Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000)
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an American animated science fiction/adventure/comedy series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series originally aired on UPN and ABC from October 2000 to January 2001 as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block. It follows the adventures of space ranger Buzz Lightyear, who first appeared in the film Toy Story as an action figure and one of the film's protagonists.
-
Episode 1 - Lost in Time
Release Date: 2000-10-14The episode opens with Zurg's dreadnought chasing Cruiser 42. Buzz takes the shuttle to lure Zurg into a black hole where he plans to attempt a ""slingshot manuever"" and avoid being pulled in with Zurg. However, he is unable to manage it and enters ""cryosleep"" to await his fate, presumably to be transported through time (and not torn to subatomic shreds). It remains unexplained why Buzz would want to send Zurg to a different time. He awakens later to find himself 1000 years in the future! He has been brought to a musuem erected in his honor. His historic action got rid of Zurg, after which ALL evil disappeared from the galaxy. Eventually, there was no need for Star Command, and it was disbanded. Since he has no job and the museum's facts are a bit off, he accepts a job as the museum's tour guide. He spends his time relating tales of adventure to the kids who visit the museum and correcting the animatronic Buzz installed there (e.g. it says ""To Infinity, and Even Further!""). The k
-
Episode 2 - Rookie of the Year
Release Date: 2000-10-21When a summit conferance of the Galactic Alliance is set to meet at Lumini 9 Space Station, Zurg hears tell of it and decides to attack. After fending off Zurg's forces, Team Lightyear is lounging around Cosmo's. Ed the Courier shows up with notices that Mira, Booster, and XR are all up for ""Rookie of the Year"". Due to their competative nature in the matter, Buzz decides to cover the Lumini Summit himself, and sends the rest of Team Lightyear off to guard the LGMs, who are testing out an experimental Matter Transport Device. Zurg sends Warp Darkmatter to nab the device, which he does (...w/ a large claw, that impresses the LGMs...). Zurg begins to use the device to teleport his hornets directly into Lumini 9 Station. Team Lightyear (sans Buzz) end up being zapped to the station after sneaking into Zurg's Dreadnaught. The device had never been tested on living beings before, and the results are that Mira, Booster, and XR are now blended together into one 3-headed, 8-limbed being (
-
Episode 3 - Wirewolf
Release Date: 2000-10-28Ranger Ty Parsec has been assigned patrol duty on Canis Lupus, guarding a special Galactic Alliance power station that converts radiation from the planet's strange green moon into usable energy. Ty laments the boring responsibility, unaware that NOS-4-A2 is lurking nearby and stalking his robot teamate. When the energy vampire strikes, Ty informs Star Command but insists no backup is required. It arrives anyway in the form of Team Lightyear, much to Ty's chagrin. Ty has been rescued no less that 50 times by Buzz and is sick of being put in that position. During their next patrol, Ty saves XR from NOS-4-A2, but requires Buzz to save him. The vampire is driven off but not before accidentally biting Ty through the flesh. This puts a werewolf-like curse on Ty who is changed into a robot-ravaging ""wirewolf"" when exposed to the strange moon of Canis Lupus. Team Lightyear and Ty himself are unaware of the periodic transformations. The wirewolf eludes a trap, shredding XR in the process
-
Episode 4 - Rescue Mission
Release Date: 2000-11-04Star Command receives a distress call, and the instructions on how to build a device that will teleport one to where the call is coming from. Buzz is sent; he is met by the insectoid Professor Samsa who informs him that his race's queen is in trouble, and that his entire race is also threatened by some large, powerful race that is attempting to wipe them out. The rest of Team Lightyear is sent to help w/ insect extermination at Cosmo's Diner. It turns out that the insects that are plaguing Cosmo's are the race that contacted Buzz (the device not only teleported Buzz, but also shrunk him). The biggest threat (and the major reason that Buzz is unable to contact Team Lightyear right away) is a Remote Disposal Unit that Cosmo is using to clean up the ""bugs"".
-
Episode 5 - Star Smasher
Release Date: 2000-11-11LGMs develop remote trash compactor; Zurg steals it, compacts 42, and then compresses Capital Planet's sun in order to form a black hole. Buzz puts on heat resistant power armor (that reduce down to oven mitts when not in use), flies into the event horizon of the black hole, and activates trash compactors in reverse, thus returning the black hole to it's star-state.
-
Episode 6 - Enemy Without a Face
Release Date: 2000-11-18Team Lightyear get separated and meet up with the last Beletor and the last Krnozian, who're warring over possession of their home planet. It turns out that they're actually of the same race, but small leech-like critters had attached themselves to the backs of their necks and caused them to act violent (violent thought is what the critter feeds off of). In attempting to return the critters to Star Command for further study, they escape, reproduce, and attach themselves to Team Lightyears' necks. Upon arrival, they spill loose and ravage Star Command. Cold air stuns the critters, so XR turns the air conditioning to freezing, thus solving the problem.
-
Episode 7 - Good Ol' Buzz
Release Date: 2000-11-25With a wrist-mounted time travel device, a 150 year old Buzz (which would make him from about 110 years in the future...see ""Lone Wolf""...) travels back to ""now"" to prevent Mira from being killed. Unfortunately, it happened so long ago that he can't quite recall just how, when or where Mira is going to die (...and, it would seem, time travel turns one's memory to ""Swiss Cheese""...Quantum Leap reference?).
