Original subtitles

Please proceed after the passport, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome aboard. Package can be sold.

Welcome to the Omega Solaris space terminal.

Please, please, please.

You all right?

I think so.

Those were Dorian security men, weren't they?

How did you know that?

The masks.

I've heard that Dorians are mutants, and they keep themselves disguised that way.

Why were they after you?

Please don't ask me any questions.

Where is this shuttle going?

We're headed back for the Earthship Searcher.

We've been picking up survivors of the volcanic eruptions on Avernus.

The space terminal was acting as a temporary evacuation center.

Where will you take them?

To a new colony on the planet Cineus.

Please, isn't there some way I can go with you?

For the time being, consider yourself a survivor.

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.

¶¶

Take any seat in the cabin. This way, please. Hello.

Welcome aboard.

Hello, I'm Colonel Dearing.

I'll be your liaison between the passengers

and the ship's command while you're here.

Hello, Colonel. I'm Daryl, and this is my husband, Joam.

Nice to meet you, Colonel.

Hi.

Very nice to meet you as well.

If you need any help, please let me know. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So you're not settling on Cineus, huh?

No, I fly freighters out of Rigel and Clomax IV. I meet my ship on Cineus.

I see.

What about you, my friend? What line of work are you in?

Best.

Maximum return on minimum investment.

Perhaps we could start a game. Well, well, a gambler.

Actually, a little bit of everything. That doesn't involve too much labor.

Prestidigitation is my latest interest.

Presto.

Care to make a bet on what I can change it into?

I'm not a betting man.

Are you comfortable? Is there anything I can do for you?

We're fine, thank you.

Buck, is something wrong?

I don't know, woman.

I'll talk to you later, okay?

Excellent trick. Do you have any more? Thank you very much.

How did you do that?

Beautiful.

I didn't know you were there.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.

My name is Buck Rogers. You never told me yours.

I'm called Alifa.

Alifa?

Some of you, isn't it?

I never tire of looking at it.

It's beautiful.

Alifa, I don't know why the Dorians were chasing you, but... Well,

if you've got a problem, I'm more than happy to listen.

Does my staying on board depend upon telling you my problems?

No, no, of course not.

It's just that sometimes talking about a problem is the first step to solving it.

And sometimes, Captain, talking about your problems just makes them worse.

Did she find out anything?

No, no.

Whatever was bothering her, she seems to want to handle on her own.

Emergency! Emergency! All personnel report to duty stations.

Our instruments indicate no forward velocity, Admiral.

Why, that's preposterous.

What is it?

They don't seem to be moving.

I don't understand. What is that?

It could have happened for sure.

Activate the vis screen.

There was no sign of it on the scanners.

They must be using a cloaking device.

Energize defense shields.

The defense shields aren't functioning.

I am Kaldar, supreme leader of the Dorians of Cygnus.

Your defense shields have been disabled.

I am in pursuit of a murderess who has taken refuge aboard your ship.

You will give me the Dorian woman, Asteria.

A Dorian woman?

Dorians are mutants, always wear masks.

Everyone here is human.

When the woman is in my custody, your ship will be released.

Dear God, Sali, he's holding us captive.

It's got to be the girl who ran on board the shuttle

when we were loading up the last of the survivors.

There was a gang of Dorian thugs chasing her, so I let her on board.

I concurred with Buck's decision, Admiral.

The Dorians are a harsh people.

When can I tell what they would have done to the girl once they caught her?

Is the woman a Doreen?

She wasn't wearing a mask, but that doesn't prove anything.

Listen to me, Koldar.

I'm Admiral Ephraim Asimov.

Interference with a peaceful vessel in open space is a violation

of the laws governing interstellar navigation.

It is tantamount to piracy.

It is not piracy to seek justice!

I will not permit a known murderous under-sentence of death to escape punishment!

Any complaints you have against her will have to

be taken up in the form of interplanetary courts.

Unlike Dorians, we have a quaint custom called due process of law.

Legal niceties do not interest me.

I have anticipated your attitude and have the means to alter it.

Proceed with first phase thermal intervention.

What's happening? It's getting hot in here.

The cooling circuits, Faith?

The cooling circuits are functioning perfectly.

