Ep 122 Buck's Dual to the Death, March 20, 1980

Director: Bob Bender

Writer(s): Robert W. Gilmer

Guest Star(s):

The Trebor .... William Smith

Prime Minister Darius .... Keith Andes

Vione .... Elizabeth Stack

Maya .... Hedi Bohay

Deputy Minister Neil .... Edward Power

Deputy Minister Kelan .... Fred Sadoff

Dr. Albert .... Robert Lussier

Greta .... Stephanie Blackmore

Karem .... Francisco Lagueruela

Young Officer .... Douglas R. Bruce

Complete list of Cast and Crew

Maya and Vione chatting in there room when Karem comes in with two henchmen. The Trebor wants Maya for his harem and and they are there to take her for him. Vione goes to her father for help. Neil suggests that they get someone who is greater than The Trebor, the Roshon! Buck Rogers just happens to match the description of the Roshon and suggests bringing him to their planet, Katar, to help. Deputy Minister Kelan is against this plan. Neil heads off to Earth for Buck. Wilma and Buck are on their way back to the Hanger when Neil's ship comes into view, being perused by four Scorpion fighters. Wilma informs the fighters that they are violating Tarran airspace and to cease fire. Undeterred, the pirates continue their attack.

Wilma and Buck are forced to engage and destroy the ships, then escort Deputy Minister Neil of Katar to New Chicago. Neil asks if Buck and Wilma would like to be his guests on Katar in their city Gaan. Wilma declines, but Buck is all gun-hoe. Twiki invites himself, and Buck corrects him saying "his manors are showing". Neil saves face and encourages Twiki's presence as well.

Buck is shown in to meet Deputy Minister Kelan, Prime Minister Darius, and Vione. Then they drop the bomb shell on him that they brought Buck there with ulterior motives. Why did they not ask for his help in the first place? The Trebor gets ready to broadcast his monthly "contest" when Maya is brought in to him. The Trebor is wearing Rafael Argus's costume. That suite sure gets around. Greta informs The Trebor that Neil succeeded in making it to Earth and bringing Buck Rogers back with him. Greta suggests that Buck Rogers could be the Roshon. The Trebor however, doesn't believe in the Roshon, but sends two goons to take care of Rogers. The contest begins. It is a duel to the death between The Trebor and the Katarian corps. When The Trebor kills the Katarian solider, Kelan seems pleased. Hmm. He is wearing all black..I wonder if that means he is a spy?

Buck is escorted out of the Prime Ministers office when he is attacked by The Trebor's two goons. But they are no match for Buck Rogers. Buck kick's first. How these assassin goons got into the government building and all the way to the Prime Ministers office without being stopped, who can say, but once they have been subdued, a squad of security show up and take them into custody. The Prime Minister doesn't seem surprised that The Trebor has sent assassins to kill Buck Rogers, or that they nearly succeeded. Vione continues her escort to Buck's guest room. Buck is thinking things over when he hears Vione crying just outside his room. Nothing like a beautiful crying woman to melt Buck's heart. He's a sucker for a woman asking for help. How can he say 'no' now? He contacts Dr. Huer and Wilma asking for any information on the Trebor. Wilma heads to the archives to do her search. Why would the information on the Trebor be in the 20th Century Archives?

Buck informs the Minister and his deputies that he plans to attack The Trebor at his palace by entering the through a series of secrete tunnels. The Prime Minister feels this plan is inventive. Wilma enters the Archives, but Dr. Junius is out, Dr. Albert is in. The stage is the same as Dr. Mallory's laboratory in Planet of the Slave Girls & the Central Data room from Unchained Woman. Dr. Albert moves a metal lunchbox (Behind the Scenes: It is a "18 Wheeler" lunchbox) to give the impression that he is still organizing all the junk in the room. He was given the information about Katar's current Trebor by Dr. Junius to give to Wilma. She finds it most helpful. Course, it really isn't any information that we didn't already know. Buck, Darius and Neil leave for their assault on Trebor's palace.

Kalen stays behind and intends to warn the Trebor of the attack. However there is violent sunspot activity on Solon disrupting the Deputy Ministers Vid-phone. Central Communications informs Kalen that the Vid-phone should be up in an hour. Rogers and the gang arrive in the Palace with no problems. Neil and four security guards go to the Trebors quarters where they will see a vacuum discharge conduit on the right. Not sure why that little bit of information was necessary, but there you are. Buck and Darius come upon four guards playing a game on the floor instead of being at their posts. Sure enough, they are definitely not prepared for an attack directly in the palace. 

After taking the guards out, Buck goes in the emergency entrance into the women's chamber. Seconds later a stream of girls are coming out of the tube. One, Two, Three, four...how many girls? Seven, Eight! Neil, after three hours of trying, finally is able to contact The Trebor's palace and warn him of the attack. Too late! Neil and his four men blow up the wall and enter Trebor's chambers. Instead of killing him on the spot, Neil wants to capture him so he can stand trial and be convicted. Unfortunately for Neil's men, Trebor's guards show up and down they all go, stunned. Only Neil makes it out. Darius escapes with the nine women. Buck goes back for Neil but is quickly captured. Darius goes back for Buck and rescues him. They all escape back to Gaan. The Trebor pursues in the Raven. Buck installs a transistor on Twiki to help deal with Trebor's electric surges. Vione enters the room and of course is totally smitten with Buck. She gives him a medallion, a Katarian tradition, as the women give their men these medallions before the go into battle for protection, strength and love. 

