Original subtitles

Here, why don't you have a couple more of these? You could use the tonnage.

Oh, if only your tact matched the powers of observation.

No offense intended, you know.

Just can't stand these things. You know,

I'm really sorry that we're headed back for Vega Quadrant.

That's, uh...

Stopping off for fuel and supplies on Earth was a nice change of pace.

Now hear this.

The ship has been ordered back to Earth orbit.

All personnel report to duty stations.

Captain Rogers, report to the hangar deck at once. That is all.

We just left Earth orbit 12 hours ago, isn't it?

Well, maybe you won't have to face Vega Quadrant after all.

Attention hangar deck. Prepare to receive Earth shuttle in one minute.

What's going on, Admiral?

Why are we headed back to Earth? Frankly, I don't know.

We received orders to stand by to receive Commissioner Bergstrom

of the Alliance Judiciary Council. Bergstrom?

The war crimes prosecutor? That's the one.

I thought his job was investigating interplanetary

aggression and war crimes on a galactic scale.

Why is he coming aboard the searcher?

Frankly, I don't know. Any more than I know why he requested

that you be on the hangar deck when he arrived.

Earth Shuttle has docked.

Prepare to receive Commissioner Bergstrom

Commissioner Bergstrom, this is indeed a great honor,

although I must admit a somewhat puzzling one.

To what do we owe the pleasure of this meeting?

I'm afraid the meeting will not be pleasurable, Admiral.

I'm here on official business of utmost gravity.

I see.

Well, needless to say, I will do everything I can to assist you.

Captain Buck Rogers?

Yes, Commissioner.

Under provisions of the Alliance War Crimes Act,

you are hereby placed under close arrest.

Captain.

Arrest?

What are the charges? All in good time.

We'll escort the captain to the wardroom.

Yes, sir.

Commissioner, I have a right to know what the charges are.

Very well, Captain.

The Judiciary Council of Earth has decreed that you, Buck Rogers,

be placed under arrest for suspicion of high treason.

In the year 1987, NASA launched the last of America's deep space probes.

Aboard this compact starship, a lone astronaut, Captain William Buck Rogers,

was to experience cosmic forces beyond all comprehension.

In a freak mishap, his life support systems were

frozen by temperatures beyond imagination.

Ranger 3 was blown out of its planned trajectory

into an orbit 1,000 times more vast,

an orbit which was to return Buck Rogers to Earth 500 years later.

¶¶

Commissioner, as commander of this ship,

I insist upon being told what this is all about.

I don't believe that Captain Rogers could have possibly

done anything to warrant an investigation of treason.

Everything will be made clear once the proceedings are underway, Admiral.

Why don't you take a seat?

I do not understand. Everyone, please take their places.

What you've heard is correct, Hall.

I don't understand it any more than you do.

Bring in Captain Rogers.

You sit here, please, Captain Rogers.

General Arheim, I believe we're ready to proceed.

Very well, Commissioner.

Under the provisions of Alliance law, this hearing is now convened.

It is appropriate that this room affords us a view of the Earth.

For it is the Earth which is the true plaintiff in today's proceedings.

I need hardly remind you of the Earth's fragile beauty,

of its tragic and terrible history.

We all know that our planet has been scarred far too many times by wars, famines,

and atrocities for me to have to recount them here.

But without question, the most terrible of these tragedies

was the nuclear holocaust of the late 20th century,

which reduced our beautiful planet to smoldering embers,

laid waste to our gleaming cities, and snuffed out the lives of billions,

plunging our planet into a A dark age from

which it has taken us centuries to emerge.

If the Earth could speak,

it would cry out against the sheer insanity of this wanton destruction.

And it would demand that those responsible be identified and punished.

The instigators of Earth's Armageddon perished along with their innocent victims.

So the blame was never fixed.

The scales of justice were never balanced.

But today, more than 500 years after that horrible bloodletting,

We are able to bring to account at least one of those responsible.

There, there sits the man who as much as anyone else was responsible

for the nuclear holocaust which virtually destroyed

the planet Earth, Captain Buck Rogers.

