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• Buck Rogers Complete Series Download Torrent Full
• Buck Rogers Complete Series Download Torrent Download
• Buck Rogers Complete Series
• Buck Rogers Complete Series Download Torrent Site
• Buck Rogers Complete Series Download Torrent Free

One would imagine that Brian K. Vaughan, the award-winning writer of such productions as Y: The Last Man and Lost, has his pick of cool science fiction properties to adapt. So why did he sign on to write Legendary Television's Buck Rogers series, centered around a character almost a century old? Why did Don Murphy and Susan Montford, whose credits include Transformers and Real Steel, jump to dust off a property that most people under the age of 50 don't even know about? What, exactly, is the appeal of this fictional spaceman from 1928?

The short answer to these questions is that Buck Rogers is awesome. Fantasy and sci-fi fandom currently dominates the mainstream, and no fan's knowledge of the genre can be complete without an acknowledgement of Buck Rogers as the granddaddy of all popular space heroes. From his earliest imitator, Flash Gordon, to his later successors like Captain Kirk, Han Solo, Buzz Lightyear, and beyond, he's a major origin point. Beyond his legacy, Buck Rogers is also simply cool, even today. This is his untold story, from his must-have toys to his fascinating future.

Complete Series Box Set DVDs & Blu-ray Discs, Movie Complete Series Box Set DVDs, Complete Series Box Set HD DVDs, Roy Rogers DVDs, The Sopranos Complete Series Box Set DVDs & Blu-ray Discs, Who Framed Roger Rabbit DVDs, Farscape Complete Series Box Set DVDs & Blu-ray Discs, Lost (2004 TV series) Complete Series Box Set DVDs & Blu-ray Discs. The original Buck Rogers series follows a man named William Rogers, who is a World War I veteran working as a mine inspector. A combination of a cave-in and exposure to weird chemicals leaves. Buck Rogers goes after Belzak's enforcers, the Omniguard, three female paranormals with psychokinetic powers to save Twiki. Meanwhile, Wilma Deering has her hands full with a huge floating chunk of frozen oxygen that could destroy most of Earth's population once the iceberg veers off course.

From pulp fiction to the mainstream

In the early 1900s — before the internet, movies, TV, and even most radio — genre-loving folks got their science fiction and fantasy fixes from pulp magazines like Amazing Stories and Air Wonder Stories. Those super-old-school fans were geeking out over the two-fisted heroics of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, who took their readers to the far-off fantasylands of the lawless jungle, the wilds of outer space, and even further beyond.

Buck Rogers, originally named Anthony Rogers, first appeared in a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories as the star of Armageddon 2419A.D., a novella by Philip Francis Nowlan. The following year, Nowlan was hired to expand the story into a comic strip serial entitled Buck Rogers by the John F. Dille Company, a syndication service providing comic strips and other content to local newspapers. With that nationwide exposure, Buck Rogers fever swept popular culture, introducing science fiction to a mainstream audience in a whole new way, and creating an important progenitor for the modern superhero.

An early superhero in an early dystopia

The original Buck Rogers series follows a man named William Rogers, who is a World War I veteran working as a mine inspector. A combination of a cave-in and exposure to weird chemicals leaves Rogers in a state of suspended animation for 492 years. He awakens in the future, where he is paraded around for public relations purposes. He soon learns that the leadership is lying to him, and he is drawn into a civil war. Sounds like a certain Marvel super-soldier, doesn't it? Buck Rogers' influence on the superheroes that dominate modern pop culture is just that obvious.

America in Buck Rogers' 2419 is dominated by an economically and technologically privileged upper-class called the 'Hans,' who rule the 15 remaining cities with fleets of deadly airships. The poor and disenfranchised are left behind in the barbaric wilds of what was once rural America. Buck Rogers' heroics against the 'airlords' unite the lower classes against the oligarchy in a way that prefigures modern dystopian sci-fi: Everything from The Hunger Gamesto The Walking Deadowes a debt to these dark visions of the future.

