Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Buck Rogers

 Buck Rogers
type
TVTItem
 Buck Rogers
label
Buck Rogers
 Buck Rogers
page
BuckRogers
 Buck Rogers
comment
Buck Rogers is a 1939 Film Serial directed by Ford Bebe and Saul A. Goodkind. It ran for 12 episodes.It is, you guessed it, an adaptation of the iconic Buck Rogers comic strip. As the story opens, Buck Rogers is a daredevil pilot who, along with his teenage sidekick Buddy Wade, is trying to pilot a dirigible around the world. The blimp crash-lands in the Himalayas—but Buddy's father has stashed his experimental suspended animation gas aboard the ship! Buck and Buddy deploy the gas before they crash, and they sleep in the mountains for 500 years.They are discovered in 2440. Buck and Buddy are brought to the "Hidden City" ruled by benevolent Dr. Huer. It turns out that the Hidden City is the last refuge of free people, after the rest of the world has been taken over by ruthless super-gangster Killer Kane. Buck and Buddy, who adjust really, really fast to waking up five centuries in the future, go on a desperate mission to Saturn to get help from the humans on that planet. Accompanying them is the lovely Wilma Deering, Dr. Huer's assistant. But Killer Kane isn't willing to let that happen, so, after attempting to stop the good guys' mission, he sends ambassadors of his own to Saturn.This series is basically a Follow the Leader imitation of the wildly popular Flash Gordon serial, right down to casting the same actor, Buster Crabbe, as Buck Rogers.
 Buck Rogers
fetched
2023-07-13T14:14:03Z
 Buck Rogers
parsed
2023-07-13T14:14:03Z
 Buck Rogers
processingComment
Dropped link to BornInTheTheater: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
 Buck Rogers
processingComment
Dropped link to CallBack: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Buck Rogers
processingUnknown
BornInTheTheater
 Buck Rogers
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Buck Rogers / int_16d14f03
type
Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks
 Buck Rogers / int_16d14f03
comment
Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: Dr. Huer is a scientist, so naturally he has to have a lab filled with bubbling, smoking flasks and test tubes.
 Buck Rogers / int_16d14f03
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_16d14f03
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_16d14f03
 Buck Rogers / int_18dd6739
type
Dressing as the Enemy
 Buck Rogers / int_18dd6739
comment
Dressing as the Enemy: In episode 3, Buck and Buddy dress up as two of Killer Kane's men. They enter Kane's headquarters and disrupt Kane's meeting with the Saturnian ambassador. The bad guys wind up doing this in episode 10. When Buck steals a Killer Kane ship and flies back to the Hidden City, he doesn't notice that one of Kane's minions is in a compartment in the rear. Said minion exits the compartment, kills a Hidden City soldier, and takes his uniform. Thus disguised, the minion radios Killer Kane and reveals to him the secret location of the entrance to the Hidden City.
 Buck Rogers / int_18dd6739
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_18dd6739
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_18dd6739
 Buck Rogers / int_1cc48ee9
type
Multicultural Alien Planet
 Buck Rogers / int_1cc48ee9
comment
Multicultural Alien Planet: Interestingly, while some of the Saturnians are white, many are Asian. The three judges are played by white actors, but the major character of Prince Tallen is played by Korean-American actor Philip Ahn.
 Buck Rogers / int_1cc48ee9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_1cc48ee9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_1cc48ee9
 Buck Rogers / int_1e1f2e51
type
Raygun Gothic
 Buck Rogers / int_1e1f2e51
comment
Raygun Gothic: The original comic strip was the Trope Codifier and this film series recreates the look, with a lot of shiny metal and Art Deco curves, everyone wearing silly leotard-based Space Clothes, and of course Ray Guns.
 Buck Rogers / int_1e1f2e51
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_1e1f2e51
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_1e1f2e51
 Buck Rogers / int_237a1777
type
Exploding Calendar
 Buck Rogers / int_237a1777
comment
Exploding Calendar: A sequence in the first episode has "1940", "2040", "2140", and so on popping up onscreen, with shots of the crashed blimp covered in ice. Finally the ship is discovered in 2440.