It's obvious they have some way of changing our cabin temperature.

I have increased the cabin temperature of your vessel to scale plus 7.5.

But an ancient law of physics demands that for every action,

there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Inverse charge.

We've also got some way to lower our temperature.

Scale is minus 3.8 and dropping.

I shall continue to alter the cabin temperature

of your vessel until you give me the woman. That is all.

Father.

Consider this.

The girl has managed to board the Earthship Searcher.

She's undoubtedly on her way out of the star system.

In effect, banishment.

Surely, this is punishment enough.

Are you forgetting she killed your brother?

Merely exiling herself from the Dorian race hardly constitutes punishment enough.

Well, it looks like we've got a criminal in our midst.

A Dorian criminal.

How can that be? No one here's wearing a mask.

I don't know.

But mask or no mask, it seems that our first

order of business is finding out who she is.

I say every woman in this cabin should give an account of herself.

It's the only way we can find out who... There it is!

There it is! I can see it!

That's a Dorian ship, all right.

Change it again. It's getting hot.

Captain, what do you propose to do about this?

How are we going to get ourselves out of this force field?

What Koldar is doing is in violation of every law

governing the conduct of interstellar navigation.

He won't get away with it.

Well, he seems to be getting away with it right now. The ship is stopped.

We're ultimately freezing and frying,

and all because some alien criminal has taken refuge on this ship.

That's right, you know.

She's a Dorian.

Look, what business of ours is it what they do with her?

I say we send her back to her own kind.

That's right. Quiet down.

No passenger on this ship is going to be handed over to armed aliens

who have broken every interplanetary law by stopping us.

I suggest you all return to your seats and try

to make yourselves as comfortable as possible.

Until we can resolve this crisis.

The cabin temperature just went to scale plus nine, sir.

How long can we take this heat, Doctor? Well, in my opinion,

our bodies can't withstand temperatures in excess

of scale 8.2 for a sustained period of time.

Uh, Crichton, Crichton, would you be so kind, my boy? Are you listening? Listen.

Be good enough to provide a vector analysis of relevant

temperature data for me, would you please?

Extrapolation from current temperature data

indicates all mammalian life forms aboard

vessel will attain metabolic stasis by 1600

hours if the present scale is maintained.

Am I mistaken, Doctor, or did he just say that

we have less than eight hours to live?

Yes, Admiral, I'm afraid that's precisely what he said. Well,

if the Dorians change to another cold cycle, that one will probably freeze us solid.

All I'm saying is that we have a right to know who it is.

Aren't you curious?

Doesn't anybody even care?

Captain Rogers already covered this round.

Why don't you just sit down and relax?

Oh, my young friend here seems to think I should relax, huh?

Well, I don't relax so well when I'm in a blast furnace cooking in my own juices.

You don't think so well either.

What's that supposed to mean?

There are at least a dozen women in this cabin.

So just how do you propose to discover who's the guilty party?

Laser mind probe?

Hypnosis?

The rack?

What I propose is that we question every woman here, find out who she is,

What she was doing before she boarded this ship.

And what do we do if we find her?

Turn her over to the Dorians ourselves? Well, why not?

Why should we suffer and die for something that doesn't even concern us?

Let the Dorians settle their own affairs.

And it doesn't really matter whether a woman is guilty or not,

just so long as you save your own skin.

We can start with you.

Do I look like a Dorian to you, mister?

How would I know?

Nobody knows what a Dorian looks like. They always wear masks.

Well, then why don't you just leave me alone

and look for somebody that has a mask on?

I say that all the women here should tell us who

they are and what they're doing aboard this ship. That's enough!

Nobody's appointed you spokesman for the group.

That's right. Not us all.

Fine!

Just fine.

Is that how you all feel?

Yes.

Well, good.

We can all sit here and bake to death.

For all we know, she's the one.

Or them.

Maybe it's one of them.

We left our home in Avernus yesterday.

We've never seen a Dorian.

Lots of people can vouch for us.

Cleus, we don't owe him any explanation.

I think we've got to stop attacking each other.

We are in this thing together.

We're going to have to stick together in order to get out of it.

Noble words, my friend. Noble words.

But are you ready to sacrifice your wife and your unborn child for a murderer?

