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Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was a 2000-2001 animated television show from Disney Television Animation as part of ABC's One Saturday Morning block and UPN's sibling block, One Too, based on the character Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise. The Buzz in this show is not a toy, but the actual Space Ranger - remember how Toy Story alluded to a Show Within a Show that pre-dated the toy line? ("The world's greatest superhero, now the world's greatest toy!") This show is what that show might have looked like.

The story chronicles the adventures of Buzz Lightyear (initially played by Tim Allen reprising his role from Toy Story in the Pilot Movie before being taken over by Patrick Warburton in the series proper), an agent of the galactic peacekeeping force Star Command, who frequently battles the Evil Emperor Zurg (Wayne Knight) and other threats to the galaxy. Buzz is accompanied in his missions by his partners on Team Lightyear: Mira Nova (Nicole Sullivan), the blue-skinned, ass-kicking princess of Tangea; Booster (Stephen Furst), the trademark big lovable lug; and XR (Larry Miller/Neil Flynn), the wisecracking, fast-talking Robot Buddy.

Not to be confused with Lightyear, a prequel film that explores the origins of Buzz as a space ranger. Despite being centered on Buzz, Lightyear has no relation to the show beyond director Angus MacLane describing it as a 1980s-era movie that the show served as a Denser and Wackier 1990s-era adaptation of, though Pixar has long disowned the series beforehand.


Buzz Lightyear of Trope Command:

  • 20% More Awesome: Zurg's HYPER DEATH RAY causes a fate twenty percent worse than death, known as HYPER DEATH!
  • Aborted Arc: "The Shape Stealer" ended with the titular creature remaining at large, yet it never returned for another episode.
  • Accidental Misnaming: Despite his habit of transforming into one, Plasma Boy hates being called Plasma Monster.
  • The Ace:
    • Fop Doppler. When Mira is desperately trying to get out of their arranged marriage, she challenges him to complete Space Ranger training; guess who now holds the record for fastest completion of Space Ranger training ever? This guy can take out a room full of opponents handily, barely looking at them and never losing his cool or his style.
    • Buzz too, but that goes without saying.
  • Affably Evil: Every villain has moments of being cordial toward the heroes, but Zurg most often.
  • Affectionate Parody: The show is quite clearly a warm love letter to Merchandise-Driven action cartoons in general, given that it is intended to be the in-universe show that the Buzz Lightyear toys in the Toy Story movies are based on.
  • Agri World: Jo-ad, Booster's home planet, is dedicated entirely to agriculture, resembling the American Midwest and specializing in growing gigantic produce, with the majority of the inhabitants being farmers. It provides the food supplies for Capital Planet. Booster first meets Buzz when Zurg tried to steal Jo-ad's entire crop so that he could starve them into submission.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: Both lampshaded and subverted in "Stranger Invasion", where Zurg points out that enabling his enemies to crawl through air vents is just asking for trouble.
  • Alliterative Name:
    • Keno Kentrix
    • Vicki Vortex
    • Lardak Lurdak
    • Flip Faxtoner note 
  • All There in the Manual: Before the pilot was released, Disney Adventures had a comic that showed how Buzz Lightyear saved Mira's people, which led to her joining the Space Rangers, which she briefly references in the pilot. The story is also the subject of Mira's flashback in the flashback episode.
  • Alternate Continuity: To Lightyear, per Angus MacLane's comments.
  • Alternate Universe: In another universe, Buzz Lightyear is evil and has taken over all power, Zurg is the burger guy at Cosmo's, and all other characters are Darker and Edgier due to their traumatic experiences.
  • Always Night: This is kind of played with. There are episodes that take place during the day, but there are also episodes that are set in the dark, such as "Wirewolf" and "Haunted Moon". It's also sort of a Justified Trope in that most of the show takes place in outer space.
  • Always Second Best: Ty Parsec resents Buzz for being better than him at everything.
  • Amazing Freaking Grace: On bagpipes. Played by XR. No, seriously.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Valkyran Raiders from "42" are all female warriors.
  • Amnesia Danger: "Mindwarp". Buzz is brainwashed into thinking he works for Norbert Klerm, and Team Lightyear has to snap him out of it before they're taken out by Klerm's robots.
  • An Ass-Kicking Christmas: "Holiday Time". It's a generic "villain steals Christmas" plot with an awesome fight scene between Zurg and Buzz Lightyear featuring Bullet Time and backed by a pounding techno track
  • Anatomically Ignorant Healing: XR the robot is who he is because the little green men were off their group mind when they rebuilt him.
  • And I Must Scream: In "The Shape Stealer", Zurg's minions create a cloak-shaped organism that possesses people by wrapping itself around them. Two of the creature's victims (a bus driver and Booster) mention that people possessed by the Shape Stealer are still aware of their actions and can't do anything about it.
  • And I'm the Queen of Sheba: "Stress Test" has Buzz say "And I'm a fluffy bunny" in response to Mira telling him that what he assumes is part of Zurg's latest plan is just a pen.
  • Animation Bump: The direct-to-video movie, as well as several episodes.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • Zurg is the sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance, but also he considers Buzz his personal nemesis.
    • XR has two, NOS-4-A2 and XL.
  • Are We Getting This?: After Buzz finishes his Patrick Stewart Speech, Zurg makes sure it has been captured on camera so that he can laugh at it later.
  • Arm Cannon: Warp's cybernetic arm can morph into a cannon or flamethrower, and the Hornets have cannons for arms.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Torque as described by a computer:
      "Suspect: Torque, wanted in all 50 sectors for terrorism, smuggling, arson and unpaid parking tickets"
    • In 'The Planet Destroyer,' Zurg cheerfully informs the council of the Galactic Alliance of what life will be like after they follow his only demand of complete surrender, the last of which causes the entire council to gasp in shock:
      "As citizens of my empire, you will all be fitted with the latest in subservient fashion. Brain control modules will make you all mindless drones in the service of my evil. Your 167 hour work week will consist of grueling labor in lunchbox-sized cubicles that allow zero privacy. Oh! And no dental benefits.
    • Zurg's Christmas Offensive: sabotage the fleet, bust out the prisoners of PC-7, and steal Buzz's newspaper. Lampshaded by XR.
    • Zurg's Grub spy revealing his sabotage of Star Command:
      Buzz: Alright, Grub, how much damage have you done?
      Grub: Um, let's see... I blew up your orbitron regulators so you'll crash into Capitol Planet. And I destroyed your power supply so you can't correct your orbit. Oh yeah... and I shrunk your commander's spacesuit. (snickers)
    • Zurg lamenting the destruction Mira tricked him into causing with the titular spaceship in "The Starthought".
      Zurg: My beautiful ship! My beautiful palace! My Troll doll collection!
  • Artificial Limbs: Several characters have artificial limbs. For example, Nebula has a bionic peg leg, Warp has a robotic arm, and Cosmo has a robotic hand.
  • Art Shift: At least part of the intro is animated by Pixar, to drive home the Show Within a Show aspect of the series.
    • Also prevalent in Toon City's episodes due to their digital coloring (in contrast to the cel animation used in other episodes).
  • Ascended Fanboy: Booster was just a janitor with high hopes of being a Space Ranger before he became one.
    • Inverted with Petra and Plasma Boy in "The Plasma Monster". These two when they first appear respectively express their disdain for the Space Rangers, but by the end, they ended up joining the Space Ranger Academy.
      Plasma Boy: You know Booster? I used to think Space Rangers were whack. But now I see you're pretty dope.
      Mira: Is that a good thing?
      Petra: Yeah.
  • Aside Glance: A fair number of characters have given certain glances to the audience.
    • In "Rookie of the Year", near the end, Buzz gives a 'what can you do?' shrug and smile after his team starts bickering again despite learning to cooperate.
    • An LGM gives this to the audience at one point in "At Large on a Small Planet".
  • Asteroid Thicket: Flying through a bunch of asteroids happens in three episodes - "Tag Team," "Downloaded," and "Super Nova".
  • Badass Armfold: This applies to quite a few characters on the show-Team Lightyear, Zurg, Nebula, Ty, Warp...
  • Badass Boast: Buzz in "The Adventure Begins" after Zurg declares victory: "Evil. Never. Wins."
  • Badass Bookworm: Professor Triffid is fairly competent fighter but only when augmented by his Organic Technology space suit.
  • Badass Longcoat: Buzz in "Conspiracy" - he even wears a fedora briefly.
    • The villain Torque sports a brown duster.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Booster's flashback in "Root of Evil" subverts the Fantasy-Forbidding Father trope:
    Booster's Father: Booster Sinclair Munchapper?! What have I told you about playing Space Rangers in the irrigation tunnels? Without me? *Hops into the tunnels with a Young Booster and his friend, Buster* To the launch tubes!
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: "The Crawling Flesh" features some LGMs being seen in the nude. They do not have visible genitals.