That's the most ridiculous accusation I've ever heard.

The defendant will return to his seat. I demand to know the basis of your charges.

Where's your evidence? Captain, I will not repeat myself.

Return to your seat.

You will see the evidence, Captain.

Right now.

This lead box was recently unearthed in some newly found ruins in what had been,

in the late 20th century,

the headquarters for the United States Air Force North American Air Command.

These headquarters were located deep within a mountain

in what was then known as the Colorado Rockies.

You'll notice that the box is badly charred.

This is the result of the intense heat that it underwent when

the headquarters was destroyed by the nuclear holocaust.

But the contents of the box survived unscathed.

It's a videocassette.

It's very common in the late 20th century, used to record images,

much as we do with laser holography today, if you will.

Jim Peterson. You recognize this man, Captain Rogers?

He was my best friend.

It's November 22nd, 1987. I am Major Jim Peterson, United States Air Force.

Our country has just undergone a devastating nuclear attack.

All major cities destroyed.

The U.S. counterattack, but radar tells us that the final

enemy salvo that'll finish us off is only minutes away.

As a member of Air Force intelligence,

I've recently come into possession of top secret evidence.

Video tape that proves the attack was provoked by the treasonous

activities of certain fanatical US Air Force officers.

This film It was taken secretly by Air Force intelligence on January 8, 1987.

The man who's about to speak is Lieutenant General Preston C. Myers,

vice commander of the Tactical Air Command.

Gentlemen, we'll make this meeting a brief one,

since I think we're all in agreement as to what needs to be done.

Send Rogers in.

Captain Rogers reporting as ordered, sir.

Sit down, Captain. Yes, sir. By now,

you've had time to think over the project we mentioned last week, Captain.

Yes, sir, I have. Good.

I don't think I need to remind you that the present civilian administration

has repeatedly backed down in the face of foreign provocations.

It's allowed the other side to gain a dangerous

superiority in tactical nuclear weapons.

I agree, sir.

I've given your plan a great deal of thought, General.

I'm convinced that a preemptive nuclear strike is the only way we'll ever

eliminate the dangers that menace our country and our way of life.

And you're with us? Yes, sir.

There is one problem, however.

A preemptive nuclear strike would require the simultaneous

launching of every ICBM in our arsenal.

Now, that could not be ordered without having

a master list of the top secret launch codes.

Those codes are available only to the chief of staff and the president himself.

Precisely, Captain, and that's where you come in.

We want you to obtain those codes for us so we

can launch our strike before the year is out.

How about it? Are you with us or not?

All the way, sir.

Good.

You'll proceed at once.

Anything you need for the job will be placed at your disposal.

Oh, General Roberts tells me your main ambition

is to fly the next deep space probe for NASA.

That's correct, sir. Well, once we have those codes, I think that could be arranged.

Thank you, sir.

Is there anything else?

That'll be all, Captain.

Colonel Turner will see you out.

Thank you, General.

I'm ashamed to say that Buck Rogers was my closest friend until I saw this tape.

And the fact that he was lost six months ago While flying that NASA mission

he wanted so badly may have been God's punishment for his treachery.

I only regret that I grieve for him.

As for the tape I'm making now, after I sign off, I'll...

Place it in this box.

My hope is that someday a survivor of this war or a descendant

of a survivor will find it and learn what really happened.

That our world was blown to bits by Traitors and madmen.

These will be the last words I ever speak.

And I pray that mankind somehow survives this insanity.

It wasn't that way, Jim.

General, we have seen incontrovertible proof that Captain Buck Rogers conspired with

others to plan the nuclear holocaust which virtually destroyed the planet Earth.

I move that this tape recording be grounds for formal indictment of high treason.

I don't believe it. Motion granted. It can't be.

Captain Rogers, you stand charged with high treason.

You will be permitted, of course, to offer testimony in your own defense,

and defense counsel will be appointed if you wish it.

However, I must warn you.

If the charges against you are sustained,

the law requires a mandatory sentence of death.