Situation Red alert is in effect as The Trebor's ship arrives in the Gaan hanger. Buck is ready for him. The shooting begins. Several men from both sides are shot. Who can say if they are killed or merely stunned? Trebor calls for a cease fire and fires his electrical bolts at Buck. Using Twiki as a ground and resistor, they are able to redirect the electrical surge back at the Trebor, shorting his electronic circuits under his skin. Now, the fight is man to man. Roshon vs. Trebor. The Trebor is no real match for Buck. Sooner rather than later, he down for the the 10 count, as Twiki put it. Darius orders that all the stunned men be taken to the medical bay. Buck has literally fulfilled the prophecy of the Roshon. He is the 500 year old man who defeated the Trebor and set Katar free. Buck addresses the world. He tells them to stand up for themselves and have the courage and strenght to be free and remain that way. He tells them that they are all the Roshon. Buck makes out with Vione and then leaves her forever. The story of Buck's love life in a nut shell.

Back in Buck's apartment Twiki comes in wearing a cowboy outfit. Buck refers to Twiki as Billy the Kid and plays along. Twiki wants the money, the girls, the horses and for Buck to leave town. Buck says no. Twiki compromises and lets Buck keep the horses. Ha ha ha. Smile shot, and end episode.

Character Facts learned in this episode

Vione: A Katarian. Oldest Daughter of Prime Minister Darius
Maya: All the men in Gaan are checking her out. Youngest daughter of the Prime Minister Darius
The Trebor: A Shogun, dictator. 17th Trebor to rule over Katar. Controls the Katarian's with his military power and secrete police. Murders the Katarian's best warriors for sport. Uses the minute electric circitry implanted under his skin to kill his opponents. Spend several years on the planet Volton.
Roshon: A Katarian myth/Legend. A 500 year-old-man who's going to fight The Trebor to the death and free the Katarian people forever. Now a childhood fable. 

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References to the 20th Century that the 25th does't get: Rotten egg, chickens
Easter Eggs:
Deaths: 5
Miniatures: (2) Starfighter (1) Ranger (5) Scorpion (1) Raven (1) Colonial Shuttle

Ep 121 Space Rockers, February 21, 1980

Director: Guy Magar
Writer(s): Chris Bunch & Allan Cole
Guest Star(s):
Lars Mangros .... Jerry Orbach
Yarat .... Richard Moll
Tarkas .... Paul LeClair
Mark .... Jeff Harlan
Elaine .... Cynthia Leake
Karana .... Nancy Frangione
Rambeau .... Jesse D. Goins
Cirus .... Leonard Lightfoot
Joanna .... Judy Landers
Technician .... Mitch Reta
Security Man .... Joseph Taggart
Complete List of Cast and Crew

Oh my gosh! I hate this episode already. The music is awful, and the costumes the Space Rockers are wearing are ridiculous. Lars Mangros and his bodyguard, Yarat, enter the control room and confront Tarkas, who was going to send a report to New Chicago. Yarat shoots Tarkas and takes his body to a garbage duct and is evacuated into space. Dr. Huer informs Buck that he is expecting a transmission from Tarkas in the Andromeda concert video. Instead, Yarat and Lars turn on their machine and brainwash their listeners at the Youth Center (under 30 years of age) to begin a rampage of violence, and destruction. Two such kids, Elaine and Mark, break into the New Chicago Spaceport, assault a technician and steal the 4-seater Thunderfigher 1314, Buck's ship (but the miniature is the 2-seater Starfigher). Buck takes off after them and regains control of his ship when Elaine comes to her senses and flips the remote control switch. Boy they are in trouble now! Buck doesn't press charges, but sends them home to their parents instead. Which is a worse fate then being sent to the rehab center.

A Starfigher patrol found Tarkas' body floating in space. Buck volunteers to take a closer look at Music World and devises a reason for him to go. In two days Andromeda will give their first galaxy wide concert at 1900 hours (7:00pm). Buck suggests that he goes as himself to introduce the rock 'n roll group by the guy who was around when Rock 'n Roll was born. Huer agreess with this plan and believes their friend at Music World, Wesland, will be able to help them with his plan. If Huer already had a friend/promoter at Music World, why did he send Tarkus? Buck arrives at Music World.

Lars describes his plan to Yarat to take control of the galaxy. With his particle ionizer at full power and played during the Andromeda concert, all people in the Entertainment Centers watching the show will become agitated to riot. With all the youth of the galaxy rioting all at once, all authority will collapse in a few hours. The heads of government will be at their wits end will be forced come to Lars for his help. At which point he will restore order. After that Lars will...uh...hmm, be arrested? Buck, who earlier Yarat assured Lars to be no threat, is now going to be sent home in a hospital shuttle. Buck arrives at Music World...wow, déjà vu.