  • Beard of Evil: Evil Buzz from the Alternate Universe has a beard.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Buzz and Ozma tend to be hostile toward each other, but are strongly suggested to be attracted to one another.
  • Beta Test Baddie: XL steals parts and adds them to his being because he feels incomplete.
  • Between My Legs:
    • In "42", two Valkyran Raiders between Mira's legs.
    • In "Wirewolf", a sentry robot between Ty's legs.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Booster may be a jovial goofball, but he is not to be underestimated. When the chips are down, he can be very dangerous to the bad guys.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Zurg comes off as incredibly goofy at times, but the series does show that he's capable of causing immense destruction and cruelty.
  • Big Bad: Zurg is the show's main villain.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The climax of the Pilot Movie has Buzz's new partners come to the rescue.
  • Big "NO!": Booster's reaction to being told by Petra that they can be Just Friends.
  • Big "WHAT?!": In the 3D opening to the movie, Rex has this reaction when when Woody tells Buzz they're not going to watch the video itself but only the commercials.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Mira and Booster have some odd organic quirks sometimes. Booster in particular, for example, manages to break out of Mind Control by virtue of his brain not being entirely in his head. Try not to think too hard about it.
  • The Blind Leading the Blind: In the pilot, when the Uni-Mind is out of commission, the LGMs are next to useless; nonetheless, in spite of being disoriented in this unfamiliar state of extreme individuality, they soldier on trying to rebuild XR, which results in his distinctive personality.
  • Blowing a Raspberry: XR blows a raspberry to NOS-4-A2 in "The Slayer".
  • Body Wipe:
    • "Stress Test" Zurg's face fills the screen when he forces Dr. Animus to give him his pen
    • "Opposites Attract" With Buzz, when he wakes up and walks out of his house not realizing his head grew.
  • Boldly Coming: XR, on Mira, Sally, or whatever Green-Skinned Space Babe is nearby.
  • Brain in a Jar: Zurg's brainpods are robots containing brains.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: The entire plot of "Clone Rangers", where Zurg clones the team, only to find out that clones take time to grow, thus he fields a team of evil kids.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: This line from "Haunted Moon" when Buzz finds an old ship after his was destroyed during a mission to deflect a comet.
    Buzz: Power, on! Magneto engaged! Right engine! Left engine! Thrust stabilizers...functioning! Throttle! Icy hand!
  • Brick Joke: In e "Tag Team", when Buzz comes to after falling unconscious after crashing into some Pedian slug guano while chasing Warp, he jokes about his suit having to be burned after Commander Nebula says he can't have it back. At the end, it's revealed they did indeed have to burn his suit.
  • Butter Face: Gravitina is a Ms. Fanservice, save for her comically oversized cranium.
  • Came Back Wrong: XR's personality change from a standard robot to a Cloudcuckoolander is the result of the LGMs trying to rebuild him without help from the Unimind.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
    • Averted on at least one occasion. XR accidentally mentions a poker game he's going to later, Buzz calls him out on illegal gambling, XR quickly backpedals and tries to make it out as a sting operation, Buzz rolls his eyes knowingly and lets it slide. Besides another one-off joke about it a little later, it's never mentioned again.
  • Cape Snag: Entirely averted. Zurg's cape seems to be for purely dramatic and sometimes Large Ham purposes only.
  • The Captain: Buzz tends to be the team's commanding officer.
  • Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: Buzz is a straightforward example of a space-themed hero.
  • Cardboard Prison: Lampshaded in "Head Case". The episode has XL and XR switching bodies, with XR ending up going to prison with XL's body. When he flips through XL's list of weapons to try and break out, he finds the following:
    XR: Laser beam... acid spray... "Break out of prison"? So THAT explains how he keeps coming back!
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Zurg constantly describes himself and his intentions as evil.
  • Casting Gag:
    • Eon and Era of the Chlorm are voiced by the late Jonathan Harris and Bill Mumy, who both previously worked together on Lost in Space.
    • Booster is voiced by Stephen Furst, who played the similarly Nice Guy Vir Cotto in Babylon 5. Incidentally, the previously mentioned Bill Mumy played Lennier on the same show.
    • The traffic reporter at the beginning of "Speed Trap" was voiced by real-life traffic reporter Jennifer York.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: So much so with so many characters that one must wonder if these people really do ever get scared. And then you remember Booster's and XR's various coward moments.
  • Catchphrase: Buzz's ever-popular "To infinity, AND BEYOND!"
  • Celebrity Paradox: A franchise-wide one. The DTV movie 'The Adventure Begins' opens with Andy's toys watching the very same movie on VHS... with the Toy Story logo in the corner. Obviously the Toy Story franchise can't possibly exist alongside Andy's actual toys... Unless they're Toy Story merchandise that came to life...
  • Character Development: For a series so heavy on Status Quo Is God, the character development of King Nova is impressive. With each chronological appearance, his attitude towards off-worlders, Star Command, and Mira's career choice softens more and more. See Shout-Out.
    • Ty's attitude towards Buzz changes too. In "Wirewolf", he was grouchy and didn't want to interact with Buzz. But in "Revenge of the Monsters", he was friendly and accepted Buzz's friendship. See the Heartwarming Moments page
  • Character Tics: Quite a few! Ty's excessive blinking, XR's fidgeting when he's nervous or scared, etc.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The LGM known as "Independent Thinker"'s oven mitts in "Star Smasher" are this. When Buzz has to get the sun out of the black hole created by Zurg, it turns out that the oven mitts turn into a protective suit that shields the wearer from extreme heat.
  • The Chew Toy: XR constantly gets blown to pieces.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Warp and NOS-4-A2 will betray anyone to save their own skins.
  • Combat Intermission: While Team Lightyear was having a scuffle with a mutant eggplant in "Root Of Evil", XR politely asks the victim family to borrow one of their dining chairs while the action has seemingly calmed down, which after, XR returns to the fight and goes WWE Style on the Eggplant with said chair.
    XR: *Exits Kitchen where Buzz, Mira And Booster are fighting a mutant Eggplant* Hey! *chuckles* Everything's under control, I just need to borrow this for one second. *chuckles*.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In the pilot, Buzz & Warp are investigating an asteroid, and Buzz immediately makes a remark about how he "knows" Zurg is behind whatever they may find there.
    Warp: What plot? You think Zurg is behind every kitten stuck up a tree!
    Buzz: The fiend! Why can't he leave kitty-cats out of his nefarious schemes?
    Mira: What do those people think they're doing?
    XR: Yeah! Everybody knows a flash doesn't work beyond ten feet!
  • Compressed Hair: Mira, whenever she wears her space hood. We only ever see her tuck her hair in once, and it really looks like the hair below her jawline just disappears.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Lampshaded when Buzz and XR find themselves facing cleaning robots after they freeze Booster and Mira. XR reassures him that the robot cannot defeat the two robots alone...only for many other cleaning robots to appear.
  • Cool Old Guy: Commander Nebula, especially that one time he rescues Team Lightyear.
  • Couch Gag: The CG opening segments that take place in Andy's room have multiple variations, from Zurg being in the group of toys and popping Buzz with nerf balls, to Buzz knocking the other toys down with his wings, to Buzz hitting the TV and sliding off it. The montage that follows is also different for each one.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: Buzz's and Mira's plans tend to be this. While on the odd episode, XR and Booster can pull such plans off.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: In the episode "Stress Test" everybody thinks Buzz has gone off the deep end when he insists they've foiled Zurg's latest plan by stealing one of his pens from a transport bus. Said pen later turns out to be a key component of Zurg's HYPER DEATH RAY!!!. In this case, it was completely unintentional; Buzz had no way of knowing it when he picked the pen up.
  • Da Chief: Commander Nebula
  • Dating Catwoman: Gravitina has a thing for Buzz.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Professor Triffid of Rhizome gets to save the day in "Dirty Work".
  • Death World: Welcome to the planet Karn! Watch your step.
  • Debut Queue: The series starts with Buzz in the first episode and introduces the rest of Team Lightyear as the first three episodes go on.
  • Demoted to Extra: The rookies of Team Lightyear in "War and Peace and War," the ostensible finale for the series. Each rookie gets only a handful of lines - the story focuses on Buzz and his crusade to learn the truth.
  • Denser and Wackier: As Angus MacLane clarified, BLOSC is this in relation to its parent movie, Lightyear. Said film, though with many humorous moments, was largely a serious time-travel fare with Buzz struggling with his own desire to finish the mission and a nightmarish take on Zurg. The cartoon, however, was driving by Running Gags and Lampshade Hanging, and dealt with more cartoonish situations (i.e. Zurg making an entire death ray powered by a pen).
  • Desk Jockey: Commander Nebula repeatedly and loudly states that he hates the fact that his rank forces him off the front lines and into paperwork. He's often shown fleeing his own semi-intelligent desk just to avoid more tedious form-filing.
  • Determinator: Quite a few of these, but perhaps most notably in the pilot, "Nos-4-A2," and "Wirewolf":
    • In the pilot, it takes Buzz's capture and the revelation of Warp's true nature to convince him that he needs a partner... "or two... or three."
