Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an American animated science fiction comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It is a spin-off of Pixar's Toy Story franchise, and aired on ABC and UPN from October 2, 2000, to January 13, 2001. While the series is 2D animated, Pixar animated the CGI opening title sequence.
Developed by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, the series follows the adventures of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear. The character first appeared as an action figure, voiced by Tim Allen, in the 1995 film Toy Story. Patrick Warburton voices the character in the television series. The series was preceded by the direct-to-video film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, which later aired as three separate episodes of the series. A video game based on the series was released in 2000.
Premise Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is set in a Star Wars–style setting. Capital Planet is the forefront of the Galactic Alliance, a peaceful union of various planets, home to various alien species that coexist in harmony. Star Command is a peacekeeping organization consisting of Space Rangers, who investigate threats to galactic peace. The primary enemy of Star Command is Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic crime boss and warlord who rules Planet Z, with an empire of heavily armed robots and slave races forced to work in opposition to the Galactic Alliance.
The series follows Buzz Lightyear, an experienced and famous Space Ranger who takes a crew of rookies under his wing as he investigates criminal activity across the galaxy and attempts to thwart Zurg's evil plots to overthrow the universe.
Characters Star Command Team Lightyear Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Patrick Warburton, voiced by Tim Allen in The Adventure Begins pilot) is a famed Space Ranger and the leader of Team Lightyear. Buzz often suggests that his archenemy Emperor Zurg is behind every evil plot and is often proven correct. Like his Toy Story incarnation, Buzz is idealistic and a stickler for procedure, but will tell a cover story if he needs to. However, he has few people skills, and at times displays a lack of common sense. Mira Nova (voiced by Nicole Sullivan) is a rookie ranger and heir to the throne of the planet Tangea who possesses intangibility and telepathy. She acts as Buzz's co-pilot and second-in-command. Mira also has an estranged relationship with her father, King Nova, who disapproves of her choice of being a Space Ranger, though she still cares about him. Booster Sinclair Munchapper (voiced by Stephen Furst) is a frog/dinosaur-like alien from the agricultural planet of Jo-ad. 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: Xperimental Ranger (voiced alternatively by Larry Miller and Neil Flynn) is a small robot who was originally emotionless and programmed to learn from Buzz, but was destroyed by Agent Z during his first mission. The LGMs rebuilt him with a slicker, more emotional personality and a variety of unique and unusual attachments. XR is destroyed on nearly every mission he goes on (as it is revealed XR stands for Expendable Ranger), but is easily rebuilt. He considers Commander Nebula his father due to him unintentionally signing the paperwork authorizing his creation and is always seeking his approval, much to his annoyance.
Other personnel Commander Nebula (voiced by Adam Carolla) is the Space Rangers' commander and Buzz's superior, whose left leg was replaced by a pegleg-like plasma cannon. He is rather short-tempered and constantly speaks with a loud voice. LGMs, or Little Green Men (voiced by Patrick Warburton) are small, three-eyed aliens who maintain the technology and equipment of Star Command. Ty Parsec (voiced by Steve Hytner) is an old comrade of Buzz Lightyear, who is fed up with Buzz always coming to his rescue. In the episodes "Wirewolf" and "Revenge of the Monsters", Parsec is temporarily transformed into the Wirewolf, a robotic werewolf, after being bitten by NOS-4-A2 and exposed to radioactive rock from the moon Canis Lunis. Rocket Crocket (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is a member of Star Command and leader of Team Rocket. He has been Buzz's rival since their academy days. Fop Doppler (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is a Tangean like Mira. He initially joins the Rangers as a challenge to win her hand in marriage. Petra Hammerhold (voiced by Nikki Cox) is Senator Hammerhold's daughter. She joins Star Command when her father forces 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) is Petra's boyfriend, who can transform into a plasma monster. Booster competed against him for Petra's affection. Mira and XR inadvertently destabilize Plasma Boy's body, but stabilize him and prevent him from exploding, after which he joins Star Command. 42 (voiced by Joy Behar) is Buzz Lightyear's ship. In her self-titled episode, 42 gains a sentient artificial intelligence that is later transferred into a robotic body.