"Will the sonic engineer for Enrto-Beat please call Control Room "K"?" Once Buck gets off his shuttle he is greeted but a gang of armed men. Didn't Lars say that Buck would leave an hour after he arrived, not instantly? Buck kicks first. Well, with that out of the way, Buck heads to his room, changes, and Joanna brings him in to see Lars. From there Buck is introduced to Andromeda and Karana shows him around the station. In his off hours, Buck sneaks into the Control Room and finds a micro chip that contains the word "Veck" (where did he see that?) and a brain wave pattern of an adolescent human. Plus a higher frequency that causes agitation....Whow, Joanna walks into Buck's room to 'Entertain' him, whatever that implies. With her soft sexy voice, she asks if she could speak with Buck alone. Lars turns on his particle ionizer to affect Joanna. Music in his room turns on automatically and Joanna is now in some kind of hypnotic trance. She pulls out a concealed hypo that she had up her sleeve. But Buck is too smart and too fast for her. Music is off and she is no longer in her trance. Buck tells her to leave and he will see her off in 30 minutes.

Buck goes to talk to Andromeda about Lars hiding a ionic wave in their music that is causing all the youth to riot. Andromeda's necklace that Lars gave them, acts like a filter and screens out the ionized waves (What is protecting Buck?). Andromeda decide to confront Lars, but he locks them up. Buck is waiting in his room for two hours before he grows suspicious that something must have happened to the band. Buck makes a new plan, that instead of keeping Andromeda from preforming, or for Dr. Huer to jam the transmission, he will destroy the particle ionizer (uh DUH!). Theo informs Buck that the ionizer is in Lars office. The only way to get to his office without being seen is through the waste disposal system. The same system that Tarkas was launched out of into space. I feel some foreshadowing coming on. Twiki enters the waste duck ('case he was the only one small enough to fit) just before Lars and his gang enter Buck's room.

Dr. Huer and Lars Mangros are discussing the concert. Huer informs Lars that the Directorate has placed a jamming satellite in orbit around Music World to prevent the concert from being broadcast. The satellite model is the same as the Time Capsule. Unfortunately, Lars destroys the satellite. Just as Twiki is about to grab the particle ionizer that is just out of reach, the waste disposal system turns on and sucks the garbage and maybe Twiki too, out into space. Buck and Andromeda are locked in a storage room that Buck compares the walls to ten-point steel. Karana says its cronide. Huer puts the Directorate on Full Emergency status. There is a organ in the same room with Buck and Andromeda. Buck thinks they can use the organ to break out of their prison. If they disconnect the C.P.S. governor (er, you mean 'regulator'?), then connect the speaker to it they will be able to increase the cycles per second (or C.P.S.) output to be so loud that it will do something to the cronide. It's all so simple.

Twiki fails in his mission to obtain the particle ionizer. Lars runs the pre-recorded video of an old concert of Andromeda. If the future is anything like today, it wouldn't take long for a of couple kids to youtube Andromeda, discover that the show on now wasn't like and quickly blog or tweet about it. It would go viral, and all the money that Music World is making from their Pay-per-view concert will have to be refunded. But so far so good. All the galaxies youth are doing the light rope dance. Andromeda are finished with their modifications to the organ and turn it on. Using the sound waves they are able to blow out the lock on the door only and escape. Thank you McGyver!

Buck takes out Yarat and smashes the particle ionizer. Just then all the youth come back to reality and are no longer under the trance. Unfortunately for Lars, he does not know this and goes on the broadcast demanding the youth take over their world. The youth just laugh at him. Infact, the whole galaxy laughs at him. The Directorate, show up will full security personal at their Youth Center to regain control, only to find all the youth calm and dancing to Andromeda! Dr. Huer orders his security personal to arrest Lars Mangros on Music World, despite that the fact that Directorate has no jurisdiction there. Long live Rock 'N Roll!

Character Facts learned in this episode

Tarkas: Directorate agent working undercover at Music World as Andromeda's sound technician. His reports are coded and hidden in the music videos.

Andromeda: the most popular Rock band in the galaxy. Consists of three band members, Karana the guitarist, Cirus the crystal drummer, and an organist Rambeau. Songs include "Stardrift", "Timewalk". After each concert there is a 55% increase in youth crimes.
Music World: A renovated military orbital fortress that was previously abandoned. Now being used by music promoters. Outside Directorate jurisdiction.
Lars Mangros: Andromeda's manager. Best in the music world. Used to be a research engineer and wrote some papers on Particle Movement Theory. Author of a highly classified monograph on "The Effects of Ionized Wave Particles to Regulate Human Behavior."
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References to the 20th Century that the 25th does't get: The Beatles, The Who
Easter Eggs:
Deaths: 1
Miniatures: (2) Starfighter (1) Music World (1) Launch Tube (1) Jaming Satallite

