Buzz Lightyear of Star Command


Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an American animated science fiction comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It is a spin-off of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. The series was preceded by the direct-to-video film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, and aired on ABC and UPN from October 2, 2000, to January 13, 2001. While the series is 2D animated, Pixar animated the CGI opening title sequence.
Developed by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, the series follows the adventures of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear. The character first appeared as an action figure, voiced by Tim Allen, in the 1995 film Toy Story. Patrick Warburton voices the character in the television series. A video game based on the series was released in 2000.

Premise

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is set in a Star Wars-style setting. Capital Planet is the forefront of the Galactic Alliance, a peaceful union of various planets, home to various alien species that coexist in harmony. Star Command is a peacekeeping organization consisting of Space Rangers, who investigate threats to galactic peace. The primary enemy of Star Command is Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic crime boss and warlord that rules Planet Z, with an empire of heavily armed robots and slave races forced to work in opposition to the Galactic Alliance.
The series follows Buzz Lightyear, an experienced and famous Space Ranger who takes a crew of rookies under his wing as he investigates criminal activity across the galaxy and attempts to thwart Zurg's evil plots to overthrow the universe.

Characters

Star Command

Team Lightyear

Buzz Lightyear is a famed Space Ranger and the leader of Team Lightyear. Buzz often suggests that his archenemy Emperor Zurg is behind every evil plot and is often proven correct. Like his Toy Story incarnation, Buzz is idealistic and a stickler for procedure, but will tell a cover story if he needs to. However, he has few people skills, and at times displays a lack of common sense.Mira Nova is a rookie ranger and heir to the throne of the planet Tangea who possesses intangibility and telepathy. She acts as Buzz's co-pilot and second-in-command. Mira also has an estranged relationship with her father, King Nova, who disapproves of her choice of being a Space Ranger, though she still cares about him.Booster Sinclair Munchapper is a frog/dinosaur-like alien from the agricultural planet of Jo-ad. He has a big appetite and incredible strength, but is sweet and occasionally naive. He is in awe of Buzz Lightyear and has encyclopedic knowledge of his prior adventures.XR: Xperimental Ranger is a small robot who was originally emotionless and programmed to learn from Buzz, but was destroyed by Agent Z during his first mission. The LGMs rebuilt him with a slicker, more emotional personality and a variety of unique and unusual attachments. XR is destroyed on nearly every mission he goes on, but is easily rebuilt. He considers Commander Nebula his father due to him unintentionally signing the paperwork authorizing his creation and is always seeking his approval, much to his annoyance.

Other personnel

Commander Nebula is the Space Rangers' commander and Buzz's superior, whose left leg was replaced by a pegleg-like plasma cannon. He is rather short-tempered and constantly speaks with a loud voice.LGMs, or Little Green Men are small, three-eyed aliens who maintain the technology and equipment of Star Command.Ty Parsec is an old comrade of Buzz Lightyear, who is fed up with Buzz always coming to his rescue. In the episodes "Wirewolf" and "Revenge of the Monsters", Parsec is temporarily transformed into the Wirewolf, a robotic werewolf, after being bitten by NOS-4-A2 and exposed to radioactive rock from the moon Canis Lunis.Rocket Crocket is a member of Star Command and leader of Team Rocket. He has been Buzz's rival since their academy days.Fop Doppler is a Tangean like Mira. He initially joins the Rangers as a challenge to win her hand in marriage.Petra Hammerhold is Senator Hammerhold's daughter. She joins Star Command when her father forces her to do so, largely to keep her from her boyfriend Plasma Boy. She was initially resentful of this, but was moved by Buzz's heroism during a crisis.Plasma Boy is Petra's boyfriend, who can transform into a plasma monster. Booster competed against him for Petra's affection. Mira and XR inadvertently destabilize Plasma Boy's body, but stabilize him and prevent him from exploding, after which he joins Star Command.42 is Buzz Lightyear's ship. In her self-titled episode, 42 gains a sentient artificial intelligence that is later transferred into a robotic body.