    • In "Nos-4-A2," XR overcomes his "brainwashing" when Booster shows him the work order signed by Commander Nebula that gave XR life.
    • In "Wirewolf," Buzz's apology to Ty Parsec gets past Ty's werewolf nature and reaches his heart - Ty soon returns to his human self.
  • Detonation Moon: In "Wirewolf", Mira and Booster destroy the moon of Canis Lunis to return Ty Parsec to normal.
  • Disney Villain Death: Evil Buzz Lightyear. However, the last seconds of the episode show him escaping, implying that he might have survived.
  • Ditto Aliens: The Little Green Men. Lampshaded once where an LGM mistook Mira for Booster, and when corrected, said "Whatever. You all look the same."
  • Do-Anything Robot: XR has a lot of gadgets built into him.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: There were quite a few examples of this trope.
    • One instance has XR looking down on top of a tall building in "The Return of XL". That's not so bad at first, but when you think about the angst he was feeling earlier, one might think he was getting ready to commit suicide.
    • When Mira discovers phasing through energy reactors gives her powers a supercharge, it becomes a shockingly realistic depiction of drug addiction.
  • The Dragon: Warp to Zurg. A lot of the other villains answered to Zurg, but Warp did so the most frequently.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Oh, Zurg just loves being evil!
  • Eating the Eye Candy: At one point in "The Beasts of Karn", if you look closely, you'll see that Buzz and XR are ogling at Dr. Ozma Furbanna's backside.
  • Elemental Punch: Plasma Boy uses an electrically charged punch on Booster after a really ugly argument with him.
  • The Empire: Zurg Empire... which seems to consist entirely of Planet Z and the occasional Moon Base.
  • Enemy Mine: Buzz and Zurg team up in one episode to fight aliens who plan to conquer the entire galaxy including Zurg's home. This is even foreshadowed when it is shown that both of them are upset that their allies and henchmen are both abandoning their weapons.
    • Buzz and Warp teamed up once to find out who planted tracking devices in them while they were still in the academy.
    • Buzz and Warp later teamed up again in 'Ancient Evil'.
  • Enfant Terrible: The Clone Rangers, being evil clones of the heroes who also happen to be way younger than them.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Buzz tricks Guzelian into admitting to everyone that his agenda for promoting peace was a ruse to make it easier for his people to invade in "War and Peace and War".
  • "Eureka!" Moment: The one time Zurg and Buzz speak in sync, complete with a sudden flash of lightning.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: "What? An Evil Emperor can't have a mother?!"
    • Let's not forget the infamous Nana Zurg.
    • Zurg's not the only villain who loves his mommy. XR finds this out about Varg the hard way.
  • Evil Counterpart: XL and Warp Darkmatter to XR and Buzz, respectively.
    • Subverted, then Averted with Booster's childhood friend, Buster. He initially assists Zurg with his mutant vegetable plan until near the end of "Root of Evil". Even the last line of the episode continues with the subversion and aversion as Buster states that he and Booster aren't friends, but best friends.
  • Evil Duo: The Grounder bounty hunter duo are rarely seen apart.
  • Eviler than Thou: Both NOS-4-A2 and Evil Buzz have been this to Zurg before, successfully stealing the role of primary threat from him and being taken far more seriously than he is. NOS is also this to XL when they team up. Enough so that XL ends up reforming to stop him.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Just about every villain is a dramatic ham, but Zurg takes the cake.
  • Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Then again, what else do you expect when the walls are purple?
  • Evil Minions: Zurg has a whole staff of bug-like aliens and brains in jars to act as his researchers, technicians and all around servants. Because Zurg has already an army of drones, they are allowed to be weak and cowardly.
  • Evil Overlord: Zurg
    • Who has read some of the Evil Overlord List but still could use a refresher from time to time.
  • Evil Pays Better: Warp Darkmatter's prime motivation is that he finds being on Zurg's side to be more profitable.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Zurg's palace is a giant sinister-looking tower.
  • Evil Twin: Both in the usual sense (ie. an alternate universe counterpart), and from a set of clones created by Zurg.
  • Evil Welcomes Defectors: Played for Laughs when Emperor Zurg takes over a planet Roswell and happily accepts the traitorous resident who offered allegiance as an evil henchman after he played up his negative traits to impress Zurg.
  • Eye Take: A number of characters do this, but Ty takes the cake when he first fights off NOS-4-A2!
  • Face Palm: Buzz and XR will sometimes facepalm whenever someone makes a really dumb mistake. Mira, Ty, Warp, and Commander Nebula join in occasionally.
  • Faked Rip Van Winkle: "Lost in Time" had Zurg deceive Buzz into believing he had ended up centuries in the future after being put into a state of suspended animation as a ploy to trick him into revealing Star Command's secrets.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: NOS-4-A2 in some scenes and Ty's transformation into Wirewolf.
  • Fantastic Racism: Most Tangeans openly show contempt and distaste for any other species, with Mira and Fop being exceptions.
    • As well as the Chlorm aliens who seem to think every species aside from them is a moronic animal. Such as the episode they kidnapped high ranking officials to stick them in a zoo.
    • One episode focused on Team Lightyear finding a group of citizens stranded on a planet inhabited by creatures that destroyed any technology but the most basic tools. Naturally the gruff leader turns out to be controlling the actually mechanical aliens in order to keep the people dependent on him. As it turns out, he himself is a robot with a pathological hatred for organics because he used to work as a stock boy at a grocery store and didn't like being bossed around. Even after his defeat he continues to rant to Star Command's robots about how they need to rebel, only to be shut down by XR.
    • A rather large group of aquatic Bathyosans take great offense at air-breathers living on their world.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The HYPER DEATH RAY!, which apparently provides something 20% worse than death.
    • Also Zurg's intention for Buzz in The Adventure Begins:
      "I'm not going to kill you. Nooo. No, I have a much more delicious idea. I'm going to take the galaxy's greatest hero and turn him into me."
  • A Father to His Men: Commander Nebula, even to XR and XL who decide he is dad based on approving their construction. Buzz is also this to his team.
  • Fearless Fool: Buzz and Mira. Booster and XR are more on the wimpy side, much as they profess to be warriors.
  • The Federation: The Galactic Alliance is a benign union between all the planets.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three rookies all fit this. Booster (fighter) is absurdly strong and tough, Mira (mage) has found many uses for her ghosting powers, and XR (thief) uses a wide variety of unpredictable tools.
  • Flanderization: A cross-media example in the Toy Story universe. The Buzz Lightyear of the movie was a Large Ham when he got passionate about his job, but in spite of treating being a Space Ranger as Serious Business, he still showed emotions of sadness, regret, fear, and annoyance while not hamming it up. The cartoon amped Buzz's hamminess as far as possible, to the point he's rarely not giving William Shatner a run for his money.
  • Flying Car: A lot of these, most noticeably Buzz's car from his Academy days.
  • Flyover Country: Jo-Ad is a flyover planet, populated with folksy, rural farmer types with Midwest accents.
  • For the Evulz: Zurg doesn't usually seem to have a motivation for his misdeeds and for the most part just does what he does because he finds it fun.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: XR and Booster both have four-fingered hands.
  • Friendship Moment: There's quite a number of moments where friendships between characters shine through, most notably with Team Lightyear, and with Ty and Buzz.
  • Friend to All Children: Buzz somewhat. He tells stories of his adventures to them and looks out for them a lot.
  • Funny Robot: XR was created to be a serious space ranger. However, his Hive Mind creators being mentally separated during his first reconstruction resulted in him becoming a PG-rated version of Bender. He's conniving, cowardly, and constantly hitting on girls, both organic and mechanical. Nonetheless, he's still a hero when the chips are down.
  • Fur Against Fang: Subverted; NOS-4-A2 can actually create Wirewolves by biting humans while in the proximity of a kind of moonstone. Double Subverted in his final appearance however; Ty the Wirewolf ends up killing NOS-4-A2 by throwing him against a protruding spike of debris, killing the vampire once and for all.
  • Future Slang: The most notable example on this show is people using "Craters" as an expletive.
  • Galactic Conqueror: Zurg's purpose in life. He actually did take over the galaxy a few times, but the protagonists make sure it never lasts.
  • G-Rated Drug:
    • Mira can ghost through energy which, in true comic book fashion, gives her extreme powers... but also leaves her craving the next "power-up". It actually parallels real drug addictions, since she 1) crashed really hard at the episodes climax (an inopportune comedown or Overdose metaphor), and 2) according to her father who also used to phase through reactors, now has to deal with an addiction for the rest of her life.
    • One episode had a depressed XR chugging multiple cans of 10W40 oil at a bar, (briefly) showing classic signs of intoxication, and only stopping when Buzz comes in and intervenes. ("Why you getting lubricated fifteen minutes to patrol launch?") Since oil is presumably necessary for his functions, this may overlap with Drunk on Milk.