Ep 120 A Dream of Jennifer, February 14, 1980

Director: David G. Phinney
Writer(s): Michael Bryant 
Guest Star(s):
Commander Reev .... Paul Koslo
Nola .... Mary Woronov
Leila Markeson, Jennifer .... Anne Lockhart
Lt. Rekoff .... Jessie Lawrence Ferguson
Toby Kaplin .... Cameron Young
Gate 23 Guard .... Dennis Haysbert
Reservations Desk Supervisor .... Shawn Michaels
Reservations Desk Clerk .... Marsha Mercant
Silby .... Gino Conforti
Mime .... Mitchel Young-Evens
Complete List of Cast and Crew

Buck, Twiki, and Dr. Theopolis are shopping at the Old Chicago Shopping Mall (Maintained by the Earth Preservation Society) for parts for Buck to build a Hot Tub. Theo suggest that a sonic shower in zero gravity should accomplish the same result. That's when Buck see's a woman who he recognizes to be Jennifer, is long lost love, and takes off after her...Unable to catch up to her, Buck returns home. Depressed, Buck goes to sleep and drifts into a dream...Toby awakes Buck, calling him 'Rip Van Winkle'. Toby and Buck have to report back at 0400 hours so they try to make the most of

their night. Wait, Buck asks what time it was and Toby says nearly 7, then uses military time when mentioning when they have to report back to the Air-force base? Shouldn't he have said its nearly 1900 hours and not 7? Oh, well. Blame the writers. Buck gets up to get ready to take Jennifer out to Raphael's. Jennifer shows up and hands Buck a going-away-present of a photo of her. Buck promises Jennifer that after this mission, he will retire and never leave her again. Famous last words. Sheesh, they sure do a lot of making out.

The next morning, Buck and Wilma finish showing the cadets some fancy flying. Wilma notices Buck's altered mood and inquires about it. Buck tells her that he doesn't want to talk about it, then tells her again that he doesn't want to talk about it. Did the director film this shot twice with different outtakes, and edited them both into the scene? Wilma instructs the cadets to return to the Directorate flight hanger as she and Buck will return to New Chicago via central spaceport.

"Flight 723, From Altair 3, now arriving at Gate 14...Orbital Shuttle 409, for City-On-The Sea, now boarding at Gate 23..." Buck and Wilma exit out of the gates. Wilma indicates that she has some business at the Spaceport Control. Buck waits for her in the lounge. "Subspace call for Mr. [Nola Bad]. Please report to the nearest vid-phone immediately" Buck see's Jennifer again and takes off after her. This scene is kind of a hash of editing as Buck runs down the same section of the set again and again to give the impression that he is traveling a great distance. Jennifer boards flight 409. "Last boarding call for Orbital Shuttle 409, for City-On-The Sea, now boarding at Gate 23". Buck arrives at Gate 23 just too late. Jennifer has boarded. "Captain Christopher Pike, please report to the Veterans Affairs Office at once." Buck heads to the Reservation Desk to inquire about Jennifer. He learns that her name is Leila Markeson and went to City-On-The-Sea. "Officer Katar Hol, your ship is being readied in Hanger Bay 9".

Nola enters Commander Reev's room (which looks awfully familiar...perhaps Roderick Zale's office from Cosmic Whiz Kid?) She reports that she has a progress report from the Vega system. The Vega colonies weapons and supplies will be depleted within five solar days, unless the Earth Defense Directorate succeeds in their mission of mercy. But they feel confident that that wont happen. The Commander hope's that Buck Rogers will help them destroy the freighter of supplies the Federation is sending to Vega. Leila Markeson enters the room and informs the Commander that Buck Rogers is following her as planned and should arrive shortly.

Buck contacts Airspace Control for landing permission at the central spaceport. Why buy a ticket from the spaceport when you can fly there yourself? Airspace Control approves his landing, and requests that he decelerate to Mach 1 (760mph?) for a proper landing. I don't think he was traveling that fast in the first place, and would probably want to decelerate slower than that to land. Leila Markeson asks the red faced Commander Reeve about her credit voucher. I guess Leila doesn't like working with cold hard cash. Reev informs her that her first payment was already been paid and the second half will be paid once he has Buck Rogers.
Commander Reev then calculates how soon Buck will begin looking for the fake Jennifer: half-hour journey from New Chicago, 15 minutes to disembark, 10 minutes to register for lodgings, making it 1500 hours (3:00pm) when he begins his search. Giving him an hour or two to look, it should be around 1600-1700 hours when Buck finds Leila (5:00pm). By this second hour Reev suspects that Buck will be so discouraged and tired that it would be a perfect time to introduce the fake Jennifer. I would hardly think that after one or two hours of searching even I would be tired or discouraged, little-lone Buck Rogers.

Dr. Huer addresses five Starfighter pilots in his office. The red-faced Koven are a warrior race in the Kadar system. They plan to attack Vega V, but the Directorate legally cannot send Starfighters in to help. However, they can send emergency equipment, supplies, and weapons. The five and Colonel Deering will be on the bridge of a M-Class Starfreighter (an old model Starfreighter that was abandoned being used a long time ago) which the Directorate secured for this mission. The rest of the crew will be maintenance androids. The freighter has gone through some upgrades, like replacing the ion engines with a new tachyon drive. I assume this is same freighter that Commander Reev is hoping to destroy with Roger's help.

