A 20th-century astronaut emerges out of 500 years of suspended animation into a future time to become Earth's greatest hero.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Cast:Gil Gerard , Erin Gray , Felix Silla , Mel Blanc , Tim O'Connor , Eric Server , Thom Christopher , Jay Garner , Wilfrid Hyde-White , Dennis Haysbert , Bob Elyea , Pamela Hensley , Paul Carr , Alex Hyde-White , Michael Ansara , Anthony James , Patty Maloney , Mitch Reta
Buck Rogers, Wilma Deering and Twiki embark on a journey through the galaxy as members of the spaceship Searcher, which is on a mission to find the lost tribes of Earth who escaped the planet in the wake of a devastating nuclear holocaust. Meanwhile, proud half-man, half-bird being Hawk returns home and finds his people slaughtered by human pirates and angrily promises to destroy all humans he encounters moving forward. After Hawk attacks the crew of a freighter, Buck goes to find him determined to terminate his killing spree and bring him to justice. Having learned not all humans are evil, Hawk joins the Searcher crew and goes along with Buck on many subsequent adventures.
Earth and the rival planet Zykaria are on the cusp of war. Zykarian Ambassador Duvoe travels by a shuttle piloted by Buck Rogers to a peace conference in the city of Oasis on the otherwise desolate planet R-4. Things go awry when the shuttle encounters a sudden radiation storm and Buck is forced to land on the harsh desert surface of R-4, populated by a savage tribe of primitive mutants. Buck and Hawk must then escort the ambassador to the city on foot, with Wilma and Goodfellow, and only the riddles of a blue-skinned alien dwarf can reach the city alive. Buck also battles his feelings for Wilma when he learns the ambassador was her former love interest and his return rekindles her affections.
Buck and Hawk discover an old man dying on a uncharted planet while searching for evidence of human settlements. He says it was destiny that brought him to this time and destiny that brought him to that planet. He entrusts Buck with a green jade box and tells him to take it to the next guardian. It's a legendary box and strange things start to happened to those who touch the box. Horrific future visions, but Asimov wants to get to his R and R, so he throws the box on the back burner. But they soon realize is if they don't take the box right away, that the time shifts may destroy them all.
While sick in bed with Cignus Fever Buck starts seeing Ambassador Cabot and his party have a strange aura around them. Ambassador Cabot is responsible for bringing peace with the lizard people known as the Saurians with the Delta Defense Grid which destroys all ships without a proper code. The Aura that Buck is seeing is connected to the fact that Ambassador Cabot and his party are not who they claim to be but Saurians in disguise. Buck's unique condition allows him to see the aura around the illusion. But now the Searcher is on a deadly course which is all part of a plan to take over the Delta Defense Grid but only Buck suspect something is amiss.
While traveling through an asteroid field, Buck Rogers and crew come across a life pod. Inside is a young golden-skinned boy, Vellus, who displays the unusual ability to alter the nature of metals. When the Searcher becomes hopelessly stuck on an asteroid, Vellus suggests that his friend Relkos, whose life pod landed on a nearby planet, is more powerful that he and could lighten the ship enough to free it from the asteroid. Buck and Vellus head down to the planet, unaware that it is a penal colony full of unruly prisoners. They discover that the criminals are also after Relkos's metal-altering powers, hoping he can lighten a crashed vessel enough for them to escape.
Buck Rogers visits the planet Phibocetes with a landing party, hoping to gather some thurbidian crystals to power the Searcher. Though the planet is believed to be uninhabited, the landing party soon comes across a "mummy" that mysteriously comes to life and wanders off into the bushes. Buck soon meets another life form - a young girl - who has no memory of who she is or where she came from. The crew is puzzled when blood samples from the girl match that of the creature and assume the girl will eventually become one of the mummy-like beings. Both life forms also seem strangely affected by the thurbidian crystals, and it's not long before the "mummy" makes off with their entire supply.
After Buck is bitten the crew realizes that the Satyr is really the male colonist that has been infected by the planet. Shortly after they discover who the Satyr is, Buck battles the Satyr until he electrocutes himself with his laser whip.
Buck and Hawk are ordered to explore an old derelict spaceship, where they find a hold full of solar bombs and a crew of seven dwarfs. The crew are transferred to the Searcher, and it is decided to take the derelict to a safe location to detonate the bombs before they can explode on their own. Buck turns the seven uniformed dwarfs over to Wilma, who has her hands full when she discovers the little aliens have never seen a woman before. The curious little aliens begin to wreck havoc aboard the Searcher and severely damage Crichton's positronic brain. With the ship out of control and heading toward a star, Twiki offers his own electronic brain to repair Crichton so he can initiate repairs to the ship.
While exploring Deeth, the "Planet of Death," Buck Rogers, Hawk, and Wilma come across a stranded crash victim. His wrecked ship mysteriously disappears after he is rescued - the first in a long line of strange happenings. Buck and Hawk must contend with a duplicate of their ship, the Searcher, as well as find a way to release the real Searcher from a snare beam. Their search for the beam's source takes them back to the planet's surface, where they meet an old man who identifies himself as the "Hand of the Goral." He informs them that they have a final test to pass - if they succeed, they will reap the rewards, but if they fail, the Searcher and all aboard will be destroyed.
The crew returns to Earth. Buck is put on trial for helping a group that may have had a hand in the nuclear war that devastated Earth in 1987.
Buck and Hawk transport refugees of a planetary disaster to a new home. Buck allows a fugitive woman named Asteria Eleefa to board the Searcher. Eleefa is a member of a harsh mutant race called the Dorians, who hide their faces behind decorated masks. The ruthless Dorian leader Koldar reveals that Eleefa is wanted for murder and hence demands that Eleefa be handed over to him. When Buck refuses to oblige Koldar's demand, Koldar decides to randomly increase and decrease the temperature on the Searcher. Meanwhile, the suffering passengers on the Searcher demand that Buck surrender the woman before they take drastic action themselves.