  • Gentle Giant: Booster is a big guy with a big heart. Zurg even addresses him as such in "Lost in Time".
  • Godzilla Threshold: In "Super Nova", Mira suggests ghosting into a reactor in order to prevent a meltdown. Buzz asks her if she has any idea what ghosting into a reactor would even do to her, and she says no, but it has to be better than blowing up. Buzz agrees. It was, in fact, better than blowing up, but it resulted in Mira developing an intense energy-ghosting addiction, and she dealt with the consequences of this decision for the rest of the episode, and, it's implied, the rest of her life.
  • The Good Guys Always Win: Buzz would wholeheartedly argue this and evidence shows he's right. The inversion behind this conceit is the direct reason his evil counterpart is such a threat and seemingly has Joker Immunity. He's a paragon of equal stature to Buzz from a parallel universe where evil always wins. In fact, it seems the only reason that universe can manage a turnaround is because Evil Buzz is no longer present within it.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: XR... though actually, the first time he got destroyed (in the movie) is when he got switched from a near-perfect Space Ranger (miniature copy of Buzz) to his annoying, lovable, nowhere-near-perfect self.
    • This trope was XR's intended purpose, though; the LGMs say his name stands for "eXperimental Ranger" because all this stuff they do that's crazy dangerous to test on real people is no problem for XR, because if something goes wrong, he can be repaired. Commander Nebula expands the acronym as "eXpendable Ranger" because he doesn't much care for the notion of automated Space Rangering.
  • Go Through Me: Buzz invokes this in "Speed Trap"
    Booster:Uh, Buzz? He's not stopping.
    Buzz:He'll stop.
    XR:I hate to be a nay-sayer - goodness knows, it's not my way - but we're gonna be smashed like a bug on their windshield, so maybe we should move, huh? How about that?
    Buzz:Negative, Ranger.
    Mira:Um... Buzz?
  • Gravity Master: Gravitina, the "Mistress of Mass and all its Attraction". Notably, her powers made her head roughly the size of a go-kart.
  • Green Aesop: Just about any episode located on Rhizome or involving Doctor Triffid.
  • Green Rocks: Literally even! The green moon of Canis Lunis, when combined with NOS-4-A2's bite, can transform Ty into a wirewolf.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe:
    • Mira and Gravitina are both attractive aliens with blue skin, with Gravitina leaning closer to an aquamarine shade, but the idea is the same.
    • The college-age, hip Petra Hammerhold is also a beautiful alien and actually has green skin like the trope's name.
    • Also played straight with three extras: a serving girl on Warp’s moon who pops up in two other places, Keno Kentrix’s girlfriend, and Buzz’s blind date in a flashback.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Whenever Buzz and Zurg go at it, they're both chewing the scenery.
  • Head Desk: Romac hits his head against a stasis chamber; Ty hits his head against the inside of his helmet.
  • Heroic Build: Many male Rangers are built this way. It's justified, though, given that the Rangers go through training as shown in the training scene in "The Adventure Begins".
  • Heel–Face Turn: XL after his team-up with NOS-4-A2 ends up joining the side of good.
    • It's implied that, while he'll remain an independent agent, the Grounder Romac won't be taking jobs from the forces of evil anymore.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Zurg is behind almost all other villains, and Buzz is very much aware of this.
  • Hive Mind: The LGMs are a rare heroic example.
    • In the Pilot Movie, Zurg uses the secret to their mind link to control the minds of everyone in the universe.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The way Zurg tends to get his due, especially in the climax of "Lost in Time".
  • Hypocrite:In "Planet of the Lost", Flint accuses organic lifeforms for abusing and using machines. However, his Evil Plan involves using his robot Shriekers to bring down ships and also have them destroy other machines. XR,a frequent victim of Flint's attacks, understandably doesn't buy it and promptly shuts him up.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • "Rescue Mission" has some alien customers complain about being grossed out by finding bugs in their food. The aliens themselves are quite hideous and sickening in appearance.
    • In "Holiday Time", Buzz addresses that belief in the holiday spirit is something XR must decide for himself, only to then demand XR start believing and tell him that that's an order.
    • In "The Crawling Flesh", Buzz and Mira have been transformed into one single inarticulate hideous Blob Monster, which the other rangers believe Buzz and Mira have been eaten by. At the eulogy held in their honor:
    Commander Nebula: Now Buzz and Mira wouldn't want any tears. They knew a ranger's job is a dangerous one, and if you boys and girls can't take the cold hard facts of their demise, well then I suggest you run home to your mamas! YOU GOT THAT? (pause, then he bursts into tears) Why take Buzz? WHY BUZZ? WHY? WHYYYYY?
    • Later at the same eulogy:
    Booster: Buzz and Mira knew to respect every living creature, no matter how strange or hideous. (Buzz and Mira, still mutated, fall out of a vent into the middle of the crowd) IT'S THE STRANGE HIDEOUS CREATURE THAT ATE BUZZ AND MIRA! (opens fire)
  • Ignoring by Singing:
    • In "The Starthought", when Zurg takes the titular Tangean spacecraft, Mira Nova tricks him into using it to wreck his lair by telling him to think of various flight patterns. Zurg at one point tries to drown out Mira's statements by covering his horns and singing.
    • "Shiv Katall" has Booster cover his ears and sing when Mira makes the statement that Shiv Katall is more skilled than Buzz is.
    Booster: I can't hear Mira because she's saying wrong things!
  • I Have No Son!: Although they're not related in any sense, Buzz Lightyear and Warp Darkmatter have this exchange after the latter is revealed to be a spy for Zurg.
    Warp Darkmatter: Welcome to the team, partner.
    Buzz Lightyear: This isn't my team, and you're not my partner!
  • I Have This Friend: Booster tries this when asking for advice on love in "Plasma Monster".
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Buzz invokes this in the episode "Wirewolf" when Ty Parsec in wirewolf form is about to kill him.
    • Also invoked by Booster, when XR is under NOS-4-A2's mind control
  • I Like Those Odds: (Buzz) "Fast. Risky. I like it."
  • Ill-Timed Sneeze: Inverted. XR's obvious and intentional sneeze in "Opposites Attract" actually diverts attention from Gravitina so she doesn't notice Mira sneaking up on her.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: NOS-4-A2 "You could have at least used an adapter."
    • Happens twice. The second time destroys him for good.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Zurg's Hornets rarely hit anything they're shooting at. To be fair, this also applies to a lot of Space Rangers who aren't on Team Lightyear.
  • Inkblot Test: Used several times. Buzz thinks every blot looks like Zurg. Except for a picture of Mira. Who, he muses, helps him fight Zurg.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Booster has had his moments where although he means well, he doesn't always realize the consequences his actions have on others.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Professor Lapton Professor Von Maaaaadmaaan!
    • XL: It's a CENTRIFUGATOR!
    • Zurgatronic VS Zurgarrific. Although Zurg does like the sound of "Zurgarrific"...
    • And let's not forget the Hydro-Trandibulator. Making up words is a perk that comes with the Evil Emperor business, after all.
  • Intangible Man: Mira can phase through solid matter.
    • The entirety of Tangean Overworlder race has this power. They don't even bother installing doors anywhere.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Booster has an endearing friendship with the little alien girl Becky, who affectionately calls him "Pickles".
  • Interspecies Romance: Romac and Mira used to be sweethearts. Mira is a Tangean Overworlder, while Romac is a Tangean Grounder.
  • Iron Butt-Monkey: XR is often blown apart for comedic effect, but can easily be rebuilt since he is a robot.
  • Ironic Name: A Running Gag with the citizens of the planet Gargantia, who all have names like "Maximus," "Humongor," or "Titanicus" despite even the LGMs towering over them. According to their Ambassador, they named their planet before becoming aware of how vast the universe was.
  • James Bondage: Ty Parsec, much to his annoyance, always ends up needing to be rescued. Luckily, he gets a chance to do some saving of his own.
  • Karma Houdini: Evil Buzz Lightyear apparently is quite the successful villain in his dimension.
  • Kick Chick: Mira often fights by kicking.
  • Kidnapped Scientist: Zurg captures the LGM called "Independent Thinker" in "Star Smasher" so that his trash compactor invention can be used to turn the sun into a black hole.
  • Kids Versus Adults: Team Lightyear versus the younger clones of themselves in "Clone Rangers".
  • Killed Off for Real: NOS-4-A2 is put offline several times throughout the series, but his last appearance saw him Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, then screaming and exploding.
  • Kill Sat: In "Planet Destroyer", Zurg uses the titular weapon to wipe out planets. Subverted Trope as Buzz and co discover that the weapon is actually transporting the planets to another dimension.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: Buzz Lightyear is a hero with a huge chin. Commander Nebula also fits the description.
  • Large Ham: Zurg. A good example would be the fact the way he describes his Hyper Death Ray HYPER DEATH RAY!
    • The weapon itself is a Large Ham. Every time it's mentioned, there's evil music.
