Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

Premise

Serving as the in-universe inspiration for the action figure featured in the Toy Story films, the series focuses on Buzz Lightyear, a heroic space ranger working for the intergalactic rescue force, Star Command. Joined by three other rangers; Mira, a princess who can phase through walls, Booster, a happy-go-lucky janitor, and XR, a snarky robot, Buzz fights to keep the universe safe from notorious villains, most notably the Evil Emperor Zurg.

Team Lightyear

Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Patrick Warburton (TV series), Tim Allen (The Adventure Begins)) – A famed Space Ranger from the planet Morph who is known for heroism and bravery. He usually suggests that his arch-villain Emperor Zurg is behind every evil plot and is often proven correct. Like his Toy Story incarnation, Buzz is a stickler for procedure, but will tell a cover story if he needs to. He has few people skills, however, and at times displays a lack of common sense. He attended PS- 19³ (that's 6859) as a primary school. He wrote at least half of the regulations in the Star Command Manual. He also owns a house on Capital Planet, (similar to the House of Tomorrow attraction Disneyland had in the 1960s) though as they all look alike and his duties often keep him away, he is confused over just which one is his. He seems to have a little crush on Dr. Ozma Furbanna and vice versa.

Princess Mira Nova (voiced by Nicole Sullivan) – A rookie ranger and heir to the Tangean Royal throne. She uses her people's ability to phase through walls (called "ghosting") and can read minds. Buzz has a tendency to refer to her as "Princess" when he's angry with her. She acts as Buzz's co-pilot and second-in-command. She has the most common sense among the members of the team. Mira also has an estranged relationship with her father King Nova, who disapproves of her choice of being a Space Ranger, though deep down she still cares about him. She has red hair, blue eyes and turquoise skin. She also wears a green spacecap when she wears her space helmet.

Booster Sinclair Munchapper (voiced by Stephen Furst) – A huge red dinosaur-like former janitor from the agricultural planet Jo-ad (a play on the name of the Joad family, from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath). 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, or Xpirimental Ranger (voiced by Larry Miller and Neil Flynn) – A short robot that was originally emotionless and programmed to learn from Buzz, but was blown apart by Agent Z during his first mission. The LGMs rebuilt him, but the temporary loss of the Uni-Mind to Emperor Zurg left them off their game. They rebuilt XR with his slicker, more emotional personality and a variety of attachments. The LGMs have stated that experimental ranger is the official meaning of the name, though other characters on the show hold the erroneous belief that the X stands for Expendable. He gets blown apart on nearly every mission he goes on, but is easily rebuilt. He considers Commander Nebula his father (due to his signing the paperwork authorizing his creation) and is always seeking his approval.

Other personnel

Commander Zeb Nebula (voiced by Adam Carolla) – The Space Rangers' commander and Buzz's superior, whose left leg was replaced by a pegleg-like plasma cannon. He is short-tempered and constantly speaks with a loud voice. He has a robotic desk that forces him to do his paperwork. He hates to do so though and therefore signs forms without reading them. By doing so, he inadvertently gave permission for the creation of XR, who therefore considers Nebula a father (He thought the form was the LGMs' vacation request). Nebula is frequently irritated by this, though he gives XR his due for his successes.

LGMs, or Little Green Men (voiced by Jeff Pidgeon, Frank Welker, Patrick Warburton in the actual series) – Small, three-eyed aliens (originally appeared as squeeze toy aliens in the Toy Story movies) from the religious planet Venus who keep the station running while inventing/maintaining all of the equipment. When one of their own is kidnapped, the other LGMs will instinctively try to rescue him by any means necessary. LGMs are typically in awe of Buzz. While they generally like the other Rangers, they may not be able to tell one from another. Several of their race are also shown to work for Santa Claus, acting as his toy builders.

Ty Parsec (voiced by Steve Hytner) – An infamous old comrade of Buzz, who is fed up with Buzz always coming to his rescue. Ty was accidentally transformed into the robotic Wirewolf on the planet of Canis Lunis, after being bitten by the villain NOS-4-A2 while exposed to radioactive moonrock. Appeared in two episodes, with a cameo appearance in the episode "War, Peace, and War". He is ultimately cured and reinstated as a Space Ranger.

Rocket Crocket (voiced by Phil LaMarr) – A member of Star Command and leader of Team Rocket. He is Buzz's rival since their academy days.

Fop Doppler (voiced by Rob Paulsen) – The second Tangean Royal Ranger. He was challenged to complete basic Ranger Training and passed becoming one of the highest ranking Rangers winning every medal possible, then did not want to get married after Lord Angstrom attacked the wedding, discovering how much fun being a Space Ranger was and was allowed to after XR made up another of the many Tangean Royal rules.

