
would be a no-no today). Also, the coimedy actually works in the context
of the series that sure has its fair share of ridiculousness in its
"serious" episodes. So if you watch it without listening to
today's sentiments that weren't in place back when, you'll probably find
it very amusing.
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