Bucking a trend

[sergebroom]

I see that Turner Classic Movies has FINALLY run out of "Bowery Boys" films. About time too. Starting in a few minutes, they're showing the first 2 chapters of a "Buck Rogers" serial from 1939. My DVR is all set.

Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Tuned in. I've never seen this.

Chapter One just ended.

Saw Buck and Buddy arrive at Dr. Heuer's lab by teleporter. So that's where Chuck Jones got the idea!

Lots of other speculative ideas in this, such as mind-control helmet, the danger to a speeding spacecraft of friction from Saturn's atmosphere-- "ten times denser than Earth's... a wall of gray clouds," and a female rocket pilot.

The costumes of lost 1938 aviators, jodhpurs, riding boots, and leather jackets, today seem scarcely less exotic than those of the 25th Century...

The sinister Oriental Han have been replaced in this version of the story by "racketeers" led by Killer Kane.

On to Chapter Two!

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to watching the serial. Years ago, I read a book reprinting a lot of the original strip and it was more into SF than in pure adventure like "Flash Gordon" was, if I remember correctly. By the way, I cut my first SF teeth on "Buck" in the early 1960s when George Tuska was the artist. In fact that strip was the one where my learning to read first clicked.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Buck shoots the jammed escape hatch open with a

Did someone say "degravity belts?"

Saturn looks kinda familiar, the sort of rocky desert where you might shoot a cowboy movie. Or a Star Trek episode.

Saturnians have captured both the good guys and the bad guys. It looks like an actual Oriental has shown up.

Everyone is getting into a plexiglas railway capsule.

There are Zugs, but our heroes are told they have nothing to fear from them.

Both sides are now arguing their case before the Council of the Wise. (Not everyone on Saturn is Oriental.)

Violence. Grabbing a guard's raygun. "Seize him!" Plexiglas railway chase!

Time to steal the bad guys' ship. The Zug guards are mowed down. Buck explains that they are not dead, becuase he used "only a demicharge."

And they're off!

Wait! The bad guys can fly the stolen ship by radio control!

But wait! Buck smashes the radio gear with his ray gun! He's free!

But wait! Earth sees an enemy ship approaching. Could it be Buck, Wilma, and Buddy? They call on the good-guy wavelength--

But wait! There is no answer. I presume because Buck disintegrated the radio. Uh-oh. The enemy ship is approaching the secret entrance to the Hidden City (if that's not redundant.)

Earth must presume that our heroes and heroine have betrayed the secret. Shoot down the ship!

Chapter Two ends in a horrible spaceship crash!

This episode had much less science in it, but more action.