 Buck Rogers / int_237a1777
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_237a1777
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_237a1777
 Buck Rogers / int_254fb9cb
type
Anti-Climax
 Buck Rogers / int_254fb9cb
comment
Anticlimax: There's no big battle at the end in either space or Kane's headquarters. Buck, after liberating all the robots in Kane's headquarters, comes storming into Kane's conference room and grabs him. Buck puts a robot helmet on Kane's head and makes Kane tell his army to stand down. And that's it, the end of the series, except for the denouement in which Buck and Buddy both get commissions in Dr. Auer's Air Force and the last scene in which Buck and Wilma may finally be getting together.
 Buck Rogers / int_254fb9cb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_254fb9cb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_254fb9cb
 Buck Rogers / int_313d7228
type
Previously on…
 Buck Rogers / int_313d7228
comment
Previously on…: Every episode after the first starts with an Opening Scroll catching the audience up with the story.
 Buck Rogers / int_313d7228
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_313d7228
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_313d7228
 Buck Rogers / int_31ac02fd
type
Scrolling Text
 Buck Rogers / int_31ac02fd
comment
Scrolling Text: Every episode starts with an Opening Scroll catching the audience up. This series was a Trope Codifier for scrolling text and opening scroll.
 Buck Rogers / int_31ac02fd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_31ac02fd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_31ac02fd
 Buck Rogers / int_457655dd
type
Human Popsicle
 Buck Rogers / int_457655dd
comment
Human Popsicle: The suspended animation gas preserves Buck and Buddy for five hundred years. The future, when they wake up, is not so great.
 Buck Rogers / int_457655dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_457655dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_457655dd
 Buck Rogers / int_4583a262
type
Shirtless Scene
 Buck Rogers / int_4583a262
comment
Shirtless Scene: A little 1939 fanservice as the audience sees Buster Crabbe's broad, muscled chest in episode 3, when he's changing into the uniform of one of Killer Kane's men.
 Buck Rogers / int_4583a262
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_4583a262
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_4583a262
 Buck Rogers / int_4eddbc06
type
Animated Credits Opening
 Buck Rogers / int_4eddbc06
comment
Animated Credits Opening: The opening credits play over a trippy kaleidoscope effect.
 Buck Rogers / int_4eddbc06
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_4eddbc06
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_4eddbc06
 Buck Rogers / int_504ca25a
type
Live-Action Adaptation
 Buck Rogers / int_504ca25a
comment
Live-Action Adaptation: Of the popular Buck Rogers newspaper comic.
 Buck Rogers / int_504ca25a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_504ca25a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_504ca25a
 Buck Rogers / int_5ed3ace2
type
Batman Can Breathe in Space
 Buck Rogers / int_5ed3ace2
comment
Batman Can Breathe in Space: Don't believe the silly encyclopedias that tell you Saturn's atmosphere is 96.3% hydrogen, with the rest helium, and that it could not support human life for a moment. Instead, believe this film serial, where people can breathe on Saturn just fine.
 Buck Rogers / int_5ed3ace2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_5ed3ace2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_5ed3ace2
 Buck Rogers / int_60fa92ac
type
Names to Run Away from Really Fast
 Buck Rogers / int_60fa92ac
comment
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Killer Kane". Yikes.
 Buck Rogers / int_60fa92ac
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_60fa92ac
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_60fa92ac
 Buck Rogers / int_66f69cd4
type
Invisibility Cloak
 Buck Rogers / int_66f69cd4
comment
Invisibility Cloak: In episode 5, the Hidden City must send a ship to Saturn, but Killer Kane's men have a tight blockade in the skies above Earth. How to get through? Fortunately, Dr. Huer has invented an invisibility ray. The ray allows Buck, Wilma, and the Saturnian envoy to make it through the blockade and get to Saturn.
 Buck Rogers / int_66f69cd4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_66f69cd4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_66f69cd4
 Buck Rogers / int_7286e96d
type
Idiot Ball
 Buck Rogers / int_7286e96d
comment
Idiot Ball: As the heroes are returning back to Earth at the end of episode 2, Buck suggests raising the Hidden City on the radio, only for Wilma to say "That's not necessary" as she knows how to get into the secret entrance. Also, they are flying one of Killer Kane's stolen ships! Naturally, that nearly gets them killed when the people inside the Hidden City take them as hostiles from Killer Kane. Special mention has to go to the mook who is guarding Wilma's prison cell in episode 10. He goes up to the bars to taunt her, and does so while holding his raygun up against the bars. Wilma grabs the raygun and shoots him in the face.