His forgotten namesake

For unknown reasons, when Philip Francis Nowlan helped adapt his own story to comic strip form, he retroactively changed his hero's name from 'Anthony Rogers' to 'William Rogers.' Perhaps Nowlan, or his publisher, John Dille, wanted the name to remind audiences of the everyman humorist Will Rogers, who was one of the most popular public figures of the day. Nowlan also gave his hero a snappy new nickname: The monosyllabic, instantly memorable 'Buck.'

The origin of this nickname is actually well documented: One of the most popular movie stars of the 1920s and 30s was Charles 'Buck' Jones, who was known for playing heroic cowboys in silent era Westerns. By giving Rogers the nickname 'Buck,' Nowlan and Dille were assuring their audiences, many of whom were new to the strange imagery and ideas of science fiction, that their hero was still of the familiar two-fisted he-man variety.

Buck Rogers, master of merchandise

In 1932, just three years after making the leap from pulp magazines to comic strips, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century became one of the first science fiction programs on the radio. Originally broadcast under the title The World in 2432, this program debuted episodes of 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the year of broadcast. The series ran until 1947, introducing a generation to the sci-fi genre ... and to a brand new world of product tie-ins.

Department stores dedicated massive amounts of floorspace to Buck Rogers merchandise, complete with costumed salespeople. Over the next decade, toy guns, model rockets, space helmets and practically every other product that could bear the Buck Rogers logo hit store shelves. The Buck Rogers XZ-31 Rocket Pistol, an art deco beauty manufactured by the Daisy Manufacturing Company, was the must-have Christmas gift of 1934. The day it hit shelves, lines of eager customers stretched across city blocks to enter Macy's 'World of Tomorrow' exhibit and get their hands on the coveted toy.

It happened at the World's Fair

In 1934, the John F. Dille Company decided to produce a short feature to promote the growing Buck Rogers brand on the biggest public stage of the day: The 1933 Chicago World's Fair, officiously christened the Century of Progress International Exhibition. This marketing idea may have been brilliant, but the John F. Dille Company lacked either the faith or the funds to deliver a film adaptation worthy of their character. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which boasts the totally awesome and super-explanatory subtitle, An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars, is spectacularly amateurish in every imaginable way, from the wooden performance by Dille's own non-actor son as Buck, to the special effects, courtesy of repurposed Buck Rogers toys. But as this film was screened in the Enchanted Island playground area, perhaps the shoddy craftsmanship didn't matter. It's easy to imagine that the little ones of 1933 were just delighted to see their hero in motion.

Only one man can save Buck Rogers ... Flash Gordon!

In 1939, Universal Studios produced a 12-part Buck Rogers serial starring two-time Olympic gold medalist Larry 'Buster' Crabbe as Buck. Crabbe had already put his charisma and swimmer's physique to good use in Hollywood, starring as Flash Gordon in that character's own Universal serial. Universal, thinking like a studio, repeated their successful formula with little reinvention and even less of a budget in Buck Rogers, even re-using the distinctive studded belt Crabbe wears in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.

Thus began a long, strange trip for the Buck Rogers serial — and Crabbe's place within it. In 1953, Goodwill Pictures recut the Buck Rogers serial into a feature entitled Planet Outlaws. The footage was recut again in 1966 to create a TV movie, Destination Saturn. Finally, in 1977, a third feature, simply titled Buck Rogers, was once again edited from the same footage, to take advantage of interest in the material renewed by Star Wars and the new Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV series. An early episode of the first season of the latter series, entitled 'Planet of the Slave Girls,' features an appearance by none other than Buster Crabbe as Brigadier Gordon.

A comic book hero who predates comic books

Long before they became respected as 'graphic novels,' comic books didn't even tell original stories. Instead, the earliest comic books were reprinted collections of newspaper comic strips. 1933's Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics is one such anthology of strips, and considered by most historians to be the first true American comic book. Buck Rogers comic strips were collected and reprinted in this new form almost immediately, spawning a series of 'Big Little Book' collections.

