Buck Rogers 1.18: “Twikki Is Missing”

Airdate: 1/31/80

Don't mess with the midriff.

Say it ain’t so! Buck’s little sidekick is indeed abducted – it seems that thenefarious ruler of a mining planet Toros wants robots for his slave labor after an uprising nearly topples his reign. The ruler, Kerk Belzak, has his eyes on Twikki, an “ambiquad” possessive of not simple his native computing abilities but also the humanistic characteristics Buck has endowed his with. After a failed attempt to buy, Kerk’s cohort, a lovely “paranormal” named Stella, turns to force, using her psychokinetic powers to seize Twikki, and later, Buck himself. But she makes the fatal mistake of befriending the handsome flyboy, who convinces her that she needs to escape Toros or she’ll never see her son, who Kerk has imprisoned again. The good guys all escape – and get extra brownie points for stealing some of Toros’s ore, which comes in handy for exploding a deadly spaceberg off course from a catastrophic meeting with earth.

Sort of a Ben Hur meets Armageddon storyline here, with a Twikki kidnapping story that gives the rascally robot extra screen time for those so desirous. Fantastic, lovely and archy supporting actress Anne-Marie Martin shines as this week’s damsel in distress, but she an also hold her own, especially when doing her mind-melding routine with fellow space vixens as part of the “Omniguard” (this show is chock full of that cool sci-fi nomenclature). Not much Deering in this one – all her scenes are on a space fighter (probably shot everything in one day on another soundstage).