Most music takes quite a while to seep into someone’s head, and it usually takes repeat listening. Music for television didn’t really get much of a chance to do that. Theme songs heard week to week, sure, and in the days when shows were able to reuse music from episode to episode, such as the original Star Trek did (or, to name another whose instantly recognizable themes come to mind, Gilligan’s Island), would ingrain themselves in the memory. And I’m here to report that Bruce Broughton’s music from the second season of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century did the same, at least for young me.
Each episode’s opening credits still unrolled to the tune of Johnny Harris’ brassy arrangement of the Stu Phillips/Glen A. Larson theme tune from season one, but Broughton brought something different to season two; cute synthesized robot music and “something kinda funky” were off the table as the series tried desperately to graduate from its decidedly disco-era first season. Under a new producer who was trying to lend the show a new layer of credibility, Buck Rogers’ second season was somewhat ironically patterned after its cancelled NBC predecessor, Star Trek, with Buck & company exploring deep space rather than staying on Earth. Most episodes opened with a slow tracking shot of the Earth ship Searcher, Buck’s new home base, with a noble, widescreen, and not-at-all-disco-fied theme for the ship and its mission provided by Broughton… and though I had long since lost track of what it was from, when the series resurfaced on DVD, it all came back to me. This four-disc set allows it all to be heard without all of that pesky dialogue and the sound effects mix.
Also in the irony department is the fact that the shorter second season – which ran only half as long as the first season – gets a four-disc soundtrack collection as opposed to season one’s three-disc box set. Chalk that one up to the recognition that, at least musically, the show was trying harder. There would be no goofy scenes of Buck trying to convince anyone to boogie down; the music is painted from a more epic palette for season two’s eleven episodes (two of which were feature-length specials each split into two-parters in syndication), and stands up to more repeat listening than, well, “something kinda funky”. (Not that there’s anything wrong with something kinda funky, it’s just that this wasn’t that show anymore.)
Also getting his own theme from the opening moments of season two is Hawk, the stoic warrior who becomes the show’s #2 star (which led to Erin Gray being somewhat sidelined for the remainder of the show); the music for season opener Time Of The Hawk drives Hawk’s theme through minor and major keys, starting with a threatening sound and ending on a redeemed note as he joins the show as a regular. Broughton continues refining these new themes in The Guardians, which aired later in the season, and gets some marvelously mysterious music into the mix as well, with just a hint of Holst’s “Neptune” creeping into the “Janovus” 27 cue. The second of the movie-length species, Journey To Oasis, opens the second disc, with sweeping but slightly old school music from returning season one composer John Cacavas – not to say that it’s steeped in musical cliche, but it’s pretty much exactly the kind of music you’d expect from a trudge through the desert. It’s interesting that Journey To Oasis also gets its own unique end credit suite – was this an approach being considered for the series going forward? Broughton is back for The Golden Man, iterating his Searcher theme through some moody variations appropriate to its predicament in this episode (being wedged into an asteroid). The music for what’s nominally the episode’s “A” story, involving a wayward father-son alien team where the older of the two is played by a child actor, gets a more interesting musical treatment than it really deserved, but that’s why Broughton quickly graduated from TV scoring to the movies: he didn’t phone in even the most ridiculous assignments.
That comes in handy on the third disc, with Broughton’s scores for The Satyr, a borderline-goofy space western episode, and the hasn’t-aged-well slapstick comedy of Shgoratchx! (whose original title, Derelict Equation, was ejected at the last minute for reasons unknown, according to the liner notes, despite the fact that one can at least conceivably pronounce it). Neither are the show’s finest hour; Bruce Broughton gives them decent scores anyway, and yes, that theme for the Searcher continues to evolve to the point that I now think if someone was really smart, they’d track a Star Trek fan series just with Broughton’s music from this box set, because at this point he’s Buck Rogers’ Fred Steiner. Also on the third disc is Herbert Don Woods’ score for The Crystals, which again brings a slightly more old-school sound compared to the more modern sound of the Broughton scores. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it has a somewhat late ’60s/early ’70s sound to it.
Disc four features the return of Stu Phillips, composer of the Buck Rogers theme and one of season one’s house composers, for The Hand Of Goral, and it’s very much in line with season one’s better dramatic scores, with some real weight and menace to it. Herbert Don Woods’ old-school sound is back for The Dorian Secret (the last episode to air); the album closes out with another Broughton score, Testimony Of A Traitor, which has a heavier, darker sound than most of Broughton’s prior material, and doesn’t allow much development of the Searcher theme since the episode is, atypically for season two, Earth-bound, dealing with Buck’s actions prior to his fateful space flight.