Villains

Main villains

Emperor Zurg : The main antagonist of the series and Buzz's archenemy. Rules an empire on Planet Z and wants to rule the entire universe while destroying Star Command. His feet double as rockets and he can transform his arms into a variety of weapons.
  • * The Grubs are Zurg's equivalents to the LGMs of Star Command, though far less competent. They perform mechanical and technical duties. The Grubs work for Zurg against their will and desire freedom, but many of them are too afraid to try to defect.
  • * Brain Pods are brains in mobile jars, who serve Zurg as scientists and researchers. Although they take pride in their creations, they secretly harbor a desire to escape from Zurg's control.
  • * The Hornets are Zurg's robotic foot soldiers. They are incompetent and easily destroyed. Hornets come in different models, but the most frequently seen are yellow and of average height.Warp Darkmatter is a former member of Star Command who worked as a double agent for Zurg and eventually began working for him full-time as Agent Z. Darkmatter previously lost his right arm in a cave-in and gained a robotic arm with various weapon attachments after becoming Agent Z.Torque is an alien with four arms and five eyes who has committed various crimes, including terrorism, smuggling, arson, and unpaid parking tickets. He possesses a mechanical cell-separation chest implant created by Zurg that enables him to clone himself.
  • * Smeego is a small-time crook on Trade World and an acquaintance of Torque.Gravitina is a large-headed female villain with mental control over gravity and an ally of Zurg. She is in love with Buzz and later his evil counterpart.XL is XR's predecessor, who was shut down due to his villainous attitude. When he was reactivated by Zurg, XL rebuilt himself into a larger, more powerful robot with stolen parts. In the episode "Revenge of the Monsters", XL reforms and becomes an office-managing robot. is a robotic vampire created by Zurg who can drain electricity and control any machine he bites. In the episode "Revenge of the Monsters", NOS-4-A2 attempts to transform everyone in the galaxy into robots for him to feed on, but is defeated and destroyed. His name is a parody of Nosferatu.Evil Buzz Lightyear is an evil counterpart of Buzz Lightyear from an alternate universe where he is an evil emperor instead of Zurg.

Recurring villains

Chlorm Scientists - Era, Eon, and Epoch are Chlorm scientists. They implanted devices into Buzz and Warp Darkmatter during their academy days to study the residents of the galaxy. After Warp first began working for Zurg, at Epoch's suggestion, their study shifted to the differences between good and evil and which was better. Eon preferred the former and Era the latter. After learning of the implants, Buzz and Warp broke into their lab and prematurely ended their study. They were subsequently demoted to zoo and research facilities. They began kidnapping Galactic Alliance senators off Capital Planet for the zoo, seeing other races as lesser, wild animals, but Team Lightyear thwarted them.Crumford Lorak is a con man, informant, and criminal commonly seen on Trade World. Crumford is in fact one of the Space Rangers best and worst assets when it came to gathering info on major bad guys. The only time when Crumford went big-time was when he impersonated Senator Banda of Bathyos to give information of the Galactic Alliance to Varg.Gargantian Militants are tiny beings who hide in robotic exosuits to infiltrate what they desire. The Gargantian Militants hate commercial places on their planets as well as the fact that their people joined the Galactic Alliance, preventing war. As a joke, most Gargantian names are an ironic pun to their small stature.
  • * Tremendor is the leader of the Gargantian Militants.
  • * Monumentus is the second-in-command of the Gargantian Militants.
  • * Immensitor is a member of the Gargantian Militants.
  • * Behemor is a member of the Gargantian Militants.Rentwhistle Swack is an unscrupulous con man who will do anything for money. He was once arrested by Booster. Swack was first seen poaching creatures on Karn, where he also bagged Booster in his hunt. He and his fellow hunters are defeated and sentenced to community service on Karn. Swack later appears as Norbert Klerm's "agent/booker/tour guide" when Klerm makes Buzz and Zurg fight each other.Lardak Lurdak is a small-time criminal in a dome helmet.Norbert Q. Klerm - The rich and ruthless head of the business company "Compu-klerm." He is friends with the Madame President. He first appeared to make Buzz Lightyear and Zurg fight each other. He later brainwashed Buzz into thinking he is a Compu-klerm employee named "Flip Faxtoner". His plans were ultimately thwarted by Buzz when he came to his senses and replaced his bots' brains with a fellow co-worker.Raenoks - The Raenoks are the fiercest aliens in the Galaxy.
  • * Kleev is the leader of the Raenoks and Minister of Schemes and Treachery.
  • * Varg is the ambassador of the Raenoks and the supreme commander of the Raenok military.Tangean Grounders are round-dwellers of Tangea that often clash with the Tangeans. They can explode things with their minds. Grounders and Tangeans lose their respective super-abilities when close to each other.
  • * Grounder Clay is a Tangean Gronder.
  • * Grounder Marl is a Tangean Grounder.
  • * Romac is a Tangean Grounder and bounty hunter who was Mira's ex-boyfriend, was hired by Zurg to obtain Brain Pod #57.
  • The Roswellean Major is an unnamed member of Planet Roswell's military who captured Team Lightyear hoping to dissect them. After they got away, he was demoted to Private by his General. He later sided with Zurg in his domination of Roswell which is thwarted by Buzz and Booster and was arrested for collaborating. Roswellians are based on how aliens were described at the time of the Roswell incident.

