Flash Gordon is an American-Canadian science fiction television series that debuted on Sci-Fi in the United States on August 10, 2007 and continued airing new episodes through February 8, 2008. It has also appeared on the United Kingdom Sci-Fi and Space in Canada. The series was developed by Peter Hume, who served as executive producer/show runner and wrote the first and last episodes, among others.
Plot
The series was loosely based on the comic strip of the same name and incorporated elements from several previous adaptations, following the adventures of Steven "Flash" Gordon, a twenty-five-year-old who lives with his mother and whose scientist father was lost in a mysterious accident when Flash was 13 years old. Flash's ex-girlfriend, Dale Arden, is a television news reporter and is engaged topolice detective Joe Wylee. They introduce Gordons' eccentric former assistant, Hans Zarkov, when rifts in space appear, allowing travel between Earth and the planet Mongo. Mongo is ruled by the ruthless dictator Ming, who controls "Source Water", the only source of safe drinking water on Mongo. Unlike the previous adaptations, he is not normally called "the Merciless" and is instead called "Benevolent Father", though he is still called "the Merciless" in closed circles. He also exhibits the traits of modern, media-savvy dictators, rather than the more simplistic, stereotypically evil characterization of earlier incarnations. Also, unlike previous depictions, Ming resembles a blond Caucasian human, rather than a bald East Asian man. Ming has a daughter, Princess Aura, who is disturbed by her father's brutality. The series adds a new non-Terran character, Baylin, a bounty hunter from Mongo. She finds herself trapped on Earth and becomes a comrade of Flash, Dale and Zarkov and their guide to Mongo and its inhabitants. The peoples of Mongo live in "cantons", tribal groups that echo the animal-human hybrids of the original comic strip. The cantons include the Verdan, the Turin, the Dactyls, the Omadrians, the Frigians, the Tritons, and the Zurn. There is also another group known as the Deviates, mutants whose ancestors drank "Grey Water" to survive. The Deviates are led by Terek, their unofficial king and are distrusted by almost everyone.
On April 3, 2008, it was announced that Flash Gordon was canceled. Re-runs of the show began airing weekly on ION Television on August 1, 2008.
Reception
The show was not well received. Metacritic gave the show an average score of 35/100 based on reviews from 13 critics. UK science fiction magazineSFX described episode 3 as "possibly the worst episode of anything, ever", and as part of their 200th issue features, they named the series as the worst they had ever reviewed. The New York Post gave the show 0 stars describing it as "a disgrace to the name of the enduring comic-strip-character-turned-movie-and-TV space hero." Another UK science fiction magazine, TV Zone, in a review for episode 13, stated "the series continues to improve, and you start to see the meaning in the producers' madness—they must have hoped they could lull passing viewers into watching Sci-Fi with pedestrian, mainstream plots, before building up a world of Dune-like complexity...which might even have worked if the early episodes hadn't been so dire that no-one but reviewers are still watching." When the show premiered in the UK, the magazine recommended it to readers, noting "You may well be wondering, considering the vitriol of our early reviews of the series, why we're picking out Flash Gordon as something to watch out for. Well, the point is that while the early episodes are dire...this is one series that does eventually—and we mean eventually—reward patience and endurance."
Home media
On August 14, 2007, Best Buy offered an exclusive DVD that included "The Premiere Episode," selected deleted scenes and a gallery of series concept art. This release includes the truncated 65-minute version of the pilot, exactly as it aired on Sci-Fi four days prior. Subsequent DVD releases include the full 87-minute version of the pilot, split into two parts. On July 14, 2009, Phase 4 Films released the complete series on DVD in Region 1. The 5-disc set features all 22 episodes of the series. On April 16, 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment has released the complete series on DVD in the USA.
In other media
CD releases
In February 2014, Perseverance Records released a CD containing selected cues by composer Michael Picton. A second album was released in May, with the final volume scheduled for later in the year.