    • The suave NOS-4-A2 also fits the bill. As Buzz puts it, "Leave it to Zurg to create a villain even more arrogant than himself!"
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you saw the show before watching the movie, you would know that Warp Darkmatter didn't actually die, and that he isn't really the hero he pretends to be.
  • Latex Space Suit: Mira Nova and many of the other female Space Rangers wear space suits that somehow show off their curves.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: The rookies are always eager to prove themselves, but sometimes their enthusiasm causes them to get in the way or screw a plan up, like in "Shiv Katall" or "Rookie of the Year".
  • Legacy Character: Shiv Katall, the most notorious hitman in the galaxy and Zurg's go-to option for taking out defectors from his empire, is really an alias used by Buzz to smuggle those defectors to freed and then report back to Zurg that they have been eliminated. The title was passed to him by Commander Nebula some years earlier and at the end of the eponymous episode, Buzz decides to retire the identity, Booster then dons the armor and submits his resume to Zurg in order to get hired on as the Evil Emperor's new personal bounty hunter.
  • Lightbulb Joke: Torque annoys Buzz with a joke about how many Space Rangers are needed to change a light filament in the episode "The Torque Armada".
  • Light Is Good: The climatic fight between Zurg and Buzz in the pilot. The enormous light in the backdrop is actually Zurg's emblem, but Buzz uses it to defend himself.
  • Literal Cliffhanger: Buzz has found himself dangling from a cliff twice in the series.
  • Little Green Men:
    • The LGMs are fittingly enough aliens that are short and colored green.
    • The people of the planet Rozwell are a play on this trope, as they look the part but act just like 1950's Americans.
  • Living Legend: Captain Buzz Lightyear, as legendary to his own universe as Captain Kirk and Anakin Skywalker are to their universes.
  • A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: All that's known about the setting is that it takes place somewhere in space.
  • Love Hurts: The look on Mira's face when she realizes that she can't be with Romac as long as he's working for Zurg.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Gravitina's obsession with Buzz has clearly not done her sanity any favors.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Hilariously subverted, and an homage to Toy Story 2. It turns out Zurg only said he was Buzz's father to catch him off-guard.
  • Machine Monotone: XR, until Agent Z blows him up and the LGMs put him back together without the aid of the Unimind.
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Bonnie Lepton, daughter of Professor Von Madman. Buzz is quite surprised to see her grow up to be a beautiful woman.
  • Mangled Catch Phrase:
    • In the episode, "Lost in Time", the Buzz Lightyear animatronic does this many times. It's part of Zurg's trap to get Buzz talking about Star Command's critical secrets while Buzz is under the illusion that he was lost in time and is in the future.
      Buzz Animatronic: To Infinity, and even further!
      Buzz Animatronic: To Infinity, and back again!
      Buzz Animatronic: To Infinity, and more Infinity!
      Buzz Animatronic: To Infinity, and so on!
    • In "Mira's Wedding", Fop Doppler, after becoming a Ranger, says "To Infinity, and jolly well past that!"
    • Lampshaded in both examples when Buzz tries one of the Buzz Animatronic's phrases, only for him to say that it just doesn't work, and sighs in disapproval when Doppler spouts his own variation on Buzz's phrase.
    • In "Taking of PC-7", Torque ( With Buzz's Personality) says each time cloning himself "...And Beyond!" after the initial "To Infinity..."
    • In "The Lightyear Factor", Evil Buzz spouts off "Buzz Lightyear! Spreading evil to infinity, and beyond! *evil chuckle*"
    • In "Conspiracy", a Trade World thug threatens to beat Buzz "To infinity and beyond!"
  • Manly Tears: A few times, most noticeably in "The Crawling Flesh", when Commander Nebula bawls over the mistaken belief that Buzz and Mira are dead and a mutated Buzz is moved by Booster's eulogy toward him.
    Buzz: Mira, there's no reason a man can't show emotion.
  • Married to the Job: Buzz's first love is, and always will be, to Star Command and the battle against evil.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • NOS-4-A2, energy-sucking villain. If you don't get it, it's Leetspeak for Nosferatu.
    • Lampshaded with Warp Darkmatter, when he chews Buzz out for not realizing he was a mole. "My name's DARKMATTER. Who's surprised here?"
  • Mecha-Mooks: Hornets, which make up the vast majority of Zurg's forces; there are also Beetles, larger black-and-red variants of the Hornets seen a few times.
  • Medium Blending: The pilot movie starts off with a minute-long Pixar-animated scene of the Toy Story gang (as of the second movie) receiving the video tape of the movie. When they start the movie itself, the camera zooms onto the TV screen and the 2D-animation starts from then on. The series' intro begins with another small Pixar-animated segment, with Buzz performing different actions before joining the gang to watch the current Buzz episode on the TV, similar to how the movie stared.
  • Mildly Military: Star Command does possess some form of militaristic discipline and rule regulation, but they seem lax otherwise.
  • Mind-Control Eyes: Happens in quite a few episodes, like "The Adventure Begins", and "The Shape Stealer".
  • Missing Mom: Then again, Mira is technically a Disney Princess. What did you expect?
  • Mistaken for Own Murderer: Buzz and Mira are exposed to Zurg's latest evil concoction that transforms and fuses them into a single amorphous blob creature unable to talk. When Booster and XR find the blob next to Buzz and Mira's empty uniforms they assume it ate them.
  • Mistaken for Toilet: In "Speed Trap", Team Lightyear is placed on speed trap duty as a result of a botched meeting with the Porcelons, a group of aliens who resemble toilets. After Buzz, Mira and XR keep accidentally saying "sensitive" terms to the Porcelons, which were toilet-related puns, the meeting was ultimately botched when Booster, who's having a Potty Emergency as the other restrooms were closed for cleaning, mistakes the Porcelon ambassador for an actual toilet.
  • Mobile-Suit Human: The Gargantuan Militants have mecha suits built to look like human-sized sapients, which they use to frame Buzz for treason in one episode.
  • Modest Royalty: Mira Nova. She hates being singled out as royalty.
  • Monster Mash: A robotic variant in one episode, which featured a team-up between NOS-4-A2, the Wirewolf, and XL (the Frankenstein's Monster equivalent).
  • Mr. Vice Guy: XR seems to go out of his way to find new applications of his various personality flaws.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Gravitina is very voluptuous, tends to wear revealing clothing, and is often trying to seduce Buzz.
  • Mundane Utility: When Zurg decides to steal the experimental Matter Transport Ray from Star Command:
    Zurg: Such a device could prove useful to me!
    Grub #2: No more schlepping those laundry baskets around!
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Tangean culture's tendency for stuffy arrogance and contempt for off-worlders is a source of great frustration and embarrassment for the rebellious Mira.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In the pilot, the LGMs use "The Claw" to bring the Unimind.
      • And again in "Rookie of the Year", when Warp uses a claw from his spaceship to steal the matter transporter. The LGMs present even go "The Claw!!!"
    • Also in the pilot, Zurg's gun fails to work at first because his minions accidentally placed the batteries for it in the wrong position (placing the minus sides with the positive sides)... just like the toys in Andy's room were doing for the baby monitor in the first movie.
    • While Woody and Buzz are arguing at the gas station in the first movie, Buzz discusses Zurg’s latest plan involving a super weapon capable of annihilating entire planets. The episode “The Planet Destroyer” seems to depict what he was talking about.
    • In “Strange Invasion”:
      Alien: An alien!
      XR: Where?!
    • From "Holiday Time":
      Buzz: Okay, so you're the real Santa Claus?
      Santa: You're mocking me, aren't you?
    • "At Large on a Small Planet" begins with the opening of a Pizza Planet.
    • At Becky's tea party during the end of "Stranger Invasion", Buzz is in a hat and apron that bears an unmistakable resemblance to Mrs. Nesbitt.
  • Naïve Newcomer: The Rookies (Mira, Booster, and XR) all serve as this under Buzz.
  • Naked People Are Funny:
    • Booster ends up naked after lending his space suit to Plasma Boy in "The Plasma Monster".
    • "The Crawling Flesh" shows Booster, Commander Nebula, several Space Rangers, and some LGMs in the nude after they are cured of Zurg's mutation virus.
  • Never My Fault: Many of the villains. XR also rarely takes responsibility for his mistakes.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: Lampshaded and averted in "The Lightyear Factor", where XR worries that the team coming into contact with their alternate universe counterparts could end in disaster, but is quickly proven wrong.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mira, after being repeatedly told to not interfere, drags the other rookies along to follow Buzz in "Shiv Katall". This ends up blowing Buzz's cover as "Shiv", greatly endangering the team (they only escaped with outside help), and costing Star Command a very valuable set up for easily transporting defecting Zurg minions.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: Out of Buzz's partners, we have Gentle Giant Booster as the nice one, loud-mouthed robot XR as the mean one, and snarky but heroic Mira as the in-between.
