In 1987, a space phenomenon sends NASA astronaut William "Buck" Rogers and his space shuttle off course and freezes his life support systems for 500 years. In 2491, he awakens aboard the flagship Draconia, under the command of Princess Ardala and her henchman Kane, a former native of Earth. The Draconians repair Buck's shuttle, but secretly plant a homing beacon aboard to track a path through Earth's defense shield. Upon arriving on Earth, Buck learns that everyone he knew had perished in a nuclear holocaust and Earth has been rebuilt over the centuries. However, he must adjust to the 25th century, and convince the Earth Defense Directorate that the Draconians are secretly planning to conquer Earth.

The Earth Defense Directorate faces a crisis when nearly everyone becomes sick after eating poisoned food. An attempt is made to create an antidote but the plan is thwarted when the laboratory is sabotaged and an assassin positions his weapon at Dr. Huer. Buck Rogers, Wilma Deering and Major Duke Danton travel to the planet Vistula where the poisoned food was exported from and they find a world engaged in slave labor. Then they discover that a fanatical religious leader and slave trader named Kaleel poisons Earth's food supply in order to weaken their defenses. Meanwhile, Kaleel is secretly planning to conquer Earth from his mountain fortress while their defenses are incapacitated.

To ensure a notorious smuggler's cooperation, Buck and a fellow officer must infiltrate a crime lord's casino resort, to rescue a young woman who has been kidnapped by one of the smuggler's rivals.

After capturing notorious assassin Raphael Argus, Buck Rogers learns that the killer-for-hire is to attend a meeting with a group of elite assassins known as the Legion of Death on Aldebaran II. Buck assumes his identity, meets the group's leader, Seton Kellogg, and learns that each member has a unique power - Sharese is an empath capable of reading the emotions of other people; Jolen Quince is a telekinetic who can move objects with the power of his mind; Marcos has superior strength, and Varek is a mutant who can walk through solid matter. After one of the group gets killed by an Earth Defense Directorate agent, the Legion of Death vow revenge and devise a plan to destroy New Chicago.

Buck Rogers' true identity is briefly questioned by one of Raphael Argus' girlfriends, Joella Cameron, but she goes along with the deception to assist Buck. However, his cover has been eventually blown when an informant named Barney Smith, who knew the real Argus, confirms he is an impostor. The Legion of Death discover Buck's true identity, but he manages to avoid being killed by the nefarious group of deadly assassins. By then, Buck has already learned the group's plan to destroy New Chicago, by sabotaging the city's antimatter power plant, and he and Joella race back to Earth to stop them.

Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering pursue notorious gunrunners Commander Corliss and Roxanne Trent who are planning on dropping deadly nerve agents from the 20th century on Earth. A squadron of elderly space fighter pilots led by Major Noah Cooper who were forced to retire are brought back into active service so they can lead an attack on the criminals' asteroid base. Because of their age, Wilma has doubts about the squadron's reliability, but Noah's team departs to prove they still have what that takes to get the mission done. During the attack, Buck and Wilma are captured by Corliss and Trent who both show horrible scars from injuries they received from Wilma during a previous confrontation.

Posing as a prisoner named Valzhan, Buck Rogers has been taken to a penal colony on a moon of the planet Zeta where he springs a female inmate named Jen Burton free. The young woman had taken the blame for crimes committed by her boyfriend, Malary Pantera, and the Earth's Directorate wants her to testify against him. However, she still loves Pantera and refuses to cooperate, and Pantera happens to have a business associate back on Earth, a diplomat whose involvement could be exposed once she testifies. Furthermore, they have to cross a dangerous desert on foot to reach the nearest spaceport and are being pursued by an android prison guard, damaged during the prison break.

Buck finds himself the center of attention on a planet of women with a shocking secret. After getting lured into captivity by two space vixens, he gets auctioned off as a sex slave.

The President of the planet Genesia is no ordinary President... he is 493-year-old child genius Hieronymous Fox. Originally from Earth's 20th century, he developed advanced cryogenics technology and had himself frozen before the nuclear holocaust. After being revived in the 25th century, Fox helped the struggling Genesia colony and they made him their leader. A political dissident named Roderick Zale has kidnapped him for ransom and held him captive on Aldebaran II. The President's bodyguard, Lieutenant Dia Cyrton, appeals to Earth's Directorate for help to rescue him but officially Earth cannot help. When her request is denied, she enlists Buck to her cause who is only too eager to meet someone from his own time.

Princess Ardala returns with a powerful orbital weapon with which she threatens to bombard Earth - unless she has Buck Rogers for herself.

