"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"
Happy Birthday, Buck (1980)

Director:

Sigmund Neufeld Jr.

Writers:

Glen A. Larson (developer)
Martin Pasko (writer)

TV Series:

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

Original Air Date:

10 January 1980 (Season 1, Episode 15)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Buck Rogers | Spacecraft | Based On Comic Strip | Cult TV

Cast

Gil Gerard	...	Capt. William "Buck" Rogers
Erin Gray	...	Col. Wilma Deering
Tim O'Connor	...	Dr. Elias Huer
Morgan Brittany	...	Raylyn Merritt
Tamara Dobson	...	Dr. Delora Bayliss
Peter MacLean	...	Col. Cornell Traeger (as Peter Mac Lean)
Felix Silla	...	Twiki
Mel Blanc	...	Twiki (voice)
Chip Johnson	...	Carew
Bruce Wright	...	Rorvik
Eric Mason	...	Lt. Garth
Abraham Alvarez	...	Security Agent
Harry Gold	...	Alien Squadron Leader
Tom Gagen	...	Niles
Clay Alexander	...	Marsden

Buck gets the birthday blues.

After spending fifteen years imprisoned underground on a remote planet, which has resulted in poor eyesight and deadly glowing hands, a bitter Cornell Traeger plots revenge against the man he blames for his predicament: Dr Elias Huer of Earth's Defence Directorate.

In order to locate his target, Traeger plans to capture Raylyn Derren (Morgan Brittany), a beautiful courier who has the details of Dr. Huer's itinerary implanted in her brain, and gain access to the information with the help of an old acquaintance, Delora Bayliss (Tamara 'Cleopatra Jones' Dobson), a Psych Med.

Meanwhile, Buck, who is rapidly approaching his 534th birthday, is feeling homesick for the 20th century. Wilma decides that a surprise party is in order and temporarily gets Buck out of the way by asking him to escort the lovely Ms. Derren on her trip to New Detroit.

A so-so episode from Series One, 'Happy Birthday, Buck' lacks a truly memorable villain, and features too few silly aliens, zero zany disco dancing scenes, and nowhere near enough badly choreographed fights, ultimately registering several notches lower on the 'cheese-ometer' than some of the earlier adventures. Manky props and daft set designs are limited to a pair of 'synthi-flesh' masks, a convenient Buck-sized air vent, and Delora Bayliss's psychiatrists office, which is designed to offer zero confidentiality to its patients (who are all gorgeous women!).

At least Erin Grey looks great as always (first in a peach outfit, which is followed by a skin-tight blue Spandex number), and Morgan Brittany is also rather scrummy.