Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000-2001)

Starring: Patrick Warburton, Nicole Sullivan, Stephen Furst, Larry Miller, Neil Flynn, Wayne Knight, Adam Carolla, Diedrich Bader, and Frank Welker
Grade: A

Despite only lasting a mere four months with one season in total, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command holds up gloriously compared to the crop of middling cartoons Disney produced in the 2000s. Following an excellent direct-to-video spinoff film to get this show off the ground, this television series picks up right where things left off, furthering the exciting space escapades of famed protector of the universe Buzz Lightyear. As stated previously in my review for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, the new direction they take Buzz to separate him from the Toy Story universe effectively changes everything we know about our titular hero, but it’s for the better. Here, the legendary space ranger is given his own world to play around in, and the team behind this cartoon showcase craft and curate Buzz into a character with “Franchise star” capabilities. Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley’s reimagining of the science fiction action star turns him into one of the most underrated protagonists the genre has ever known with some of the most eventful 22-minute episodes consisting of innovative exploits regarding space exploration, violence, humor, and sci-fi fun for kids and adults alike.

Sometime in the future, a collection of planets and their leaders are a part of a peaceful union known as the Galactic Alliance. As one would imagine, maintaining this peace proves difficult. Outside of the bubble on Capital Planet, which is what we know as Earth, the universe consists of a litany of criminals, supervillains, and other nefarious characters hellbent on destruction, domination, and other illegal activity that threaten the existence of the good and innocent. Because of these persistent threats outside of the Galactic Alliance, the existence of Star Command is crucial to the success of good keeping its title of importance in the presence of evil. Star Command is a police force of space rangers that work to blanket the universe from corruption and is filled with the most honest, incorruptible, well-trained, and fearless law enforcement individuals known to man. At the top of the list is the most famous space ranger of them all in Buzz Lightyear (Warburton). By-the-book almost to a fault, Buzz is the cream of the crop and is one of the coolest and most badass heroes in all the galaxy. Whenever there is evil afoot or there’s even the slightest strike against the Star Command Manual he help write, Buzz is there in a heartbeat ready to lay down the law. His exploits are well-documented by pretty much any known person in the galaxy to the point where he’s feared by most criminals and respected by everyone considered an ally. Basically, if he enters any room across the universe, everyone and their mothers are well aware that business is about to pick up. Taking over the role from Tim Allen, Patrick Warburton still honors the character the best he can but adds his own goofy flair to it, though it’s hard to tell if this is intentional or just a result of Warburton still having one the funniest voices in all of Hollywood next to H. Jon Benjamin.

Even now, I still think to myself in Warburton’s delivery following a suggestion by saying, “Good thinking ranger!”.

A big highlight of the direct-to-video feature of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is Tim Allen’s performance still retaining humor but going more for a full “action star” approach. Though Warburton doesn’t reach this same level of seriousness, he still treats the character with a lot of respect in accordance with this performative philosophy regarding the space icon, especially when it comes to his more death-defying missions. Also, making Buzz a little funnier is a plus, as we have to consider the fact that this is still a children’s cartoon. Going the Gargoyles route wouldn’t make sense when you look at the supporting cast, the vibrant imagery, and the Toy Story movies that preceded it, as the fanbase is already built in. The direct-to-video movie that initiated the spinoff was more of an action movie first and a comedy second, but it was never too serious, just a little more dramatic. It was a movie after all, so it’s expected. The cartoon just leaned into the humor a bit more than the film, and it’s needed to offset the violence in every episode and space criminality that includes everything from forced slavery to an assassination attempt on the Ambassador of Gargantia (Inside Job). It keeps things light while retaining exhilarating action worthy of a topflight science fiction action adventure, keeping your eyes glued to the screen wondering how Buzz and the rest of Team Lightyear will find a way out of this one when all hope is seemingly lost. Regularly, the space rangers will find themselves in shootouts on foot, flying through the air in Star Cruiser 42 under fire, or in their own spacesuits while taking on bounty hunters like the replicating Torque, an energy vampire named NOS-4-A2 (Craig Ferguson) who was created by Zurg but became a superstar antagonist on his own, the possibly French supervillain Gravitina who’s enlarged head has the ability to control gravity (and is head-over-heels in love with Buzz), and even an evil Buzz Lightyear from an alternate universe!