One-shot villains

The following one-shot villains are listed in order of appearance:Angstrom : Lord of Tangea, former royal Chancellor and King Nova's closest adviser, before he worked with the Tangean Grounders to overthrow King Nova.Minister Gularis is a shark-like Bathyosian minister and leader of the Bathyosian Council who is secretly head of the B.A.R.R. movement. He wears a device with mechanical arms.Professor Spyro Von Madman was originally Spyro Lepton, a former Star Command scientist. His banned experiments lead to his transformation into a Cryborg, a crystalline entity who can empower himself by absorbing electricity. After years of plotting revenge on Buzz Lightyear and a rampage on Capital Planet, he is restored to normal by his daughter Bonnie Lepton. He has supposedly reformed.
  • * Bonnie Lepton is the daughter of Spyro Lepton. Though she is not evil, Bonnie has been helping her father in his experiments. She develops a crush on Buzz Lightyear and helps in stopping her father. However, she is resentful that both Buzz and her father treat her like a child.Vartkes is a gas baron who Buzz encounters after temporarily resigning from Star Command.Flint is an android stockboy who got tired of his forced labor and planned revenge. He created manta ray-like shriekers to attack ships, resulting in castaways on the planet his shriekers were built. He portrayed himself to be the leader of the village where the castaways resided until he was exposed and defeated by Team Lightyear.Keno Kentrix is a Bathyosian casino owner on Mahambas 6 who secretly smuggles weapons.The Heed are a race of supposedly semi-omnipotent beings who in fact have an ulterior motive, that of conquering the galaxy. A Heed named Guzelian used the Grubs and the LGM's to trick the galaxy into believing that he was spreading galactic peace. Once both sides had disable their weapons, the Heed would take the opportunity to strike. However, Buzz and Zurg team up to stop them by broadcasting Guzelian's confession all across the galaxy and destroyed their mothership. They then fled back to their homeworld as both Star Command and Zurg's empire rearmed themselves.Smoltz is from the same alien race as the Madame President. He was a turn-coat working for Zurg when the Madame President's transport crashed on Karn. When Zurg and his Hornets drove away some Karnian creatures, he revealed his true intentions and the reason why Mira Nova was picked for that mission. When Team Lightyear rescue Mira and the Madame President, Smoltz and Zurg pursued them before being chased away by a mother Narlzak and her young.
  • The Care-Bots are robotic butlers built by the owners of an incredibly large spaceship. They are the embodiment of the term, "neat-freak", as they believe that cleanliness is alpha priority. This led to disaster, as they believed that organic beings and XR caused disorder, and for the sake of their pristine spaceship they attempted to "take care of" every living being and XR on the ship using hi-tech freeze rays, including the pilots. This nearly caused their massive shuttle to crash into Capital Planet's sun, which would have caused a supernova and destroyed the surrounding galaxy. They were last seen drifting in space.Natron is an ancient evil space mummy. In his time, he ruled the universe as an ultimate "invincible" evil. Defeated and imprisoned by the Protector, he vowed to once again rule the universe, and is awakened by the LGMs on Planet X thousands of years later. He takes Warp's life force and begins using his technology to attack and freeze everyone on Capital Planet. He is stopped when the LGMs returned the stolen life force to warp and is imprisoned again.
  • The Valkyran Raiders are female space pirates consisting of Brun, Sig, and Hilda. They attack freighters in search of cargo to use for trade and personal use. The mothership of the Valkyran Raiders uses a cloaking device.

