Synopsis:

An orb delivers an invitation from another universe. Buck travels through a vortex to Pendar, whose inhabitants are under attack by “war witch” Zarina. They force Buck to help defeat their enemy. Princess Ardala brings her battle cruiser through the vortex with Doctor Huer and Colonel Deering on board. Everyone teams up to defeat the Zaad enemies.

Intentions:

Buck Saves The Universe extends the War Witch story by merging the theatrical and televised versions, and by expanding the opening in line with the original script (it had 26 more pages as opening). Buck sings Sinatra as originally proposed. We open with Buck's continued discomfort at being the Man Out Of Time and his friends trying to help him (trimmed from another episode and replacing Buck’s sleazy moment with an uncredited girlfriend). Wilma's farewell to Buck is lightly trimmed to make her and the scene stronger.

Change List:

Like the rest of this Buck Rogers series, the goal is to improve the enjoyment of the series as a whole, not just of one adventure. To that end, all continuity errors need to be resolved (spaceships!). Secondary are logical additions to world-building that fit the continuity of the series and personalities of our heroes.

Additional Notes:

- Add continuity: Buck feels like a fish out of water. Add storyline about Buck being depressed, and his friends trying to help him get out of it. Heavily trimmed storyline taken from the episode Happy Birthday, Buck. In this version, his friends set him up on a blind date (played sincerely, not corny or sleazy). The original script had 26 more pages at the start. The producers omitted the entire set-up, and started the story in the middle of Buck returning from his trip with a girlfriend. Now we get the backstory behind Buck returning from such a trip (albeit with a different girl, because I only have the available material to work from). - Add continuity: During that opening storyline, Dr. Theopolis informs Dr. Huer of trouble with the Draconians, which now sets up Huer's comment to Buck a few scenes later that they've been having difficulty with the Draconians. - Add fan-service + logical argument: Theo also mentions Anarchia, which we hadn't heard of since the first movie. Anarchia is a perfect place for the Draconians to scout for dissatisfied Earthers. - Add continuity: Buck sings Frank Sinatra. As proposed at the time by the episode's music editor. A nice callback to earlier adventures. - Cut for being sleazily out-of-character: Cut Buck's uncredited girlfriend (both scenes). Elana is now replaced by Raylyn. Out of necessity (see above), because Elena and Buck were icky sleazy together, and because it's entirely out-of-character for Buck to embarrass Huer by deliberately making out in front of him. - Strengthen Wilma: minimal trims to Wilma's farewell, making her and the scene stronger. - Extend + coherence: Merge the theatrical and TV versions of the Buck and Zarina's one-on-one conversation. - Extend: Incorporate 3 more shots from the theatrical version. - Visual continuity: Color correct one shot from the non-HD theatrical edition. - Audio continuity: The original has several truncated transitions. The sound editors were under tremendous time pressure to complete it (read the PDF for that story). These are smoothed out or replaced entirely with clean audio from other episodes.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Bionicbob, Dkerin, keithbk, musiced921, and Zarius, for their feedback and continued enthusiasm.