Buck Rogers 1.20: “A Dream of Jennifer”

Airdate: 2/14/80

Buck swears he sees he girl he knows at the New Chicago Mall; through a dream we learn that it could be Jennifer, his girlfriend from the 20^th century whom he left to fly the mission that tore then apart. Determined to find her, he travels to the “City By the City,” or the new version of New Orleans, and does indeed get a chance to talk to her. Flattered by his adulation, she’s also a bit heartbroken as she knows that it’s Jennifer that he sees in her, not her true identity: Lela, a woman used as bait by the alien race of Kovens to get Buck to suppress a trade blockade by rebel colonists – the same colonists Wilma and her crew are coincidentally supporting. Buck manages to forgive Lela’s duplicity long enough to thwart the mighty Kovens’ plan, but he can’t stop Lela’s death during the final shootout. In her final words she was glad to be the girl Buck loved, even if just for a moment.

Gorgeous, doe-eyed Anne Lockhart shines as here as the molecularly altered Lela (no wonder there’s a website solely devoted to the babes of Buck Rogers – what a gallery of looks and talent!). And lest we forget Mary Woronov, in redface, as the evil Koven named Nola. Definitely cool to see the flashback dream of Buck in the 1900s – presumably 1987 when he starts his mission but looking a heck of a lot more like the 70s than the 80s.

And don’t miss the cute-funny epilogue (does Wikipedia have a name for this yet?) in which Huer gives Buck a movie (a disc, presumably) with a title something like… mandibles? No, it’s Jaws! and Buck has the final line, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the 20^th century!” (Jaws studio Universal also produced Buck).