In the end, what makes Broughton’s scores stand out on this set is that he was consciously developing themes that recurred whenever he got a scoring assignment. Naturally, the other composers contracted for different episodes were under no obligation to refer to his material. But Broughton’s work brings this sometimes silliest of sci-fi series the weight and heft of an ongoing saga – the almost-nautical recurring theme Broughton employs makes the show sound, frankly, more important and epic than it ever actually was. It might just be that the music of season two of Buck Rogers was the best thing we got out of the show’s renewal. Well, that and some Crichton one-liners. Sadly, this set is now out of print, with no apparent digital distribution afterlife for the material; an unfortunate fate for music that was better than the show it was meant to accompany.
Disc One
- The Massacre (2:40)
- Main Title (Version 2) (1:14)
- The Searcher (1:44)
- So Far Away (2:30)
- You’re Changing (0:36)
- Thordis (1:48)
- Gassed (1:16)
- War Against the Humans (2:05)
- Flight to Hawk’s Lair (3:15)
- Buck Looks for Wilma (2:34)
- Birdfight (3:22)
- Crash Landing (1:50)
- Koori Injured (2:10)
- The Trek (3:38)
- We Meet Again (1:56)
- Let My Spirit Go (6:06)
- Forget the Past (2:48)
- Bumper (0:08)
- Janovus 26 (1:34)
- The Prophecy (0:46)
- The Messenger (2:53)
- Frozen Mission (1:51)
- I Wasn’t Dreaming (0:29)
- Hawk’s Vision (4:08)
- Vision in the Corridor (1:05)
- I’m Scared (3:32)
- Shuttle to Surface (1:47)
- Janovus 27 (3:41)
- End Credits (long) (0:51)
Disc Two
- Main Title (Version 1) (1:14)
- Head and Body (2:49)
- Episode Titles (1:05)
- Wilma and the Ambassador (4:00)
- Abandon Ship (1:32)
- This Way, Doctor (2:34)
- The Doctor Trapped (1:31)
- You’ll Never Get There (3:43)
- Romantic Dreams (5:09)
- Moaning Wind (4:25)
- Unconscious Thoughts (1:38)
- Ezarhaaden (4:41)
- The Spires of Oasis (6:10)
- Journey to Oasis End Credits (0:54)
- Intercepting Lifepod (1:27)
- Wedged In (2:29)
- Caged (2:23)
- Too Much Weight (3:48)
- Certain Precautions (1:22)
- The Bait (1:23)
- Man in the Cape (4:37)
- Searcher Freed (5:04)
- Straight to Bed (0:50)
- End Credits (0:31)
Disc Three
- The Mummy (3:54)
- The Crystals Credits (1:03)
- Mummy Havoc (3:34)
- Meeting Laura (1:20)
- Mummy Hunt (0:48)
- Mummy Takes Crystals and Laura (3:23)
- The Mummy Is Your Mommy (4:23)
- I’m Frightened (1:55)
- Buck and Mummy Fight (1:54)
- Goodbye Laura (0:52)
- The Satyr Attacks (1:25)
- New Corinth (3:40)
- Just the Wind (4:11)
- He’s Out There (0:47)
- Moon Wine (2:04)
- Pangor and Buck Fight (4:27)
- Buck Transforms (4:17)
- Woman and Wine (4:06)
- Buck Recovers (2:02)
- The Derelict (1:36)
- Lifeforms (1:33)
- Chaos Aboard (3:13)
- Power Plant Havoc (3:23)
- Poor Wilma (0:22)
- Locked In (0:31)
- Wilma Trapped (2:53)
- Last and Best Hope (0:59)
- Twiki’s Solution (4:31)
- Dog of a Ship (0:24)
- End Credits (vocal version) (0:31)
Disc Four
- Strange Flashing (2:37)
- Goral City (2:47)
- Cursed Planet (3:02)
- Suspicious (3:45)
- Searcher Calling (1:14)
- Snare-Beam (0:56)
- Gone Like the Others (5:18)
- Wrong Hawk (2:49)
- Laughter (0:15)
- Pursuit & Escape (1:56)
- Asteria (6:11)
- Unrest (3:16)
- Dorian Justice (3:54)
- Revelation (6:01)
- Look to the Future (1:08)
- High Treason (1:10)
- Traitors and Mad Men (7:40)
- My Best Friend (2:12)
- Clandestine Meeting (1:51)
- Strategic Air Command (1:03)
- Escape to Earth (4:11)
- Mount Rushmore (0:56)
- President’s Bunker (3:50)
- A New Course (0:34)
- End Credits (long vocal version) (0:51)
Released by: Intrada Records
Release date: August 11, 2014
Disc one total running time: 1:04:45
Disc two total running time: 1:05:41
Disc three total running time: 1:10:23
Disc four total running time: 1:09:42