Starting in 1940, Famous Funniesbegan running reprints of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as a regular feature. In 1969, when those same comic strips were collected into a scholarly hardback with a foreword by Ray Bradbury, Buck Rogers was re-discovered by a new generation of fans, who were now beginning to view comic books as their own art form. Buck Rogers' adventures, both new and old, have made their way into comics repeatedly ever since, most recently with Dynamite Comics' retelling of Buck's story in 2012.

A Buck Rogers TV show! No, not that one!

In 1950, Buck Rogers made a daring leap into television, a futuristic technology if ever there was one. Unfortunately, just as Buck Rogers was beaten to the big screen by his imitator, Flash Gordon, so too was he beaten to the small screen by the DuMont Network's 1949 production, Captain Video and his Video Rangers, which takes the honor of being the first weekly science fiction television series.

Already late to the party, ABC's Buck Rogerswas plagued by other issues that would spell its doom. These factors included stiff competition from the era's biggest star, Milton Berle, and the misfortune of having to recast the role of Buck not once, but twice during its one and only season. With the re-edited Universal serial starring Buster Crabbe already playing on television — and looking better, despite being over a decade old — this new television series was canceled and quickly forgotten.

Inspiring other wars in the stars

Filmmaker George Lucas has frequently cited the Universal Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials as inspirations for Star Wars. In fact, before he wrote the screenplay for Star Wars, Lucas attempted to acquire the rights to adapt the Flash Gordon comic strips. Fortunately for everyone, Lucas failed in that attempt.

Yet the echoes of those pulp stories live on in Star Wars. Consider Star Wars' infamous 'Style A' poster. Beyond its now-common images of space ships dogfighting in the stars and pistol-packing space princesses, it borrows many stylistic elements from those long-ago adventure serials. Just look at how brawny Luke is, and how much Leia resembles a slinky '30s femme fatale, complete with a low-cut dress she never sports in the movie. Moreover, many visuals that are now considered integral to the vocabulary ofStar Warscome straight from Buck Rogers. This includes the use of 'wipes' to transition from one scene to another, and even the iconic opening text crawl, which was first used in the 1939 Buck Rogers serial.

A Buck Rogers TV show! Again!

Just as George Lucas was inspired by Buck Rogers, the success of Lucas' 1977 blockbuster Star Wars inspired a legion of imitators ... including a reboot of Buck Rogers. In 1979, NBC produced Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, starring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. This version reimagines Buck Rogers as an astronaut revived centuries too late from suspended animation, and introduces new characters, including the robot sidekick Twiki, voiced by cartoon legend Mel Blanc. Coincidentally, Blanc also voiced Daffy Duck in the Looney Tunes Buck Rogers parody, Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century.

The feature-length Buck Rogers pilot was given a limited theatrical release, much as the producer, Glen A. Larson, had done successfully with Battlestar Galactica. But Buck Rogers' budget and quality never matched its sibling show. Frequently, sets and costumes from Battlestar Galacticawere recycled for Buck Rogers. Even the designs for Rogers' Thunder Fighters were actually just the original designs for Battlestar Galactica's Colonial Vipers.

Buck Rogers' untimely end

Fans amped up by Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica were clamoring for another weekly science fiction series, and were thus willing to overlook the low budget effects of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century's first season. But the second season left everyone — including star Gil Gerard — a little cold. New directives from NBC pushed more comedy and family-friendly adventure into the scripts, and the producers, in an attempt to replicate the success of space-focused series like Star Trek, moved Buck's story from the futuristic world of New Chicago to a wandering starship called the Searcher.

Gerard felt that the series had strayed too far from its original premise, and his protests soured the mood at the network. 'It was such a ripoff of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica,' Gerard said, 'I was thinking, 'Why are we doing this?' I always wanted Buck to stay on Earth, but we got a new executive producer who had no respect for the audience and the show.' Thus, the show dwindled into nothingness, its last episode airing in 1981.

A legacy ... and beyond!