  • Noble Male, Roguish Male: Booster and XR, respectively. Booster is very nice and always wants to do the right thing, but XR is kind of self-centered and has a few vices.
    • Also Buzz and Warp at any given point in their relationship.
  • No Ending: The series lacks a formal conclusion.
  • No Entrance The Tangean Overworlders take their name from the fact that they have Intangibility as a species trait, and thus they simply walk through the wall of any building they mean to enter. They see this as inheirent proof that they're Blue Blood, and anyone who doesn't know how to enter a building is just not worth associating with, whether they be Tangean Grounders or just outright aliens
  • Not Helping Your Case: During Mira's intervention about her energy addiction, XR illustrates his point of burning out by overcharging a light bulb. Mira attempts to counter by saying she's not a light bulb. Coming from a woman currently glowing like the sun due to excessive energy absorption, nobody takes Mira's point seriously.
  • No Social Skills: Depends on the writers, but Buzz tends to have poor people skills.
  • Not Me This Time: In "A Zoo Out There", Buzz suspects Zurg of kidnapping politicians and calls to demand their release. Not only does Zurg dismiss this as too obvious, but he also turns out to be in a meeting with all the other recurring villains, all of whom deny responsibility.
  • Oh, the Humanity!: Parodied, XR says "Oh, the technology!" when face with robotic carnage.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: In "Devolutionaries", the opening and ending scenes have Gregorianesque chanting as the background music.
  • One-Wheeled Wonder: The series ends by introducing a love-interest for XR: a robotic personality named 42 living inside Star Cruiser 42. By the end of the episode, 42's personality is "surgically" removed from the cruiser and placed inside a short, humanoid, robotic body with a single wheel as its mode of locomotion.
  • Only Sane Man: Mira in regards to her teammates is often the only sensible one.
  • Opposites Attract:
    • Buzz and Ozma are attracted even though Buzz finds Ozma's willingness to defend even the most dangerous of predators to clash with his intent to ensure all civilians are safe.
    • Mira and Romac used to be lovers and are implied to still have feelings for each other even though Romac is somewhat unscrupulous and Mira is highly devoted to Star Command.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: Evil Buzz Lightyear to Buzz. The other counterparts bond with their templates, though XR might Squee over his more rougher combat ready counterpart:
    So...what grade of oil DO they feed you in your neck of the woods?
  • Otherworldly Communication Failure: One episode features a comet haunted by the ghost of an older space hero who keeps saying "enola eno on"note  in an attempt to warn Buzz from being a lone wolf. Subverted, as it turns out the guy is not completely dead and therefore not a ghost, just frozen. After he's revived, he's surprised to hear he was speaking backwards.
  • Our Doors Are Different: Just about every type of high-tech door/hatch you could think of, plus the occasional doorknob.
    • Tangeans doors are truly unique in that they do not exist, since they can just phase through solid matter, they see requiring a physical portal as a mark of an inferior species.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: One episode revolves around an apparent haunting by a spectre comprised of freezing mist on an ice planet, that can only speak backwards ("because he's on the other side"). Buzz finds that the man is still alive, just frozen and somehow projecting the ghost. Oddly enough the same process works on XR, who got caught outside and froze as well, his ghost appearing at the end of the episode asking to be recovered.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: NOS-4-A2, a robotic "energy vampire" that can drain power from as well as control machinery.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Continuing the trend, the Wirewolf, who is Space Ranger Ty Parsec suffering transformations into a robotic wolf-man after getting bitten by NOS-4-A2.
  • Out-of-Character Alert: Buzz and Mira figure out that NOS-4-A2 is in control of Star Command when they see the personnel acting rather unlike themselves.
  • Overlaid Societies: Mira Nova hails from a world called Tangea. She's a princess among her people, who can move through solid objects with ease, among other powers. Also living on Tangea are the Grounders, who have psychokinetic powers. The two races are segregated, and are antagonistic to each other. Moreover, being in close proximity means the powers of both are negated.
  • Painful Transformation: Ty Parsec turning into the Wirewolf is downright cringe-worthy.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: At the end of "Shiv Katall", after the Shiv Katall identity was blown for Commander Nebula and Buzz, Booster takes up the mantle of Shiv Katall, which literally doesn't fit his body too well as parts of his torso, ears, and face were exposed. Yet oddly enough, Zurg hires him on the spot.
  • Parody Product Placement: Meta example as Angus MacLane said on Twitter that the LGMs appeared into the show due to it being sponsored by Pizza Planet in-universe.
  • Perfect Pacifist People: The Rhizomians are a peaceful race and have advanced plant technology.
  • Planet of Hats: Tangea. Rhizome. Capital Planet. Planet Z.
    • Justified with Jo-Ad, an agricultural planet and the Alliance's biggest food producer; Bathyos, an ocean planet; and Tradeworld, a city-planet like Coruscant and the galaxy's proclaimed Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy.
    • Tangea is more of a "Planet of Two Hats," one for each race. The Overworlders (such as Mira and her father) are arrogant, beautiful, blue-skinned people with xenophobic tendencies and intangibility. The "Grounders" tend to wear the hat of being ugly, dumb primitives with mind-beam powers, and prefer form over function. There are exceptions- Mira is quite open with offworlders, and Romac (a Grounder) is shown to be quite intelligent.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: XR and Booster are responsible for a lot of the show's humor most of the time. Nearly always when they're together.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The episode "Head Case". The LGM's at the end meant to say that XR had metal fatigue and not mental fatigue as the two are only one letter off.
  • Pose of Supplication: Ty does this in "Wirewolf". This is after he saves Buzz from the Wirewolf's attacks by taking control of it.
  • Powered Armor: The iconic Space Ranger Pulsar-400 Envirosuits. They are mostly Latex Space Suit at the limbs but the plastron is more voluminous. The space suits are made of special material, have a retractible Fishbowl Helmet and a Jet Pack that allow Space Rangers to fly in most environment and even the void of space. The space suits are also armed with wrist-mounted lasers and other minor gadgets such as scanners or even a double Grappling-Hook Pistol.
  • Power High: Mira's reaction to phasing through energy is to remark how she feels better than she ever has before.
  • Power Nullifier: Tangean Nobles (Like Nova) and Grounders (like her ex) cancel out each other's psionics.
  • The Power of Friendship: The main characters often survive everything they go through and save the day by watching each other's back.
  • Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Booster fakes being brainwashed by Torque when Torque uses the UPA (Universal Personality Adjuster) Helmet in "The Taking of PC-7" on Booster. Justified since Jo-Ad-ian anatomy states that Booster's personality part of his brain is located in his lower body rather than his head, as would the case be with a human brain.
  • Princesses Prefer Pink: Guess what color teen!Mira wore in flashbacks?
  • Product Placement: Angus MacLane revealed that Pizza Planet was the sponsor of the show in the Toy Story universe, hence the appearance of the LGMs as major characters.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Some of Zurg's henchmen.
    Grub: ...But if I don't get my vacation request form in by 5 pm, I'll miss my brother's bachelor party next week!
    Zurg: UGH! Which copy is mine, yellow or pink?
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Punny Name:
    • NOS-4-A2. Spell it out phonetically, what do you get? Nosferatu — and considering NOS-4-A2 is designed to look like a certain blood-sucking Transylvanian pest...
    • XL ("extra large") also fits, specially compared to his "brother".
    • Wirewolf also counts here, since he's a Space Ranger who becomes a robotic werewolf and machinery can contain wires.
  • Puny Humans:
    • Mira's father, the king of Tangea, holds humans in contempt, referring to them as monkeys and considers his species to be above them, much to Mira's disgust. It is ironic however that in one episode where Buzz's team, save for XR, were reverted back to a more primitive form, Buzz morphed into a half-ape, while Mira became a giant amoeba. Though that may have been because she was exposed to more of the gas.
    • The Chlorm go so far as to call all other sapient species "lesser beings", which Mira really hates (not to mention they view all other sapient species as wild animals: keeping them in zoos, using them for product testing, etc.).
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Mira, as rendered by one animation house.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Even with a pegleg, Commander Nebula can still kick ass with the best of them (helps that said pegleg doubles as an ion cannon), and Evil Emperor Zurg can usually curbstomp anyone aside from Buzz himself.
  • Rapid Aging: Warp Darkmatter becomes extremely elderly after Natron takes his life force in "Ancient Evil".
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • NOS-4-A2 and Zurg are both villains with red eyes.
    • Also the side-effect of being blasted by the Zurgatronic Ray. The mind-controlled Rangers are particularly creepy.
  • Red Herring: The A.F.D., the only piece of machinery that XR has but his evil "brother" XL doesn't. When XL rips it off inside XR, it leaves an empty hole where you usually would have a heart. Can you guess what the A.F.D. is? It's an Air Freshening Device.
  • Restraining Bolt: An interesting biological variation, the two subspecies of Tangeans actually lose their mental powers when around members of the other species. Exploited at least once by a corrupt Noble and a platoon of his Grounder lackeys.