How do we know he’s evil other than his antagonistic colors? His goatee of course!

There are hundreds of other villains that Star Command hunts throughout these extremely eventful 62 episodes, but the recurring one’s make fans out of us pretty quickly, with the exception of Torque because Brad Garrett could not shut the fuck up. No matter how many times Buzz stops or imprisons them, they always find a way to crawl back into the business of Star Command and develop vendettas against Buzz and his team. The imagination involved in the creation and motivations of virtually every villain they face is impressive, and it fulfills the wishes we have for a television show that is basically a blank canvas for new and creative alien lifeforms in a new world of possibilities and situations. The thought and care gone into each planet they cross paths with or the characters that encompass each world is enough by itself for audiences to wish for a second season.

The overarching villain of the show is the Evil Emperor Zurg. In one way or another, most of the criminal beings involved in the show are rooted back to him. Sometimes, he aides them to fuck with Buzz Lightyear like with Torque, he creates them like with NOS-4-A2 or The Shape Stealer, or he just works with them like the consistently hired Warp Darkmatter, Buzz’s former partner in Star Command who faked his death and was revealed to be a double agent working for Zurg. Zurg is the main enemy of Star Command and the entire Galactic Alliance. Operating out of the heavily guarded fortress that is Planet Z, Zurg works tirelessly with his unlimited resources and minions consisting of the funny and borderline incompetent Grubs and the intelligent weaklings that are the Brain Pods. Aided by his army of Hornets that are about as accurate of shots as the Star Wars stormtroopers and get killed off by the thousands in every episode, Zurg is Darth Vader without the redemption of Return of the Jedi. The diabolical adversary is a menace who wants to destroy everything Buzz holds near and dear to his heart while working to the ends of the universe in an attempt to dominate the galaxy. On a side note, he can fly, and he can switch his arm into a weaponized cannon in an instant. Oddly enough, what you see is what you get with Zurg. Nothing else is known about his backstory. Is he a robot himself? Is he part of some sort of cyborg race with superhuman powers? Even with all of the episodes in this colorful singular season and all of the appearances by the dastardly antagonist, we don’t know a single thing about his backstory, about his life, or how his ongoing war with Buzz Lightyear even began, but the presentation of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is so awesome to watch unfold that we don’t really care. The series just sticks us right into the thick of the action in Buzz Lightyear’s prime and the viewer watches the daily chaos happening in space as Buzz tries to maintain order for the good of the galaxy.

As far as the universe is concerned, Zurg is one of a kind and has directed all of his waking energy into destroying the Galactic Alliance and hopefully killing his archnemesis and ultra-thorn in his side in Buzz Lightyear. Time and time again, no matter how good his plan ends up being, Buzz always finds a way to defeat him, but each episode is a thrilling caper nonetheless because of how fun the atmosphere is, how creative the writing is in this new world brought to life, and because of the operatic action that borders on being cinema-worthy at times (TV movie-worthy at the very least). What makes it all work is Wayne Knight, who becomes increasingly funny with every appearance. A lot of the funniest quips come from the agitated Zurg figuring out his day-to-day operations and trying to outwit the opposition, and Knight is extremely entertaining in the role, while remaining a compelling and dangerous villain worthy of the spotlight he gets.

Despite the overwhelming amount of villainy encompassing the world of Buzz Lightyear, he is flanked by his team of rookies consisting of Princess Mira Nova (Sullivan), Booster (Stephen Furst), and XR (Larry Miller and Neil Flynn). This lone season is essentially the entirety of the rookies’ first year with Star Command, which explains a lot of the naive traits some of them have, the stupidity they possess at the most inopportune of moments, and the mistakes they make by either trying to go above and beyond to help Buzz when he tells them otherwise, when they try and do more than what they are asked of, or when they try to second guess their experienced captain. Let it be known, Buzz is right almost 100% of the time. Even when he second guesses himself here and there, his gut instinct is always right, and he’s always proven to be correct in some roundabout way. It may seem like this makes Buzz too perfect as a character, but it never comes off as such since he carries himself in a respectful and experienced way. He’s never cocky, even though we couldn’t argue it if he was because his resume precedes itself. The rookies’ presence just tends to throw him off at times, and that’s the only thing that stops him from being right quicker. Now, if we’re being honest, Mira Nova is the only one out of the three who is actually worth a shit. Though she’s the rightful heir to the Tangean throne, the talented ranger shows a lot of potential for a bright future in Star Command. With her ghosting powers that gives her a leg up on everyone and actually being a talented fighter, Mira may be the lone bright spot on the team. She could have easily accepted her arranged marriage to Fop Doppler back on Tangea by order of her father King Nova (John O’Hurley), but her calling was always to be a space ranger, despite Nova hating her ambitions towards law enforcement and the fact that their race is known for thinking they are better than everyone else.