When Buck Rogers first zoomed onto the scene back in 1928, he displaced the cowboys, longtime heroes of American youth. Almost overnight, a fascination with space ships and ray guns swept America's kids. Cowboy heroes would persist through the 1950s, thanks to TV series like The Lone Rangerand The Roy Rogers Show, but they still had to share space with Buck Rogers and his growing legion of imitators. As the era of space travel and the race to the moon dawned, the battle between the Western hero and the science fiction hero for dominance of American popular culture was finally won by the men from beyond the stars.

Westerns layered on moral ambiguity and grew increasingly dark. Though this has yielded many artistically superior movies, the commercial successes of the day still largely belong to sci-fi. This conflict — the displacement of the cowboy by the spaceman — is so ingrained in American popular culture that it is essentially the plot of Toy Story, with Buzz Lightyear standing in for Buck Rogers and his ilk.

• Film/Program Grade: B+
• Video Grade: B
• Audio Grade: B
• Extras Grade: B-

Review

[Editor’s Note: Though this is listed as a Region B Blu-ray release, I’ve confirmed that the discs are, in fact, ALL REGION. They should play fine on any U.S. Blu-ray player.]

I have to tell you, I’ve had a great deal of fun, these past couple of days, reviewing this new Blu-ray set from Madman Entertainment. It’s been years since I’ve last watched Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on DVD, and the opportunity to revisit the series on Blu-ray has conjured up great memories. Frankly, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed seeing this show on NBC back in the day. But all you need to do is pop in any Season One episode on disc and watch the show’s classic opening credit sequence, which features that great voice-over narration by actor William Conrad and Stu Phillips’ iconic theme music (mixing orchestration with disco/lounge rock riffs), and you’ll be instantly reminded of the fact that Buck Rogers represents the best of 1970s TV science fiction in all of its cheesy glory.

I’ll talk discs in a moment, but first a refresher…

In the year 1987, NASA launched the last of its deep space probes, commanded by Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard). During the mission, Buck suddenly encountered strange forces that resulted in his ship being thrown off course and his body being perfectly frozen in suspended animation. 500 years later, Buck’s ship is rescued from deep space and he’s revived in perfect health... to a world that’s changed more than he could ever have imagined. Earth has been devastated by war and the surviving humans now live in domed cities, protected by Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) and her Earth Directorate space forces. When Buck returns, the Directorate is negotiating with the Draconian Empire for badly needed supplies (as Earth can no longer sustain itself). Secretly, however, the Draconians’ Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) and her henchmen plan to attack and take over the planet. Only Buck sees through their subterfuge, yet Wilma thinks he’s a spy for the Draconians and is reluctant to trust him.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century began as a plan for a series of TV movies, but the first one was strong enough that Universal released it theatrically before it aired on NBC. This led to a 2-season run on the network starting in 1979. All of the film’s major cast members returned for the TV series’ first season (including Mel Blanc as the voice of Buck’s robot assistant, Twiki), which saw Buck trying to adjust to life in the future while continuing to work with Wilma and the Directorate to protect Earth against the Draconians. The first season is generally good, and features a number of great guest appearances and cameos, including the likes of Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cesar Romero, Peter Graves, Woody Strode, Gary Coleman, Richard Moll, Jerry Orbach, Ray Walston, Julie Newmar, and Jack Palance, as well as the man who played both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in the original 1930 film serials, the legendary Larry “Buster” Crabbe. Unfortunately, low ratings, a diminished production budget, and a new series producer led to many changes for the show’s disastrously bad second season, which is ultimately notable only for the addition of Wilfrid Hyde-White and Thom Christopher (as Hawk) to the cast, as well as additional guest appearances that included Sid Haig, William Sylvester (who you may know as Heywood Floyd from 2001: A Space Odyssey), and Mark Leonard (Sarek of Star Trek fame).

Thirty-seven years later, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is finally available on Blu-ray Disc in true HD, not from Universal Studios Home Entertainment but rather from Madman Entertainment (a company that produces titles for release in Australia and New Zealand). As such, there are a few things that are important to say that up front about this release.