-
Episode 8 - Return to Karn
Release Date: 2000-12-02Mira is assigned to accompany the Galactic President and Smoltz (one of her advisors, and of the same race as the President) to a conference. Mid-trip, they're attacked by Zurg and forced to make a crash-landing on Karn. Forced to maintain radio silence, to prevent Zurg from tracking them, they attempt to prevent being eaten, mauled, and otherwise laid low by the various Karnian beasties. Not only is Zurg scouring the face of Karn looking for them, but so is the rest of Team Lightyear (aided by Dr. Furbanna). Eventually, it is disclosed that Smoltz is actually a turn-coat, working with Zurg to try to capture the President (he helped to choose Mira for the mission, thinking that she'd be the easiest to wrangle). With a bit of lucky assistance from a mother Narlzak and her young (...large tunneling Karnian beasts, resembling a cross between a mealworm and a Dune Sandworm...), manage to save Mira and the President from Zurg's plans.
-
Episode 9 - Speed Trap
Release Date: 2000-12-09Due to a ""diplomatic faux pas"" with the Porcelon Ambassadorial Delegates (...the Porcelons look like large-ish toilets...we shan't go into any more detail about the faux pas...), Team Lightyear is delegated to traffic duty. They spot a large freighter going almost the speed of light (...the local speed limit is about .45 light speed...), that isn't responsive to hails. The freighter slams into, and destroys, the resort moon Sand De Soleil, and continues on towards the sun of Capital Planet (...the resulting impact could, potentially, cause the sun to go supernova...). Team Lightyear board the freighter to find it abandoned, except for a maniacally tidy robo-cleaner called ""Care-Bot"". They attempt to plant charges to blow up the ship, but Care-Bot considers them clutter and disassembles the bombs. Meanwhile the bots have set Cruiser 42 adrift, so the team is trapped. Booster is sent down to the engine room to attempt to power down the engines while Buzz, Mira, and XR are attempting to
-
Episode 10 - Holiday Time
Release Date: 2000-12-16""Holiday Time"" is derived from ""The Grinch who Stole Christmas"" with elements from ""The Matrix"" (including slow-motion projectile dodging.) A fun episode with some of the best animation in the series. Evil Emperor Zurg steals the ""Chrono-Disruptor"" from Santa (yes, the REAL Santa). This is a device that allows the Jolly Old Elf to stop time and deliver all those gifts in one night. Zurg then goes on a terror spree. He essentially steals Christmas right out from under the Space Ranger's noses, who are helpless to mount a defense. Meanwhile Santa tries to convince Team Lightyear that he is the genuine article in order to get their help. He finally gets Buzz to believe by relating a tale from Buzz's childhood, something no one should know. We get to see Buzz as a kid in a flashback to when he singed his cat Fluffy's tail with a laser. (yes, he's wearing the hood). This is also the second episode we hear about that rocket toy he wanted but never got as a kid. Santa takes Buzz to his homewo
-
Episode 11 - Opposites Attract
Release Date: 2000-12-23Comm. Nebula sends Team Lightyear to Mahambas 6 to investigate a gravity problem. It turns out to be Gravitina, making a distraction so she can see Buzz and ask him out. He, of course, refuses, and she's then convinced it's because of her head. To get even she zaps Buzz with a gun that makes HIS head huge, and since it's causing a problem at Star Command (he has a bit of a ""head problem"", if I may joke outrageously) he has to leave. Well, Buzz decided he didn't like these arrangements, so he went to confront Gravitina. Anyway, team Lightyear was there, they had tried the same thing before, it didn't work very well. Buzz Lightyear defeats Gravitina, his heads back to normal, everyone (except, possibly, Gravitina) lives happily ever after.
-
Episode 12 - Ancient Evil
Release Date: 2001-01-06While on an archeological expedition, studying ""Planet X"", the LGMs stumble upon the quasi-Egyptian resting place of an ancient powerful being called ""Natron the 1st"" (...who is also known as ""Natron the Destroyer"" and lots of other ""Natron the [REALLY NASTY THING]"" names...). Zurg has sent Warp Darkmatter to scope out the LGM's findings, meanwhile. When Natron awakens, he freezes the LGMs in some sort of stasis field, and drains Warp's life-force in order to soup himself up to a state closer to his former glory. This results in Warp aging into a wizened old man. Natron rants on a bit about how he had been laid low thousands of years ago by someone known as ""The Protector"" (...of whom we find out absolutely nothing...), and sets off to take over Capital Planet. Warp and Team Lightyear set out to stop Natron; Warp is helping Team Lightyear since the only way that he can regain his proper age is if Natron is defeated. They manage to reverse the process that Natron used to drain the
-
Episode 13 - 42
Release Date: 2001-01-13As an auto-piloted freighter is attempting to make a routine transport run, it is attacked by Valkyran raiders (…the primary ones are named Brun, Sig, and Hilda…). The Valkyrans are an Amazonian race that has been around far longer than the Galactic Alliance. In attempting to battle the Valkyrans, Team Lightyear is stymied by the Valkyran ships' ability to phase out in a dimensional warp, thus rendering the ship unreachable. Planning for more raids by the Valkyrans, the LGMs whip up a system that can detect ships that are phased out via some sort of artificial intelligence kind've thing (Commander Nebula tries to explain it, and the LGMs offer little help in clearing things up; since Nebula obviously doesn't understand it himself…). When using the phase detector thingie, Star Cruiser 42 is struck by a fairly massive energy jolt. This causes the experimental detector to unexpectedly grant the operating systems of 42 to become sentient (…and female, to XR's delight…). XR is the on