Categories: MediaPersonalPopCultSciFi

Livetweeting Buck Rogers: Planet of the Slave Girls

Soon I’ll start livetweeting the first episode of the 1970s #BuckRogers series. I livetweeted the series-opening movie a few weeks ago.http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/2010/10/livetweeting_the_1970s_buck_ro_1/
Remote battery died. Crisis! #BuckRogers
Planet of the Slave Girls. Clearly they are going for high concept SF. Still, Buster Crabbe and was that Jack Palance? #BuckRogers
Nameless, sweaty extra under attack by pirates… Scout 3 seems out of it. #BuckRogers
“There’s something wrong with your Funk and Wangals,” says #BuckRogers.
Major Duke Danton introduced as a foil to #BuckRogers. I don’t remember this guy at all.
Dr. Huer’s dissertation must have been in advanced exposition. #BuckRogers

I thought most of the pilots were ill from poisoned food… But here’s a class of pilots giggling at #BuckRogers for his football terms.
“Two grown men fighting. How disgusting,” sniffs Dr. Theopolis. Aren’t these … you know… fighter pilots? #BuckRogers
I have no memory of Stella the computer killer. Okay, the scene where Colonel Deering flips #BuckRogers was amusing.
#BuckRogers reluctance to join the defense directorate didn’t last 15 minutes into the first episode. So much for that writer’s idea.
Jack Palance chewing the scenery… the extras are standing four feet away from each other in order to fill the space. #BuckRogers
I love the bling on the Cossack uniform of Jack’s henchman. More cloak and dagger action. #BuckRogers
The high tech stealth assassin boomerang would be more effective if it didn’t make that zingy sound. Cool music, though. #BuckRogers
Dr. Huer mentions “tele-mettry” (not “te LEM uh try”). #BuckRogers
The character development requires Buck and Wilma to chat, but they are using the same fighter model… #BuckRogers
Turbaned foreign potentate is channelling Jack Lemmon as the drunken emperor in The Great Race. #BuckRogers
Earth leadership is shocked — SHOCKED — to learn the food is produced by slaves. #BuckRogers
Slave girl likes the emperor’s son. Fortunately for us, she is chock full of exposition. #BuckRogers
Note to self: when wearing black and sneaking around, woka-chicka music makes everything better. #BuckRogers
Lots of villains… The most interesting so far has been the rolls of poisoned bubble wrap. #BuckRogers
How did Wilma manage to conceal a tracking device in THAT costume? #BuckRogers
So the female pilot of color just tucks the poison bubble wrap into her belt? #BuckRogers
Buck and Duke bond over the crashed fighter. #BuckRogers
Okay, we’ve already established Wilma can do judo flips… So flipping the guard makes a bit of sense. #BuckRogers
There is a faint but Doctor Whovian sweep to the narrative. Slave girl has some slightly more complex than necessary motives. #BuckRogers
Now #BuckRogers and his foil Duke have a moment to bond over a meal … But Duke rejects Buck’s cooking. Foreshadowing?
Dramatic entrances, first of Wilma disguised as a slave girl, then Stella the double crossed, then Jack Palance. #BuckRogers
Oh, #BuckRogers. You and Duke are thumping each other’s backs now. I smell a double-cross.
Where have I seen that cave before?#BuckRogers
Please don’t even pretend to pick up and put on Dr Theopolis, Twiki. Even with your back to us, it does not look convincing. #BuckRogers
So far, other than the middle-aged woman in the crowd scene, I count one slave girl so far. #BuckRogers
@samm_bayside I’m happy to serve. in reply to samm_bayside
The first scene with Jack Palance and #BuckRogers.
“Now that Earth knows my plan what do you people intend to do?” #BuckRogers
“Your friend expects to surprise us. Just imagine the surprise that’s in store… for him!” (Love the red gloves.) #BuckRogers
Wow… Palance made himself purple in the face shouting that cheesy monologue. #BuckRogers
Note to self: when sentencing captured enemies to death, do not lock them in room with air vents. #BuckRogers
One-second shot of fleet launching was actually pretty good. #BuckRogers
The subplot with Twiki and Theopolis in the fighter is just as annoying as Annakin and R2-D2. #BuckRogers
Is that a didgeridoo in the background music for the “watch the offscreen stagehands pull the sweaty women up the rope” scene? #BuckRogers
500 years in the future, Earth’s fighter ship displays will be powered by Atari 400s. #BuckRogers
My 12yo picked up on the “red dogging the quarterback” bit from the football scene. #BuckRogers
Haha, Twiki said “Curse you, Red Baron!” And the enemy general Galen is wearing red, and his helmet has a little spike. Get it? #BuckRogers
Buster Crabbe, the actor who played #BuckRogers in the 30s serials, plays a retired flight instructor who comes out of retirement.
Only
in the final scene did I recognize Roddy Macdowell, wearing orangish
shoe polish and the turban, as the foppish food baron. #BuckRogers
The 70s wouldn’t be the 70s without freeze-frame endings.
I really don’t remember Duke in any other #BuckRogers episode. I guess the writers found more depth exploring Twiki’s arc. Not.
Best part of #BuckRogers The Planet of the Slave Girls? My 8yo says it was the rope escape from the bubbly hot room.