First, Madman had very limited resources available to them when producing this set. All they had to work with were Universal’s recent HD scans of the syndication masters for each episode in the series. The theatrical film elements have not been scanned in HD by the studio, which means the HD version of the 2-part pilot, Awakening, (a.k.a. the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century film) is the TV version (more on that in a minute). Second, it’s important to note while these are true HD elements, Universal hasn’t done any kind of dirt removal, color timing, or other digital remastering to them. So while Madman has done a bit of work on them, you’re still going to see some dust, dirt, and other print artifacts from time to time. Most importantly, however, while this set is listed as a Region B release, I have confirmed that the discs are, in fact, ALL REGION. They should work on any Blu-ray player, which is great news for U.S. and international fans of the series alike.

All that said, these episodes look way better in 1080p HD (at the correct original 1.33:1 TV aspect ratio) than I ever expected them too. I’ve watched four of this set’s discs in their entirety now, and sampled the rest of the episodes. I can tell you that the colors are vibrant (especially once you get into the series proper), there’s abundant detail visible, and contrast is excellent with nicely-detailed shadows. There’s modest grain visible and some of the effects shots and title sequences can look a little optically soft, but really this image is impressive and is a great improvement over Universal’s previous DVD release. Let’s put it this way: There’s enough new detail present in the image that, in a few shots (filmed in the desert for the episode The Planet of the Slave Girls) you can actually see a military transport plane flying low to the horizon behind the actors – something that viewers would never have noticed in SD analog. The audio for all of the episodes is available in uncompressed 2.0 LPCM mono, and the original tracks sound surprisingly full and nice. Clarity is generally very good and to the extent that there’s ever muffled dialogue or distortion it was certainly present in the original TV audio too. There are no subtitles, but there is one additional audio option that actually counts as a bonus feature (so more on that in a minute as well).

Madman’s set includes both seasons of the series encased in a pair of multi-disc keep cases (Season One includes 5 Blu-rays, while Season Two includes 3 BDs). Their content breaks down thusly:

Season One, Disc One includes the feature-length TV version of the 2-part Awakening pilot and the feature-length TV version of the 2-part Planet of the Slave Girls (both HD and in 1.33:1 original aspect ratio). You also get the feature film version of Awakening (upscaled to HD from 1.33:1 aspect SD PAL). The disc also includes the following extras: The ending credits from Awakening, Part One and opening to Awakening, Part Two (in HD – the portion removed to allow the presentation of Awakening as a feature film), the series’ opening title sequence in HD without actor William Conrad’s voice-over narration (in HD), and both the series opening and closing titles without credit text – just the visuals (again in HD). Finally, that additional audio option I mentioned: You get a music and effects-only track for both versions of Awakening (TV HD and SD film) and Planet of the Slave Girls in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (such tracks are available for all the other episodes in this set too).

Season One, Disc Two includes the episodes Vegas in Space, The Plot to Kill a City, Part 1, The Plot to Kill a City, Part 2, Return of the Fighting 69th, and Unchained Woman (all in HD and 1.33:1). Extras here include the music and effects-only tracks for every episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

Season One, Disc Three includes the episodes Planet of the Amazon Women, Cosmic Whiz Kid, Escape from Wedded Bliss, Cruise Ship to the Stars, and Space Vampire (all in HD and 1.33:1). Once again, you get music and effects-only tracks for every episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

Season One, Disc Four includes the episodes Happy Birthday, Buck, A Blast for Buck, Ardala Returns, Twiki is Missing, and Olympiad (all in HD and 1.33:1). Again, you get music and effects-only tracks for every episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

And Season One, Disc Five includes the episodes A Dream of Jennifer, Space Rockers, Buck’s Duel to the Death, Flight of the War Witch, Part 1, and Flight of the War Witch, Part 2 (all in HD and 1.33:1). This disc also includes music and effects-only tracks for every episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. Plus you get the syndicated feature film version of Flight of the War Witch (upscaled to HD from 1.33:1 aspect SD PAL).