Villains Main villains Emperor Zurg (voiced by Wayne Knight): The main antagonist of the series and Buzz's archenemy. Rules an empire on Planet Z and wants to rule the entire universe while destroying Star Command. His feet double as rockets and he can transform his arms into a variety of weapons. Zurg is a stereotypical evil villain, he is narcissistic, arrogant and will do anything by all means to get power or weapons and experiments. However, when Lightyear and him were forced to team up against a villain, Zurg gave Buzz a good combat move and Buzz surprised Zurg by secretly recording the Villain’s true intentions. Even Zurg said himself, “Secretly recording the enemy? Devious, oh Lightyear you do surprise me!” Knight previously voiced Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2 (1999) The Grubs (all voiced by Frank Welker) are Zurg's equivalents to the LGMs of Star Command, though far less competent. They perform mechanical and technical duties. The Grubs work for Zurg against their will and desire freedom, but many of them are too afraid to try to defect. The Brain Pods (variously voiced by Jeff Bennett, Dan Castellaneta, Sean Hayes, Tress MacNeille, Jeremy Piven, Paul Rugg, and Frank Welker) are 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 as Buzz secretly helps them with that. The Hornets are Zurg's robotic foot soldiers. They are incompetent and easily destroyed. Hornets come in different models, but the most frequently seen are yellow and of average height. Warp Darkmatter (voiced by Diedrich Bader) is a former member of Star Command who worked as a double agent for Zurg and eventually began working for him full-time as Agent Z. Darkmatter previously lost his right arm in a cave-in and gained a robotic arm with various weapon attachments after becoming Agent Z. He selfishly faked his death leaving Lightyear in mourning while reappearing as a villain later on to Buzz himself. His ship is styled as a triangular lighter, it is red, gold among other colors. Even as a villain, he asks for Lightyear’s help sometimes which Lightyear is ok with. In the episode “Ancient Evil” a senior version of him portrays his 70s-80s when his youth is sucked out by an ancient mummy. Torque (voiced by Brad Garrett) is an alien with four arms and five eyes who has committed various crimes, including terrorism, smuggling, arson, and unpaid parking tickets. He possesses a mechanical cell-separation chest implant created by Zurg that enables him to clone himself. Smeego (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is a small-time crook on Trade World and an acquaintance of Torque. Gravitina (voiced by Kerri Kenney-Silver) is a large-headed female villain with mental control over gravity and an ally of Zurg. She is in love with Buzz and later his evil counterpart. XL (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait) is XR's predecessor, who was shut down due to his villainous attitude. When he was reactivated by Zurg, XL rebuilt himself into a larger, more powerful robot with stolen parts with a Frankenstein's monster-like build. In the episode "Revenge of the Monsters", XL reforms and becomes an office-managing robot. (voiced by Craig Ferguson) is a robotic vampire created by Zurg who can drain electricity and control any machine he bites. In the episode "Revenge of the Monsters", NOS-4-A2 attempts to transform everyone in the galaxy into robots for him to feed on, but is defeated and destroyed. His name is a parody of Nosferatu. Evil Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is an evil counterpart of Buzz Lightyear from an alternate universe where he is an evil emperor instead of Zurg.
Recurring villains Chlorm Scientists - Era (voiced by Jonathan Harris), Eon (voiced by Bill Mumy), and Epoch (voiced by Frank Welker) are Chlorm scientists. They implanted devices into Buzz and Warp Darkmatter 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 the latter. After learning of the implants, Buzz and Warp broke into their lab and prematurely ended their study. They were subsequently demoted to zoo and research facilities by their next appearance. Era, Eon, and Epoch began kidnapping Galactic Alliance senators off Capital Planet for the zoo, seeing other races as lesser, wild animals, but Team Lightyear thwarted them. Crumford Lorak (voiced by Jon Favreau) is a con artist, reluctant informant, and criminal commonly seen on Trade World. 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 Varg. Gargantian Militants are tiny beings who hide in robotic exosuits to infiltrate what they desire. The Gargantian Militants hate commercial places on their planets like pizza restaurants as well as the fact that their people joined the Galactic Alliance, preventing war. As a joke, most Gargantian names (as well as the species as a whole) are an ironic pun to their small stature. Tremendor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is the leader of the Gargantian Militants. Monumentus (voiced by Charles Fleischer) is the second-in-command of the Gargantian Militants. Immensitor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is a member of the Gargantian Militants. Behemor (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is a member of the Gargantian Militants. Rentwhistle Swack (voiced by French Stewart) is an unscrupulous con artist who will do anything for money. He was once arrested by Booster. Swack was first seen poaching creatures on Karn where he also bagged Booster in his hunt. He and his fellow hunters are defeated and sentenced to community service on Karn. Swack later appears as Norbert Klerm's "agent/booker/tour guide" when Klerm makes Buzz and Zurg fight each other. Lardak Lurdak (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is a small-time criminal in a dome helmet. Norbert Q. Klerm (voiced by Mitchell Whitfield) is the rich and ruthless head of the business company "Compu-klerm." He is friends with the Madame President. He first appeared to make Buzz Lightyear and Zurg fight each other. He later brainwashed Buzz into thinking he is a Compu-klerm employee named "Flip Faxtoner". His plans were ultimately thwarted by Buzz when he came to his senses and replaced his bots' brains with a fellow co-worker. The Raenoks are the fiercest aliens in the Galaxy. Kleev (voiced by Clancy Brown) is the leader of the Raenoks and Minister of Schemes and Treachery.