They've done it again! They've done it again!

There are thermal blankets in the ship's stores.

Those of you who require further insulation may go forward and draw them.

It's about time.

It is likely to get much colder.

You need more protection than that.

Come.

I will escort you to the ship's doors.

I do not think so.

You should come with me.

I said I'd... Perhaps you're right.

Thank you, Hawk.

I think it's time you ended your mysterious lady act.

What are you going to do?

Turn me over to Koldar?

Are you the Dorian he's looking for?

When I saw you looking at your reflection in the viewport,

it was as though you'd never seen your own face before.

That's because you've always worn a mask, isn't it?

You know the customs of my people, Captain.

The mask is never removed in front of others,

and there are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces allowed on my planet.

My people have observed this custom for centuries.

Ever since the Neutron Wars with Rigel, it changed us forever,

leaving us a race of mutants.

Mutants?

You're one of the most attractive women I've ever seen.

There's an old Earth saying, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Such things are relative, Captain.

What is it exactly that Koldor thinks you've done?

What does it matter?

He'll have his way. He always does.

He's trying to fry us again. The temperature's practically a scale plus 10. Look,

you've got to tell me why Koonor wants you.

Lives are at stake.

He thinks I killed his son.

Did you?

Of course not.

I loved him.

Two days ago, I went to see Chozen.

There was a place, an escarpment in the hills where we met. But when I found him,

he'd been hurt, terribly hurt.

He stumbled toward me, bleeding.

And then he lost his footing and fell from

the escarpment even as I tried to hold him.

And as I was running for help,

I learned that others had already found Chozan's body and wanted me for the murder.

If somebody makes his living from others' weaknesses,

I've been coming to a conclusion.

Such as?

Starting a game, my friend.

Starting a game.

What game?

You heard about the Dorians having a dislike for mirrors?

The girl never had a chance to tell her son the story. Now,

Koldor just might listen to one of us.

And he just might not. Yes, you're quite right indeed, Admiral. He might not.

You know, the Dorians are stubborn, proud people.

They isolate themselves from other races in the galaxy for

so many centuries that very little is known about them.

Hence the old saying, of course, dark as a Dorian secret.

At this point, we have no other choice.

Wilma, switch on the VidCom.

Koldar, this is Captain Buck Rogers on board the searcher.

I do not speak with junior officers. Where is your admiral?

The admiral is in charge of this vessel.

I am in command of this mission.

Our interference will cease when you surrender the woman.

We're not prepared to surrender anyone.

How do we even know she's guilty?

The woman's guilt is not in doubt, Captain.

You have evidence?

But... That would be the business of the Dorians of Cygnus, not yours.

It became our business the moment you stopped this ship.

I demand to come on board and examine your evidence.

That is out of the question.

What's the matter, Koldar?

Are you afraid that if an outsider learns the details of the case,

the entire galaxy will know that the Dorians are a race of primitives?

A race that condemns people to death without even a trial?

You may come aboard, Captain.

By the time you leave, neither you nor anyone

else will have cause to doubt Dorian justice.

Wonderful!

Our valiant captain gets the Dorians even angrier.

A little more of his help.

And we'll all be dead for sure.

Why don't you just shut your mouth?

I don't see you helping matters any.

How long do you intend to keep this up, Captain?

What are you trying to say, Rand?

What I'm trying to say is the only way we're going to get

out of this alive is to give the Dorians what they want.

Some of us here believe you know who the woman is.

I already told you, Rand,

no passenger on board this ship is going to be handed over to anybody.

Prepare for docking amid ships.

Prepare for docking amid ships.

I'm Captain Buck Rogers. I've been granted an audience with Koldar.

I am Demeter. Koldar is my father.

Then it was your brother who was killed.

Asteria says she's innocent of your brother's death.

I believe her.

I wish it could be proven so.

My father asks that I show you something.

You'll come with me, please?

I invite your attention to the view scan you're about to see, Captain.

It was taken on a routine patrol by one of our

security ships on the day my brother died. In large detail.

More detail.

Too hot.

It's going to be all right.

Captain Rogers is talking to them.

They'll let us go. We're gonna die, aren't we?

No, of course not.

Yes.

Yes, we're all gonna die. All of us.