We shall reconvene at 0900 tomorrow,

at which time you may speak in your own defense.

Buck?

Buck?

Kind of dark in here, isn't it?

If you're here for the standard pep talk, Wilma, forget it.

There's got to be a logical explanation for what we saw.

Maybe it wasn't you. Maybe it was someone impersonating you.

Wilma, you know me better than anyone alive. You know it was me.

What I can't figure out is how it could have been.

I do not remember any of those things ever happening to me.

I don't remember even meeting those generals,

much less being a co-conspirator with them.

You know something?

As much as this charge of treason hurts, Something else hurts even more.

What's that?

The best friend I ever had... died thinking I betrayed him and this country.

Look at me.

Everything all broken up over somebody that's been dead for over 500 years.

It's crazy.

No, it's not.

Buck, I want you to know something. No matter what happens,

no matter how this thing turns out, there's no man I've ever respected more.

Now, I am not going to let you walk into that

hearing tomorrow and run up a white flag.

We're going to figure out why it is that you

don't remember what you saw in those tapes.

And if we can do that, then maybe we can explain how those things happened.

Terrific.

You have any idea how you're going to do all that?

No, but Dr. Goodfellow might.

He said he was going to work on a hypothesis.

Why don't we go find out what he's come up with?

Oh, yeah, why don't we just take a run down to

the lab and talk to Dr. Goodfellow, right?

You forget I'm a prisoner here.

I'm the arch-villain of the millennium.

I can't just go traipsing through the halls of this ship willy-nilly.

Well, I talked to General Ardheim and the Admiral,

and they said that you can go anywhere you like on this

ship as long as you're accompanied by an officer.

And guess what?

I'm an officer.

Well, I wish I could share your optimism, Doctor,

but not only do I not remember what was on those videotapes,

but a lot of what I do remember...

Sketchy, to say the least.

Well, that's hardly surprising, my dear boy. It was.

Only a few months later, as you were frozen in your space capsule for 500 years,

your memory of events immediately preceding was

undoubtedly affected to a considerable degree.

Yes, which makes it a bit difficult to account for my activities.

You know, one thing that really bothers me, Doctor, is that... Well,

the fact that I could be guilty of what they're accusing me of.

Oh, Buck, you can't mean that.

I don't know. I don't know.

I mean, I find it difficult to believe that I'm guilty of treason. I...

But, well, I was worried about the possibility of an attack on our country.

Doctor, isn't there something we can do to help

Buck remember what happened during that time?

Well, of course there is, my dear, the optical engram imager. After all,

it's helped us on other occasions.

When it's been necessary to probe the recesses of someone's mind,

why not in this instance?

But I thought that evidence obtained through an OEI was not admissible in court.

Au contraire, Colonel.

Recent amendments to the Evidentiary Code permit OEI testimony to

be admitted as evidence If the defendant in the case so chooses.

Well, you learn something new every day.

I should certainly hope so, Captain.

Why, Tweeky, what brings you to my laboratory, eh?

Hello, Doctor. Hello, Wilma. I've come to see Buck.

This is for you, Buck.

Well, thank you, Twiggy.

What is it? A petition of support.

Everyone on the ship signed it,

from the Admiral right down to the gang in the engine room.

Thank you, Twiggy. It means a lot to me. We're

all behind you, Buck. We know you're innocent.

Let's just hope the OEI approves that in court tomorrow.

There we are then. I think that's it.

Is it comfortable for you, Buck? That's fine, Doctor. Thank you. Good, good.

Switch it on.

Your best.

We're ready to proceed, Mr. Commissioner.

Thank you.

Lights, please.

According to the evidence that we saw yesterday,

the treasonous activities that you were accused of were planned in January of 1987.

I want you to concentrate.

Think back to that time.

Show the court what you remember of that period.

Nothing.

The ordinary, everything seems pretty routine.

Concentrate, Captain.

We are interested only in those memories relevant to the charges.

Mount Rushmore?

I don't know why that flashed through my head. I've never even been there.

