Remaking Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

[Typhonis 1]

You want an interesting future for Buck to wind up in look at GURPS Transhuman space. "Homo Sapiens is a lifestyle choice "


Sentient machines, uplifted animals yes cats , dolphins, chimpanzees ,octopi. Humans gene modified form different environments or cybernetically enhanced Nano medicine and enhancement . Missles and fighters gone replaced by AI remotes that have psychopatic programming.

[Jade Falcon]

There were some decent ideas in the 70's series and I'll guiltily admit to owning both seasons on DVD. The idea, for instance that New Chicago was basically the main city and that Earth was slowly recovering was good, but later episodes in season 1 seemed to drop that too quickly.

Episodes such as Return of the Fighting 69th were decent, but there were also some pretty poor ones such as Space Rockers.

[Crayz9000]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing it made in a similar manner to Sky Captain, with actors only shot in front of a green screen and the surroundings filled in with CGI. That would allow them to get by on a smaller budget, especially if most of the actors were previously unknown.

Since Buck Rogers's origins are rather retro-sciifi, they could return to those roots in a way (although not as much as Sky Captain or everyone would notice immediately). They wouldn't have to go all-out, just enough FX to be convincing without breaking the bank.

[Shannon]

I like a lot of what is being said here.

My wife and I were talking more about this last night. She said she could see James Marsden as Buck because she thought he could pull off the emotional depth required for a man who is hit with literal future shock combined with the pain of his own lost past life.

That said, Zixinus' idea of Buck being an astronaut on a fast STL round trip returning 500 years later but not aging because of time dilation has an interesting wrinkle. Surely astronauts sent on such a mission would know that was to be their fate and be psychologically prepared for it. I'd imagine they'd have to be extremely stable people, even more so than your typical astronaut is supposed to be. Perhaps someone with few ties is deliberately chosen to fill the roll.

Of course, that wouldn't eliminate the future shock (look at the differences in the English language from 500 years ago; look at how far we've come in just 100 years) but it would mean that the pain of loss should be mitigated.

On the production front, green screen could work. IIRC too much CGI can quickly become just as expensive as real sets, however.

Tsyroc thanks for the tip about the DVDs. Yeah, things frequently aren't as good as you remember them.

[Ohma]

Buck Rogers and co go to another solar system, fuck around a bit, go home and find a completely new society in which he has difficulty fitting in. Wormholes that make lightyear-journeys near-instantaneous are found.
Then what? Well, the society finds a use for Buck Rogers. He is still an Air Force pilot, has combat experience so they send him out as a special enforcer of the law, his natural aggression and military past aiding him in a society that has traded that aggression for longevity. He his high jurisdiction and is asked to help with special cases.

I think (combined with Stravo's suggestion for a less familiar future society) that that would be pretty awesome.

Maybe the majority of human kind has been incorporated into some kind of cybernetic consciousness (like the Borg, but hedonistic) but because the consciousness isn't prone to aggressiveness (maybe it was weeded out of human biology in an effort to create a more stable mind or something) the consciousness finds itself ill prepared to deal with the series' Big Bad.
So whenever the consciousness encounters aggressive individuals (human and otherwise) it offers them a position with the interstellar police (or whatever).

As a result Buck finds himself as the most stable person on the team, valuable not for his in depth knowledge of future tech/aliens/whatever, but for being the least psychopathic person on the team.

...though my version there could really easily turn into "Torchwood IN SPAAAAACE" if the writing team weren't up to snuff.

[Darth Wong]

I prefer the fish out of water Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon stuff to be really over the top. I mean if we woke up 500 years later I expect some of the cultural differences alone to be startling, perhaps almost too much to handle. Imagine some poor bastard from 1508 waking up now. He would be horrified and frightened by everything he saw. Why should it be different for Buck? Why not wake up in a world where technology has progressed to a point where he just can't hop into a ship and fly it?

Maybe it needs implants to work, maybe the environment has changed so drastically he can't be outside for very long. Maybe he can't even understand the English being spoken because its more like a hodgepodge of other languages - think Gaffe from Bladerunner and his cityspeak - maybe society permits things like homosexuality to the point where exclusive heterosexuality is frowned upon. Maybe there's a machine dictatorship, maybe there's a genetically engineered caste of rulers, maybe a plague wiped out 90% of humanity and the rest are hiding out in self contained environments with no knowledge of the outside world? Who the hell knows. 500 years is a damned long time for a society to develop not just on a technological level. Just look at the difference between 1908 and 2008 alone in all respects.

Its silly to make the future slightly different than our current society with futuristic add ons. Shock the audience as much as Buck should be shocked. Make us go "Holy shit!" when we discover things along with Buck. That should be the goal. Not 2508 being 2008 with a few futuristic twists.