  • Refusing Paradise: Buzz is the only good guy who refuses to go along with the Heed in "War and Peace and War". Needless to say, he was right to do so.
  • Retcon: XR's first meeting with Buzz in "First Missions" contradicts what was established in the Pilot Movie by having them first meet in the food court, when Buzz was actually present when XR was first activated in "The Adventure Begins".
  • Remember the New Guy?: Ty. He wasn't heard of until Buzz brought him up in a conversation and labeled him as an 'old buddy' from the Space Ranger Academy in "Wirewolf".
  • The Resenter: Ty Parsec initially resents Buzz for saving him over fifty times.
  • Retroactive Wish: "Unless the clouds are going to open up and drop Buzz Lightyear run in our lap...why didn't I ask for money?"
  • Retro Rocket: Star Command's ships look like 1950's sci-fi rockets.
  • Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: An alternate universe has Buzz as a supervillain, and Zurg a fry cook in a diner.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: XR, in spirit, anyway. Even the LGMs recognize this: "You're almost human. So many character flaws!"
  • Right Behind Me: When Warp is complaining to Buzz that they looked everywhere and haven't found the Little Green Men, a Crater Viper appears behind his back. Noticing Buzz's horrified reaction, Warp points behind him and says "There's something really bad behind me, isn't there?"
  • Rival Turned Evil: Warp Darkmatter, Buzz's old Academy chum. Of course, he was The Mole from day one, Buzz just didn't know that . . .
    • Ty Parsec's introduction works a bit this way, too: Ty places a distress call, and then when Buzz shows up to help, Ty gets immensely annoyed. They used to be friends or classmates or something, but since the early days it's always been Buzz who takes the spotlight, and Ty is sick of it. When Ty gets bitten by NOS-4-A2 and starts transforming into the Wirewolf, you might expect it to come to a bad end... but it turns out Ty is a little more honorable than the tropes would lead you to believe, and even in later episodes he's still a hero, not a villain.
  • Robotic Reveal: In the episode "Planet of the Lost", the villain Flint is revealed to be a robot when he gets crushed by some rubble and emerges from the wreckage with parts of his artificial skin torn off, exposing his robotic interior.
  • Rogues Gallery: Let's see, there's Zurg, Warp, NOS-4-A2, Gravitina, Torque, XL, Evil Buzz, the Chlorm, the Gargantians, the Raenoks and that Klerm guy... I'd say we have a pretty sizable gallery here.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Mira and Fop Doppler (eventually); the rest of the Tangean Royal Court makes it seem like they're the only ones.
    • Mira's father also counts, given his acts in "The Planet Destroyer" and "Supernova".
  • Sapient Cetaceans: The Bathyosians are aliens who happen to be humanoid porpoises.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Booster. This happens to him a few times where sarcasm just flies over his head. In "Wirewolf", for example, he doesn't pick up on Ty's sarcasm after Buzz saves him from NOS-4-A2. Ty even lampshades it.
    Ty: Oh, would you? I'm sure they can't wait to hear how BUZZ saved me again. Make that call, PLEASE.
    Booster: Right away, sir! (goes to call Star Command)
    Ty: (blinks and does a Face Palm) "Sarcasm is lost on the big one".
  • Say My Name: Always humorously by Zurg.
    "LIGHTYEAR!"
    • Once in reverse when Buzz was ANGRY.
  • Scary Science Words:
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: When you've got some sort of giant evil ray gun, the galaxy and all its planets take about ten minutes to enslave. Those evil rays or fireballs or whatever don't actually have to travel; you just lock onto co-ordinates and they're just instantly there, doing their enslaving/destroying thing.
    • In 'Wirewolf' Mira and Booster crash their spaceship into a moon to destroy it. Not only does this work, but the moon is almost entirely destroyed. Apparently moons are not gigantic rocks but basically hollow.
  • Scout-Out: The Ranger Scouts are scouts for the Space Rangers.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Norbert Q. Klerm, The Corrupt Corporate Executive of CompuKlerm.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Subverted by Buzz. He's written half the rules in the official manual, but is also a stickler for the existing ones (especially the one about "backup", as seen in the pilot).
  • Scully Syndrome: Buzz again. He often accuses Zurg of being behind every possible misdeed and/or theorizes overly complicated evil plots - sometimes making him look obsessed. Subverted, however, as Buzz is almost always proven right when he does this.
    • One episode is built around this idea, with Buzz claiming what looks like a pen is a key part of Zurg's latest plan. He comes across as so obsessed and on edge, that the others force him to take some downtime. In actuality, the "pen" is the trigger for Zurg's HYPER DEATH RAY.
    • It also helps that Zurg is responsible for most of the recurring villains.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Natron the First in "Ancient Evil", who was imprisoned in a chamber before being freed.
  • Sequel Episode: "Stranger Invasion" serves as a sequel to "Strange Invasion", as it deals with Team Lightyear returning to planet Roswell to save them from Zurg.
    • "Revenge of the Monsters" is one to "Wirewolf", as it deals with NOS-4-A2 returning and turning Ty into, well, Wirewolf again.
  • Sesquipedalian Smith: Recurring villain Rentwhistle Swack is a good example of having a fancy-sounding first name and a mundane surname.
  • She Is All Grown Up: Bonnie Lepton in "Eye of the Tempest", Buzz hadn't seen her since she "was this big".
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sidekick Glass Ceiling: If Mira, Booster or XR out-anything Buzz, you can be sure it won't last beyond the end of the episode.
  • Sissy Villain: Um, Zurg. Just look at the man's reaction to bunzel bees.
    Zurg: *flailing desperately* "Whu-AH! AHHH! These things sting like the dickens!
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Way on the idealistic side. *coughcough* Star Trek, anybody?
  • Slobs Versus Snobs: Tangean Royals VS. Tangean Grounders. The Royals are as pretentious as they come, while the Grounders are rather crude.
  • Smelly Feet Gag: In "Bunzel Fever", Booster gets knocked out by Torque after he experiences symptoms of the Bunzel Fever, XR and Mira find him and try to wake him up, XR pulls out a sock and waves it in Booster's face, Booster wakes up instantly saying how much it stinks and XR says "this thing could raise the dead", Booster asks whose sock it is, Mira, embarrassed, blushes and snags her sock back.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Mira Nova as the only female member of Team Lightyear, though not the only recurring female in the show.
  • Space Cadet Academy: The Space Ranger Academy provides education and training for potential Space Rangers.
  • Space Clothes: Like most science fiction works, many characters wear outfits that are completely ludicrous in appearance.
  • Space Police: Star Command's Space Rangers have the sworn duty of policing the universe.
  • Spoiler Opening: Granted, it varies based on which opening you get, but nearly every opening montage shows Warp in his villain getup, and the most commonly used one draws heavily on footage from The Adventure Begins and NOS-4-A2.
  • Star Killing: "Star Smasher" revolves around Zurg trying to turn the sun into a black hole and using it to eliminate Star Command and Capitol Planet.
  • The Starscream: NOS-4-A2 actually takes over Planet Z from his creator Zurg.
  • Stealth in Space: Star Command's cloaking technology is so effective that a person inside a cloaked ship can't see any bit of it.
  • Story Arc: Very few and far between as arcs were actually discouraged by producers at the time the series was made, but there were some episodes that had more continuity between them. Excluding the three-part pilot, there was also "Wirewolf" and "Revenge of the Monsters", which could easily be viewed as a two-parter.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The Chlorm are highly intelligent and believe themselves to be superior to all other sapient life forms. An attitude that contrasts hilariously with the fact that all their schemes boil down to "make money unscrupulously."
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Zurg's staff is borderline incompetent due to the stress of having to work for such a Bad Boss.
    "That is, if the freak show known as my staff can do ONE. THING. RIIIGHT!"
  • Take a Third Option: A big part of Buzz's modus operandi. When he has to choose between Mira, Booster and XR as his potential partners at the end of the Pilot Movie, he takes all three on as his team.
  • Take That!: "First Missions" has one towards Starbucks' often-confusing names for drink sizes, in which Zurg complains that tall, grande, and venti should simply be referred to as small, medium, and large.
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Warp. Hard.
    Buzz: How do I safely remove this thing... from my neck?
    Warp: If you're referring to your head, I completely understand your desire to exchange it for a new one.
  • Techno Babble: Most notably Mira in the climax of "Opposites Attract" - and XR, a robot, has no idea what she's saying.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: How Enemy Mine situations between Buzz and Zurg tend to work. They are NOT friends, but they are capable of tolerating each other when their interests align, such as when they took down the Theed.
  • Teleporter Accident: A big part of "Rookie of the Year," in which Mira, Booster, and XR get merged into a three-headed body. At the end of the show, the LGMs are still trying to fix them.
  • Terms of Endangerment: NOS-4-A2 frequently calls XR "Little One".
  • That Came Out Wrong: When Buzz and the others defeat the Chlorm, who had captured them to be used like zoo exhibits.
