The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
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| The New Adventures of Flash Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Filmation King Features Syndicate |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 32 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer |
| Producer(s) | Don Christensen |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | 1979 – 1980 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, also known as The Adventures of Flash Gordon [1], is an animated television series. The series is actually called Flash Gordon, but the expanded title is used in official records to distinguish it from previous versions. Filmation produced the series in 1979, partly as a reaction to the mammoth success of Star Wars in 1977. The series was an homage to the original Flash Gordon comic strip and featured most of the original characters, including Flash's girlfriend Dale Arden, and the scientist Hans Zarkov. The series is still regarded to be not only one of the most faithful adaptations, but also one of Filmation's finest overall efforts to this day.
Flash and company had traveled to Mongo, where they were forced into battle by its ruler, Ming the Merciless, his daughter Princess Aura, and his army of Metal Men. To help their cause the heroes lead the formation of an alliance beginning with King Thun, leader of the Lion People; Prince Barin, leader of Arboria; and King Vultan, ruler of the Hawkmen.
The original project was produced as a made-for-television feature film. When NBC saw the finished work, it was decided to turn the work into an animated TV series. The change in format resulted in the story being significantly expanded with a sub-plot of Ming secretly giving military technology to Hitler being dropped.
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[edit] Description
The animated series first season follows, more or less, the traditional FG mythos, opening with the launch of the rocketship carrying Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov from somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere (or at least the opening scene shows the ship clearing Earth's atmosphere above Europe and the Middle East). The series actually opens with the crash of the Terran ship into an ocean on Mongo after being attacked during the final approach to the planet.
In the opening scenes, after being captured by Ming's Gill Men, Gordon, Arden, and Zarkov meet King Thun the Lion-man and Prince Barin of the forest-kingdom of Arboria. This coincidence (meeting reigning royalty of two different realms by apparent chance) sets much of the tone of the series, in which it must be concluded either that logic is irrelevant, or that Destiny is at work in the arrival of Flash Gordon on Mongo.
The remainder of the first season consists of pulpish adventures of Gordon and Co. across the face of Mongo, in traditional pulp style passing from one near-death situation to another with a cheery disregard for probability or logic, and a definite sense of fun. The protagonists meet Emperor Ming almost immediately, and Ming is revealed as being the classic archetype of the Evil Overlord. Flash later gains the aid of King Vultan, ruler of the Hawk-Men as a friend and ally, and also gains the attention of many of Mongo's female monarchs, such as Queen Undina of Coralia, Queen Freya of Frigia, Azura, the Witch-Queen of Syk, and Queen Desira of Tropica. But the most notable of these admirers was, of course, Princess Aura.
[edit] Mongo the Planet
Mongo is very Earth-like, and is portrayed as boasting a rich variety of biomes, ranging from the polar ice of Frigia, the domain of Queen Freya, to the lush jungle and hot desert of Tropica, Queen Desira's demesne. Vast forests give Prince Barin's realm of Arboria its name, and there are deep and shallow oceans inhabited by many life forms. Temperature and weather extremes are quite comparable to those of Earth, and the biology of Mongo appears to be based on the same biochemistry as that of Earth. Certainly Flash, Dale, and Hans ingest food from Mongo with no ill effects.
Mongo's surface gravity appears to be a bit less than that of Earth, or at least there are comments on occasion that Terrans are stronger on Mongo than they are on Earth. The difference in surface gravity can not be too great, however, because Mongo is so Earth-like, and Terrans on Mongo are by no means superhuman.
Mongo's crust is host to highly extensive underground tunnels and chambers, more so than Earth (as far as is known), including an entire underground realm, Syk, the 'witch-kingdom'.
[edit] Peoples of Mongo
Mongo is home to a variety of races of sapient life, though the most common breed appears, at least on the surface, to be classic Homo sapiens. Along with the humans of Mongo, though, are the Lion-men, a race of humanoid cat-creatures, the Hawk-men, who have angel-like wings on their backs and are skilled aerial fliers, the undersea people of Coralia, a race of waterbreathers who are apparently descended from air-breathing Humans, a race of giants found (at least) in Frigia, Ming's infamous Lizard-men and Lizard-women, reptilian, tailed humanoids apparently dedicated to Ming, and a race of primitive humanoids kept artificially primitive by Ming. Additionally, Ming rules a race of 'Gill-men' who breathe water and who are separate from (and enemies to) the water-breathing Humans of Coralia.
