"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" Planet of the Amazon Women (1979)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Philip Leacock

Writers:

D.C. Fontana (writer)
Clayton Richards (writer)

TV Series:

"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (1979)

Original Air Date:

8 November 1979 (Season 1, Episode 10)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Earth is negotiating with the planet Ruatha to maintain its right to mine Barberite on the Ruathan held planet Madrea...

Plot Keywords:

Spandex Suit | Amazon Tribe | Beefcake | Astronaut | Buck Rogers

Cast

Gil Gerard	...	Capt. William "Buck" Rogers
Erin Gray	...	Col. Wilma Deering
Tim O'Connor	...	Dr. Elias Huer
Ann Dusenberry	...	Ariela
Jay Robinson	...	Cassius Thorne
Anne Jeffreys	...	Prime Minister
Felix Silla	...	Twiki
Mel Blanc	...	Twiki (voice)
Antoinette Stella	...	Jayel
Wendy Oates	...	Renna
Liberty Godshall	...	Nyree
Darrell Zwerling	...	Macon
Teddi Siddall	...	Linea
Wally K. Berns	...	Major Norris
James Fraracci	...	Karsh

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Glen A. Larson Productions

Quotes:

Cassius Thorne: [to the handcuffed, bare-chested, and about-to-be-auctioned Buck Rogers] Move around. Show 'em the merchandise.

What's so terrible about being a Zantian sex-slave?

Testosterone fuelled space-stud Buck Rogers gets into a spot of bother when he answers a distress call from a couple of hot babes, who are seemingly stranded in orbit around the planet Zantia. After kindly towing them back to the planet's surface, poor Buck is drugged and auctioned off as a sex slave. It seems that, as a result of a recent war against the planet Ruatha, there is now a shortage of men on Zantia, and the desperate women have resorted to kidnapping in order to fulfil their needs. Meanwhile, Earth is holding difficult negotiations with Ruatha for the right to mine the valuable mineral Barberite.

However, thanks to a series of unbelievable co-incidences, Buck is not only able to escape slavery (why would he want to do such a thing?), but also manages to solve Earth's mining problems, whilst simultaneously finding an answer to Zantia's man shortage.

Despite its wonderfully tacky premise, I found this episode of Buck Rogers to be rather tedious, with some boring scenes of negotiation between Dr. Theopolis and his Ruathan counterpart, an unexciting chase scene on horseback (cheaper to film than a scene requiring special effects), and a couple of lacklustre fights.

However, it's worth watching purely for the hilarious auction scene in which a room-full of attractive women go ga-ga for a stripped-to-the waist Buck and get involved in a bidding war. And of course, there is always the gorgeous Erin Gray on hand to spice things up when things get extremely dull (and, for the record, her shiny body-hugging Spandex outfit is blue in this episode).