Loading the supplies, Deering orders Alpha Team to take the shield generator to Shuttle 12, stored in hull Section "C". Deering indicates that they only have nine hours. If the time was between 4pm and 5pm (since Buck just met Leila), their deadline would be 2:00am. However, Deering indicated that she will have the shuttle loaded by 1300 hours (1:00pm), then one hour to the freighter, two hours to transfer the supplies from the shuttle to the freighter for their trip to Vega V. Making it 1600 hours (4:00pm) before they head to Vega V. Once the supplies are fully loaded in the freighter, it will take 6.3 hours (0r 10:18pm) after they exit the Stargate to reach Vega V.

After fighting off two masked individuals Buck and Leila are alone in some storage room. She tells Buck that while he was off world, Commander Reev (or someone working for him anyways) got into Bucks apartment and happened upon Jennifer's photograph (Thank you Directorate Security!). Not knowing anything about her, they decided to recreate Jennifer to use as bait. Leila was all for the surgery to be come Jennifer as she was tired of being poor and Reev offered her enough credit vouchers to sway her ethics. Oops, they are caught! Apparently Leila had a small transponder inserted under her skin when she had her surgery that the Koven used to locate them.

Commander Reev is trying to recruit Buck to help destroy the supply freighter. Reev believes that the conflict with Vega V is a "minor one" and will disappear on its own if left alone. But not if they get the fresh supplies on board the Federation freighter. Reev indicates that the Federation network was infiltrated with by nationalists in the colony. The Federation is now supplying Vega V based on inaccurate information (What information is what exactly?). So, to avoid a war with the Federation and the Koven, they want Buck to destroy the freighter (so they can blame the Directorate?). Somehow this will be a great service to the Federation and Vega V. If Buck does not go through with it, he and Leila will be executed. Leila tries to undermine Commander Reev's threat by telling him that he is bluffing. They originally planed on putting Leila into Cellular Suspension (huh? why where they planning on this?) and would never kill her. Buck says that he will not do it for Reeve or anyone. What about Leila? Would you do it to save her? Well, he was already told that Reev would kill both him and Leila, and he refused, and he refused anyways. Now Reev is threatening to kill Leila only. This apparently was enough for Buck to change his mind.Oh, well, I guess Buck spoke to soon about not doing it for anyone. Commander Reev gives Buck twelve hours to destroy the freighter. Course, the freighter will arrive in 6.3 hours, so he'll have to twiddle his thumbs for awhile.

Back on board his shuttle, Nola starts coming on to Buck Rogers. I mean, wow, cannot any woman resist his good looks? Leaving the planet, Buck heads for the nearest Stargate, only 20 minutes away. From there, he will catch up to the freighter in 5 minutes. So, the Freighter went through one Stargate to fly 6 hours to another Stargate that will take them through the Stargate that is only 20 minutes from Vega V? Why didn't the first Stargate take them all the way? Oh well. In Dr. Huers office, Twiki updates Huer that Koven warships have penetrated the colony's outer defenses. They have 10 hours (or by 2:00am) before they are in striking range, giving Colonel Deering a 4 hour margin of safety. Twiki will be monitoring all the subspace channels for updates. Not sure why, Deering orderd that no subspace transmissions are to be made or accepted, and the Koven are jamming all other subspace transmissions off Vega V. I would think that Twiki is going to have a quiet night. Buck and Nola exit the Stargate and are right on top of the freighter, visible in their Starboard view port. Buck sends out a Code-Blue distress signal. All Directorate ships are obliged to respond. Lt. Rekoff detects the signal and the shuttle 2000 kilometers astern (1243 miles). Wilma orders that the shuttle be tractor beamed into the Cargo Area 2 and held there until they determine who they are. Buck and Wilma work together and subdue Nola. Buck makes plans to destroy an asteroid to fake the freighter's destruction. Wilma indicates they have a contraterrene warhead that they could use in Hanger "B". With only 9 hours remaining out of Buck's 12, Wilma and Buck are off to destroy an asteroid. Or are they?

Buck renters the Stargate and the bomb should go off in the next 23 seconds. Wilma ejects the warhead and takes off in a flash and goes...what, back to Earth? The warhead explodes and satisfies Commander Reev. What happened to blowing up an asteroid? Once Buck arrives in 30 minutes, Reev will let Buck go, but keep Leila. Commander Reev mentions that he knew that the freighter was on a Directorate Mission. I thought it was a Federation Mission. Did Reev know that the Directorate where hiding 6 operatives on board to help aid Vega V? Nah, it was a writers slip, I'm sure. Buck charges in to the rescue, but is quickly grabbed. Commander Reev gave Buck a 33% chance that he would not destroy the freighter and planned for it. He thinks of everything. Buck is ordered to be killed, but Leila jumps in-front of him and is shot instead. In a rage, Buck attacks and takes out the two guards and Commander Reev. Leila then dies in Buck's arms. Buck is heart broken.