It's all right, please.

It's all all right.

Folks, I think it's time to look on the bright side here.

Lighten up the mood with a little entertainment.

My name is Kronos, I like to think I bring a little joy with me when I travel.

For instance... Sleight of hand tricks at a time like this?

Some people are hard to please.

A fan for the lady.

Perhaps others more in need.

A breath of air for each of the ladies.

Indeed, all true believers in Kronos, the prestidigitator,

may have a fan of her own.

And I see how a little levity changes things. It draws us all closer together.

What have we here?

A lady allergic to her own reflection.

All right, Dorian, take a look. Let the woman go. Let her go.

It seems we've found our pigeon. Look in the mirror.

What is it you Dorians see looking in mirrors?

Did you see nothing at all? I said let her go. Here's your Dorian criminal.

Is what they're saying true?

I've committed no crime, I swear.

She weaseled her way aboard this ship and jeopardized our lives.

She has no right to be here.

So what do we do, draw and quarter her? No, of course not.

We simply put her into the emergency airlock and let the Dorians take her away.

You must be out of your mind.

Look at it this way. It's simply a matter of odds.

If the girl stays aboard, then we all die, including her.

But if the girl goes over to the Dorians, then she may or may not die.

But the rest of us definitely live. I say we vote.

Yes.

Vote.

Cleus, you don't know what you're saying.

You have no idea what you're doing.

You may go.

I understand your disillusionment, Captain.

It's always painful to believe in someone,

then find that belief to have been misplaced.

I still don't think she did it.

The view scan itself was ambiguous.

Depending on how you look at it,

it could either be a young woman pushing a man to his death

or struggling desperately to keep him from falling.

I admit it could be read that way by one who

believed in her innocence as you do, Captain.

It's a persuasive argument I could use on my father.

With Asteria's life at stake,

you never thought to argue that with your father before?

Well, well, my father is a difficult man to talk to.

Asteria says she loved your brother. Were you aware of that?

Is this an interrogation, Captain?

Were you and your brother close?

Yes, we were.

But exactly what does that question mean? If you were close,

you would have been aware of any arguments between Asteria and your brother.

Any arguments serious enough to cause her to kill him.

I asked my father to banish Asteria, not execute her.

I have done my best to see she was not unduly punished.

What do you mean by unduly punished?

Dorians are noted for their rigid justice, a life for a life.

Is there something about your brother's death

you're keeping to yourself for some reason?

Sir, your father is ready to receive the Terran in five minutes.

Very well.

Captain?

We just hit scale plus ten.

Still no word from Buck.

Give him time. Give him time.

Better check on the passengers, see how they're holding up.

Anybody who thinks we should turn the girl over, step forward!

And they're over. He can't be serious.

He sounded serious to me.

You better get down there.

Hawk?

Well, what's the matter with you? If you think

we should turn her over, step forward.

Cleus, this is murder they're committing. How can you be a party to it?

Do you want to die? Daryl.

Daryl, we have to think about the baby.

Majority rules! Let's go! Out of my way, pilot!

This is Serger calling the Dorian ship.

The girl you want is in the emergency airlock.

It's locked.

What's that like?

I tried to stop him.

I don't know who I feel sorrier for. That poor girl

you just condemned to death, or all of you.

Father, I present Captain Buck Rogers of the Earth Ship Searcher.

Now that you have seen the evidence of the woman's guilt, Captain,

Neither you nor anyone aboard your vessel will

have cause to question Dorian Justice.

Koldor, you have judged and sentenced the woman

without even hearing what she has to say.

You've held dozens of innocent people on a peaceful vessel

hostage and subjected them to extraordinary cruelty.

You call that justice?

I don't think you or any Dorian has any idea of what justice is.

Under ordinary circumstances, Captain,

such an outburst would merit swift and certain punishment.

But in view of recent developments, I shall overlook your impertinence.

The other passengers voted.

Return the Earthship to its normal temperature.

It's getting cooler.

It is.

It is getting cooler.

I told you if we gave him back the girl, everything would be all right.

Engage the video comm.

I want the humans aboard the Earth ship to witness these proceedings,

that they may know what we do here is nothing more than simple justice.

