Ghost in the House

Lt. Wilma Deering (Lou Prentis) goes undercover at a séance to ensure that the secret of synthetic platinum is not lost to the World. This may be the only surviving episode of the short-lived 1950 Buck Rogers TV series and for that reason is worth watching, otherwise, it is awful, and if typical, explains the series quick demise. After some (now) dated humour involving Lt. Deering's makeup-compact and fear of rubber spiders, the comely Earth Patrol officer travels in disguise to look for the secret formula in a cheap-looking 'castle room' set, complete with 18th century furnishings, stone blocks drawn on the walls, and a Dickensian picture of the deceased inventor on the wall. Other than the heiresses' silver dresses, Wilma's ray-gun and the occasional reference to an unseen 'sky-sled' there is little to place the story in the distant year of 2530. The simplistic plot resorts to the 'look behind you' ruse before the mystery is eventually solved by Buck (Robert Pastene) and Black Barny (Harry Kingston). The scene of the twosome heroically arriving in tights, shorts, gadget-encrusted belts, and ornately spiked headgear raises ridiculousness to a new level. Too bad that the only surviving episode of the 'futuristic' series is a simple mystery with little connection to the central premise- a heroic pilot battling evil in a "world beyond tomorrow". It would be decades before Buck returned to the small screen in a colorful, technically sophisticated, but no less ridiculous series of adventures.