User Reviews

PLOT: As Rogers' 534th birthday nears and Wilma & Huer plan a surprise party, a homesick Buck is commissioned to escort a psychic courier to New Detroit (Morgan Brittany). Meanwhile an embittered man with newly acquired powers (Peter MacLean) seeks revenge on Huer by kidnapping the courier in order to target his prey. Tamara Dobson is on hand as a 25th century psychologist forced to team-up with the vengeful man.

COMMENTARY: This episode's mostly notable for the presence of petite beauty Morgan Brittany. Other than that, the surprise party element is heartwarming and the villain's powers are formidable, but the plot's a little on the convoluted side.

The ship of the mutant Cornell Traeger is towed to a space station and he kills the responsible, changing his molecular structure. Before dying, he tells to Lt. Garth that the mutant is seeking revenge on Dr. Huer. Traeger blames Dr. Huer, who assigned him to explore a remote planet fifteen years ago and left him behind when he was imprisoned underground. He acquired the power of molecular changing, but also became almost blind, needing to use special glasses. Dr. Huer is warned by Lieutenant Garth, but does not give much attention. Meanwhile, Buck Roger misses the Twentieth Century and Twiki suggests a birthday party to Wilma and Dr. Huer to cheer him up. They plan a surprise party themed on the Twentieth Century and Dr. Huer assigns him to escort the psychic courier Raylin Derren to New Detroit to distract him while Wilma arranges his apartment. But Cornell Treger associates to his former psychiatrist Dr. Delora Bayliss and kidnaps Raylin to know the whereabouts of Dr. Huer.

"Happy Birthday, Buck" is a weak episode of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century". The plot is not entertaining like other shows, the power of the villain is interesting but his association with Dr. Bayliss is not well-explained. Was she her doctor or her lover? Traeger's plan is complicated and silly. Wilma listing Buck Roger's friends composed by beautiful women only is the funniest part of the show. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Happy Birthday, Buck"

After spending fifteen years imprisoned underground on a remote planet, which has resulted in poor eyesight and deadly glowing hands, a bitter Cornell Traeger plots revenge against the man he blames for his predicament: Dr Elias Huer of Earth's Defence Directorate.

In order to locate his target, Traeger plans to capture Raylyn Derren (Morgan Brittany), a beautiful courier who has the details of Dr. Huer's itinerary implanted in her brain, and gain access to the information with the help of an old acquaintance, Delora Bayliss (Tamara 'Cleopatra Jones' Dobson), a Psych Med.

Meanwhile, Buck, who is rapidly approaching his 534th birthday, is feeling homesick for the 20th century. Wilma decides that a surprise party is in order and temporarily gets Buck out of the way by asking him to escort the lovely Ms. Derren on her trip to New Detroit.

A so-so episode from Series One, 'Happy Birthday, Buck' lacks a truly memorable villain, and features too few silly aliens, zero zany disco dancing scenes, and nowhere near enough badly choreographed fights, ultimately registering several notches lower on the 'cheese-ometer' than some of the earlier adventures. Manky props and daft set designs are limited to a pair of 'synthi-flesh' masks, a convenient Buck-sized air vent, and Delora Bayliss's psychiatrists office, which is designed to offer zero confidentiality to its patients (who are all gorgeous women!).

At least Erin Grey looks great as always (first in a peach outfit, which is followed by a skin-tight blue Spandex number), and Morgan Brittany is also rather scrummy.

Peter Maclean plays a vengeful villain out to get Dr. Elias Huer (Tim O Connor) who he blames for putting him in prison. With the help of Tamara Dobson he will try and achieve this, but he didn't count on Buck to come in the way of his dastardly plan.

This is okay episode that is paced leisurely and has the usual good cast but I felt the climax was a bit damp. Not too exciting and ended flatly. But hey all Buck Rogers episodes in season one are a joy to watch nevertheless.