Buck takes three weeks off in the Antares system. For a welcome home present, Dr. Junius found an old entertainment clip from the 20th century (aka a movie). The clip is labeled "Film Archives: Documentary 53423", however the film is Steven Spielberg's Jaws. I'm sure it's a great nature documentary about aquatic life.

City-On-The-Sea: Just 30 minutes outside New Chicago. Urban Complex, located on the tip of the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans. Home of the Festival of Masks (aka a 25th-century Mardi Gras).

Character Facts learned in this episode

Jennifer: 28 years old (Buck is 8 years older). Blond hair. Buck's old girlfriend.
Leila Markeson: Had molecular surgery to have her face altered to look just like Jennifer and sound like Jennifer. Also age 28.
Dr. Huer: After his wife died, he had nightmares for a year seeing her everywhere.
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References to the 20th Century that the 25th does't get: Hot tub, New Orleans, Mardi Gras
Easter Eggs: Reference to Captain Christopher Pike from Star Trek on the P.A. system.
Deaths: 1
Miniatures: (2) Starfighter (1) Canarious (1) Matte Painting (1) Federation M-Class Starfreighter (1) Launch Tube (1) Contraterrene warhead

Ep 119 Olympiad, February 7, 1980

Director: Larry Stewart
Writer(s): Craig Buck
Guest Star(s):
Alaric .... Nicolas Coster
Lara Tizian.... Judith Chapman
Jorex Leet .... Barney McFadden
Karl .... Paul Mantee
Eric Zogan .... Paul Coufos
Satrap .... John A. Zee
Special Guest Star(s)"
Quarod .... Jerry Quarry
Rand Sorgon .... Bob Seagren
Olympian .... Elgin Baylor
Olympian .... Anthony Davis
Holl Headedson .... Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson
Olympian .... Carlos Palomino

Complete list of Cast and Crew:

Welcome to the 2492 Interplanetary Olympic Games! This year the Games will be held on the lovely planet Mykos in the Hyernia System. "Registration for the Olympic Games has been approved. Please check your delegation and representative in the event that your competition resides" the announcer informs over the PA system. Is it a coincidence that the Summer Olympics where held in 1980, the same year this show aired?

Antonious Daven, a.k.a. "Mr. 28", is being interviewed by UBC Sports. His competition is Running.
Next interview is with Matt Brine, gold medal in the horizontal [something]...Is he wearing a saran wrap T-shirt? That's when Holl Headedson from Simpian bombs the interview and showing off how cocky he is. "I'm the star here." He is a man known throughout the universe for winning two gold and one silver medal last year. UBC Sports however is not amused and cuts the interview short. Next Olympian (played by Carlos Palomino) is a Sonic Boxer, jumping rope. No, wait, the interviewer doesn't know what category the Olympian is competing in. A runner? Tumbler? Gymnast? No. The Olympian says he is in Gravity Pull (weight lifting), but is jumping rope because weights are heavy. Well that concludes the practice sessions for the 2492 Olympic Games. All athletes are to report to their sleep chambers. Sounds so comfortable. It actually gives me the feeling that these athletes are not volunteers, but perhaps slaves to the games.

Two lover's, Lara and Jorex, embrace each other after being apart for so long. Lara has heard so many terrible things happening on Loziria that she was afraid she would never see Lorex again. Lorex agree's to meet Lara again tomorrow after morning practice.

Buck holds up a flag of the Olympic's from the 21st century. He was asked to present the flag to the Olympic Committee before the games begin. Buck ask's Wilma to come with him, but she declines due to her busy schedule. She has a Centauran's meeting on Wednesday, a Security Council dance Thursday night, and a Directorate caucus on Friday. Oh well, Buck goes with Twiki and Dr. Theo (who is representing the Directorate for the games) instead.
Buck heads to the games in is Starfighter.

"Heat Five of the 40-kilometer Steeple Chase,

will begin in 30 minutes. All participants please check-in with the Starter..." Buck walks onto the stadium floor where two men with plastic cups on their hands are sonic boxing, and two other guys are fighting each other without actually making contact. I guess the games have moved away from any contact between participants, but are still trying to keep contact sports in the Olympics. "Jaralock has just set a new galactic record in the 40-kilometer Steeple Chase, with a time of two hours, 17 minutes, 34 and 27 seconds." Buck seems rather disappointed with how the Olympic Games seems to have dwindled to a single stadium and no spectators. But they do have Responder Units that broadcast millions of voices from hundreds of planets over a PA system so the Olympians can hear their fans cheering. "Mitlive from Centuar Five is about to make her first vertical jump..." Buck tries to talk to Lorex about his vertical jumping. He says that in his day eight, to eight and half foot jump was considered pretty good, but his twenty or so feet is amazing. "The Itheria gymnasts are about to begin their floor exercise. Will the contestants in a 10-kilometer run..." Jorex gets zapped by Alaric's disharmonizer. Apparently Jorex isn't allowed to talk to anyone, and Alaric punished him for talking to Buck.

