A huge bone of contention between me and my fellow mates back in the early 1980's remains to this day the second season of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.
To be blunt, they hated it; and I thought it was perfectly acceptable.
Now, I understand perfectly well why they hated it. The first season of this fondly remembered show was definitely it a bit campy here and there, but in many ways it had the same pursuit of high adventure for its seminal hero across its many episodes. Buck was a fish-out-of-water -- a man pulled out of the past and plunked into the future -- and his adversaries couldn't quite get a hold on how to face him much less defeat him. That was the crux around so much of the action; and for the most part it worked just fine.
Well, when the second season came along, the general theme of the show had changed significantly. Rogers, Deering, and the gang were no longer confined to Earth; instead, all of the action and intrigue shifted to deep space, wherein the starship The Searcher was on a quest to find the 'lost tribes of Earth,' folks who'd abandoned our world in the wake of a nuclear holocaust. A new production team was brought in to craft tales that were considered more adult, maybe even more complex, resembling a little bit of what Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek had done in the late 1960's. Some attribute this tonal shift to the fact that producers felt that the first season wasn't taken as seriously as were installments of other Science Fiction shows of the day; but having grown up back then I can assure you that there really wasn't all that much to compare it to, and I suspect a great many viewers still prefer Season One other the dark and plodding Season Two.
Still, one of the rather more interesting developments to come out of this bold new vision was the addition of the character Hawk to the line-up.
And, yes, I say this knowing full well that many out there in fandom kinda/sorta lampooned the idea of a half-man, half-bird hybrid played by actor Thom Christopher. While I'll concede that the idea to outfit the actor with a headdress looking like that off a bad eagle was not that inspired, I'd still contend that it was a mature creation, one who like Trek's Mr. Spock struggled with who and what he was in ways that made for some interesting choices. And, maybe, giving this new sidekick his own ship that -- ahem -- looked like a big mechanical bird wasn't as impressive a change that insiders thought it was going to be ... yet, again, I loved it. I just went with it, honestly; and I really, really, really wish they'd done a bit more with Hawk when they had the chance. That never happened, and the truncated second season pretty much ground to a halt after less than a dozen outings. Sad but true.
I bring this up today because I noticed that Mr. Christopher passed, and I wanted to acknowledge his contribution to the world of genre entertainment and my television youth. Though others might've chuckled as his involvement and appearance on Buck Rogers, I like to think of it as one of SciFi television's greatest missed opportunities.
Our condolescences are extended to the family, friends, and fans of Thom Christopher.
May he rest in peace ...
-- EZ
To be blunt, they hated it; and I thought it was perfectly acceptable.
Now, I understand perfectly well why they hated it. The first season of this fondly remembered show was definitely it a bit campy here and there, but in many ways it had the same pursuit of high adventure for its seminal hero across its many episodes. Buck was a fish-out-of-water -- a man pulled out of the past and plunked into the future -- and his adversaries couldn't quite get a hold on how to face him much less defeat him. That was the crux around so much of the action; and for the most part it worked just fine.
Well, when the second season came along, the general theme of the show had changed significantly. Rogers, Deering, and the gang were no longer confined to Earth; instead, all of the action and intrigue shifted to deep space, wherein the starship The Searcher was on a quest to find the 'lost tribes of Earth,' folks who'd abandoned our world in the wake of a nuclear holocaust. A new production team was brought in to craft tales that were considered more adult, maybe even more complex, resembling a little bit of what Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek had done in the late 1960's. Some attribute this tonal shift to the fact that producers felt that the first season wasn't taken as seriously as were installments of other Science Fiction shows of the day; but having grown up back then I can assure you that there really wasn't all that much to compare it to, and I suspect a great many viewers still prefer Season One other the dark and plodding Season Two.
Still, one of the rather more interesting developments to come out of this bold new vision was the addition of the character Hawk to the line-up.
And, yes, I say this knowing full well that many out there in fandom kinda/sorta lampooned the idea of a half-man, half-bird hybrid played by actor Thom Christopher. While I'll concede that the idea to outfit the actor with a headdress looking like that off a bad eagle was not that inspired, I'd still contend that it was a mature creation, one who like Trek's Mr. Spock struggled with who and what he was in ways that made for some interesting choices. And, maybe, giving this new sidekick his own ship that -- ahem -- looked like a big mechanical bird wasn't as impressive a change that insiders thought it was going to be ... yet, again, I loved it. I just went with it, honestly; and I really, really, really wish they'd done a bit more with Hawk when they had the chance. That never happened, and the truncated second season pretty much ground to a halt after less than a dozen outings. Sad but true.
I bring this up today because I noticed that Mr. Christopher passed, and I wanted to acknowledge his contribution to the world of genre entertainment and my television youth. Though others might've chuckled as his involvement and appearance on Buck Rogers, I like to think of it as one of SciFi television's greatest missed opportunities.
Our condolescences are extended to the family, friends, and fans of Thom Christopher.
May he rest in peace ...
-- EZ
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