The 90 minute theatrical movie was the pilot for the television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), but was shown in theaters several months before the series aired. The movie made over $21 million in North America alone.
The space dogfights were choreographed with the aid of a Hewlett-Packard "45" computer.
Originally Buck Rogers was to have been put on trial, found guilty, and then banished to Anarchia along with Twiki and Theo until Wilma Deering comes looking for him with an idea that might prove his innocence. In the finished film, after reshoots, the story was restructured so that Buck Rogers chooses to explore Anarchia (with Twiki and Theo tagging along) until Wilma Deering arrives to bring him back, then he's put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be terminated until Wilma presents him with the opportunity to prove his innocence. Since these changes came late in production there were several tie-in publications released (including the novelization and comic adaptation) which followed the original sequence of events.
Originally, Twiki was just going to make unintelligible electronic noises (the "biddi-biddi-biddi" sound) and Dr. Theopolis was to act as his translator. However, this was deemed to be too similar to R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) so Twiki was given a voice of his own.
To cut costs, some footage and various props were used from Glen A. Larson's series Battlestar Galactica (1978). Even some of the concept designs from Galactica were used. The Terran starfighters on Buck Rogers were originally designed as the Colonial Vipers for Galactica, but Larson had opted for a design closer the X-Wing fighters from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Larson then employed the unused designs for Buck Rogers.