Petra Hammerhold (voiced by Nikki Cox) – Senator Hammerhold's daughter. She joined Star Command when her father forced 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 (voiced by Michael Showalter) – Petra's boyfriend, who has a Plasma Monster form. Booster competed against him for Petra's affection. When Mira and XR fired a laser at his Plasma Monster form, he destabilized enough to the brink of explosion. He was kept from exploding when Booster used his suit and Ion Stabilization Matrix on him. He's now a member of Star Command.

42 (voiced by Joy Behar) – Usually the name of Buzz Lightyear's ship, it gained A.I. from one of the encounters with the Valkyran Raiders and a new energy projector device inserted on the ship by the LGMs. 42 doesn't like what Buzz says about her and usually controls the ship herself. XR developed a crush on her. When the Valkyran Raiders were thwarted, 42's consciousness was placed into a robot body and she now helps the LGMs.

Villains

Evil Emperor Zurg (voiced by Wayne Knight) – The main antagonist of the series, who rules an empire on Planet Z and dreams of ruling the entire galaxy and destroying Star Command. He considers Buzz his arch-enemy and often takes any opportunity to try to eliminate him. Most of his subjects are robots. His feet double as rockets and he can transform his arms into a variety of weapons. Despite often breaking the seriousness of otherwise purely evil statements, Zurg is widely considered the most evil person in the galaxy, especially by the other villains. He seems to have some neuroses about being touched. The episode War, and Peace and War was notably the only episode where Zurg teamed up with Buzz Lightyear to defeat the Heed, a common enemy that was trying to take over their galaxy. In Stranger Invasion, he revealed himself to be Buzz's father (a parody upon The Empire Strikes Back and a nearly identical scene in Toy Story 2), but quickly took it back, using the statement as a 'Made You Look' to stun Buzz and gain the upper hand.

Warp Darkmatter / Agent Z (voiced by Diedrich Bader, Frank Welker) – Warp Darkmatter was a partner and friend of Buzz, who was once a Space Ranger, but he had been secretly working for Zurg since his academy days as a double agent. He eventually began working for Zurg full-time as Zurg's second-in-command and was given the title "Agent Z." His right arm is robotic (with various weapon attachments) and was grafted to his body after he was nearly killed in a self-destruction sequence. Warp often takes on assignments for Zurg and is paid quite handsomely (he owns a moon and a summer home). Buzz has vowed to bring Warp in for treason, but retains some hope that there is still some good in him.

Grubs (voiced by Frank Welker) – Zurg's equivalents to the LGMs of Star Command (though far less competent) who perform mechanical and technical duties and work for Zurg against their will. They often desire freedom, but many of them are simply too afraid to try to defect.

Brain Pods (Various Voices for each one) – Cybernetic 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 (two of them are shown succeeding in doing so on-screen).

Hornets – Zurg's robotic foot soldiers, extremely expendable and lousy shots. They always get vaporized in mass numbers by Lightyear's team. Hornets come in different models, but the most frequently seen are yellow and of average height.

Gravitina (voiced by Kerri Kenney-Silver) – A large-headed female villain with mental control over gravity who is one of Zurg's allies, once hired to destroy Star Command. She's in love with Buzz and later his evil counterpart.

NOS-4-A2 (voiced by Craig Ferguson) – A robotic energy vampire created by Zurg that can drain any system or entity driven by electrical power, as well as controlling any machine he bites. His bite (in combination with radioactive moonrock) also transformed Ty Parsec into Wirewolf. Using Wirewolf and XL, he briefly usurped control of Planet Z from Zurg and attempted to transform everyone in the galaxy into machines for him to feed on, but was defeated and destroyed. His name is a pun on the term Nosferatu.

Torque (voiced by Brad Garrett) – A minor alien villain from Tradworld who committed crimes of terrorism, smuggling, arson, and unpaid parking tickets. After being freed from a prison transport by Zurg's Hornets, the Grubs implanted a cell-separation device upon his chest. Torque then possesses the ability to create duplicate versions of himself. They are unstable, however, as a single laser blast is enough to destroy them. In "The Taking of PC-7", he tried to turn Booster evil (and later Buzz) with a memory-altering device built by the Warden of PC-7. The same device also made Torque (temporarily at least) a heroic good guy.

