The UNTOLD Truth About Buck Rogers’ ‘Space Vampire’ Played By Nicholas Hormann
Without a doubt, there’s a lot to like about Buck Rogers, particularly the first season, when the program didn’t take itself all that seriously. For one joyous season, Buck Rogers just entertained us and didn’t worry about anything else. The “Space Vampire” episode with Nicholas Hormann was one of the episodes I loved best in Season 1.
Buck Rogers originally aired from 1979 to 1981 on NBC and was based on the classic science-fiction character created by Philip Francis Nolan. The show follows the journey of Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) a 20th-century astronaut who ends up frozen in space, only to awaken in the 25th century.
Vampires! Zombies! Twiki on the fritz!
With all that said, let’s talk about my favorite episode, “Space Vampire,” which marked the 14th episode of the first season. The story begins with Buck and Colonel Wilma Deering arriving at a distant space station to have Twiki, their lovable robot sidekick, tuned up. What starts out as a routine visit quickly spirals into a spine-chilling tale of horror. Okay, maybe “spine-chilling” is overselling it. It’s not Salem’s Lot; it’s more like Salem’s Lot Lite.
The story really gets going when a freighter unexpectedly crashes into the space station, and its crew is found in a state between life and death. Fearing a potential virus outbreak, the station is quickly ordered to be put under quarantine. As they investigate further, things take a dark turn. Wilma starts sensing a cold, evil presence stalking her, and crew members begin turning up as half-dead zombies. Long before they were cool, we had zombies on Buck Rogers!
Wilma for the win!
Universal Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
As great as Gil Gerard is in this episode, it’s really Erin Gray who gets to shine here as she battles not only external threats but her own internal fears that are quickly justified as she discovers the shocking truth. The source of all these intergalactic hijinks is a space vampire known as a Vorvon, portrayed by actor Nicholas Hormann. This sinister creature has the ability to drain the life energy from its victims and turn them into mindless ghouls.
I love Nicholas Hormann’s over the top turn as a vampire who is cheesy, campy and, yeah, quite a bit scary. So scary, in fact, that the character terrified some of Nicholas’ own family! In a 2015 interview with journalist Andrew S. Hughes, Nicholas confessed that his niece and nephew both got frightened when they watched this episode with him. He said they told him, “You scared the pants off us!”
You’re very live, aren’t you?
But the untold truth about this space vampire is that Nicholas Hormann is quite the accomplished actor. He’s one of those fellows who, over the past four decades, has literally been in hundreds of TV shows and movies, and yet no one knows who he is. His career has been that of a character actor, someone who just completely disappears into their role.
One of my favorite characters that Nicholas has played was Calvin Klein on the classic TV sitcom Seinfeld. You remember that one, right? Beyond TV and movies, Nicholas can often be found doing live theater. He’s an actor’s actor, one of the very best.
For a late-seventies TV show, “Space Vampire” really does deliver the goods. While this episode originally aired in January of 1980, it really should have been broadcast right before Halloween. The makeup and practical effects used to depict the half-dead victims and the Vorvon’s presence are very well done. Everyone working on this episode really did themselves proud.
Which Buck Rogers character scared the pants off of you? Let us know in the comments.
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