Regardless, she’s a diamond in the rough who thinks differently from her stuck-up race and is the most reliable rookie Star Command has. Her character is a bit dumbed down compared to how she was in the direct-to-video film that preceded the series and makes quite a few crucial mistakes in certain episodes, but this can more so be chalked up to inexperience and needing to learn the ways of a top-level space ranger that only Buzz seems to understand thoroughly. The real issues are the medium-sized red dinosaur-like Booster and sentient robot XR. The fact that they let these two idiots regularly team up without the help of the others, or are left alone in general, makes no sense because it always turns into disaster (The Taking of PC-7, Large Target, etc.) If Booster wasn’t the size of a rhinoceros, he would be utterly useless. Besides his intimidating size, his attitude towards the job is his only positive attribute. Yeah, he’s got a good heart, but that’s it. At times, it feels like the only reason he’s kept on the team, despite his ENORMOUS number of fuckups, is because of how much he boosts Buzz’s ego with stories of his old missions or the praise he gives him. Besides this and being a decent fighter because of his size, he’s incompetent, annoyingly naive, has an inability to be discreet or stay low-key when the situation calls for it, is easily tricked or deceived, has a tendency to get stuck physically in things because he’s so large, has a horrible diet, he gets extremely emotional over the stupidest shit (The Plasma Monster), and he’s a major pussy. He also comes from a family of country bumpkins on his home planet of Jo-ad, and though they are all sweet and welcoming people, they’re even dumber than he is and make him look like Rambo in comparison (Root of Evil). Booster is endearing for the first crop of episodes, but he never improves in terms of his mental game as time goes on, and it gets frustrating to say the least.

In “The Yukari Imprint“, Booster’s actions are so boneheaded, I genuinely don’t understand why he didn’t lose his job with Star Command. Right there, he proved he’s not cut out for such a prominent position with the highest form of law enforcement in the universe. Regularly, they face intergalactic supervillains who are keen on destroying planets, disrupting order of any kind, and causing chaos wherever they see fit. There is no room for error, which is why Buzz Lightyear is considered to be the absolute best at his job. He never takes a day off, never lets his guard down, and is so entrenched in his job that he damn near devolves into mania. However, even when he almost falls into space madness, he is still right (Stress Test). Where does someone like Booster fit into this equation from an honest perspective? What does he show in this first season that shows his potential in reaching the highest levels of success in Star Command? In the aforementioned episode, it’s well known that pets aren’t allowed on star cruisers, especially Star Cruiser 42. During a mission on a planet involving the protection of government officials, Booster buys an egg anyway because he wants a cute pet, and it turns into an infestation of miniature Booster clones that take over the entire ship! This stupid and unnecessary stunt almost sabotages the entire mission, potentially causing an intergalactic incident if they didn’t fix the issue at the last second. In similar moment of pure dumbassery in the episode “Little Secrets“, Team Lightyear is given plants as gifts during their visit to Rhizome, but Booster swaps his out for a different and unapproved one because it was fucking red, and it terrorizes the entire star cruiser after turning into a live Venus flytrap that becomes as large as a space anaconda! Since it would’ve pissed off Buzz (even though failing to report an emergency situation is a direct violation of Star Command rules), he doesn’t tell him until it gets devastatingly bad, as it takes over the entire space station. Since XR was holding an unauthorized tour of Star Command, kids were at risk too. How fucking moronic can these two be?

They are almost as much of a liability as Ty Parsec, and he went through a phase where he turned into an intergalactic werewolf possessed by NOS-4-A2!