XL (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait) – XR's predecessor (and technically older brother), who was deactivated under Commander Nebula's orders due to his villainous attitude. When he was reactivated by Zurg, XL rebuilt himself into a larger, more powerful robot with stolen cutting edge robot parts. His head is red, whereas XR's is yellow. He infiltrates Star Command numerous times because its command codes are in his head. Like XR, he considers Commander Nebula his father, though he resents him for shutting him down. He later redeems himself and is converted into an office managing robot capable of photocopying, collating, and other office related functions. His name is a pun referring to his size (extra large).

Wirewolf – Ty Parsec patrolled the planet Canis Lunis until an attack from NOS-4-A2. While Ty was in combat with the energy vampire, NOS-4-A2 flew himself and Ty up into the beam that gives power to the planet from the moon's radioactive energy and bit into Ty's skin. After NOS-4-A2 fled, Ty started to mutate into some sort of electronic canine later given the title of Wirewolf. After discovering that this transformation only happens in the light of the Canis Lunis moon, Buzz told Booster to destroy the moon. Once the moon was destroyed, Team Lightyear believed that the Wirewolf was finished until NOS-4-A2 gave Ty a Canis Lunis moonrock. When NOS-4-A2 was destroyed, Ty was turned back to normal, ending the curse of the Wirewolf.

Chlorm Scientists – Era (voiced by Jonathan Harris), Eon (voiced by Bill Mumy), and Epoch (voiced by Frank Welker) are Chlorm scientists who implanted devices into Buzz and Warp 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 preferred the latter.) After learning of the implants, Buzz and Warp broke into their lab and prematurely ended their study. They were subsequently demoted (though Epoch maintains it was a lateral career move) to zoo and research facilities. They began kidnapping Galactic Alliance senators off Capital Planet for the zoo (as they see the other races as lesser, wild animals), but Team Lightyear thwarted them.

Crumford Lorak (voiced by Jon Favreau) – A resident of Trade World who is a known scam artist and a stool pigeon for Star Command if the price is right. 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 the Raenok leader Varg.

Evil Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Patrick Warburton) – A ruthless, pure evil version of Buzz Lightyear from an alternate reality. He was his reality's ruler, head of a vast evil empire, and was cruel and cunning, manipulating Zurg and Gravitina (who adored him) to his own wicked ends. He is the exact opposite of Buzz in personality and demeanor, wears a modified uniform in colors similar to Zurg's and has a goatee (a reference to Star Trek, where parallel doubles tend to sport that hairstyle). However, he can survive things like Buzz that most people can't, such as surviving his ship's own explosion or falling into the sun.

Gargantian Militants – Tiny beings who hide in robotic exosuits used as various disguises/ways 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, meaning no wars. They are led by Tremendor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) and the known members of these militants are Tremendor's second-in-command Monumentus (voiced by Charles Fleischer), Immensitor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson), and Behemor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). As a joke, most Gargantian names (as well as species as a whole) are an ironic pun to their small stature

Lardak Lurdak (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) – A minor criminal in a dome helmet.

Norbert Q. Klerm (voiced by Mitchell Whitfield) – The rich and ruthless head of the business company "Compu-klerm" and a friend of the Madame President. He first appeared to make Buzz Lightyear and Zurg fight each other. He later brainwashed Buzz into thinking he was a Compu-klerm employee named "Flip Faxtoner", and occasionally picked Buzz's brain with a large helmet for combat data to use in his battle robots. 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 fiercest aliens in the Galaxy. Varg (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is the ambassador of the Raenoks and the supreme commander of the Raenok military. Kleev (voiced by Clancy Brown) is the leader of the Raenoks and Minister of Schemes and Treachery.

Rentwhistle Swack (voiced by French Stewart) – A con man from the jungle planet Karn who poached creatures on his homeworld and bagged Booster in his hunt. He had some of the creatures that he poached brought to a space station where he met up with some hunters that started poaching Booster. While the hunters were hunting Booster, Rentwhistle Swack fled the area only to be intercepted by Team Lightyear and Dr. Ozma Furbanna. The hunters were defeated and they alongside Rentwhistle Swack were sentenced to community service on Karn by Booster. Rentwhistler Swack was later Norbert Q. Klerm's "agent/booker/tour guide" when Norbert was making Buzz and Zurg fight each other.

Shiv Katall (voiced by Patrick Warburton) – A mysterious soldier of fortune/mercenary/hitman/bounty hunter usually hired by Zurg to eliminate Brain Pods and Grubs who get up enough guts to defect from Zurg. He is secretly a covert identity adopted by Buzz Lightyear, and before Buzz, Commander Nebula. Unfortunately, that identity was compromised due to the actions of Mira, Booster and XR. At the end of said episode it was hinted that Booster was going to become the next Shiv Katall, but it was ignored in future episodes. In a later episode the evil Buzz Lightyear used the Shiv Katall guise to acquire parts for a base station he was building near Capital Planet's sun, in order for him and Gravitina to use it to produce 'sunquakes', threatening all nearby life.