Oh, come, you'll have to do better than that, Captain.

It was you who asked to testify through the OEI.

So far, your memories haven't touched on the case,

or even on anything that might prove your innocence.

Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, something's coming.

Good morning, Carl. Morning. You got the things I need? Yeah.

Here it is. It's fully automatic with an infrared flash.

You can take pictures in total darkness if you have to, undetected.

Anything but the best, huh?

Anything for a good cause.

And this little gem gets you into the safe.

It's computerized with a digital readout.

Just twirl that combination knob, and this baby doesn't rest. Yeah, well,

I think I'm next. Have you figured out how to get into that crypto room yet?

I'm working on it. I should be able to come up with something by next week.

I'm glad you're with us.

General Myers couldn't have picked a better man.

Good luck. Thank you, sir.

I don't remember any of that. You don't remember meeting that colonel?

Well, I think I knew him, but... You knew him?

What I mean is I seem to remember knowing him,

but I don't recall ever having a meeting like that. But isn't it possible,

if you knew him, that such a meeting might have taken place?

Yes, it's possible.

This farce has gone on long enough, General.

Captain Rogers has convicted himself with his own memories.

I demand that a verdict be rendered.

I repeat, General, the prosecution demands that a verdict be rendered.

Commissioner, I must remind you that the defendant has

a right to continue testifying if he so chooses.

Captain, although you may continue if you wish,

I hardly need to point out that your OEI testimony

is hurting your case rather than helping it.

You want to proceed?

Yes, Your Honor, I do.

In the hopes that further testimony might help explain what we've already seen.

If nothing else...

Or to my friends aboard this ship who believe it.

Very well, Captain.

Proceed, Doctor.

All right, Captain, once again,

I'm going to ask you to think about those weeks in January,

allowing your mind to settle on images which

somehow might relate to the matters at hand.

Try to give us something relevant, Captain.

Nothing yet.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm getting something.

I feel like I've been walking God to you all night.

You should be here in ten minutes.

No kidding?

What was it? Sounded like a grenade.

Check the perimeter. Blue.

Someone's been through the area. They blew

up a jeep. Secure the perimeter. Yes, sir.

Air police, open up! Are we under attack, sir?

Sir, this room is off limits. Can it, Sergeant.

Everybody out. This building may go any second. I'm sorry, sir.

I have my orders. This code room cannot be left unattended. Sergeant,

I have my orders as well.

And they are to evacuate this building before anyone is killed.

Now, do I have to arrest you to accomplish that?

No, sir. Let's go.

¶¶

We will recess for lunch.

The hearing will be reconvened at 1400 hours.

Doctor, I have absolutely no memory of any of those

things ever happening to me. None of them!

Now, is it possible that that machine could be wrong?

I'm sorry, Buck, truly sorry,

but the possibility of the OEI being wrong is absolutely nil.

Well, thanks anyway, Don.

Good luck, my dear boy.

Looks like it's all true. Apparently I am a traitor.

I still find that hard to believe.

As do I. Yeah, well, I don't know what I believe.

Buck, I've just spoken with General Arnheim.

The judges feel that no further testimony is necessary.

They intend to announce a verdict when we reconvene in an hour.

Well, that's it then.

I'm sorry, Buck.

Truly sorry.

It's all right, Admiral. I understand.

Well, I guess I'd better be getting back to the bridge.

Are you all right?

I don't know.

I just had a sharp image of Mount Rushmore.

It was like when I was hooked up on the OEI,

only The image was so powerful that it actually hurt.

I just had it again.

Buck.

A sharp, clear image of Mount Rushmore.

I don't understand.

Wait, wait, wait.

These mental images of Mount Rushmore.

They must mean something.

But what?

I do not know.

They began when the OEI was probing Buck's mind, displaying memories so suppressed.

You did not even know they were in your brain.

Hawk, you've got a point.

What if somehow, somewhere,

those images of Mount Rushmore tie in with the other images?

It could be the key to them all.

The answer is obvious.

You must go to Mount Rushmore.