How Booster managed to keep his job after the destruction he caused is an entirely different argument, but it all goes back to how important the word of Buzz Lightyear is. If he vouches for anyone, they’re safe no matter what they do. Honestly, it’s the only reason Booster is given as many chances as he is given. With XR, his characterization is still just as all over the place as it was in the direct-to-video movie. You can never pin him as one type of person/robot. He’s a wily schemer out to make money at a casino (Large Target), he’s very selfish and almost always off task, and though he has his moments where he does help, it’s only when he’s the absolute last option in the heat of the moment. They can’t rely on XR for jack shit because he has that much of a tendency to be a careless wildcard. Even as a fighter with a million guns at his disposal, he is regularly shot down in battle or blown up. A lot of the time, you start to question whether he even wants to be a space ranger with how much he groans at any task or tries to avoid work entirely to go off on another excursion by himself. This is the one major thing that Booster holds over the lazy XR. Booster has the dedication and a clear desire to become a space ranger. Even though he sucks, his heart is never questioned. On the other hand, XR’s personality yields more questions than answers. It seems like he’d rather by on resort planet Mahambas VI rather than doing literally any mission a space ranger is assigned to do. Funnily enough, despite the many character flaws of the admittedly amusing robot, there are more episodes dedicated to proving XR’s worth to Star Command than there are for Booster. In certain situations, XR was a cheat code that they couldn’t have succeeded without (Devolutionaries, XL, Enemy Without a Face). His greatest moment came in “Head Case” specifically. All of Star Command and Buzz had to rely on XR to save everyone’s lives before a bomb went off that XL set. On the other hand, there’s not a single episode where I felt they couldn’t have succeeded without Booster. Then again, Buzz could have done most of these missions by himself as the others had a tendency to just stall his progress in solving the issue quicker.

However, if it was Buzz by his lonesome, this show would be a lot less funny, so you have to take the good with the bad. With this being said, the positive would have been the LGMs being given more lines, and that would’ve been great. They were hilarious in the movie that preceded this cartoon. In the show, it felt like they were underutilized in terms of comedic potential, but I digress.

The reason this show is so engrossing is its imagination within the loose confines of science fiction. Just like how Star Wars and Star Trek have taken us all over the known universe and have introduced generations to the millions of different species, seedy characters, grotesque animals, and aliens of all walks of life, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command does the same with every single episode. If Disney wasn’t so shortsighted, this show could have been the first step to creating their own Star Wars franchise without having to buy it and ruin the saga years later. The possibilities with Buzz Lightyear of Star Command truly felt endless, and there were so many different directions they could have gone in new seasons had the show lasted. Is there a shot that Warp Darkmatter would find his way back to Star Command like XL did? His character design was extremely cool and had merchandising possibilities by itself. Plus, he was showing signs of a heart when dealing with Buzz on occasion and was teetering on the edge of becoming an antihero with his own fanbase. Had there been a Season Two, this would have been a MAJOR story arc worth exploring. Would Buzz ever pursue a full-fledged relationship with Dr. Ozma Furbanna over on planet Karn? From Gravitina to mad scientist Spyro Lepton’s young daughter Bonnie, everyone loved Buzz, but Furbanna was the only one who was just as focused on her job as he was his. Their flirting and mutual respect for their career-focused mindsets, as they get tough with one another when their separate missions affect the other’s goals, led to some very fun moments between the two. Plus, it was fun seeing Buzz get a little flustered with everyone giving him shit for his obvious crush on her. She could have played a much bigger role in subsequent episodes.

On a less important note, I always wondered if there was anything between Buzz and Mira Nova. It was never implied or anything, but I wonder if this was ever a backup plan for a future story. Personally, I could see it going that way since they work with each other every day in close quarters and regularly save each other’s lives. Mira doesn’t necessarily fawn over Buzz like Booster seems to, but seeing her start to fall for him would have been a very exciting development, especially because Buzz’s reaction would be hilarious as he almost never knows what to do when it comes to outside human interaction not involving crime fighting, space travel, or the battle between good and evil. When love gets involved, Buzz has no manual to follow and doesn’t know how to react. On the other hand, I strangely respect that they didn’t go this route with Mira and Buzz. Not only is it too easy to rely on this trope and almost expected, but avoiding this pathway entirely is quite progressive in hindsight. Not every male and female costar for a show have to fall in love with each other. It’s in every show. The fact that it’s never teased, the both of them have flings with others, and they never look at each other as more than respectable coworkers is really cool and ahead of its time. The goal is nothing more than just going from one outrageously fun mission to the next. In one instance, Buzz is shrunk to the size of an insect to help a society of bugs, but it turns out he’s helping them against the diner that him and Team Lightyear frequent while the restaurant is trying to pass a health inspection (Rescue Mission). In another, a portal to an alternate universe is open and Buzz has to team up with different versions of Team Lightyear to beat up the evil version of himself (The Lightyear Factor). At one point, they even help fucking Santa Claus once Zurg steals his time manipulation device that could potentially help Zurg take over the universe (Holiday Time).