After the galactic beauty queen Miss Cosmos is attacked by a mysterious woman, Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering are assigned to protect her while she travels aboard a luxury space liner. Onboard, Buck encounters Alison Michaels, who suffers from periodic blackouts which her boyfriend, Jalor Davin, dismisses as mental stress caused by hypertension. After another attack against Miss Cosmos, Buck confronts the assailant, Sabrina, a wild-haired woman with superhuman strength and deadly psychokinetic powers. He begins to suspect that Sabrina and Alison are the same and that Jalor has been exploiting her powers so that they can capture Miss Cosmos and sell her perfect genetics on the black market.

Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering arrive at Theta Station to have Twiki serviced, but soon a freighter crashes with the space station. The freighter crew are found in a state between life and death, and believing a virus may be responsible, Commander Royko orders the base under quarantine. Soon however, Wilma feels a cold, evil presence stalking her and several station crew begun turning up half-dead. Buck learns that the source of said deaths is the Vorvon, a space vampire that can drain the life energy from his victims and turn them into zombies. However, only Buck is convinced that the Vorvon exists and plans on making Wilma his next victim.

Nearing his 534th birthday, Buck Rogers feels homesick for the 20th century and Wilma Deering plans a surprise party to cheer him up. To lure Buck out of his apartment and allow Wilma to arrange the party, Dr. Huer assigns him to escort psychic courier Raylyn Derren to New Detroit. Meanwhile, the bitter and vindictive Cornell Traeger escapes from a remote planet that he has been imprisoned on for 15 years. He acquires a mutant power to change molecular structures and plans revenge on Dr. Huer for sending him on a disastrous mission. Traeger kidnaps the psychic courier to find out Dr. Huer's location and Buck must stop him before he can carry out the assassination.

A satellite enters Earth orbit. This transmits a message intended for Buck, and a warning of a possible attack. Buck and his friends attempt to figure out who might have sent the satellite to prevent the attack.

While developing the design of Draconian Hatchet Fighters, Kane sends the best pilots of the kingdom that are not able to control the fighters and die. Princess Ardala suggests that Buck Rogers is the best plot of the galaxy and able to control the fighter. She lures Buck Rogers and releases a probe similar to the one Buck Rogers was found with a dummy inside. Buck and Twiki are captured by the Draconian warriors and Buck's skills are used for three clones called Zygots. One of them is sent to New Chicago replacing Buck with a bomb inside to destroy the city. Now Buck tries to flee from Ardala, Kane and his warriors.

After an uprising of miners on the asteroid Toros, the mining operator Kerk Belzak wishes to replace the human workers with robotic drones. He kidnaps Twiki so he can investigate the diminutive drone's unique circuitry and make cheap duplicates of Twiki to work in his mine. Buck Rogers goes after Belzak's enforcers, the Omniguard, three female paranormals with psychokinetic powers to save Twiki. Meanwhile, Wilma Deering has her hands full with a huge floating chunk of frozen oxygen that could destroy most of Earth's population once the iceberg veers off course.

Buck attends a new version of the Olympics. He meets Lara, one of the athletes, who tells him that she is involved with Jorex, an athlete from a planet, that's ruled by a dictator, who has Jorex under his thumb. She's asking for Buck's help so that Jorex can defect to Earth. Buck calls Wilma and Huer, who agree to help. They decide to consult another refugee from Jorex's planet. He tells them that the dictator will do whatever he has to do to keep him from escaping, even kill him. However, Allerick, the man in charge of Jorex, learns of the plan and abducts Lara.

Buck sees a young woman who looks identical to his girlfriend, whom he left behind when he was sent on a space mission in the 20th century. The stranger, named Lela Markeson, catches a flight in the resort town of City-on-the-Sea (what was once New Orleans), and Buck follows her there. However, Lela reveals that she was purposely altered to appear as Buck's long-lost girlfriend and sent to lure Buck into a trap by aliens. With Buck captured, the aliens want him to attack a freighter transporting weapons to a colony planet which they planned to conquer. Buck gets Wilma to detonate a warhead to deceive the aliens into thinking the shipment is destroyed.

When an evil rock impresario devises a means to implant a hypnotic signal into a rock band's music to drive their young audience berserk, Buck must thwart his schemes of conquest.

Buck learns that the population of a planet oppressed by a powerful evil warlord believes that he is their prophesied deliverer and are begging for him to help.

After a mysterious probe lands on Earth, Buck and Twiki travel through a vortex to another universe where the peaceful inhabitants of the planet Pendar are under attack from the ruthless war witch Zarina. Buck has to form an uneasy alliance with Draconian Princess Ardala, who has followed him through the vortex, in order to defeat Zarina.