History Series / BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury

-->'''Buck''': We met, Gordon?
-->'''Brigader Gordon''': I don't think so, Captain. We're from different times.
-->'''Buck''': Where'd you learn to do shooting like that?

** Buster Crabbe, who played the title role in the 1939 serial ''Buck Rogers'', guest starred as Brigadier Gordon in "Planet of the Slave Girls".

* RagnarokProofing: The videotape in "Testimony of a Traitor" is still playable after a nuclear war and 500 years of storage, making this a very literal example. Videotape deteriorates after 30-50 years of storage[[note]]meaning that most of the videotapes from the 1970s-1980s are nearing the end of their storage life ''now'', creating a booming business for digital conversion companies[[/note]] even if perfect archival techniques are practiced. Even assuming a working player still existed, at best the tape would be completely blank as the magnetic storage media would have demagnetized after the first 50 years and the polyester tape itself would have disintegrated after 200 years at most.

* RagnarokProofing: The videotape in "Testimony of a Traitor" is still playable after a nuclear war and 500 years of storage, making this a very literal example. Videotape deteriorates after 30-50 years of storage[[note]]meaning that most of the videotapes from the 1970s-1980s are nearing the end of their storage life ''now'', creating a booming business for digital conversion companies[[/note]] even if perfect archival techniques are practiced.

* TheReptilians: The Saurians.

-->-- '''second season opening narrative'''

** In "Planet of the Slave Girls," Buster Crabbe, famous for playing Flash Gordon, plays retired star-fighter pilot Brigadier Gordon. At one point Buck praises his flying, and Gordon responds with "I've been doing that sort of thing since before you were born." As Crabbe first played Gordon in 1936 and actor Gil Gerard, who plays Buck, wasn't born until 1943, this is sort of true.

* AscendedFanboy: Tim O'Connor as Dr. Huer. O'Connor was a huge fan of the original Buck Rogers serial starring Buster Crabbe, and enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity of being cast in the show.

* AscendedFanboy: Tim O'Connor as Dr. Huer.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Dr. Theopolis. In the pilot movie, he calls Buck "attractive" within seconds of first meeting him, and all he seems to notice about Ardala is her NiceHat.

** RetiredBadass General Gordon, part of the RagtagBunchOfMisfits brought in to fight an invasion in the second episode, is played by Buster Crabbe -- who of course played Film/{{Flash Gordon|Serial}} in the old serials as well as the original Buck Rogers.
--->'''General Gordon:''' I've been [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall doing that sort of thing]] [blasting starfighters] [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall since before you were born]], Colonel.\\

'''General Gordon:''' Young man, I ''know'' so.

* DaddysLittleVillain: Princess Ardala of Draconia is at least as evil as her father Emperor Drako.

** Joseph Wiseman, best known for playing a [[Film/DrNo calm, cold villain]], really feasts on the scenery in his brief appearance in the pilot.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: After Buck saves a rookie pilot from being jumped by pirates, the pilot's instructor chimes in:
-->'''Major Danton:''' Recon One, I appreciate your concern, but I'd appreciate it all the more if next time you'd refrain from interfering in a Directorate training mission!\\
'''Buck:''' What? If you call that "interfering", there's something wrong with your ''Funk & Wagnalls''! [[note]]This is actually a ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'' reference; they would regularly direct the viewer to "look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls", a famous brand of dictionary.[[/note]]

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: A running gag is Buck making remarks on the 20th century that go over the heads of people in the 25th.
** 20th century "Whiz kid" Hieronymus likewise will make jokes (such as calling a kidnapper ComicBook/DoctorDoom) based in the past. He also replaced his world's gladiator games with a tennis court.

Although some things said in ''Flight of the War Witch'' imply that Earth has only recently joined the interstellar community, following their development of the now-ubiquitous Stargates, with the first person to ever use one still being alive. The first season has multiple, independent human factions, some of which (like the Draconians) being hostile to Earth. The second season shows humans as highly fragmented, and the whole point of the ''Searcher'' is to try locating and establishing contact with all the lost colonies.

* VillainousBreakdown: Ardala, in part 2 of ''Flight of the War Witch''.

* HoverBot: Members of the Computer Council are about the size of dishes. One, Dr. Theopolus, is carried around by Twiki, Buck's RobotBuddy. The others are, presumably, carried around as needed.

* SpaceClothes: Oh so very much! Between the heavy use of Future Spandex and shiny metallic fabrics, even in military uniforms, the show is very true to it's Raygun Gothic roots.

* RetCon: In the second season, Twikki and the other robot aboard the ''Searcher'' are specifically described as ThreeLawsCompliant. Which appears to directly contradicts the two-parter "Planet of the Slave Girls", which has Twikki flying a starfighter and blasting away at enemies but it's possible it was only programmed to be ThreeLawsCompliant after the retool for the second season.

* RetCon: In the second season, Twikki and the other robot aboard the ''Searcher'' are specifically described as ThreeLawsCompliant. Which directly contradicts the two-parter "Planet of the Slave Girls", which has Twikki flying a starfighter and blasting away at enemies.

* ActionGirl: Wilma Deering.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Subverted in "Hand of the Goral" where the Evil Alien puts Buck through a SadisticChoice, having to choose between saving Wilma Deering and Hawk (an alien from a ProudWarriorRace of birdmen). He chose Hawk because he guessed that the [[DamselInDistress cowering Wilma]] was really a double put in by the Evil Alien, reasoning that the real Wilma Deering [[ActionGirl wouldn't have been such a wuss]]. When Buck makes his decision, [[spoiler:"Wilma" melts right down in front of him, into a puddle of smoking burnt stuff.]]

* BadassGrandpa: All members of the title squadron in "Return of the Fighting 69[[superscript:th]]". Including one ''Badass Grandma''.

* LastOfHisKind: Hawk, the last survivor of a LostColony of hawk-people.

* WorldWarIII: World War III broke out on November 22, 1987, only six months after Buck was frozen, when the Soviet Union launched an all-out nuclear attack on the United States, destroying all of its major cities. The US counterattacked, devastating the Soviet Union, and a second wave of missiles was launched against it. Millions of people were killed in the war and millions more died of radiation poisoning in the coming months. Many humans and animals were mutated by the radiation. Society very quickly broke down.