Anybody Else Tuning in to Flash Gordon Tonight?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-08-11 04:08pm

The Dark wrote:She's also been in two episodes of Stargate (the two Wormhole X-treme! episodes)

She played the Wormhole X-treme! analogue to Carter, right?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-08-11 05:50pm

I saw it, and I really liked it. I'm hoping at some point Flash actually saves his father, and it doesn't turn into his 'Neverending Quest (TM)'. RV man is a favorite, and he seems just on the ball enough to be competent and not a buffon.

I imagine he'll be making gadgets and weapons for Flash.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-08-11 06:11pm

"RV Guy," by the way, is Dr. Zarkov. Did anybody else notice that they seemed to completely forget to properly introduce him at any point in the pilot?

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2007-08-11 06:25pm

Kinda meh-ish in my opinion. Seems to be yet another series about our spunky group of heroes that form a rogue group to fight off the evil invaders (government backing optional). Some things were modernised well, but the central premise sucks, and the doc has real potential to turn into an utter annoyance. I'll give it a few episodes, but I'm thinking this is a rehash of a ton of series (Smallville, Rosewell, hell even Torchwood and probably others that don't readily spring to mind) whose style tends to turn them to shit by the second season, at least for me.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-08-11 07:00pm

Netko wrote:Kinda meh-ish in my opinion. Seems to be yet another series about our spunky group of heroes that form a rogue group to fight off the evil invaders (government backing optional). Some things were modernised well, but the central premise sucks, and the doc has real potential to turn into an utter annoyance. I'll give it a few episodes, but I'm thinking this is a rehash of a ton of series (Smallville, Rosewell, hell even Torchwood and probably others that don't readily spring to mind) whose style tends to turn them to shit by the second season, at least for me.

ummm... You've never seen the original Flash Gordon, have you.

Flash Gordon was one of the first BW movie serials to be filmed, based off the old comic strips. The 'spunky group of heros forming rogue group to fight evil tyrant' was its trademark and source of nearly all its story-arcs. The 'daughter of Evil Tyrant falls for Hero' meme may have started from Aura and Flash Gordon as well.

But, if you *really* want Cheesy with Bad Special Effects I point you to the 1980s film version, with Queen performing all the music, and so much scenery-chewing that they had to rebuilt the sets 200 times.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2007-08-11 07:19pm

LadyTevar wrote: But, if you *really* want Cheesy with Bad Special Effects I point you to the 1980s film version, with Queen performing all the music, and so much scenery-chewing that they had to rebuilt the sets 200 times.

But that's why we love it so. QUEEN! Max Von Sydow! Topol! Timothy Dalton! Brian freakin Blessed! Richard O'brien's presence insured its cult status anyway.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2007-08-11 07:20pm

LadyTevar wrote: and so much scenery-chewing that they had to rebuilt the sets 200 times.

*ghetto-edit*

Fortunately, the sets were cardboard so they could easily afford that.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2007-08-11 09:50pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
The Dark wrote:She's also been in two episodes of Stargate (the two Wormhole X-treme! episodes)
She played the Wormhole X-treme! analogue to Carter, right?

I would assume so, since she appeared in both 200 and Wormhole X-treme! (I actually missed both episodes

).

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-08-11 09:59pm

If they were going to make Ming a white guy, they should've gotten Michael Ironsides. Now THERE is a man who can chew scenery.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-08-11 10:06pm

No, I don't like Michael Ironside!

To be serious, though, Ironside is somewhat of an overused actor, and rather predictable in terms of performance.

DrMckay · Post by **DrMckay** » 2007-08-11 11:08pm

Kinda cheesey, but in a good way.

Looks like Eureka lite. (in SFX and plot...)

Comments on the mom thirded. She looked Waaaaaaay too young. I mean Flash is what? mid Twenties?

the least they could have done would be to go for some gray hair or something.

Is their budget that low? Probably.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2007-08-12 01:44am

DrMckay wrote: Comments on the mom thirded. She looked Waaaaaaay too young. I mean Flash is what? mid Twenties?
.

Older than that, They mentioned a year when looking at the high school yearbook, and I'm pretty sure it was 87 or 89, which would make Flash a well-preserved 36-38 if it's set in the modern day (no indication either way, there)

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2007-08-12 01:52am

I thought that was supposed to be his dad's yearbook.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2007-08-12 09:29am

LadyTevar wrote:ummm... You've never seen the original Flash Gordon, have you.

Flash Gordon was one of the first BW movie serials to be filmed, based off the old comic strips. The 'spunky group of heros forming rogue group to fight evil tyrant' was its trademark and source of nearly all its story-arcs. The 'daughter of Evil Tyrant falls for Hero' meme may have started from Aura and Flash Gordon as well.