Your presence there could trigger a full recollection

of what happened, of what the images mean.

You could take Wilma with you as a witness to what you discover.

Hawk, we'd never get there.

Once we left the ship, we'd be pursued and caught in no time.

Permit me.

Take care of that.

So far, so good, Wilma. No sign of pursuit.

For both our sakes, I hope Hawk's theory is right.

There's a starfighter on our tail.

It's mine.

Captain Rogers, I have orders to shoot you down

if you don't return to the searcher at once.

How about running?

He's getting closer, woman.

He's zeroing in.

Starfighter, this is Hawk.

Release your controls or I'll rip your ship apart.

Controls released. Hawk, what took you so long?

We almost had our tickets punched.

I had to deal with some Marines who seemed to object to my taking off.

I will take this one to a safe landing spot and release him.

I do not think he will trouble you further.

Buck, good luck. Thank you, Hawk.

Now, Rushmore, here we come.

World's greatest sculpture began in 1928.

It's quite a sight, isn't it?

Yeah, I also read that except for the pyramids

of ancient Egypt and the Aztec ruins in Mexico,

it's the only man-made thing still standing since the Holocaust.

Hello there.

Can I help you folks?

Crawford's the name.

I'm the caretaker here.

Well, Mr. Crawford, we'd like to take a look around the mountain.

Would you really?

Not many folks come up here this time of the year.

I suppose you want to see the president's bunker.

The president's bunker?

Well, most folks haven't heard about it.

Back in 1986, the President of the United States decided he needed

a special bomb-proof headquarters in case a nuclear war broke out.

So he had a special chamber built right inside Mount Rushmore,

directly below the sculptures of the other presidents.

Mr. Crawford, I'd really like to see that chamber. Fine by me, friend.

I'll tell you how to get to it.

I trusted you, Admiral Asimov.

This lapse of security is utterly inexcusable.

Need I remind you, sir, you are aboard my ship.

And if you had put an armed guard on Rogers from the very beginning,

when I asked you to, he would never have been able to leave this ship.

As it stands, not only he and Colonel Deering are gone,

but also your man Hawk knocked two of my men unconscious.

I don't condone what happened any more than you do, Commissioner.

But I'm certain we'll hear from them shortly with an explanation.

It's a little too late for explanations.

In addition to your fighter that I sent out after them,

I've notified all major Earth installations to start a search, both air and ground.

They have orders to fire first and ask questions later.

They sure is gloomy in here.

Well, that would explain what Crawford said about me coming

here from time to time to meet with his military advisors.

It's ironic to think that when the Holocaust hit, he never had a chance to get here.

This is amazing.

I don't know, woman.

Buck, what is it?

I have the strangest feeling.

I've been here before.

But you said you never visited Mount Rushmore.

I know, I know.

I can't explain it.

It's just that...

Buck, are you all right?

What is it?

Wilma, I have been here before.

Don't either of you move.

Captain Rogers, your unauthorized absence has seriously

damaged your standing in the eyes of the court.

Moreover, you have jeopardized two of your colleagues,

who will undoubtedly be charged with aiding and abetting your escape.

You now claim that some... some...

Hallucination you had while on Earth is relevant to this case,

that you should be permitted another opportunity to be tested through the O.E.I.

Well, frankly, after having seen the testimony you've already given,

I should think you would have had quite enough of the O.E.I.

Your Honor, I don't know if further testimony will help

to clear me or only serve to incriminate me further,

but I'm convinced that what I experienced down at Mount Rushmore

was a fragment of a deeply repressed memory.

Now, I have got to find out what that memory is,

no matter how it affects the outcome of my case. General,

this request is highly irregular. I move that it be denied.

Captain, in view of the seriousness of the charges against you,

and the fact that they carry a mandatory sentence of death,

I will permit you to testify one last time.

Thank you, Your Honor. You may proceed, Doctor.

Your Honor, I'm not sure what period I should be concentrating on,

so I'd like to go back a little further than we did before,

to the latter part of 1986, just before the meeting in General Meyer's office.