    Buzz: Maybe now you won't prey on weaker, less intelligent creatures like myself! (Beat) That didn't come out right...
  • Theme Naming:
    • The recurring Chlorm villains Eon, Epoch and Era.
    • The Space Rangers are named after concepts from astrophysics: Buzz Lightyear, Warp Darkmatter, Mira Nova, Commander Nebula, etc.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The HYPER DEATH RAY of course. Lampshaded by Commander Nebula.
    Nebula: How's that different to a normal death ray?
    LGM: More death.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: XR regularly finds himself in situations that get him blown up. Thankfully, he's an easily-repaired robot. This is even explicitly a critical consideration in his design when he was first built.
  • Title Drop: They're actually fairly common in the show. Some examples include:
    • "Inside Job"
    • "Little Secrets"
    • "Bunzel Fever"
    • "Sunquake"
    • "Rookie of the Year"
  • Toilet Humor:
    • A different take on the trope during a flashback showing how our heroes got Reassigned to Antarctica. They were tasked with watching over some alien emissaries that were reportedly "sensitive about their appearance", then Buzz says What Could Possibly Go Wrong? and we finally see the aliens... who all resemble toilet bowls. After that, well...
    • Half of Zurg's goal in "Root of Evil", which involves making children terrified of eating their vegetables, is to make them weak via poor nutrition. The other half? Making them "painfully irregular."
  • Token Human: Buzz... well, he's probably human, anyway.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Sooner or later, everybody fits this trope. Good thing it's a kids show.
  • Too Many Mouths: The president of the galaxy has two, one atop the other.
  • Toyless Toyline Character: Three of the four main characters were made as action figures. Mira Nova was the only one who didn't get one.
  • The Triple: The (supposed) fates of Buzz's comrades in the far future: Commander Booster, President Nova, XR... with a mustache.
  • Trojan Prisoner: Almost goes through with it, with the Commander disguised as a bounty hunter leading Buzz's captured squad away. Unfortunately, the Mole they're secretly rescuing pops out from stowaway too early.
    Brain: Oh yeah? Sweet freedom! Emperor Zurg can kiss my big, fat cerebellum. Oh... we're not at Star Command yet... are we?
  • Troubled Fetal Position: Poor Ty goes through this at one point in "Wirewolf".
  • Tricked into Signing: The LGMs got Commander Nebula (who hates robots) to approve the creation of XR by slipping the authorization form in with their vacation requests. It's also implied they've successfully pulled this trick more than once before.
  • True Meaning of Christmas: XR learns to be more selfless and caring in the Christmas Episode "Holiday Time", but after that he's back to being his self-centered self.
  • Tuckerization: The alien ambassador Guzelian in "War and Peace and War" was probably named after writer Eddie Guzelian.
  • United Space of America: The Galactic Alliance, down to having a President, a Senate and Torque being a wanted man in "...all 50 sectors."
  • The Unpronounceable: The LGMs' homeworld is identified on-screen as Œzạ£▪◊βGæ!.
  • Unusual Euphemism:
    • "Craters!"
    • "Sweet mother of Venus." Golly.
    • "Holy Nova!" Kind of confusing when you consider Mira's last name is "Nova", but it sounds cool.
    • Booster, personally, has "Hot Rockets!", which might also cross into Catchphrase, as he's the only one who ever says it.
  • Unwinnable Training Simulation: Level 10 in the pilot. Mira beats Buzz's record, which was Level 9.
  • Used Future: Sometimes the technology in the show breaks down or malfunctions.
  • Vengeful Vending Machine: XR is shown getting frustrated by an uncooperative vending machine in "Good Ol' Buzz".
  • A Very Star Wars Parody: Subverted. An episode of the show had its plot nearly completely taken from The Phantom Menace.
  • Video Phone: People can contact one another on monitors that enable the callers to see each other. The device is even addressed as such.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Zurg tends to flip out whenever his plans go south, possibly the most in the climax of "Lost in Time".
  • Villain Decay: Warp becomes a lot more inept in "Ancient Evil". In no way does it constitute as Badass Decay.
    • In a bizarre way, it happens with Zurg. His plan in the movie is actually successful, managing to take over the entire galaxy, only failing because of Buzz's incorruptiness, and despite his comedic traits, he is actually more sinister and serious than in the series, coming as an actually threatening villain. In the series, he is generally more wacky and comical, and his plans are less successful. It helps the movie has a more serious tone than the series.
  • A Villain Named "Z__rg": The main villain's name is Zurg.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Gravitina is a villainess with an unrequited crush on the hero Buzz.
  • Virtual-Reality Interrogation: One episode uses the Faked Rip Van Winkle variant; Buzz is convinced a Negative Space Wedgie transported him into the future and destroyed Zurg. In reality, the "museum pieces" are his actual armour, the kids he's telling stories (and weaknesses) to are robots and Zurg is alive, well and showing Buzz's captive crew the whole setup to taunt them.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The HYPER DEATH RAY! (insert evil music here)
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: XR considers Commander Nebula to be his father for signing the papers that authorized his creation, but Nebula initially doesn't wish to acknowledge XR as his son.
  • We Will All Fly in the Future: People can get around with jet packs, flying cars and ships.
  • We Will Meet Again: (Buzz to Zurg) "But the next time we meet, I'm bringing you down and taking you in."
  • Wham Line: Warp Darkmatter, in the Pilot Movie: "Lightyear, I've been on Zurg's payroll since the Academy." Buzz's reaction is the saddest Heroic BSoD in the entire series.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Throughout the series, XR and countless other robots are crushed, torn apart, tortured, and frequently put through the wringer, and no-one bats an eyelid at this regardless of how sentient the robot in question may be. Notably, NOS-4-A2 (a robot vampire) is the only character to be Killed Off for Real.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Mira and Booster do this to Buzz when he shrugs off Bonnie Lepton's feelings for him as a stereotypical Damsel in Distress situation and doesn't even try to take her seriously. Bonnie runs off utterly crushed, as her feelings were quite genuine, and is hurt that once again someone she cares about refuses to take her seriously. It's only after Mira and Booster point out just what Buzz did that he fixes his mistake.
  • Where's the Kaboom?: From "The Lightyear Factor"
    Zurg: Where's my big universe-altering explosion?!
  • Whole Episode Flashback: The show has two of these. "Lone Wolf" shows Buzz in his early days as a Space Ranger, and "First Missions" shows how Buzz met Mira and Booster. And XR...to an extent.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Professor von Madman's a big one to Forbidden Planet.
  • World of Ham: Quite a lot of characters on this show just love to chew the scenery and speak their lines with tremendous amounts of volume and vigor.
  • Wiper Start: In one episode, Buzz attempts to take control of a derelict spaceship. In trying to decipher the controls, he activates a turn signal, a cupholder, the wipers, and the seatbelt. Later, after finding and awakening the crew, it's revealed that the "cupholder" was actually the main helm control.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Professor von Madman as a human/crystal cyborg.
  • World of Snark: Half of the cast gets a chance to snark, especially Mira, XR, Zurg, Warp and Ty. Even Buzz and Booster get their chances to snark once in a while.
  • Worthy Opponent: Twice invoked (not quite in so many words) by Zurg regarding Buzz in the pilot.
  • Wretched Hive: Tradeworld, best known for its black market dealings ans high crime rate, especially Killerville.
  • The X of Y: The series' title "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" in the same vein of an old unrelated show Jason of Star Command.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Buzz takes XR as a nonsentient robot out on a test mission to find Agent Z. At one point Agent Z manages to knock XR off a building, but XR recovers while repeating Buzz's Badass Boast of "he's good, but I'm better". Buzz smiles and says he is learning. Then Agent Z blows XR to bits, and steals the LGM Unimind. While the Little Green Men repair XR, he's not quite the same.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: NOS-4-A2 and XL had a temporary Villain Team-Up but, being aware of what NOS-4-A2 likes to do with robots, XL eventually grew afraid of the trope.
  • You Killed My Father: In "The Slayer", Savy SL-2 makes it her mission to destroy NOS-4-A2 because the energy vampire killed her adoptive robot parents, though they are later resurrected.
  • You Mean "Xmas": The Christmas Episode, oddly, refers to Christmas only as "the holiday", despite the obvious appearance of Santa Claus.
    • Maybe Zurg stole the word too!
  • You Remind Me of X: In “The Slayer”, Savy SL-2 tells XR that he reminds her of her adoptive robot father, because their eyes are the same make and model.
  • Zeerust: Intentionally invoked in the series' aesthetic, even including references to Tomorrowland such as Buzz living in the House of the Future or Star Command's close resemblance to Space Mountain.

 
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No kidnappers here!

Zurg might be a shamelessly capital-E Evil galactic conqueror with a group of henchmen at his command, but neither he, nor his minions would simply kidnap politicians.

They're far too busy planning other, much more evil schemes!

How well does it match the trope?

5 (35 votes)

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Main / NotMeThisTime

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