Blu-ray Review: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Collection

Reviewed By Jason Lockard

Mankind has always wondered what lies beyond the stars. It probably goes back to the first man who looked up at the vastness of the sky.

I think that is why shows and films about space travel were and still are so popular. We all would love to explore the outer reaches of space.

Now we probably will never get to take a trip in a spaceship and visit other planets. But we can take an adventure in our easy chairs, and Kino Lorber just made that adventure light years better with their release of Buck Rogers The Complete Collection on Blu-ray!

The series follows a 20th-century astronaut William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) after a deep space disaster is frozen and awakened—500 years in the future. He finds hiumself on an Earth that is in recovery mode from nuclear war. He must join Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) to lead the crew of the starship Searcher against a galaxy of evil from the past, present and faraway future.

Let's take a look at the episodes included in this 2 Season Set.

Episode Rating:
****=Don’t Miss it!
***=Worth a look.
**=An Ok way to spend an hour.
*=You haven’t missed anything.

Disc One:

Awakening (1&2): Buck Rogers, a 20th-century astronaut held in suspended animation until the 25th century, awakens on an alien flagship. ****

Planet of the Slave Girls (1 & 2): When Buck and Wilma go to a farm world to investigate poisoning of Earth's food, they find a slave trade. ***

Vegas in Space: Buck goes to an orbiting casino to save a girl (Ana-Alicia) from her shady employer's (Cesar Romero) competitor. ***

Disc Two:

The Plot to Kill a City: Buck infiltrates a bizarre band of assassins led by a sinister scientist (Frank Gorshin) planning to bomb New Chicago. ****

Return of the Fighting 69th: A criminal organisation holed up in the Necrosis asteroid belt, where no one can reach them, steal a quantity of nerve gas to release into its atmosphere as revenge. ***

Unchained Woman: Buck poses as a convict to free the only person (Jamie Lee Curtis) who can stop a pirate raiding Earth's shipping lanes. ***

Planet of Amazon Women: To escape slavery on an amazon world, Buck agrees to help the prime minister's daughter kidnap an ambassador. ***

Disc Three:

Cosmic Whiz Kid: Buck agrees to help find a kidnapped president (Gary Coleman) when he learns the boy genius is also a survivor of the 20th century. ***

Escape from Wedded Bliss: In exchange for not destroying Earth with her ultimate weapon, Ardala asks for Buck's hand in marriage. ***

Cruise Ship to the stars: Buck steps in as security aboard a luxury space yacht to protect Miss Cosmos, a woman who suffered an attempted kidnapping so that her `perfect' genetics could be sold on the black market. ***

Space Vampire: Despite deaths on a ship and a space station, no one believes Buck's story of a creature turning people into zombies. ***

Happy Birthday, Buck: An assassin who can turn people into marble seeks revenge on Dr. Huer, busily planning Buck's birthday party. ***

Disc Four:

A Blast for Buck: Buck subjects himself to a mind probe to learn if an old enemy created a device emitting a baffling riddle. **

Ardala Returns: Determined to launch attacks on Earth, Princess Ardala orders the capture of Buck, as he is the one who can possibly control Kane's Hatchet Fighters. Buck falls into Princess Ardala's trap and discovers she has duplicated him to dispatch to Earth. ***

Twiki is Missing: A mining boss plots to steal Twiki in order to replace his human workforce. Wilma must prevent a huge floating block of frozen oxygen from igniting Earth's atmosphere and destroying most of the population. ***

Olympiad: Buck helps an alien athlete defect during the 25th-century Olympics. ***

A Dream of Jennifer: Buck heads to City-on-the-Sea, 25th-century New Orleans, to search for his 20th-century love (Anne Lockhart). ***

Disc Five:

Space Rockers: Buck must prevent a group's evil manager from using a galaxy-wide concert transmission to manipulate young listeners. ***

Buck's duel to the Death: Buck fits a legend on the planet Katar of a 500-year-old hero who will defeat their merciless dictator. ***

Fight of the War Witch (1 & 2): Ardala follows Buck through a black hole to a universe where Buck is asked to fight a dictator. ***

Disc One:

Time of the Hawk: A half-man/half-bird creature swears revenge on the human race after his people are killed by marauding space pirates. ***

Journey to Oasis (1 & 2): A shuttle carrying Wilma, an ambassador (Mark Lenard), Buck, Hawk and Goodfellow crashes. ***

The Guardians: On a bizarre world, a dying man gives Buck a glowing box which causes the crew to have visions of the past and future. ***

Disc Two:

Mark of the Saurian: Feverish Buck insists an ambassador is really a reptile planning to wreck the Searcher. ***

The Golden Man: Buck must rescue the companion of a golden-skinned boy so their combined powers can help the Searcher, marooned on an asteroid. ***

The Crystals: Buck Rogers visits the planet Phibocetes with a landing party, hoping to gather some thurbidian crystals to power the Searcher. Seeking crystals, Buck finds mummy and amnesiac girl. ***

The Satyr: After Buck is bitten and begins to turn into a goat-horned satyr when he tries to save a widow, the crew realises that the Satyr is really the male colonist who has been infected by the planet. ***

Shgoratchx!: Buck and Hawk are ordered to explore an old derelict spaceship, where they find a hold full of solar bombs. ***

Disc Three:

Hand of Goral: While exploring Deeth, the `Planet of Death', Buck, Hawk and Wilma come across a crash victim. When they return to the Searcher, they find it and its crew have changed considerably. ***"

Testimony of a Traitor: A memory probe confirms Buck's guilt when he faces charges of causing the nuclear holocaust which devastated the Earth. ****

The Dorian Secret: Buck and Hawk transport refugees of a planetary disaster to a new home. Later, a powerful warlord bombards the Searcher with heat rays, demanding the return of a condemned woman whom Buck saved. ***

All the TV episodes are presented in 1080p HD but are in their original 1.33:1 TV aspect ratio with English 2.0 mono (as originally presented) in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio format. Now I have to say when I compared this new Blu-ray to the original DVD version, I found the episodes in this set to look more crisp and clean and sound clearer.

Included in this epic collection of the complete 2 season set is the Theatrical version of the Buck Rogers pilot made into a movie! With more adult language and action. You can check out our full review of that release here.

Now as amazing as this is, the goodies don't end there. Kino Lorber added a bunch of special features in this set. Take a look.

• NEW Audio Commentaries for 11 Selected Episodes by Film/TV Historian Patrick Jankiewicz, Author of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: A TV Companion
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson (Theatrical Feature)
• NEW Interview with Co-Star Erin Gray
• NEW Interview with Actor Thom Christopher (Hawk)
• 9-Minute Special Theatrical Preview
• Theatrical Trailer
• Two Radio Spots (Theatrical Feature)
• Optional English Subtitles

This set has actually blew me away! I can not believe how awesome it truly is! Reliving this series in HD takes the action and the adventures to new levels. I am so impressed with this set. Kino Lorber deserves a lot of credit for the love they put into this Blu-ray set.

So if you are looking for a cool campy trip to another world! I can not recommend Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release of Buck Rogers the Complete Collection enough! Head over to Amazon.com and get your copy today!