Arg! I have several longer entries that I’d like to finish and get posted up here, but naturally my days have been too hectic recently to allow that. So, in lieu of writing anything genuinely interesting, allow me to direct you to this preview of the Sci-Fi Channel’s upcoming Flash Gordon series.
The trailer doesn’t show you very much, but my first impression is that it looks promising. I’m getting a definite sense of cliffhanger-style derring-do, although that could just be an artifact of fast editing and the proper choice of music. (I must admit, I started grinning like an idiot when I noticed the “dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-Flash!-Ah-aaaahhh!” in the background. I hope they actually use some of the old Queen theme song in this new show, and that it’s not just a tease to get us thirtysomething fanboys all hyped up.)
I have heard some rumors that I’m not happy about, namely that Flash and his sidekicks reach the planet Mongo via some kind of stargate, rather than aboard a rocketship as in every previous version of Alex Raymond‘s venerable tale. Also, the new series will apparently lack many of the familiar supporting characters from the earlier versions — no Barin, Aura, Fria, Thun, or Vultan, and probably no hawkmen or floating city in the sky either. In short, many of the elements that distinguish Flash Gordon in the first place. I find myself wondering yet again, as I did when I first saw the new Battlestar Galactica, exactly how much you can get away with changing before a remake should more properly be allowed to develop into a whole new (if somewhat similar) property, with a different title and different characters.
On the positive side, however, a glance through Sci-Fi’s gallery of publicity stills turns up a number of Flash Gordon-y images, including some good, old-fashioned female pulchritude and our hero in pulpy peril. Oh, and I’ve heard that the producers have approached Sam J. Jones, the 1980 Flash, about doing a cameo or longer guest appearance. That sort of thing makes me happy; it’s like when the 1979 Buck Rogers series included a role for Buster Crabbe, the original Buck and Flash. While some may dismiss these inclusions as stunts calculated to draw fans of the older version, I think they demonstrate that the producers of the new version respect what came before them. It’s a decent thing to do for the older actors, and for fanboys like me who still revere the originals, it’s fun and heartwarming.
The new Flash is set to premiere on August 10.