All Buck had to do was say hello to Jorex to get his background checked out. Very suspicious group of guys. The Satrap from Loziria contacted Alaric with orders to ensure the victory of Jorex Leet, no matter what the cost. Lara introduces herself to Buck. She watched him present the Olympic flag and instantly felt he was someone she could trust. Lara suggests to Buck that he join her in her Astrosled. Twiki walks off to and pumps into an Olympian played by Elgin Baylor. You can see Twiki braces himself before he pumps into him, so you know Felix was getting ready to knock into Elgin. Elgin Baylor picks Twiki up and sets him aside when another athlete comes to his 'rescue'. I assume this shot is in the show to show case two cameo's of guest star Olympians.

Lara escorts Buck to her Astrosled, asks him to step on the Power Nacelle to get in. They quickly launch and are flying through space along the Astroslolum course. I got to say that Lara is very flirtatious with Buck.

The whole scene makes gives the impression that the two are getting more intimate with each other the longer they are together. Karl comes in with the report on Buck Rogers being an honored guest of the Olympics. Alaric becomes suspicious of Lara's interest in an honored guest. He calls Lara "..this Tizian woman". Is he saying that Lara is from Tizian, and therefore a Tizian woman, or is Tizian Lara's last name? He requests that a Vid-Sensor be installed in her room. Are hidden camera's w/ audio legal in the 25th Century? We return to Buck and Lara enjoying the view of Mykos. Lara then tells Buck how safe he is and then she just dumps all her problems on him. First she flirts with Buck, gets him to be interested and care and her then she tell him that she needs help. Buck is now invested in her and is eager to help. Lara tells Buck about their plans to Defect. After the Directorate's OK to help, Buck is on the case. Wilma and Dr. Huer talk to Eric Zogan, a defector, for his imput on Alaric. With his help, Huer and Wilma come up with a plan to help Buck. What happened to Wilma's plans that kept her from going to the games in the first place? She arrives at Mykos in a Starfighter.

"And a new course record of 24.28 seconds..." Jorex is getting all jealous watching Lara talk with Buck. Buck is ready to make plans with Lara and Jorex and with Lara's race right after the Vertical Distance Leap, they have time to do just that. After a quick fighter with two professional sonic boxers (played by Jerry Guarry) that is. They get split up and Lara makes it to her room first where she is surprised by a robot in her room. The robot delivers a flower pot that excretes a zemdon order. A powerful anesthetic used exclusively on Lozira. The flower quickly does its work, and Lara is unconscious on the floor. The robot then stuffs her body into its lower cavity.

Wilma, in a wig and new attire, hides in Alaric's room until he returns. She tells him that she was interested in Lozirian exos. Exposing Wilma's shoulder, he reveals a mark (tattoo?) that indicates she is a Caruthian, someone who's been enlisted to entertain at the games. Her ring is lased with something that she uses to knock Alaric out. She takes his disharmonizer. Buck is in the stadium talking to Jorex about where Alaric resides. He has an apartment in the recreation complex, the Omega Suite, on the second level. Not sure how this is helpful as Wilma already located Alaric's apartment and Lara wasn't there. Right?

Twiki is trying to disable the disharmonizer modification that will blow Jorex up, but to no avail. Their new plan is make a run for it. They hope to get Jorex out of range of the disharmonizer's frequency before Alaric finds him missing. Why not just replicate the device and replace Alaric's with one that doesn't work? He wouldn't know it was missing and wouldn't have a lethal weapon back in his hands. Seems like a much better solution that giving the devise back to him and hoping that he doesn't use it before they can get Jorex out through the Stargate. Wilma takes the remote back to Alaric. She should be back in a half hour.

"In the sonic boxing pit, moving into the second round, eliminations are Hollin Roberts from Reza 2 and Lex Bodin from Centaur 5." Buck is wondering the halls of the recreation complex on the second
level. He passes the "Gamma Suite", the "Delta Suite" and finally finds the "Omega Suite". The door isn't locked, which is always a good indication that someone is being held there against their will. Buck enters anyways and finds the room empty. Or is it? There is another door in the room that has energy beams before the door acting as restraining bars. Looks promising. Hey, what do you know, Lara is behind the door. I hope that this prison like cell in the Omega suite is an add on by Alaric and not something that comes standard in the complexes hotel rooms. Lara asks Buck how he found her. Uh, well he found a plant in her room that is exclusive to Lorzira, and the only Lorzirian that Buck knows that would want to kidnap Lara is Alaric, so he checked his room first as it seemed like the most logical place to start. Turns out that his assumption paid off. It's not exactly rocket science here Lara. Just connecting the obvious dots. Buck pushes the OFF button for the energy bars on the panel (that is Lara's reach if she wanted to try to escape all on her own). Oops, their escape is cut short when Karl shows up and locks them in the room. He throws into the room a genuine Lozirian Ice Cloud. The little thing explodes and begins to reduce the temperature in the room. Karl says that it will become the temperature of deep space in a matter of minutes. Space is around -455 degree's Fahrenheit, so, if the room was +74 degree's, the room would have to drop 52.9 degrees a minute to reach deep space temperature in 10 minutes. However they would be freeze to death in about three to four minutes. Well with some quick reflection technology, Buck is able to deflect the energy bar around the hall and pack to the control panel, destroying it. They are free once more.