The funny thing is that if you actually go back and watch the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers movie again, it is a dystopia in many ways. I watched it again recently, and I was surprised at how obviously dystopic it was. Humans live in small isolated walled-up cities dotted across a blasted hellscape filled with mindless mutants. The government is a machine dictatorship, which nearly executes Buck Rogers on suspicion of treason without anything resembling what we'd call a fair trial. There is no more agriculture, so their diet is composed of carefully designed "food discs" which literally look like poker chips and are imported from farming worlds where the governors use slave labour to keep costs low.

It's as if there were clever people trying to hide a much darker kind of sci-fi beneath the happy shiny campy exterior of the show, which never asks you to question any of this.

[Jade Falcon]

The funny thing is that if you actually go back and watch the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers movie again, it is a dystopia in many ways. I watched it again recently, and I was surprised at how obviously dystopic it was. Humans live in small isolated walled-up cities dotted across a blasted hellscape filled with mindless mutants. The government is a machine dictatorship, which nearly executes Buck Rogers on suspicion of treason without anything resembling what we'd call a fair trial. There is no more agriculture, so their diet is composed of carefully designed "food discs" which literally look like poker chips and are imported from farming worlds where the governors use slave labour to keep costs low.

It's as if there were clever people trying to hide a much darker kind of sci-fi beneath the happy shiny campy exterior of the show, which never asks you to question any of this.

That's what I was talking about when I was thinking there was some good ideas. This was seen most often in the pilot/theatrical release, but the idea of Earth basically being in one hell of a state was toned down. We never saw any more of Anarchia the ruined city for example.

[Stark]

Remaking Buck Rogers would probably be a better idea than remaking Blake's 7... unless they wanted to follow the tone of the first few episodes, and actually have fascism and dystopia explored rather than Robin Hood in space.

[Ohma]

Remaking Buck Rogers would probably be a better idea than remaking Blake's 7... unless they wanted to follow the tone of the first few episodes, and actually have fascism and dystopia explored rather than Robin Hood in space.

It is odd that they never expanded all that much on how Orwellian the federation was. The show usually focused on Blake and co. either running around on some random planet, attacking a small federation outpost (which you'd expect to be defended, even if it was by stupid robots that couldn't differentiate between a swinging bit of wire and a human intruder), or trying to outwit either Servalan or Traviss on some crazy cowboy casino space station planet that was totally messed in its own way.

[Zixinus]

Maybe the majority of human kind has been incorporated into some kind of cybernetic consciousness (like the Borg, but hedonistic) but because the consciousness isn't prone to aggressiveness (maybe it was weeded out of human biology in an effort to create a more stable mind or something) the consciousness finds itself ill prepared to deal with the series' Big Bad.
So whenever the consciousness encounters aggressive individuals (human and otherwise) it offers them a position with the interstellar police (or whatever).

I have the vision of Buck Rogers being more of "special forces" guy and I wouldn't go as far as cybernetic consciousness. It is enough if most people are just somehow "tamed". There can be many reasons for this, even consensual. Disease, shock WW3, economical stability, new cybernetic media, forced genetic changes, etc.

It's enough that Buck has his own, fresh viewpoint and that he is somewhat immune to some of the cultural thinking and traps that most people of that age can be in. That fact, that in case my scenario is chosen, he is most likely a skilled rocket pilot and a very stable and resourceful figure is a plus. All you have to do is put a highly-competent officer next to him (Lana or whoever that chick was called) to make sure he doesn't go overkill or do something stupid, while being a guide.

This way, the love interest can be a bit modern.

BTW, in Lem's novel, the returning astronaut was stronger if not just as much strong as a Olympic athlete, due to the continuous high-g he had to endure during acceleration. So him being super-strong is somewhat explained.

If we are desperate for a McGuffin, he could always have picked up something during his trip to the other solar system.

I am more afraid that I can't think up enough freaky stuff to show. Spacers (belters, their culture), cybernetic implants and their impact upon society (sure, everyone views jack-ins and insufferable nerds, but everyone uses their programs), bioengineering (I can't even begin to think of the possibilites here). Hell, I think it would be worth to list all the weird stuff found in sci-fi that is often ignored.

That said, Zixinus' idea of Buck being an astronaut on a fast STL round trip returning 500 years later but not aging because of time dilation has an interesting wrinkle. Surely astronauts sent on such a mission would know that was to be their fate and be psychologically prepared for it. I'd imagine they'd have to be extremely stable people, even more so than your typical astronaut is supposed to be. Perhaps someone with few ties is deliberately chosen to fill the roll.

Try to get a copy of Stainslaw Lem's "Return from the stars" then. You might like it. He deals extensively with this issue.
I find Lem to be a very good writer. His works definitely left an impression on me, and I think he was on-par to many of the great science-fiction writers in the West. Of course, he had high standards and some bullshit of his own, but his works are still good.