Airdate: 2/7/80
It’s time for the 2492 Olympiacs, and Buck, knowing a bit about the event, is invited to attend as a special guest. A troubled beauty named Lara asks him to go star cruising with her, but it turns out she needs his help to save her athlete boyfriend, Jorax, from the oppressive clutches of Allerick, a tyrant using Jorax as a political figurehead. Not necessarily the easiest thing in the world, especially when you consider that Allerick has implanted a molecular bomb inside Jorax’s head, and can detonate it if he senses any escape attempt. Oh – and the bomb – it can kill anyone next to the vertical vaulter as well. Buck, Wilma and Twikki know this, so they fly Jorax through the stargate, where any hope of remote detonation is – remote. Naw, make that impossible!
Political exploitation of the
Olympics was sure a hot-button topic in the winter of 1980 (the U.S. had just
announced a boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in protest over the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan). Buck Rogers, never
missing the chance for socio-political editorializing, explored this brazen
Carterian move with this story of a would-be defector, desperate for the chance
to escape his shackles and come to earth – and by earth we mean America (New
Chicago, to be specific). But seriously, not a bad outing with Buck and the
gang – definitely highlighted by the charming, ever-appealing soap and TV
veteran Judith Chapman as Lara. In addition to being a fantastic fox, she’s a
wonderfully nuanced actress, as evidenced by her ride with Buck when she
appeals to him for help. Also, don’t miss the beginning scene of the futuristic
Olympic events, particularly the telekinetic boxing. Perhaps farfetched back
then, it doesn’t look so nowadays, what with virtual gaming and the like.
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