Buck Douglas

Buck Douglas is a fictional character from the United Kingdom. He is a television presenter and an alien hunter. He first appeared in the 1984 Japanese Nippon TV anime film Little Green Men from Mars (Japanese: 惑星火星の秘密 Hepburn: Wakusei kasei no himitsu ("Secrets of the Planet Mars")) as an unnamed low-intelligent henchman to Dr. Traumatize. He then appeared in the 1988 sequel Legends of the Little Green Men (Japanese: 惑星木星にこだわった Hepburn: Wakusei mokusei ni kodawatta ("Stuck on Planet Jupiter")) as a major henchman to the same villain, where he finally captures the Little Green Men and decides to eat them.

In 1998, he appeared as the main anti-hero in the spin-off film Buck Douglas' Alien Quest to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film Little Green Men from Mars. It is the story of the iconic, low-intelligent henchman of Dr. Traumatize, who has to fight a UFO invasion from an evil version of the Little Green Men. He later on decides to host his own TV show to make his boss proud. This film was later adapted into a Japanese anime series of the same name in 1999, which aired on TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, and Nippon TV in Japan and Fox Kids in English-speaking countries. The 1998 film made many references to another popular Japanese franchise named Doraemon.

Also in 1999, he made an appearance in the scrapped Japanese special Fireman Sam: Aliens on the Loose, where he does the narration and appears as a supporting character who thinks that the alien sightings are not real.

In 2003, he appeared, along with the characters of the anime TV film Little Green Men from Mars, on a 70-minute OVA to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary, once again being the henchman of Dr. Traumatize. There was a sequel produced in 2004, but it got cancelled after a test screening.

In 2010, he appeared in the Japanese Fuji TV special Fireman Sam: The Big Hurricane. He appeared as the henchman of an evil television presenter.

In 2014, he appeared in the Japanese anime series ''Welcome, Little Green Men! ''(Japanese:ドキドキ、火星からのエイリアン！"Dokidoki, Aliens from Mars!") It is a reboot of the two anime films, and it was broadcast on Nippon TV and NHK ETV. Buck reprises the role of a part-time television presenter and a part-time henchman of Dr. Traumatize. In the Series 1 finale, Buck Douglas was fed up by Dr. Traumatize's evil plans and decides to be one of the good guys.

In 2017, he appeared in the Fireman Sam franchise once again. This time, it was official. He now wasn't a henchman of a villain, but despite him redeeming himself in the anime series Welcome, Little Green Men, he is a villain of this movie. He is also not low-intelligent and idiotic anymore, instead he is intelligent, cheerful, witty, and mischievous, but he still does his rotating salute like in the Little Green Men franchise, and he still acts a little weird. He also was without his hat, showing his cool, blonde hair, and he's now a full-time TV presenter. In this film, he is voiced by David Tennant.

Later on, Buck Douglas made picture cameos in the New Fireman Sam episodes "The Why Files" (as "the alien"), "Who Let the Cat Out?", and is set to make non-pictural cameo appearances in the upcoming film Fireman Sam: Hollywood Hero.

Trivia
According to a script that was seen in a brief David Tennant interview about Fireman Sam: Alien Alert, Buck Douglas was originally going to wear a hat, just like in the Little Green Men anime series, but the producers removed the hat for unknown reasons and replaced it with a scarf. Also, you can see half of a blurry storyboard drawing of Buck Douglas on a computer at the end of David Tennant's interview about his character.

In the first stage of development of Fireman Sam: Alien Alert, Buck Douglas was originally an entirely different character, a handsome, blonde-haired man with a green trenchcoat who knows everything about aliens and UFOs. He would bring the children with to his alien hunt when he visited Pontypandy. In the first, second, and third stages of development of Fireman Sam: Alien Alert, Buck Douglas originally wasn't a villian, instead being a protagonist, with the main antagonist role given to Hecir Price. Also, Hecir was going to be the one who faked all the alien sightings in Pontypandy, not Buck Douglas, like in the final film. Starting with the fourth development stage, HIT Entertainment gave the main antagonist role to Buck Douglas after they thought Hecir Price being the villian may not be a good idea, since Hecir is the father of Norman Price, an anti-heroic protagonist in the Fireman Sam franchise, and Norman cares about his father.