Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Revenge of the Monsters: Review

Directed by: Nicholas Filippi

First Aired: 2000

Contains spoilers

This is yet another Buzz Lightyear (Patrick Warburton) that features the robotic energy vampire NOS-4-A2 (Craig Fergusson).

This time around we begin with outtakes from the episode Wirewolf, enough to remind us that Ty Parsec (Steve Hytner) had been bitten by NOS-4-A2 – itself not an issue due to the fact that he is not a robot. However the unique radiation of the moon Canis Lunis caused him to turn into the robotic wolf, the wirewolf.

The flashback is a projection by robotic ranger XR (Neil Flynn) and the rangers are in a hearing. The commander of Star Command, Nebula (Adam Carolla), decides there is no choice but to relieve Parsec of duty as he may be a danger to others – despite the protests of Buzz’s crew. Suddenly XR’s evil prototype XL (Bob Goldthwait) breaks in to kidnap Parsec. As the Rangers jump on XL, Buzz tells Parsec to run.

Ty does indeed run, straight into the clutches of NOS-4-A2, who places a pendant of Canis Lunis rock around his neck. He transforms into the Wirewolf and NOS-4-A2 hypnotises him into submission. Suddenly the Wirewolf breaks into the chamber and frees XL and with NOS-4-A2 they make their escape. Buzz would be after them but NOS-4-A2 has drained the energy from their ship.

They head to the palace of the evil Emperor Zurg (Wayne Knight), where NOS-4-A2 vampirises the robotic hornet guards and usurps the throne. Zurg is left with the hope that Buzz will save the day (and thus he will be able to take back his empire of evil). Meanwhile XL has to build a weapon, which the wirewolf is a key component. The beam from the weapon will turn those struck into wirewolves also. With half his crew turned it is looking tough for Buzz.

The joy of the episode is it is, again, filled with knowing nods towards standard horror/vampire genre staples. In this case it is the relationship between vampire and werewolf and the werewolf being the tortured soul. It is no big spoiler to say that Buzz saves the day – I won’t spoil exactly how – and through this we get a stake through the heart moment for our robot vampire.

Is this the end for him? It is difficult to say. There are two episodes with NOS-4-A2 that we have not looked at yet, though they might come before this. However, according to IMDb, whilst this episode aired after Wirewolf it was actually from a series prior to that containing Wirewolf… confusing but not a reason to not enjoy this for what it is. 5.5 out of 10, the kids will love it and adults will find it a guilty pleasure too.

The imdb page is here.