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''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' is an American science-fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979 and 1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film in 1979 entitled ''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' before the series aired. The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based upon the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio. ==Concept and broadcast history== Inspired by the massive success of ''Star Wars'', Universal began developing ''Buck Rogers'' for television, spearheaded by Glen A. Larson, who had a production deal with the studio. Production began in 1978. Initially, Larson and Universal had planned on making a series of ''Buck Rogers'' TV movies for NBC. The pilot for Larson's other sci-fi series, ''Battlestar Galactica'' (1978), had been released theatrically in some countries and in key locations in North America, and had done well at the box office. Universal then opted to release the first ''Buck Rogers'' TV movie theatrically on March 30, 1979. Good box-office returns led NBC to commission a full series, which began on September 20, 1979, with a slightly modified version of the theatrical release. The production recycled many of the props, effects shots, and costumes from ''Battlestar Galactica'', which was still in production at the time the pilot for ''Buck Rogers'' was being filmed. For example, the "landram" vehicle was made for the ''Galactica'' series, and the control sticks used in the Terran starfighters in the pilot movie were the same as those used in Galactica's Viper craft. The Terran starfighters were also concept designer Ralph McQuarrie's original vision of the Colonial Vipers. The new series centered on Captain William Anthony "Buck" Rogers, played by Gil Gerard, a NASA/USAF pilot who commands ''Ranger 3'', a spacecraft that is launched in May 1987. Due to a life-support malfunction, Buck is accidentally frozen for 504 years before his spacecraft is discovered adrift in the year 2491. The combination of gases that froze his body coincidentally comes close to the formula commonly used in the 25th century for cryopreservation, and his rescuers are able to revive him. He learns that civilization on Earth was rebuilt following a devastating nuclear war that occurred on November 22, 1987, and is now under the protection of the Earth Defense Directorate. The series followed him as he tried (not always successfully) to fit into 25th-century culture. As were no traceable personal records for him remained, he was uniquely placed, due to his pilot and combat skills and personal ingenuity, to help Earth Defense foil assorted evil plots to conquer the planet. In many respects, this version of Buck Rogers was more similar to James Bond or Steve Austin than Nowlan's original character, and Buck would often go under cover on various covert missions. Buck is aided in his adventures by his friend and sometimes romantic interest, Colonel Wilma Deering (played by Erin Gray), a high-ranking officer and starfighter pilot. He is also assisted by Twiki, a small robot or "ambuquad", as they were known. Twiki was played mainly by Felix Silla and voiced mainly by Mel Blanc (who had previously voiced Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers in spoofs of the early Buck Rogers and other science-fiction serials) using a gruff voice very similar to the one he used for Barnyard Dawg. Twiki became Buck's comic sidekick and communicated with an electronic noise that sounded like "biddi-biddi-biddi", but also spoke English (usually after saying "biddi-biddi-biddi-biddi" for several seconds.) Also aiding Buck was Dr. Theopolis or "Theo" (voiced by Eric Server), a sentient computer in the shape of a disk, about 9 inches wide with an illuminated face. He was capable of understanding Twiki's electronic language, and was often carried around by him. Theo was a member of Earth's "computer council" and one of the planet's scientific leaders. During the first season, Buck and Wilma took their orders from Dr. Elias Huer, played by Tim O'Connor, the head of the Defense Directorate. Some episodes suggested Huer was the leader of the entire planet, though this was never made completely clear. The series' chief villain (at least in the first season) was Princess Ardala (played by Pamela Hensley), whose goal was to conquer the Earth while making Buck her consort. She was aided by her henchman Kane (played in the pilot film by Henry Silva and in the series by Michael Ansara). All of these characters were featured in the original comic strip, except for Dr. Theopolis and Twiki (whose closest counterpart in earlier versions would likely be Buck's human sidekick, Buddy Wade). Kane (or Killer Kane as he was then known) was also featured in the 1939 film serial and was actually the chief villain himself, rather than Ardala's henchman (Ardala did not appear in the film serial). The pilot film depicted human civilization as fairly insular, with an invisible defense shield that surrounded the entire planet, protecting it from invaders. Civilization was restricted to a few cities; the main city seen in the pilot and weekly series was New Chicago, which was also known as the Inner City. Travel beyond the Inner City was hazardous, as much of the planet was said to be a radioactive wasteland inhabited by violent mutants (as Buck discovered when he visited the derelict remains of old Chicago). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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