Year: 1979

Returning from a routine flight, Buck and Wilma find a small group of Earth fighters in trouble, and help to wipe out the pirate fighter pursuing them. It turns out they’ve stumbled into a live-fire exercise, and the cadets being trained aren’t just ill-equipped for combat – they’re actually ill. Dr. Huer reveals that contamination of Earth’s supply of food discs has been detected, and deliberate poisoning is now considered the most likely explanation. Cadets and experienced pilots alike are grounded as an antidote is researched, leaving Earth wide open to attack. And an attack is indeed being planned by Kaleel, the charismatic slave of a planet on which Earth depends for its food supplies. He keeps his workers loyal through the fear of death by his merest touch, and plans to use that fear to turn them into a fighting force. Now Earth’s only line of defense is a handful of pilots, one of whom is already shaping up to be Buck’s rival for everything from the other pilots’ admiration to Wilma’s affection.

teleplay by Steve Greenberg & Aubrey Solomon and Cory Applebaum
story by Steve Greenberg & Aubrey Solomon
directed by Michael Caffey
music by Johnny Harris

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Buster Crabbe (Brigadier Gordon), Jack Palance (Kaleel), David Groh (Major Duke Danton), Roddy McDowell (Governor Saroyan), Brianne Leary (Ryma), Macdonald Carey (Dr. Mallory), Karen Carlson (Stella Warden), Michael Mullins (Regis Saroyan), Robert Dowdell (Galen), Sheila DeWindt (Major Fields), Don Marshall (Julio), Diane Markoff (Female Pilot), June Whitley Taylor (Woman), Borah Silver (Husband), Michael Masters (Worker), Don Maxwell (Guard), Nathanial Brian Wine (Technician)

Notes: Special guest star Larry “Buster” Crabbe was one of Hollywood’s first science fiction heroes, portraying the first film incarnation of Flash Gordon in an ongoing serial from 1936 to 1940 – and the first filmed version of Buck Rogers in 1939, which also featured Constance Moore as “Lt.” Wilma Deering, C. Montague Shaw as “Scientist General Professor Huer,” and Anthony Warde as “Killer” Kane. (That early version of Buck Rogers can be found at the DVD link above.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Buck is becoming annoyed in his efforts to wean Wilma and the other Earth Defense Directorate pilots off of computer control for every combat scenario, preferring his own instincts and reflexes instead. When they return to Earth from a particularly frustrating training exercise, Buck has a new task waiting for him – to accompany Major Marla Landers to Sinaloa, an entire planet devoted to leisure and gambling, on a mission to rescue a kidnapped computer programmer. Her employer, Mr. Armot, is a notorious (but, as yet, unconvicted) gun-runner who has offered to provide tactical information on the seemingly unbeatable Draconian hatchet fighters in exchange for this favor. Once they arrive on Sinaloa, Buck attracts the attention of a cocktail waitress named Tanji, while Major Landers gets the far more dangerous attention of Mr. Velosi, the proprietor of Sinaloa’s casino. Escaping from Sinaloa with the kidnapped programmer is enough of a risk, but Tanji wants Buck to buy her freedom too – or she’ll alert Velosi’s guards to Buck’s presence.

written by Anne Collins
directed by Sigmund Neufeld Jr.
music by Les Baxter

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Cesar Romero (Armot), Joseph Wiseman (Morphus), Richard Lynch (Velosi), Ana Alicia (Major Landers), Juanin Clay (Velosi’s thug), Pamela Susan Shoop (Falina), James Luisi (Guard), Alice Frost (Rita), Ted Chapman (Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Buck and Wilma arrest an assassin named Raphael Argus in a seedy bar, and use the confusion of the ensuing shootout as a cover for Buck to assume the killer’s identity. It’s all part of Dr. Huer’s plan to infiltrate a guild of mercenaries who are believed to be preparing to launch a terrorist strike on Earth itself. Wilma is sent on the undercover mission as well, which is just as well, since as part of his cover, Buck isn’t provided with any way to prove that he isn’t Argus, to make it easier for him to bluff his way into the midst of the conspirators. But the mercenaries have also taken steps to make sure that they can identify Argus upon his arrival – and they’ve also planted operatives within the Earth Defense Directorate with orders to sabotage Earth’s defensive capabilities. And when Wilma breaks her cover, Buck has to risk his own life to buy time for her escape.

written by Alan Brennert
directed by Dick Lowry
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Frank Gorshin (Seton Kellogg), John Quade (Jolen Quince), Anthony James (Varek), Nancy DeCarl (Sherese), Markie Post (Joella Cameron), Robert Tessier (Marcos), James Sloyan (Barney), Victor Argo (Argus), Mitch Reta (Technician), John Furlong (1st Cop), Richard Reed (1st Rowdy), Seamon Glass (Pirate), Sena Black (Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Moments after he learns of a plan by criminal mastermind Seton Kellogg to detonate an antimatter charge in New Chicago, Buck’s cover is blown and he’s captured. Wilma has captured one of Kellogg’s conspirators and taken him back to Earth, but he refuses to surrender any information about the plot. Buck has to find a way back to Earth – but even when he does, Kellogg and his assassins are already on the planet, putting a backup plan into effect that doesn’t require the presence of Argus – and will still prove just as deadly to New Chicago.

