The New Adventures of Flash Gordon

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The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
Created by Alex Raymond
Presented by Filmation
King Features Syndicate
Voices of Robert Ridgely
Diane Pershing
Bob Holt
Vic Perrin
Theme music composer Ray Ellis
Norm Prescott
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 32
Production
Executive producer(s) Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Producer(s) Don Christensen
Editor(s) Earl Biddle, Jim Blodgett
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run 1979 – 1980
External links
Website

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 Episode IV: A New Hope 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, ruler of Arboria; and King Vultan, leader 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 subplot of Ming secretly giving military technology to Hitler being dropped, as well as being set in the present day rather during World War II. After the series was canceled, the original footage was reassembled with the original soundtrack, including the final role of Ted Cassidy, and aired in prime time in 1982 as a TV movie, Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All.

The show not only marked the first animated Flash Gordon series, but it also incidentally chronologically marks the second appearance of Flash Gordon in animated form, following from his first in Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter.

Contents

[edit] Description

The animated series first season follows, more or less, the traditional Flash Gordon 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. It is later revealed that an earlier king of all Mongo, more powerful than Ming, was named Gor-dan, and that he strongly resembled Flash. When he asks Zarkov why this is, Zarkov simply replies that there are some things even science can't explain.

The remainder of the first season consists of the adventures of Gordon and company 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 Hawkmen as a friend and ally, and also gains the attention of many of Mongo's female monarchs, such as the adventurous Queen Undina of Coralia, the kindly, smoky-voiced Queen Fria of Frigia, Azura, the powerful but delusional Witch-Queen of Syk, former lover of King Gor-dan who believes Flash is his reincarnation, and the strong-willed Queen Desira of Tropica. But the most notable of these admirers was, of course, Princess Aura.[2] Violence is somewhat limited. Flash carries a ray pistol after the fifth episode, but uses it only twice, once to set a stump aflame and attract attention, and once to blast through a wall. Prince Barin and his men are armed with "ice arrows" that freeze whatever they hit. King Vultan's Hawk Men and the desert tribesmen of Tropica are armed with conventional ray weapons that disintegrate whatever they hit, as are Ming's forces, mainly composed of robots. Ship to ship combat does result in the shooting down of several fighters on both sides.

[edit] Mongo the Planet

Mongo is Earth-like, and is portrayed as boasting a rich variety of biomes, ranging from the polar ice of Frigia, the domain of Queen Fria, 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. The most notable of these are the people of Coralia, ruled by Queen Undina and the Mer-Men, who work for Ming as enforcers. 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 the Beast-men, 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. The "witch-men" of Syk appear to be other than human, as they are gray-skinned and have fewer than five fingers on each hand, but their voluminous robes conceal all else.

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. This is however, discarded in the final episode when Undina and a troop of Coralian sea warriors arrive to participate in the final battle and advance onto land to take the fortress guarding Ming's capital.

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 date very far back in the past. 

[edit] Ming the Merciless

Main article: 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, Princess 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, as the series reveals a legend of a one-time King Gor-dan of Syk, to whom Ming served as High Priest.

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.

[edit] Season 2

When a second season of episodes was ordered for fall 1982, 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 mouth-blown smoke. This second season of episodes was not well received (and was not seen in some markets, due to being scheduled at 12:30 PM Eastern/11:30 AM Central and thus often being pre-empted for sports coverage). The program was canceled after completion of the second season run.

The program was later shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel as part of Sci Fi Cartoon Quest.

