Flash Gordon

[Nonlethal Force]

What, you haven't seen Zardoz?

What is this Zardoz of which you speak?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Something Sean Connery did after Bond. A weird-future sci-fi flick. Haven't seen it since it first came out, so I don't remember what he's refering to either.

 

[Fast Learner]

Zardoz used the Imex thing more than 30 years ago, that's all. For those who haven't seen it (and I do recommend it -- it's trippy, but pretty danged cool, most gamers should really dig it):

Spoiler

The name comes from an ancient book, part of the cover of which is obscured, so you see:

Wizard
of Oz

Hence, Zardoz.

See, it's like Imex, just more original.

 

[sniffles]

Oh, and for those of you that have seen the original - please tell me the "Imex" is not in the other series. Because the way they handled it in the new series just about made me turn it off right then and there. I mean, Imex from Timex? Were they serious?

No, the "Imex" bit didn't come from either the 1980 movie or the original serials/comics.

Short history of Flash Gordon, s-blocked for those who don't want to know:

[sblock]Flash Gordon first appeared as a comic strip in 1934, created by Alex Raymond. He was originally kidnapped, along with girlfriend Dale Arden, by a crazy scientist named Dr. Hans Zarkov. Zarkov had built a rocket to go find out where meteors were coming from that were bombarding the Earth. The meteors turned out to come from the planet Mongo, which was attacking the Earth at the direction of tyrannical emperor Ming the Merciless.

The 1980 film was updated for the time period, but still stuck fairly closely to the original source (mainly the 1930s movie serials) in that Flash and Dale took a spacecraft to Mongo with Dr. Zarkov, and met all sorts of weird races like the Hawkmen. [/sblock]

This isn't the first time Flash has been updated for a new generation. Back in the '90s there was a short-lived animated series in which Flash and Dale were hoverboarding teenagers. :\

 

[danzig138]

I didn't think it was all that bad. But then again, Eureka just bored me so much that after 2 episodes I haven't come back. Dresden files, OTOH, absolutely rocks and should be brought back.

Hrmmm. . . You like Eccleston's Doctor, but you don't like Eureka, and you didn't think FG was all that bad. . . I don't know what to do with your post.

I feel that Flash Gordon had a goal, and it accomplished it. My question is why did they design a show with the goal of Bring The Dull? That doesn't seem profitible to me. It might get better, and I'll give it another shot or three, since I generally don't drop shows based on the pilot. But it didn't bring anything to the Entertain danzig138 table.

I would much rather have them renew Dresden though - I liked that show (better than the books).

Eureka is great. Of the 4 or so shows I'm watching every week right now, it's the one I get most jazzed about (followed by Burn Notice).

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I just watched the second episode. Better than the first, but it could have been done in half an hour. I'm really not liking Nerdkov. I'd like to say what an idiot Flash is for wanting to go charging off to Mongo with no equipment of any kind, but the character has pretty much always been that way. Not sure if I'll bother to watch any more.

 

[trancejeremy]

Part of the 2nd episode were almost good, I thought. Flash and Dale and the alien chick seem to work well together. Zarkov, he's pretty bad. I really can't help but think they tried to get someone who looked like the "Can you hear me now?" guy.

The scenes on Mongo were painfully bad, though. I'm just not buying that guy as Ming, and the whole ice smuggling thing was silly. (Given how common Hydrogen and Oxygen are, I can't believe that any high tech civilization would ever have a serious water supply problem. Especially when it looks exactly like Canada, not the driest place in the world)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Part of the 2nd episode were almost good, I thought. Flash and Dale and the alien chick seem to work well together. Zarkov, he's pretty bad. I really can't help but think they tried to get someone who looked like the "Can you hear me now?" guy.

The scenes on Mongo were painfully bad, though. I'm just not buying that guy as Ming, and the whole ice smuggling thing was silly. (Given how common Hydrogen and Oxygen are, I can't believe that any high tech civilization would ever have a serious water supply problem. Especially when it looks exactly like Canada, not the driest place in the world)

Agree with the first part. Ming has the charisma of a limp noodle, which I think is his major failing. You just can't care about his Evilness. All the water on Mongo, except for that controled by Ming, is (supposed) to be contaminated with something or other. The fact that this is all a Big Lie is why he's killing everyone else who tries to cut in on his profits from selling clean water to everyone. Which is, of course, nonsense. Haven't these people ever heard of rainbarrels?

And Aura has about as much charisma as her old man. Where's Pricilla Lawson (Aura in the Buster Crabbe serials) when you need her?

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, besides rainbarrels, in a half-way high tech society, you can purify water relatively easily by simply distilling it or filtering it.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Just is not holding its water for me , piss poor show, glad there is Monk at the same time.