Airdate: 1/15/81
(Originally broadcast as a two-hour episode)
Buck is now on an intergalactic
spacecraft, The Searcher, along with
Wilma, Twiki and other members of the Defense Directorate, whose missions is to
roam the far reaches of space to locate lost tribes of humans rendered homeless
after earth’s apocalyptic war. They locate an abandoned spaceship and discover
its crew mercilessly slaughtered; all clues point to a half-bird, half-human
known as the Hawk. His mate, Kooni, is captured by Buck to lure Hawk out of
hiding, but she is severely wounded during their dogfight. Forced to crash land
on an earth-like planet, the two enemies become uneasy allies in the race to
bring Kooni some much-needed medical attention, but during this time Buck also
understands the source of Hawk’s wrath: the genocide of his ancestors, of
distant to recent past, and the vengeance he feels the need to visit upon its
perpetrators. After Kooni dies, a heartbroken Hawk resumes his enmity towards
Buck, while Buck must fulfill his orders to kills or capture the birdman (he
does the latter). In front of an intergalactic council, Hawk is almost
sentenced to death, but Buck appeals for leniency on the basis that his actions
were no worse than the humans that nearly wiped out his species. Hawk’s life is
spared but ordered to be closely monitored by the Searcher’s crew – Buck proposes a compromise that Hawk join them on
their mission – one which bird-boy accepts readily.
What started out with a feature
film premiere, a huge budget and extensive word of mouth is now trundling
limply along. Buck’s ratings during
its first season were fair but barely covering the mammoth weekly budget that
the show required. On top of that, the critics weren’t exactly lining up behind
it either, so the decision was made for some major retooling. Producers changed
the venue from New Chicago to a travelling space cruiser roaming all parts of
the galaxy a la Star Trek (but, given
their mission, reminding me more of Damnation
Alley). Hawk would become the new Spock, while Wilma was made up to look
and dress like Uhara.
But the actors’ strike of 1980
delayed the season, and by the time the new, revamped series was ready it was
already January of 1981. That, along with the new tone and setting of the
series, understandably confused would-be viewers, and the ratings nose-dived.
Despite launching the season with two double-length episodes (or perhaps
because of it), the Buck “reboot” was
short-lived; by mid-April, Buck had fired his last ray-gun, spoken his ending
anachronism and seduced his final female crew member.
 |
| Captain, meet your new crew |
But the irony is that this
episode is pretty darned good – maybe the best Buck yet. Gone are the scantily-clad vixens and shameless
overacting. In fact, with the exception of some pretty hokey headwear on Throm,
this is pretty much camp-free, and instead we get a serious story that
generates suspense, thrills, and a meaningful finale (don’t miss Buck’s speech
at the end). Thom Christopher, once you get past his one-note stoicism, slowly
develops into a layered, sympathetic protagonist, and the Searcher’s acceptance
of his as a comrade just gives you that warm fuzzy feeling all over.
Other new cast members are pretty
good too, particularly Dr. Goodfellow, a kind-hearted, quirky counsel who’s
like a combination of Dr. Huer and Santa Claus, and Chrichton, a snarky, sassy
robot unwilling to believe he was created by humans. But beware – the new voice
of Twiki is astoundingly bad (did they even try
to approximate Mel Blanc?) and the new opening narration is wordier and
more awkwardly written.
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