written by Alan Brennert
directed by Dick Lowry
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Frank Gorshin (Seton Kellogg), John Quade (Jolen Quince), Anthony James (Varek), James McEachin (Selvan), Nancy DeCarl (Sherese), Markie Post (Joella Cameron), Robert Tessier (Marcos), James Sloyan (Barney), Victor Argo (Argus), Whitney Rydbeck (Hartsteen), Gwen Mitchell (Ticket Clerk), Nonice Williams (Katrina), John Furlong (1st Cop), Mitch Reta (Technician), Richard Reed (1st Rowdy), Seamon Glass (Pirate)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Trying to intercept a freighter making an unauthorized flight into the Necrosis asteroid belt, Buck and Wilma stumble across a plot by Wilma’s old adversary Corliss to poison Earth’s atmosphere. Despite this terrifying development, there is nothing the Earth forces can do to penetrate the dense asteroid belt. Doctor Huer recommends reinstating the retired Noah Cooper and the rest of his 69th Earth Space Marine squadron – but Cooper, embittered ever since his young protege’ Wilma flunked his entire squad out of active duty due to their age, wants nothing to do with the potential suicide mission.

written by David Bennett Carson
directed by Phil Leacock
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Peter Graves (Noah Cooper), Elizabeth Allen (Roxanne Trent), Robert Quarry (Commander Corliss), Woody Strode (“Big Red” Murphy), K.T. Stevens (Harriet Twain), Eddie Firestone (M.K. Schultz), Dan Sturkle (Eli Twain), Katharine Wyberg (Alicia), Robert Hardy (Clayton), Duncan MacKenzie (Westlake), Clifford Torknett (War technician)

Notes: With this episode’s focus on deafness and sign language, Katharine Wyberg, a student from the California School for the Deaf, was cast as Alicia. However, the episode still came in for criticism due to its coda, which revealed that Alicia would be undergoing surgery to “cure” her deafness.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A Zetan freighter is halted when it comes within Earth jurisdiction, and when Wilma and Buck board it, they find the captain of the freighter is an android. They rewrite parts of its memory and smuggle Buck aboard, part of a well-orchestrated plan to bust Jen Burton, the lover of an accused killer, out of prison and bring her to Earth to help find the killer. Buck manages to break Burton out of prison, but upon learning that this isn’t necessarily an escape to freedom, she’s less than cooperative with him. And worse yet, the prison’s relentless android guards are in hot pursuit – and unlike their quarry, they’re impervious to the desert heat.

written by Bill Taylor
directed by Dick Lowry
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Jamie Lee Curtis (Jen Burton), Michael Delano (Pantera), Bert Rosario (Sanwiller), Tara Buckman (Majel), Walter Hunter (Hugo), Robert Cornthwaite (Warwick), Danny Ades (Gymon), Jim B. Smith (Shuttle Captain), Charles Walker (Lt. Zimmerman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Buck rescues a stranded spacecraft with a crew of two women and tows it back to their home planet, where he’s treated as an honored guest. But after a while, Buck realizes that he’s more of a prisoner than a guest – he’s trapped on a world populated almost exclusively by women, where he is to be auctioned off as slave labor – and breeding stock. Buck finds some women on the planet sympathize with the plight of the men who are captured and brought to their world, and enlists their help.

written by Michael Richards & Clayton Richards
directed by Philip Leacock
music by Michael Melvoin

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Ann Dusenberry (Ariela), Jay Robinson (Cassius Thorne), Anne Jeffreys (Prime Minister), Antoinette Stella (Jayel), Wendy Oates (Renna), Liberty Godshall (Nyree), Darrell Zwerling (Macon), Teddi Siddall (Linea), Wally K. Berns (Pilot), James Fraracci (Karsh)

Notes: This episode sees the introduction of many elements that would become mainstays of the second season, though no one knew it at the time. The women’s shuttle set, with some redressing, became the Searcher shuttle used frequently in the second year os the show, while the unusual standing clock prop seen in the auction scenes was given an overhaul and turned into the Searcher’s Crichton robot.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

On the peaceful neutral planet of Genesia, a coup quickly removes President Hieronymous Fox from power, and the unscrupulous Roderick Zale assumes control and makes an exorbitant ransom demand. The President’s personal bodyguard, Dia Cyrton, escapes and goes to Earth to plead for the Defense Directorate’s help in rescuing him. Dr. Huer, however, is unwilling to commit any resources to the mission, so Cyrton waits until she can pull off a kidnapping of her own, drugging Buck and dragging him off with her to rescue the President. Her choice isn’t at random, either: what Huer doesn’t know is that Hieronymous Fox is, like Buck, a survivor from Earth’s 20th century – a child genius who survived the nuclear holocaust by testing his cryogenic suspension unit on himself. But in the years before the Earth Defense Directorate was established, Fox’s cryogenic pod was looted by the visiting Genesians, though his brilliant mind made him invaluable enough that he climbed the political ladder. Buck and Cyrton brave the odds, including a face-to-face confrontation with an assassin hired by Zale, to rescue Fox…only to find that the President is perfectly capable of making himself too much of a nuisance to be held prisoner for long.

teleplay by Alan Brennert
story by Anne Collins
directed by Les Martinson
music by Johnny Harris / “Shambala” by Three Dog Night

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Gary Coleman (Hieronymous Fox), Ray Walston (Roderick Zale), Melody Rogers (Lt. Dia Cyrton), Albert Popwell (Koren), Earl Boen (Selmar), Lester Fletcher (M.D. Toman), Tobar Mayo (Guard), Tony Epper (Drunk)

Notes: Toman’s guards are obviously wearing Battlestar Galactica uniforms.

LogBook entry by Earl Green