CLASSIC MERCHANDISE: 'GALACTICA' RISES!

I thought I'd seen all the variant covers to the original novelisation of Saga of a Star World, but not this international one with that groovy red logo adorning it with just 'Galactica', a uniqueness which makes it more than worthy of posting.

OUT NOW ON UK BLU-RAY: 'BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY - THE COMPLETE SERIES'

Future fantastic! Buck Rogers comes to Blu-ray at last! Images: UNIVERSAL.

Arriving just in time for next year's landmark Fortieth Anniversary within the highest realms of Cult TV-dom, it's time for fans of the Gil Gerard starring incarnation of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century to start going 'Bidi-Bidi-Bidi' with joy at the super news that the series will finally (and well deservedly) be coming to home entertainment systems in complete unedited and HD remastered form via those space classic veterans at Universal/Fabulous Films, this April 2nd, 2018.

Developed for television by stalwart producers Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, both of whom had prior given us Battlestar Galactica, the seventies incarnation of Buck Rogers, with its hints of space-age James Bond meets Star Wars, was a huge success worldwide, especially beloved in the UK, of which Gerard's amiable space pilot/kick-boxing lead, alongside the sexy and capable space colonel, Wilma Deering (the exquisite Erin Gray), plus beloved little 'Ambuquad', Twiki (Felix Silla, voiced by cartoon legend Mel Blanc), encountered and fought a diverse assemblage of weird, wacky and wonderful humanoid villains and aliens (played by a wide variety of notable guest stars- everyone from Jack Palance to Roddy McDowall, and then fresh-faces like Jamie Lee Curtis), amidst a universe populated by some of the most gorgeous intergalactic heavenly bodies ever seen on television sci-fi! Combined ingredients in a lively series that would make it an enduring family favourite!

Series One title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1obwMjzUY9M

So, get ready to enter your nearest Stargate for a healthy dash of enjoyably colourful fun, looking better than ever in HD, alongside some fine 'Special Features'- most notably the series TV pilot Awakening, not previously released on VHS or DVD in the UK- prior individual/box set releases of the series (from CIC and UNIVERSAL) having past favoured the pilot's theatrical version (perhaps due to right issues ?)- first released in European/International cinemas during 1979.

Heroes of the space ways: Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) and Wilma (Erin Gray).

FABULOUS FILMS release info on the set:

Sit back and enjoy all 33 episodes across 2 seasons of this timeless sci-fi classic, now fully restored and in Hi-Definition. 

Following the success of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, Glen A. Larson developed Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century for television. Props, costumes, effects shots and sets from Battlestar Galactica (1978), which was still in production at the time, were recycled for the series.

The series ran for two seasons in America from 1979 – 1981. ITV began showing Buck Rogers on 30^th August 1980. It was in the same Saturday timeslot that the BBC began screening season 18 of Doctor Who. Due to Buck Rogers’ popularity, Doctor Who’s ratings fell from a series high of 16.1 million to a low of 3.7 million - the lowest ratings in the programme's history. This prompted the BBC to move Doctor Who to a weekday evening slot. The BBC began airing repeats of Buck Rogers on BBC Two in 1989 and again in 1995-96.

Synopsis: The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. Aboard this small starship is a lone astronaut, Captain William Buck Rogers. In a freak mishap Ranger 3 and its pilot are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support system and returns Buck Rogers back to Earth 500 years later. He is forced to readjust to a new world and its people - who blame his generation for a nuclear holocaust which left the earth a radioactive wasteland. Buck is soon enlisted to help save the Earth from an alien threat, working with Colonel Wilma Deering and a robot-droid known as Twiki. They roam space and planets to welcome back the lost and dispossessed.

Twiki was mainly played by Felix Silla and voiced by Mel Blanc. Felix Silla also played "Cousin Itt" in The Addams Family. Mel Blanc, was an American voice actor who voiced pretty much every cartoon character you can think of including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and the Tasmanian Devil.

Cast: Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Pamela Hensley (Season 1), Tim O'Connor (Season 1), Felix Silla, Mel Blanc, Eric Server (Season 1), Thom Christopher (Season 2), Jay Garner (Season 2), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Season 2).

Extras: 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'- Theatrical version of the pilot episode 'Awakening’, feature Length version of ’Flight of the War Witch', syndicated 2 Part Version in Hi-Definition of 'Journey to the Oasis'.

Get the Blu-ray set here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buck-Rogers-Century-Complete-Blu-ray/dp/B079V9GW1Z/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1520612712&sr=1-2&keywords=buck+rogers+blu-ray

CLASSIC ART: BACK TO THE 'TOMBS OF KOBOL'!

Protecting themselves and the secrets of the Thirteenth Tribe, Apollo and Starbuck shoot back at attacking Cylon Raiders in this great art by David Schleinkofer for the original 1980 Berkley Books adaptation of Lost Planet of the Gods as The Tombs of Kobol, which would be reprinted by TITAN BOOKS UK in 1988, at about the time the series was back in TV reruns.

CLASSIC MERCHANDISE: WAR IN SPACE!

War in space, and that's what the great poster artwork for the film showed us back in the day on colour brochures specially available to selected UK, US and Canadian cinema audiences.

Here's a great interview with Glen A. Larson on the creation of the series:

Glen A. Larson on "Battlestar Galactica" - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG - YouTube

Glen A. Larson on casting the "Battlestar Galactica" pilot - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG - YouTube

Glen A. Larson on conceptual choices for "Battlestar Galactica" - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG - YouTube