Wilma Deering co-starred with Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century, the first Space-Hero,
which was a comic strip in the 1930's. Larry (Buster)
Crabbe played both Buck and his rocketing rival Flash
Gordon in the movies. |
Wilma was Colonel Deering in the
newspapers, but the
movie serial only
let her rank as a Lieutenant. Big Band singer Constance
Moore played her in 1938. Model Erin Gray did the
role 40 years later.
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Wilma
Deering meets Buck Rogers as he first reports to Dr.
Huer after a five hundred year sleep. The world of
the 25th Century looks like Just Imagine --
the 1930 comedy where Flash Gordon's prop rocket ship
originated.
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This
serial has it's OWN style of noisy rocket craft. 20th
Century aviator Rogers immediately volunteers to make
a mad dash to Planet Saturn. Lt. Deering knows how to
fly a spaceship, and saves their lives almost immediately. |
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Later,
while running a blockade by bad guy Killer Kane's
space forces, Wilma and Buck are both captured. He
is sent to a work gang, and she is imprisoned.
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Wilma
bides her time until she wrests a ray gun from a stupid
guard and breaks out of her cell. Deering may be generally
quiet, but she is also lethally efficient.
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Wilma
purposefully races away to save Buck from Kane's prison.
She encounters insufferable 20th Century cliche-sidekick
'Buddy,' but she also has a plan ...
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Deering
lets her hair down, and enlists the help of this rather
dumb, but brawny, teenager in her quest to rescue Buck
from the bowels of Killer Kane's dungeons.
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Wilma
guides them through Art Deco corridors, while 'Buddy'
runs along like a duck dog. Patrols are looking for
them, but they must be searching the wrong buildings!
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There
ain't no place anything like this place around this
place, so this must be the place! Wilma straps her helmet
back on, and they both reconoiter the battleground. |
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Killer
Kane, gangster and dictator, spots Wilma on his Snoop
- O - Scope, but it is too late to stop her from executing
her plan, and some more of his guards.
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Deering
fights off Kane's attackers, and throws handy gas bombs,
while 'Buddy' quickly separates Buck Rogers from the
work gang. They all escape through the haze.
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Buck,
Buddy, and Wilma rush to the spaceport, where they
scramble to steal a ship. Deering knows how they operate,
so she is able to start one without the keys.
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Kane's
pursuing goons barely reach the spaceport doors as Wilma
and her crew blow more smoke in their frustrated faces
and rocket back to home base. |
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Lt.
Deering deserves a promotion for her own jailbreak,
and the liberation of her ally Buck -- 'Buddy' will
eventually get a medal for surviving his own stupidity.
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Wilma
returns to kindly Dr. Huer in the Hidden City of Earth,
but there will be more inventions to test (and fail)
and more adventures in the 25th Century spaceways. |
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Buck
Rogers is the property of it's copyright holders.
All images are used for scholastic purposes ONLY in
the context of this article.
Text and graphic design copyright by Michael R. Evans
2007
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