[edit] Episode list

[edit] Season 1

  1. A Planet in Peril
  2. The Monsters of Mongo
  3. Vultan - King of the Hawkmen
  4. To Save Earth
  5. The Beast Men's Prey
  6. Into the Water World
  7. Adventure in Arboria
  8. The Frozen World
  9. 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

  1. Gremlin the Dragon
  2. Royal Wedding
  3. Sir Gremlin
  4. Deadly Double
  5. The Game
  6. The Seed
  7. Witch Woman
  8. Micro Menace
  9. 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] DVD release

BCI Eclipse LLC (Under license from Entertainment Rights) released The New Adventures of Flash Gordon: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on July 18, 2006. The 4 disc set includes many special features.[3]

As of 2009, this release has been discontinued and is out of print as BCI Eclipse ceased operations.[4]

[edit] Voice acting credits

[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 series 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 SciFi Channel.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Flash Gordon". Hearst Animation. http://www.hearstent.com/flashgordon.html. Retrieved 2007-04-16. 
  2. ^ McLean, James (2006-07-26). "Flash Back: Filmation's Best Returns to DVD". toonzone.net. http://news.toonzone.net/articles/11783/flash-back-filmations-best-returns-to-dvd. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 
  3. ^ "The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon - Complete Series". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/New-Animated-Adventures-Flash-Gordon-Complete-Series/5887. Retrieved 2007-04-27. 
  4. ^ "Site News - PRESS RELEASE: Navarre Shuts Down BCI, Makers of He-Man, Day Break, Price is Right and other DVDs". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Site-News-BCI-Shut-Down/11064#ixzz0wWpIELRs. Retrieved 2010-05-31. 

[edit] External links
TV Series
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Gale Gordon (1935) • Buster Crabbe (1936 - 1940) • Steve Holland (1954) • Robert Ridgely (1979, 1982) • Sam J. Jones (1980) • Lou Richards (1986) • Toby Proctor (1996) • Eric Johnson (2007)
Jean Rogers (1936 - 1938) • Carol Hughes (1940) • Irene Champlin (1954) • Diane Pershing (1979, 1982) • Melody Anderson (1980) • Lexa Doig (1996) • Gina Holden (2007)
Bruno Wick (1935) • Charles Middleton (1936 - 1940) • Alan Oppenheimer (1979) • Max von Sydow (1980) • Vic Perrin (1982) • William Callaway (1986) • John Ralston (2007)
Maurice Franklin (1935) • Frank Shannon (1936 - 1940) • Joseph Nash (1954) • Alan Oppenheimer (1979) • Topol (1980) • Bob Holt (1982) • Paul Shaffer (1996) • Jody Racicot (2007)
Priscilla Lawson (1936 - 1938) • Shirley Deane (1940) • Melendy Britt (1979, 1982) • Ornella Muti (1980) • Anna Van Hooft (2007)
Richard Alexander (1936 - 1938) • Roland Drew (1940) • Robert Ridgely (1979) • Timothy Dalton (1980) • Robert Douglas (1982) • Steve Bacic (2007)
John Lipson (1936 - 1938) • Allan Melvin (1979) • Brian Blessed (1980) • Ted Cassidy (1982) • Ty Olsson (2007)
James Pierce (1936) • Ted Cassidy (1979) • George Harris (1980) • David Opatoshu (1982)
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Casper and the Angels • Fred and Barney Meet the Thing • The Super Globetrotters • The New Shmoo • The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979–1980) • Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo • Godzilla • The Flintstone Comedy Show • The Smurfs (1981–1990) • The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! • Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981–1983) • Space Stars • The Flintstone Funnies • Shirt Tales • The Gary Coleman Show (1982–1983) • The Incredible Hulk • Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983–1991) • Mister T • Snorks (1984–1989) • Pink Panther and Sons • Kidd Video (1984–1987) • Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1985–1989) • It's Punky Brewster (1985–1987) • Kissyfur (1986–1987) • Foofur • Lazer Tag Academy • Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series (1987–1988) • ALF: The Animated Series (1987–1989) • The New Archies • ALF Tales • The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley • Camp Candy (1989–1990) • Captain N: The Game Master (1989–1992) • The Karate Kid (1989–1990)
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One to Grow On • Going Bananas • I'm Telling! (1987–1988) • Saved by the Bell (1989–1993)
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