tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post7274816732173341523..comments2024-03-17T07:11:44.454-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Buck Rogers Day: "Awakening"John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-73800672165117902692012-10-14T20:27:03.388-04:002012-10-14T20:27:03.388-04:00I saw this movie as a kid (I must have been around...I saw this movie as a kid (I must have been around 11-years old) and then was surprised when it became a TV show in the fall. I like to think that even back then I realized it was cheese. Then again, maybe that's wishful thinking.<br /><br />The theme of the 20th century man who helps people in the future has been done a lot. The George Pal movie The Time Machine had a similar theme (although he was from the 19th century). There were a couple of Gene Roddenberry pilots from the 1970s that tried the same thing. It's not just freeing them from their dependence on computers, but getting them in touch with their humanity (and teaching future women how to get in touch with their libido). <br /><br />You can kinda understand why filmmakers do this--it is audience wish fulfillment. After all, the guy from the present has to have _some_ kind of value in the future, so it's a simple idea to have him teach them to loosen up and be more human.<br /><br />Buck Rogers was one of those shows that careened around trying to find a format that worked. The second TV season was radically different than the first (and pretty boring). Gil Gerard once said in an interview that he didn't like the fact that the first season had Buck head out into space to be a James Bond type, because he thought that there were a lot of stories to be told on Earth (then again, Gerard was apparently very unpopular with cast and crew). And the show really rolled around in camp, with disco and hot babes in slinky outfits. But a lot of TV shows in the 1970s did that. It was a common style for shows to simply not take themselves seriously and view everything as a bit of a joke (maybe it was all the cocaine they were doing), and only later did shows like Hill Street Blues come along and have a more realistic approach.DDAYnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-10317199571935685112012-09-20T10:57:06.643-04:002012-09-20T10:57:06.643-04:00Hello John, great review and gave me a lot of food...Hello John, great review and gave me a lot of food for thought. I had not seen the movie version till many years after the series ended and I did find the opening credits rather silly. I was wondering if I could offer my alternate interpretation for the background of the show. I take your point about how Buck tends to outclass the 25th century people and how there is no attempt to draw a middle path between his and their approach. It then occured to me that Buck is the middle path. I was watching Space 1999 the other night and I noticed in other sci-fi of the period (including Star Wars): over reliance on computers over human judgment is considered a fundamental error and is sometimes even played for easy comedy. All the other pilots are totally reliant on their computers to pilot their fighters as the peolpe allow machines to run their world. Also, Buck is not representative of the generation that destroyed the world (although the people he meets certainly treat him as such). As an astronaut from a world where the space program was being cut back plus being "Buck Rogers" he represents a slightly prior time. In addition, we never really find out when the nuclear war takes place. It takes place in a fuzzy time slightly in Buck's future, which could mean that mankind turned a bad corner after Buck left. Buck from that point of view is a throwback. He does represent an idealized man. This is the type of human who was able to get to the moon and control his fear to prevent nuclear devestation. When he "leaves", the world is destroyed. Buck's computer escort is named Dr. Theophilus. In his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, Theophilus was the person to whom Luke was relating his story. Buck has to convince Dr T (and the other computers and people) that he should not be destroyed. I submit that Buck's general purpose in the philosophical background of the series is one of teacher. Humanity has become savage and infantilized. Even while being friendly, Wilma and the other humans do nothing but threaten him with violence and patronize him. They are dependent on computers for making all their major decisions. They have alienated their space neighbors (and I'm not counting the Draconians) and colonies and generally made a mess of things. Buck's purpose is to teach them how to find a harmony between being computerized drones and savages. His being both a human being and a man apart suggest certain messianic overtones. In this way he's very much akin to Kirk and Luke. I'm not saying they exploited this background in the best ways but I do think it's there and I think it might clear up some of the "murkiness" of which you speak.Carlnoreply@blogger.com