Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Season 2

The 2nd season aired in 1981 at at the time I was away at school and did not have a chance to watch it.I liked the show. It was fun to watch and the writing was generally very good. In Season 2, Buck is no longer on Earth, instead he's on a space ship called the Searcher and the mission is to find the lost colonies of Earth that left after the nuclear holocaust in November 1987. Only Buck, Wilma and Twiki are the carryover's from the first season. Their are less special effects in the 2nd season, almost as if their budget was scaled back. The show takes on more social issues. The music is very good, and Buck has a new sidekick named Hawk. They did not start out as friends but Buck convinces him that they have a common mission. I wish that they found some of Hawk's people. On balance it was still Buck Rogers and we got to learn more about him and his past.The last disc (Disc 4) contains the original pilot made from the movie (theatrical release) from March 1979. The ending is better than the theatrical release. It was nice to see Princess Ardala again. At times I thought Buck was very similar to Col Steve Austin (just in different centuries), but I guess that's to be expected since Glen A Larson was also involved in the Six Million Dollar Man TV show.A note about the outer case of the Season 2 set. Mine had a massive crack in the inside back cover, and the replacement one also had a crack (only not as large). I guess QC is down a little.

I primarily bought it for the uncut pilot for season 1 which the was not in the season 1 set. Was worth it since I wanted a complete collection, even though not really a fan of season 2. It's not as bad as Galactica 80 or season 2 Space 1999, but it's definitely not as good as season 1.(only episodes i liked was when Buck went on trial and the one with the space munchkins) But as a someone that watched it as a kid, was worth having both in my collection.

decent reboot of classic buck rogers series fro 30's. as show progressed however you could see where gil gerard got tired of his role and wanted more

Buck and friends were a major part of my childhood and even sucky episodes are well-loved by moi, but it is the pilot "The Awakening" (with alternate scenes) that led me to this purchase. I had already bought the original DVD release about ten years ago and was saddened that they hadn't included the pilot or done something daring and incorporated the various TV scenes for a fuller, more robust theatrical release version. Sadly, Universal is like Warner in regards to ignoring their fans' interest in the oldies. Warner has its Archives Collection and Universal has its Franchise Collections, but neither seem willing to invest in better releases. Buck Rogers should have interviews with Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Thom Christopher, Pamela Hensley and even Glen Larson; we should have TV spots, a movie trailer, a making of...feature, a retrospective that includes the comic strip, 1938 serial, 1950's TV series, comic books, TSR role playing game and the webisodes and of Buck's son. But as is Universal's respect for its own commodity goes it's bare bones.The second season isn't as fun as the first, true, but, in toto, the 37 episodes and the original theatrical release fired up my imagination immensely.Why five stars? Nostalgia, Buck (cue Twiki's sibilant eebie debee).

Some Buck Rogers fans seem to think that this season was rotten. I am here to make the case that season two was actually better than season one. Just kidding, it wasn't! Dr. Huer is gone, Buck seems gloomier, Wilma is less of a focus, Twiki's voice is terrible and Crighton is annoying. I knew we were in trouble just by watching a scene early on in the second season. Buck and Wilma are sitting at a table with Dr. Goodfellow. It might have been in a cafeteria. Anyways, there is an awkward nervousness to the scene as if they were on the first day of a new job. Buck and Wilma were always so relaxed and natural that it was obvious something was off.Even so, season two did start off promising as it introduced an interesting character, Hawk. If they would have kept everything the same and just added him, the show still would have been great. I also really liked the second episode "Journey to Oasis" featuring Mark Lenard. The decline in quality after that is no fault of the great Wilfrid Hyde-White, it just seems like the writers gave him little to work with. Same with Jay Garner.The whole situation reminds me of Space 1999. Someone decided the show needed an overhaul and ruined it. Space 1999 also brought in a couple of great characters, Tony and Maya, for season two, but everything else got worse. And like with Tim O'Connor, Space 1999 lost the wonderful Barry Morse after the first season.Still, season two does offer more Buck Rogers and that's a good thing. And although it seemed the magic was slipping away, it still offered a few enjoyable episodes.The Blu RayJust like the Blu Ray release of the first season, the picture quality here is excellent and not overly compressed. I'm not sure if this show was just unusually well-preserved or that someone did a heck of a remastering job, but it looks beautiful. Clarity, colors and details all look wonderful, making this and season 1, the best Blu Ray releases of an older TV show that I've seen.

I like giving not writing reviews

If you want to re-live some fun childhood memories, this will be fun for you to watch. I didn't realize what a big difference there was between Season 1 and Season 2, but Season 2 was not very good. It's all hokey but that is part of the fun. Erin Gray is a pleasure to watch all these years later. I really enjoyed watching all of these episodes again and my teenage daughter had fun making fun of it (but still wanted to watch). I always thought that Hawk was so cool when I was a kid. Now I understand why my dad rolled his eyes so much whenever I talked about this show as a kid. Lots of fun memories.