Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV Series) The Hand of the Goral (1981) User Reviews

Buck Rogers: "The Hand of the Goral"

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 30 August 2017]

PLOT: Buck, Hawk & Wilma discover a human survivor of a crash-landing on a planet with ancient ruins. After returning to the Searcher it's obvious that something is seriously amiss as everyone acts-out-of-character. Buck & Hawk trace the problem to an old 'man' in the dilapidated temple of the ruins who claims he is "the hand of Goral," the long-gone inhabitants of the planet, which is known as "the Planet of Death." Dun, dun, dun.

COMMENTARY: This is one of the top segments of the 2nd season, and even the series. It's very Trek-ian, combining elements of TOS episodes "Mirror, Mirror," "The Mark of Gideon" and "The Empath" (although vastly superior to the latter two turkeys). Unlike the previous 2nd season episodes, "The Hand of Goral" discards lazy drama and creates palpable suspense with a great sense of mystery.

Neat episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 July 2011]

Buck (sound work by Gil Gerard) and Hawk (a fine Thom Christopher) explore the desolate planet of Verdeeth for lost humans. They encounter sole spaceship crash survivor Reardon (a solid performance by Peter Kastner) and take him back on board the Searcher. However, everybody on the Searcher are now duplicates who act totally the opposite of their usual selves. It's up to Buck and Hawk to pass a tough test posed by cunning and devious being the Hand of Goral (an inspired portrayal by John Fujioka) in order to prevent the real Searcher and everyone on board from being destroyed. Director David G. Phinney, working from a crafty and absorbing script by Francis Moss, relates the involving story at a steady pace, builds a considerable amount of suspense, and ably creates and sustains an intriguingly odd and mysterious mood. It's fun to see certain characters behaving with radically different personalities, with especially stand-out contributions by Wilfrid Hyde-White as a brusque and cantankerous Dr. Goodfellow, Erin Gray as a timid, yet flirtatious Wilma Deering, and Jay Garner as a paranoid and tyrannical Admiral Asimov. The tricky plot keeps the viewers on their toes right up until the end. Kudos are also in order for the rousing and spirited score by Stu Phillips. One of the more offbeat and interesting episodes from the second season.

Buck and Hawk on strange planet

[cosmowarriorzero · 7/10 · 21 August 2006]

Buck, Wilma, and Hawk go onto the planet Verdeeth, meaning Planet of Death, in search of more lost humans. There they find Rickard, the solitary survivor of a spaceship crash. Rickard and Wilma return to the Searcher while Buck and Hawk remain. There they discover the space wreck has disappeared before returning to a false duplicate of the searcher as they realize the power of the planet below is to reshape all matter to its will. Also aboard, all the crew are duplicates! Will Hawk and Buck figure out the danger in time? Buck now uses a space shuttle as his preferred choice of transport while Hawk has the more stlylish and cooler Hawkship. Hawk is the best thing aboutthe second series as Buck gets a useful preferrred. However, Twiki gets relegated to the scrapheap and even isn't themost importnant robot. Wilma gets even less to do. Despite this, this is one of the better episodes of the inferior second series.

Planet of Death

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 24 December 2023]

Buck Rogers and Hawk travel in a shuttle and Wilma in a starfighter to explore the planet Deeth, a.k.a. Planet of Death. They find Reardon, a man that crashed his spaceship on the planet three weeks, and Wilma takes him back to the Searcher in her starfighter. While Buck and Hawk are exploring the planet, they note that the crashed starship has vanished, and they find buildings of an old civilization. They are delusional on the planet and decide to return to the Searcher. Soon they note that the personality of Admiral Asimov has become tyrannic as well as other crew members that changed their own. They learn that they are in a replica of the Searcher and fight to escape to return to the real Searcher. But they see that the Searcher is tied up in a snare beam from Deeth. They go to the planet to see how they could release the spaceship, and stumble upon the mysterious Hand of Goral. He says that they have passed the test so far and they have one last test. If they fail, the Searcher will be destroyed.

"The Hand of the Goral" is a good episode of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", with an intriguing story in the style of "The Twilight Zone". The plot is one of the best of the Second Season (if not the Best) of is series, with great participation of the lead cast. Wilma Deering is still very beautiful wearing sailor costumes. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "The Hand of the Goral"