But, if you *really* want Cheesy with Bad Special Effects I point you to the 1980s film version, with Queen performing all the music, and so much scenery-chewing that they had to rebuilt the sets 200 times.

Haven't seen the B&W stuff, but have seen the '80s movie. Not nostalgic about it though. I don't mind the cheese, hell, I'd probably love it if they cheesed it out some more. My problem is that it follows the formula of the last decades light teen Earth-based sci-fi to the letter (again, Smallville, Rosewell, etc.). Hell, if I accidentally seen it while flipping channels there would be a good chance of thinking it was one of the mentioned series. The cinematography is the same, the acting quality is the same (pretty bad), the characters are basically the same types, etc. Sure, there might be a risqué comment or two compared to the other shows, but there is nothing substantially different. If that's your cup of tea, go for it, I'm however giving the show a couple of episodes to grow some own character, however if it does follow the formula by turning into a monster-of-the-week show with loose plot threads connecting the episodes that never get resolved dangling to hook you in I'm dropping it like a hot potato.

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 2007-08-12 11:57am

Darwin wrote:But that's why we love it so. QUEEN! Max Von Sydow! Topol! Timothy Dalton! Brian freakin Blessed! Richard O'brien's presence insured its cult status anyway.

And of course Ornella Muti in some of those costumes.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2007-08-12 08:24pm

Wasn’t too keen on it, Flash has always been at the flamboyant end of scifi particularly on Mongo yet our first glance of it here was generic pipes, gantry’s & steam which just isn’t how Mongo is meant to be.

I didn’t like the portal thing, Flash is supposed to fly cool stuff running around in grassy fields & jumping through portals just doesn’t cut it.

Ming wasn’t close to the larger than life character he should have been.

Just a minor detail but Flash just seemed too big a guy to win a marathon significant enough to get TV coverage once never mind 3 times. Anyways as you can probably tell I didn’t like it and doubt I’ll try to catch anymore episodes.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2007-08-13 11:30am

iTunes is currently offering the first episode of Flash Gorden as a free download.

Anyway, there was a very good serialized animated version of Flash Gordon put out by Filmation in the 1980s. It's available on DVD but I'd like to warn people that it's a bit annoying to watch that way. Filmation used and reused a lot of the same footage from episode to episode. It was noticable then when there was only one episode on a week it is very noticable and annoying when you are watching episodes back to back, plus the opening flashbacks to what happened on the previous episode.

Srynerson · Post by **Srynerson** » 2007-08-17 01:52am

My take on the show is that it has potential, but I'm going to need to see some improved performances from just about all the cast members (most especially the fellow who plays Ming) relatively quickly to commit to watching it regularly.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-08-17 04:27pm

Yay, just what I like to see, finally a very weird, clumsy scientist who speaks smart stuff really fast but isn't so good with the small talk with laymen.

Tahlan · Post by **Tahlan** » 2007-08-18 01:53am

The Dark wrote:
Jade Falcon wrote:And what was the actress like who played Aura, after all, Ornella Muti set the standards pretty high.....
It's Ann van Hooft as Aura. I think at the moment she's the weakest link in the cast, but it's due to Aura's introduction to the story and apparent motives being really off-the-wall. So far, I'm preferring Gina Holden's take on Dale.

Call it personal preference, but I expected Aura to be more exotic and more of a babe, flaunting more cleavage and skin.

Ming was lame (as cited above) but Flash and Dale may prove to be interesting.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2007-08-18 02:20am

Okay, who the heck was the actor they got to play Tyrus? He looks totally familiar.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-08-18 05:23am

Darwin wrote:Okay, who the heck was the actor they got to play Tyrus? He looks totally familiar.

He should, Mark Gibbon has been on SG1, SGA, Andromeda, the 4400, and a bunch of other Scifi shows.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-08-18 01:44pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:No, I don't like Michael Ironside!

To be serious, though, Ironside is somewhat of an overused actor, and rather predictable in terms of performance.

Yeah, I think Ironside can be fun, but at the same time it's like "oh hey here we have michael ironside playing michael ironside!"

Srynerson · Post by **Srynerson** » 2007-08-18 08:47pm

Well, the second episode was an improvement over the first. The execution scene on Mongo was pretty well-written, although Ming was still too low-key.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2007-08-19 01:07am

Srynerson wrote:Well, the second episode was an improvement over the first. The execution scene on Mongo was pretty well-written, although Ming was still too low-key.

I think they're trying to build Ming up as part of the ambiguity that's popular on Sci-Fi's series. Make him seem just slightly over the edge at first, and ramp it up over the course of the first season. Right now, everything's (mostly) going his way, so he feels he's mostly in control and can remain calm. Once Flash starts really interfering with his plans, I expect we'll see the more anticipated Ming the Merciless.