Smeego (voiced by Phil LaMarr) – A fidgety small-time crook and acquaintance of Torque who can sometimes be found on Trade World.

Tangean Grounders – Ground-dwellers of Tangea that often clash with the Tangean Royals. They can explode things with their minds. Clay (voiced by Jess Harnell) and Marl (voiced by John Kassir) are examples of Tangean Grounders. Another Tangean Grounder and bounty hunter named Romac (voiced by David James Elliott), who was Mira's ex-boyfriend, was hired by Zurg to obtain Brain Pod #57. Grounders and Royals lose their respective super-abilities when close to each other.

Galactic Alliance

Madam President (voiced by Roz Ryan) – Head of the Galactic Alliance. Her real name is unknown.

Senator Banda (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) – A Bathyosian senator.

Senator Hammerhold (voiced by Corey Burton) – Petra Hammerhold's father.

Senator Phlegmex (voiced by Frank Welker) – A Phlegmian senator.

Other characters

Becky (voiced by Russi Taylor) – A little alien girl from the planet Roswell. She befriended Booster (who she calls Pickles) when Team Lightyear's ship crashed on her planet.

Bonnie Lepton (voiced by Tara Charendoff)

Brent Starkisser (voiced by Corey Burton) – The Galaxy's reporter.

Cosmo (voiced by Paul Rugg) – An alien that owns and runs the diner that Team Lightyear eats at. He has a mechanical arm as well as a foreign accent.

Dr. Animus (voiced by Tony Jay) – The Galaxy's therapist.

Dr. Ozma Furbanna (voiced by Linda Hamilton) – Lead (and only) naturalist on planet Karn. She favors all animals (even the lethal carnivores) and hates to have them hurt; no matter what. Has a crush on Buzz (won't admit it, though), and vice versa. In her first appearance, she assisted Buzz Lightyear at the time when Rentwhistle Swack was poaching some creatures and selling them to some hunters. Rentwhistle Swack and the hunters were defeated and sentenced to community service on Karn by Booster. Zurg once used Dr. Ozma Furbanna's help to hatch the eggs of the extinct Millennial Bugs where Zurg will use them on Capital Planet. Buzz and Dr. Ozma Furbanna ended up finding out that the Millennial Bugs were ticklish which they used to subdue them and later relocate them to someplace where they won't cause anyone harm. Dr. Ozma Furbanna later aided Team Lightyear when the ship carrying Mira Nova and the Madame President crash-landed on Karn following an attack by Zurg.

Ed (voiced by Paul Rugg) – A courier who somehow always knows how to track down Buzz Lightyear.

Officer Panchex (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray) – A fish policeman who helped Buzz Lightyear fight Minister Gularis.

Professor Triffid (voiced by Joel Murray) – A scientist from Rhizome. He cares a lot for the plants there.

Savy SL2 (voiced by Cree Summer) – A young girl who works as a robotic vampire hunter. Her adopted robot parents were attacked by NOS-4-A2 in "The Slayer", which led her to hunting him down for revenge.

Sheriff of Roswell (voiced by Stephen Root) – Becky's father and ally of Team Lightyear.

King Nova (voiced by John O'Hurley) – 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 also came to her aid when she had developed a power addiction and helped her get over it, though he almost got his wish of getting his daughter back in this instance had Buzz not saved her career through a cover story.

Santa Claus (voiced by Earl Boen) – The holiday figure, who delivers presents to all the good people in the galaxy during the Holiday. He previously used a sleigh powered by belief and later time manipulation to accomplish this massive task. Zurg stole his time manipulation device to destroy the Holiday for everyone, prompting Santa to seek Team Lightyear's help.

Awards and nominations

Daytime Emmy Awards

2001 – Outstanding Sound Editing – Special Class – Jennifer Mertens, Paca Thomas, Otis Van Osten, Rick Hammel, Eric Hertsguaard, Robbi Smith, Brian F. Mars, Marc S. Perlman, and Dominick Certo (won)

Video game

A videogame based on the series was developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Activision. It was released for PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows and Dreamcast in 2000. The gameplay revolves around Buzz Lightyear chasing down the various villains from the show, and defeating them using different color-coded weapons.

Broadcast

The series aired during UPN's Disney's One Too programming block from October 2000 to August 2003. Reruns aired on Disney Channel from 2000 to September 2, 2003, and again from June 5, 2006 to May 16, 2008.

Toon Disney reran the series from 2003 to 2007.