Still out like a light, Wilma returns to Alaric, who is, uh, in some room that is apparently not his personal room, and returns the disharmonizer to Alaric's pocket. Back in Buck's apartment, Wilma, Lara, Twiki, Theo and Buck make plans to use the 10 minutes between Jorex's last competition and the rewards ceremony as a chance to escape. Buck instructs Wilma to get the deharmonizer back from Alaric (huh?), and Jorex will accompany Lara in her Astrosled during her race. Theo mentions that he will be able to monitor the zeta waves from Alaric's disharmonizer and will know the instant that he pushes the button. I am so glad that they will be able to detect that Alaric pushed the button the same instant they witness Jorex explode. Least then they will be able to...uh...hmmm...thanks for the help Theo! Wilma contacts Alaric and tells him that she is in Compound 7A, Unit 4. Alaric will be there in 30 minutes. Why she did she tell him to come to Buck's room is not clear. I mean, wouldn't it be obvious that she and Buck may be working together in their plot to rescue Jorex and defect to Earth? Nah...
"The gymnasts from Remas 1 are about to begin their floor exercises. The 15-kilometer run is about to begin in the South..." Twiki informs Jorex about their plans. Alaric watches Jorex's last leap on the stadium floor. Jorex wins and is the Vertical Leap Intergalactic Champion.
"Results of the 10-Kilometer run are in. Bronze medal is awarded to Zolton from Atheria. The Silver Medal is awarded to Deana Port from Remus 2. The Gold Medal is awarded to Lex Nash from Iceicon 3." Lara and Jorex prepare to launch the Astrosled out Chute "B". If the distance between sea level and space is similar to Earths, the

time it would take the zeta waves to reach Mykos's atmosphere would be approximately 60 seconds, or one minute. How many miles the course is away from the planet, would add a few seconds to Jorex's life. But not much. Satrap is insistent that Jorex be present to receive his medal for all the people of Lozirian to see. But apparently not important enough that he orders Alaric to kill him immediately. Which would ensure his absence forever. Twiki, Wilma and Buck all hop in Bucks Thunderfighter (wait, didn't he arrive in a Starfighter? Where did the Thunderfighter come from?) and takes off in pursuit of Lara and Jorex. Twiki detects that the deharmonizer has been activated and calculates that they have only 29.43 seconds before the signal reaches the Astrosled. That would put the Astrosled approximately 30 miles away. Buck enters curve 33-G and needs to bear 77 degrees right and 82 degrees left. 24.20 seconds left. 15.7 seconds. 11.3 seconds. Tangent on the next curve is nearly 80 degrees. Buck makes a quick maneuver. 7.9 seconds. 5.9 seconds. Wilma hits the tractor beam. 2.1 seconds. With maybe a half second left, and the sled in tow, all 5 people enter the Stargate. The Satrap is displeased with Alaric. Due to Alaric's failure he now takes a Scorpion fighter out to space and commits suicide. That'l teach him. Wait...what happened to Wilma's Starfighter? I mean she arrived in one right? Did they just leave it on the planet?

Well Jorex was able to acquire his Gold medal despite defecting to Earth. Wilma tells Buck that a man from UBC (the Holovid Network) wanted him to cover the Equinox Exercises in New Phoenix. Luckily she declined on Buck's behalf. Only one Olympiad is enough for one life time. Everyone laughs.

Disharmonizer: A simple transmitting device that utilizes low-frequency zeta waves to communicate to a microscopic molecular chip implanted in an Alpha Lorzirian's brain. The speed of the waves is approximately five times (4.84 to be more exact) the speed of sound or about 1,660 meters per second (5,446 feet). However, the zeta waves are unable to travel through Stargate configurations, limiting its range.

Character Facts learned in this episode

Jorex Leet: Alpha slave on Lorzira. Takes orders from Alaric. He is the Vertical Leap Gold medal champion. Lozirian Team members are not allowed to speak to outworlders. Not allowed to marry an alien. The Satrap needs Jorex's gold medal to use in Loziria's political struggles. Implanted with a microscopic molecular disharmonizer in his brain. His disharmonizer has been modified to destroy the sub-cellular atomic bonds in his brain, making him a human bomb with a half kilometer radius (1,640 feet).
Lara Tizian: Astrosled Champion. She met Jorex at the Olympiad on Ramu.Wants to defect with Jarex to Earth.
Alaric: Deputy Minister. Has a crippling weakness for women of all persuasions. Uses exos (Lorzirian steroid used to build physical development) to win them and keeps them under his spell.
Eric Zogan: Expatriate that defected to the Directorate last year. Athlete.

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References to the 20th Century that the 25th does't get: The World Series, Bobsled When it rains it pours
Deaths: 1
Miniatures: (2) Starfighter (1) Thunderfighter (1) Mykos Hanger (1) Astrosled (1) Lower Launch Bay (1) Scorpion Fighter (1) Launch Tube