Kolar, the judiciary of every civilized race in the galaxy bars

those having a conflict of interest from sitting in judgment.

Can you decide the fate of your own son's accused killer and call that justice?

These entire proceedings would be nothing but a sham unless her fate

is decided by someone who has no vested interest in the outcome.

Very well, Captain.

Do any of you find my judgment unjust?

Do any of you find my interpretation of the evidence unfair or illogical?

If so, step forward without fear of censure or disfavor.

And you? Do you find my judgment cruel or unjust, Demeter?

I would have preferred her punishment to be banishment, Father.

But it is your judgment.

My judgment is the judgment of one man, Captain.

But as you can see, its wisdom is recognized by all.

The woman will be executed according to custom after

the proper formalities have been observed.

Ah, yes, ah, yes, the proper formalities.

How could I possibly have forgotten those?

It does make it easier, doesn't it, Koldar?

Nothing like a little ritual to soothe a guilty conscience.

Return him to his ship.

Hold!

If you're gonna execute this girl, I suggest you do it now.

Or is that a little more justice than you can stomach, Kolar?

Maybe it is easier to have some executioner

back on Cygnus do your dirty work for you.

Very well, Captain.

You shall see Justice Swift and sure.

Prepare the prisoner for execution.

No!

This can't be happening. Somebody, somebody stop them.

It's not possible. Surely they're not going

to kill her right there. That's barbaric.

Prepare to execute sentence.

We shall spare the sensitivities of those who cooperated with us.

Disengage the video cam.

Now you shall see that I do not shrink from the consequences of my judgment.

They turned it off! Perhaps you are disappointed you

cannot see the execution you so desperately wanted.

Carry out the execution!

No! Stop!

You mustn't.

What is the meaning of this?

Asteria did not kill Shazan.

Then who did?

It was an accident.

We quarreled, struggled.

Shozan fell and struck his head.

I never dreamed Hysteria would be accused of his death

until you saw him follow his death in the view scan.

And to the very end, of even you bringing her back to Cygnus,

I felt you might let her go.

Release the woman.

You knew I could not let her die.

Why?

Why did you lie to me?

If it was indeed an accident, as you say,

why did you not come forward with the truth?

Because I was frightened.

Frightened of what you would do, what you would say. But most of all, Father...

I was frightened of your sense of justice.

You fear me that much? As much as those who

did not dare to speak against your judgment.

Why did you quarrel with Chosan?

He would go into the hills above the city to meet Asteria.

There, they would violate our custom.

Are you telling me that when your brother met with Asteria,

they would remove their masks? Yes.

Why felt it intolerable that a future leader

of our people should behave in such a way?

And on that terrible morning, we came to blows.

After Shozan fell, he lay there, not moving.

I thought he was dead, so I ran away.

Had I the courage to remove his mask,

I might have seen he was still alive and brought him help.

But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

So, because of this wretched custom of hiding behind masks,

I caused my brother's death.

But now I see that a race of people blindly subservient

to a custom is not a race of people at all, but a race of slaves.

I'm sorry, Asteria.

I shall never wear a mask again.

He's as handsome as Asteria is beautiful.

How could this custom of wearing masks have led to this tragedy?

What is this secret that you people refuse to talk about?

In centuries past, Tens of thousands of our people were driven to suicide,

unable to face the horrors of their mutancy.

To save our race from extinction,

It was decided that no Dorian would ever look upon the

face of another Dorian or appear without his mask.

But now, perhaps my son is right.

Perhaps the time has come for us to find a new way to live with an ancient curse.

Perhaps the Dorian secret exacts too high a

price from those it was intended to protect.

Show him!

Show him what we are!

I am your leader! Do as I command! Remove your masks!

Now!

Imagine.

Imagine, Captain, what it is like to live in a world where

every face you see is a mirror image of your own.

It's Asteria. She's all right.

Thank God.

I still say we did the right thing.

The girl's a Dorian.

We had a right to send her back to her own kind.

Is that so?

In a few days, you'll be landing on a new planet.

It's a beautiful, unblemished world.

If at least some of you learned something from what happened today,

it has a chance of remaining that way.

It's an old-fashioned saying.

Learn from the past and look to the future.

On my day, people never quite got the hang of it.

I hope you have better luck.