 Buck Rogers / int_7286e96d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_7286e96d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_7286e96d
 Buck Rogers / int_8702168c
type
Chronoscope
 Buck Rogers / int_8702168c
comment
Chronoscope: In episode 9 Dr. Huer is revealed to have a device called the "Past-i-scope", which can replay scenes from the past that happened recently. The good guys are able to pull up a scene of Buck and Wilma getting captured on Saturn but not the one they need, the one that would determine whether or not Buck and Wilma survived their crash-landing.
 Buck Rogers / int_8702168c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_8702168c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_8702168c
 Buck Rogers / int_95afab6
type
Black Cloak
 Buck Rogers / int_95afab6
comment
Black Cloak: While most of the Saturnians wear outfits that 1940 moviegoers might have imagined as futuristic, their three-judge council, the "Forum", does not. The judges of the Forum wear hooded cloaks, even though they're not really ominous.
 Buck Rogers / int_95afab6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_95afab6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_95afab6
 Buck Rogers / int_961c30e5
type
Teleportation
 Buck Rogers / int_961c30e5
comment
Teleportation: 27 years before Star Trek, people in the Hidden City can get into a teleportation chamber, vanish, and reappear in a manner very similar to the TV show.
 Buck Rogers / int_961c30e5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_961c30e5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_961c30e5
 Buck Rogers / int_9b2cfbb4
type
Frazetta Man
 Buck Rogers / int_9b2cfbb4
comment
Frazetta Man: Even on Saturn! The Zuggs are subhuman, ape-like creatures, who serve the Saturnians. This pays off in episode 7 when they begin to worship one of Killer Kane's mind-controlled robot men, allowing Kane's mooks to use their robot man to boss the Zuggs around. (This however is subverted in episode 8 when the Zuggs are revealed to be capable of speech.)
 Buck Rogers / int_9b2cfbb4
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Buck Rogers / int_9b2cfbb4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_9b2cfbb4
 Buck Rogers / int_a8556a04
type
Video Credits
 Buck Rogers / int_a8556a04
comment
Video Credits: Every episode starts with video credits showing film clips of all the main players.
 Buck Rogers / int_a8556a04
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_a8556a04
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_a8556a04
 Buck Rogers / int_b1f18adb
type
Ray Gun
 Buck Rogers / int_b1f18adb
comment
Ray Gun: Ray guns everywhere, both hand-held ray guns and what are basically ray cannons. Since this is a family show, people tend to use the stun setting.
 Buck Rogers / int_b1f18adb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_b1f18adb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_b1f18adb
 Buck Rogers / int_d2a9f080
type
Opening Scroll
 Buck Rogers / int_d2a9f080
comment
Opening Scroll: Every episode after the first one starts with this in a Previously on… sequence.
 Buck Rogers / int_d2a9f080
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_d2a9f080
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_d2a9f080
 Buck Rogers / int_e22feb9c
type
Mind-Control Device
 Buck Rogers / int_e22feb9c
comment
Mind-Control Device: Killer Kane has mind-control helmets that he can use to make people into zombie slaves.
 Buck Rogers / int_e22feb9c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_e22feb9c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_e22feb9c
 Buck Rogers / int_e80cdd72
type
Almost Out of Oxygen
 Buck Rogers / int_e80cdd72
comment
Almost Out of Oxygen: In the first episode, the blimp runs out of breathing oxygen, which forces the crash landing in the Himalayas.
 Buck Rogers / int_e80cdd72
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_e80cdd72
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_e80cdd72
 Buck Rogers / int_name
type
ItemName
 Buck Rogers / int_name
comment
 Buck Rogers / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Buck Rogers / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Buck Rogers / int_name
 Buck Rogers / int_name
itemName
Buck Rogers

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Chronoscope / int_ec3d6231
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Film Serial / int_ec3d6231
 Buck Rogers
hasFeature
Multicultural Alien Planet / int_ec3d6231