Galactic Alliance

Madam President is the head of the Galactic Alliance. Her real name is unknown.Senator Aarrfvox is a Shragorakian senator.Senator Banda is a Bathyosian senator.Senator Hammerhold is Petra Hammerhold's father.Senator Phlegmex is a slime-emitting senator.

Other

Becky is a little alien girl from the planet Roswell. She befriends Booster when Team Lightyear's ship crashes on her planet.Brent Starkisser is the Galaxy's reporter.Cosmo is an alien and the owner of a diner that Team Lightyear frequents. He has a mechanical arm as well as a foreign accent.Dr. Animus is the Galaxy's therapist.Ozma Furbanna is a naturalist on the planet Karn. She favors all animals and hates to have them hurt, no matter what.Ed is a courier who somehow always knows how to track down Buzz Lightyear.Officer Panchex is a fish policeman who helped Buzz Lightyear fight Minister Gularis.Professor Triffid is a scientist from Rhizome. He cares a lot for the plants there.Savy SL2 : Her adopted robot parents were attacked by NOS-4-A2 in "The Slayer", which lead her to hunting him down for revenge.Sheriff of Roswell is Becky's father and an ally of Team Lightyear.King Nova is Mira's father and the ruler of Tangea. Being more tradition bound he clearly disapproves of his daughter being a Space Ranger and therefore has a complicated relationship with her as well as Buzz. But regardless of his pompous nature he still cares about his daughter and is willing to aid her.Santa Claus is the holiday figure, who delivers presents to all the good people in the galaxy during Christmas. He uses a sleigh powered by belief and later time manipulation to accomplish this.The Fixer is a trader from Trade World who sells robotic parts.

Episodes

''Production codes were taken from the Library of Congress.''

Broadcast and syndication

The series was aired during UPN's Disney's One Too programming block from October 2000 to August 2003. One episode, "Super Nova", aired twice during its original run. It also aired on Disney Channel from June 5, 2006, to May 16, 2008, when it was taken off the air in the U.S. Two episodes, "Conspiracy" and "Inside Job", were rarely seen after the September 11 attacks. The show also aired on Toon Disney from August 31, 2003 to May 27, 2007 as well as on the network's Jetix block for a brief time in 2004.

Production

In May 2000, it was announced Walt Disney Television Animation would be producing an animated series based on the character of Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story with Patrick Warburton set to voice the titular character. 65 episodes were announced for broadcast in fall of that year, 52 of which would be broadcast on UPN's Disney's One Too while the other 13 would be broadcast on ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning. While the majority of the animation was done by Disney Television Animation, Pixar provided animation for the show's opening sequence. Other animation houses involved in the production included Tama Productions, Sunwoo Entertainment, Sunmin Image Pictures, Sae Hahn Productions, Hana Animation, Jade Animation, Wang Film Productions and Toon City.

Awards and nominations

Video game

A video game titled Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Activision, and released for PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, and Dreamcast in 2000. The gameplay revolves around Buzz chasing down the various villains from the show, and defeating them using different color coded weapons.