Do you see what I mean? The stuff these writers thought of was just insanely fun, unpredictable, very amusing, and sensationally creative when it comes to the world of science fiction. It reminds me a lot of the ridiculously entertaining Duck Dodgers program. In each breezy, twenty-two-minute episode, we get a wildly inventive premise that could be a movie in itself. Then, the show moves at quick pace to the finish while collecting a new set of allies and villains along the way in the midst of the action and making each episode a momentous event in the life of Team Lightyear.

If we’re talking specifically about the best episodes of this fully loaded first season, there are countless. The premises for each of these episodes were so much fun and involving, you could’ve easily turned each and every one of them into their own stretched out TV specials or their direct-to-video sequel films. They’re already entertaining as is, but there’s still so much room to grow had they wanted to go this route instead. Even so, there’s the time when the Gargantians pose as Buzz Lightyear and try to assassinate Madam President during a historic peace initiative (Conspiracy), Booster getting kidnapped by the Raenoks and it causing everyone to embark on their own rescue mission (Revenge of the Raenoks), evil Buzz teaming up with Gravitina in a tandem that threatens the known universe (Sunquake), Buzz and Zurg being forced to team up against the all-powerful Guzelian who tricks everyone into thinking he’s about intergalactic peace (War, and Peace and War), an extremely powerful space mummy being awakened that leads to Buzz and Warp Darkmatter having to team up, leaving us hope that there is still some good in Warp (Ancient Evil), Zurg turning all of Star Command into unrecognizable blob monsters and Buzz and Mira having to find a way out of it (The Crawling Flesh), Zurg’s most legendary bounty hunter actually being an elaborate decades-long ploy of Star Command to help his minions escape (Shiv Katall), Buzz being tricked into thinking he went into the future by Zurg after entering a black hole by himself (Lost in Time), Buzz and Warp being forced to team against three alien puppet masters who have been connected to the two most of their adult lives unbeknownst to them (Tag Team), Zurg getting arguably the closest he has ever been in defeating the Galactic Alliance (The Planet Destroyer), NOS-4-A2 at his most dominant that eventually leads to the surprising redemption of XL (Revenge of the Monsters), and investigating the underwater planet that holds the crystallic fusion crystals that powers almost everything (Panic on Bathyos).

In addition, there’s the very unexpected villain on a seemingly abandoned ship (Speed Trap), Buzz and Furbanna meeting again when Zurg infiltrates Karn (Millennial Bugs), Team Lightyear investigating a moon that may or may not have a ghost on it (Haunted Moon), Mira’s badass, bounty hunter ex-boyfriend (Star Crossed), and the finest moment of XR in the aforementioned “Head Case“.

Blame it on nostalgia all you want. Maybe the potential of the show excited me more than the actual 62 episodes I’ve watched and thoroughly analyzed, but I still think it’s more than that, even though the opportunities this show could have opened would have been a goldmine in merchandising potentialities and the expansion of the Toy Story franchise into a whole other avenue not previously thought possible. If you think about it, we could have had a full Woody’s Roundup cartoon starring Woody, as he fights crime in the old west! This is the type of stuff we missed out on. Additionally, had things been done correctly, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command could have been revisited in a revitalized format for cinemas years down the road and would have found an entirely new audience of fans that could have reinvigorated the interest in the character by himself, the world that was created in 2000 by the geniuses behind the direct-to-video movie and this series, and would have found the audience it should have had all those years back. Sadly, we got Lightyear instead, but that’s a topic for another day. Obviously, it’s too late to put the machine behind this television show to fully capitalize on its potential in reaching science fiction immortality, but as it still stands, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is still an invigorating cartoon that is everything a family could want out of an engrossing episodic sci-fi television show. It excites, it amuses, and it captures the imagination of all that watch.

Lastly, it makes Buzz Lightyear one of the greatest heroes the universe has ever known and someone fans knew he had the potential to be. At the very least, we can be thankful for that.