This huge variety of humanoid life seems an improbable result of purely Darwinian evolution. At the very least, it is known that the people of Coralia adapted themselves artificially to underwater existence, and in fact retain the technology to transform air breathers such as Flash and Dale and Hans into water-breathers, and back again. They do appear to be unable to create beings able to operate in both media, however, one is either an air or a water breather.
It would seem likely, though of course unconfirmed, that many of the various races of Mongo are the result of genetic manipulation, eugenic projects, and other artificial means of inducing change, over the course of Mongo's vast history. Probably H. sapiens is the base stock for most if not all Mongo's living intelligent races, but the points of divergence would likely like very far back in the past.
[edit] Ming the Merciless
The chief villain of the series is Ming the Merciless, archetype of the Evil Overlord. Cruel, cold, arrogant, avaricious, ruthless, and Machiavellian, Ming is the epitome of the tyrant. Yet he is brilliant, referred to by some as the greatest scientist in the universe, and politically and diplomatically capable. He is skilled in personal combat, but feels no compulsion to engage in it when misdirection will work as well.
His personal race is unclear, his ears are pointed, his teeth seem fanged, his frame oddly thin yet very strong...and he claims to be immortal, with some supporting evidence. He also appears to have some Asian features, a stark contrast to that of his daughter, Aura.
His sexual tastes seem varied, to judge by the various types of female we see in glimpses of his harem, but he seems to find Dale Arden particularly attractive, and his daughter Aura seems to be a Homo sapiens, so presumably Ming is not very alien. His origin may tie in to the nature of Syk, the Witch-Kingdom.
His resources are immense, with armies of robots, armies of humans and other species, a fleet of armed rocket ships and spacecraft...and access to even more impressive technologies. However, he does seem to fear the possibility of a united rebellion on Mongo, because he seems to work to keep the races at each other's throats. It might be that his power is greater than anyone else's, but not greater than everyone else's.
[edit] Season 2
When a second season of episodes was ordered two years after the original, NBC insisted that the serial format be dropped and that the stories be more episodic. This resulted in the addition of the pet dragon Gremlin, an artist in nose-blown smoke. This second season of episodes was not well received and the program was canceled after completion of the second season run.
The entire series has been released on DVD by BCI Eclipse under license from Hearst Entertainment (it does not appear in the Entertainment Rights library).
[edit] Episode list
[edit] Season 1
01 A Planet in Peril
02 The Monsters of Mongo
03 Vultan - King of the Hawkmen
04 To Save Earth
05 The Beast Men's Prey
06 Into the Water World
07 Adventure in Arboria
08 The Frozen World
09 Monster of the Glacier
10 Blue Magic
11 King Flash
12 Tournament of Death
13 Castaways in Tropica
14 The Desert Hawk
15 Revolt of the Power Men
16 Ming's Last Battle
[edit] Season 2
01 Gremlin the Dragon
02 Royal Wedding
03 Sir Gremlin
04 Deadly Double
05 The Game
06 The Seed
07 Witch Woman
08 Micro Menace
09 Flash Back
10 The Warrior
11 The Freedom Balloon
12 Sacrifice of the Volcano Men
13 Beware of Gifts
14 The Memory Bank of Ming
15 Survival Game
16 Gremlin's Finest Hour
[edit] Voice acting credits
- Flash Gordon, Prince Barin: Robert Ridgely
- Dale Arden, Queen Undina, Queen Fria, Queen Azura, Queen Desira: Diane Pershing
- Dr. Hans Zarkov, Gundar the Desert Hawk, Ming the Merciless: Alan Oppenheimer
- Thun the Lion Man, King Vultan: Alan Melvin
- Princess Aura: Melendy Britt
- Narrator: Lou Scheimer
[edit] Later incarnations
In 1986, Flash appeared with fellow King Features heroes The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Lothar, as well as all of their children, in the cartoon Defenders of the Earth. In 1996, the character of Flash Gordon returned to television again in a short-lived updated series featuring him using a Hoverboard, and in 2007 the character was revived in a live-action series on Sci Fi Channel.