Very well.

Captain, I'm sure you appreciate how serious a threat our country faces.

Yes, sir, I do.

The security of the entire nation rests on whether or not your plan succeeds.

Precisely.

That is why it's so important that you fully understand the dangers involved.

Think over our proposal.

We're not holding you to any commitment until

you've had some more time to consider it.

We'll talk again in a few days. Very well, sir.

General, what we've just witnessed is clearly the initial meeting

when Captain Rogers was being recruited into the conspiracy.

Your Honor, please, allow me to continue. Let me go back a little further.

Before the conversation we just saw.

Captain Rogers is just stalling for time.

You may proceed, Captain.

Thank you, General.

Come in, Captain, come in. Don't be bashful.

Very pleased to meet you, Captain Rogers.

Your superiors have had nothing but good things to say about you.

It's a pleasure meeting you, Mr. President.

Sit down.

I know you're wondering why you've been summoned here,

and I'm not going to keep you on pins and needles.

I'm going to come directly to the point.

Less than a week ago, Air Force intelligence learned of a plan,

or I should say a conspiracy.

On the part of several high-ranking Air Force officers

to take control of our country's ICBMs.

As near as we can learn, they intend to launch

a first strike against the other side.

I see.

Needless to say, we've got to learn as much as possible

about their plan and as quickly as we can.

And the best way to accomplish that is to have someone working on the inside,

pretending to be one of them.

Now, the senior staff has considered several qualified officers for the job, but...

Your name was at the top of the list.

Well, I'll do whatever needs to be done, Mr. President.

That's the answer we expected, Captain.

There is one problem, though, Mr. President. What?

Well, I don't know how convincing I'm going to be as a fanatical co-conspirator.

Well, we've already addressed ourselves to that problem, Captain.

General Orr, will you fill Captain Rogers in on the details?

Yes, Mr. President.

In order to assure the realism of your performance,

you'll be placed under a form of extremely deep hypnosis,

during which time you'll be programmed, so to speak,

to play the part of a conspirator.

Everything you think, do, and say will be utterly convincing,

not only to the people around you, but to yourself as well.

Are you telling me that my personality will be completely transformed?

Only for a temporary period.

When the operation is ended, you'll be brought out of the hypnosis,

and you'll not remember Anything of the operation or of your part in it.

That is for your own protection as well as for security reasons.

We don't want the public becoming aware of this

plot since it might trigger panic and hysteria.

I understand that, sir.

What will I remember of that period?

You will be given a set of ordinary routine memories through hypnotic suggestion.

You must understand, Captain,

that you've got to stay with the group until we're absolutely

certain we've identified everyone involved.

Air Force intelligence will monitor you every step of the way,

filming your clandestine meetings. Don't worry about support.

You'll be backed up all the way.

Well, I haven't given you much of a Christmas present, Captain.

But in a month or two, we'll have this thing cracked,

and then we'll be able to start the new year with a serious

threat to world peace neutralized once and for all.

Thank you, Mr. President, General.

Commissioner, it would appear that we have come dangerously

close to presiding over a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Bravo, Buck, my boy. Bravo! Nice going, Buck.

Congratulations, Buck.

Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.

Captain Rogers.

I certainly would understand if you choose not to take my hand.

But whether you do or do not,

you have my deepest apologies and sincerest congratulations.

Fusion reactors are at full power, Admiral.

And we're on course for Vega Quadrant.

Excellent.

Go to plasma drive.

Yes, sir.

Buck, I thought you were getting some rest.

I'm still a little too wound up to sleep, Admiral.

I see we're leaving the solar system. Yes,

we moved out of radio range almost two hours ago.

You know, it's a shame. I guess we never will know how the Holocaust started.

At least we know how it didn't start.

I always knew you were innocent, Bunk. Oh, yeah? How's that? Robotic intuition.

Robotic intuition? What in the devil is that? Well,

it's sort of like feminine intuition, only more mechanical. Oh.

Been hanging around Crichton too long, Twiggy.