Moving on to the next case, Season Two, Disc One includes the feature-length version of Time of the Hawk, the feature-length version of Journey to Oasis, and The Guardians (all in HD and 1.33:1). There are music and effects-only tracks for each episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. You also get the second season version of the opening title sequence sans voice over narration, plus text-less opening and closing titles too (all in HD and 1.33:1, though I should note that the version without voice over looks to be upscaled from SD – in fact the opening credits for this whole season appear to be upscaled from SD, though all the episodes are full HD).

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Season Two, Disc Two includes the episodes Mark of the Saurian, The Golden Man, The Crystals, The Satyr, and Shgoratchx! (all in HD and 1.33:1). Extras include music and effects-only tracks for each episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

And Season Two, Disc Three includes the episodes The Hand of Goral, Testimony of a Traitor, and The Dorian Secret (all in HD and 1.33:1). Extras include music and effects-only tracks for each episode in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. You also get the syndicated 2-part TV version of Journey to Oasis (in HD and 1.33:1).

Finally, virtually every disc in the set has a series of hidden Easter eggs: If you go to the episode selection menu from each disc and highlight any episode, navigating “up” will play in-show text-less elements from that episode. Most of the set’s episodes have them. The set’s box (which you can see pictured below) also includes a double-sided A3-size poster, featuring a photo of Buck on one side and Wilma on the other.

That’s actually a pretty damn nice batch of bonus content, all things considered, especially when you recall that A) Madman had a very limited budget for this project and, B) Universal’s original DVD release had no extras whatsoever. A couple additional notes on the extras:

Madman chose to upscale the film versions of Awakening and Flight of the War Witch to HD from PAL (576i) instead of NTSC (480i) in order to ensure the highest possible video quality. The compromise is that the result does suffer from PAL audio speed-up (as PAL video has a 25 frames per second frame rate, compared to film’s 24 fps, resulting in a 4% speed increase over film or NTSC, which converts 24 fps to 29.97 fps via 3:2 pulldown). What that means for U.S. readers is that, if you want those versions in SD with properly-pitched audio, you should either keep your existing DVD release of the series or pick up the currently available U.S. DVD release of Season One (it’s just $15 on Amazon at the moment) which has both. For those of you who may be unaware, the film version of Awakening includes the footage missing from the syndication HD version, such as Kane’s communication with Emperor Draco, the alternate “sexy” opening credits, the different Conrad opening narration, and more. There’s a bit of more adult language too, which was deemed suitable for theaters but not for TV (including Buck calling Wilma “ballsy” and Twiki saying that he’s “freezing his ball-bearings off”), though the syndication version does have an additional scene at the end (in which Dr. Huer and Wilma offer Buck a job at the Earth Defense Directorate) that’s not in the film version.

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There are also two additional “censorship” edits to the HD presentation of Awakening. The first happens when Wilma comes after Buck in old Chicago. When she has her solider stun Buck, she says “Captain, you got away once, but not this time. Lieutenant?” and he shoots Buck. But there’s a second missing in the HD presentation, so the words “time. Lieutenant?” are gone (along with the actual moment the guy points the gun at the camera and pulls the trigger). The second edit happens when Buck kicks Tiger-Man in the balls near the end of the film. It looks like the actual kick has been trimmed out of the presentation, so the video goes from Tiger-Man facing off with Buck to suddenly howling in pain. These are small things, and again they’re not edited in the SD film version, but it’s important to note them. This is not something Madman had control over – these were in the elements as delivered by Universal. (In fact, I believe these edits were present in the original NBC TV broadcasts.)

Buck Rogers Complete Series

Ultimately, I think that Madman Entertainment has done a hell of a nice job with their Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Series release, given the limitations they were dealing with. This a very nice Blu-ray set, all things considered, and I’m damn glad to own a copy. I don’t know if Universal will ever release this show here in the States on Blu-ray themselves, but since these discs are ALL REGION it doesn’t really matter. Trust me when I say that, if you’re a diehard fan of the series, $80 delivered on Amazon is a fairly reasonable price to pay for all that you get here (click here to order a copy). This series is a great, long-awaited, and very welcome addition to the Blu-ray format.

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- Bill Hunt

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