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Podcast logo of black retro UFO on a red background with the text Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*. *Almost.

11. Flash Gordon: From Buck Rogers Rip-Off to Space Opera Legend

As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead!

If you would like to watch the Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers film serials they are available on YouTube. (Warning: the serials are repetitive and there are three Flash Gordon serials and one Buck Rogers!) The 1980 Mike Hodges Flash Gordon film is available to rent or buy at an array of outlets including Apple TV.

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Although it was Buck Rogers that triggered an array of copies after the comic strip was published in 1929, it is Flash Gordon  (one of those copies) that went on to have a film serial made with a lavish budget by Universal Pictures in 1936. Buck Rogers has had a significant impact in popular culture but the trajectory of Flash Gordon has eclipsed it in many ways.

This week’s experts bring you all their knowledge about how this came to be.

The Experts
Jay Telotte is Professor Emeritus of film and media studies at Georgia Tech. He has written/edited numerous books and articles about science fiction film.

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has also written/edited many books on science fiction cinema.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to show and guests
01:39 Why a Flash Gordon film serial?
09:58 The full bill cinema experience in 1936
11:55 The origins of the misaligned Space Opera
14:29 Star Wars, George Lucas and his 1930s influences
16:08 Post Star Wars Space Opera
19:55 Pushing beyond a space adventure to social commentary 
21:48 Flash Gordon: The damsel, the hero and the good scientist
27:34 Ming the Merciless: Asian stereotypes, representation and racism
32:42 Aliens, post code reshoots and the sexual current
37:25 The 1980 Flash Gordon: Mark gushes while Jay waits
42:45 Jay’s reaction
45:06 The legacy
49:45 Recommendations

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Show notes

  • Film serials were a popular form of entertainment in theatres in the early part of the 20th century (before the popularisation of television sets at home). A serial would consist of a story broken up into smaller parts which would usually be shown weekly and end on a cliffhanger.

  • This Wikipedia page has a list of some of the film serials made by studios.

  • The Great Depression lasted from the US Wall Street crash in 1929 to the beginning of World War II in 1939.

  • The rocket ship in the Flash Gordon serial was taken from the film Just Imagine (1930). You can learn more about the legacy of that film here.

  • You can learn more about the Pearl White film serials here.

  • Alex Raymond was an American illustrator born in 1909. He was the first artist on the Flash Gordon comic strip and built a reputation for striking artwork that is considered a major factor behind Flash Gordon’s success.

  • The Buck Rogers film that was shown at the 1933 World’s Fair can be watched here on YouTube.

  • You can see what the Buck Rogers 1934 toy gun looked like here.

  • The MGM Little Buck Cheeser cartoon is available on YouTube here.

  • Weird Tales is a pulp fiction magazine that began publishing in 1922. It is considered very influential in the development of 20th century horror, fantasy and science fiction.

  • Edmond Hamilton was an American writer of science fiction born in 1904.

  • Edison’s Conquest of Mars is a science fiction novel published in 1898 by Garrett P Serviss. It was meant as a sequel to HG Wells War of the Worlds.

  • EE “Doc” Smith was an American author born in 1890. Him and Edmund Hamilton are considered the creators of the Space Opera genre.

  • Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author born in 1913. His novel The Demolished Man was the first winner of the Hugo Award in 1953.

  • Harry Harrison was an American science fiction author born in 1925.

  • Star Trek (The Original Series) debut in the US in 1966

  • Ursula K Le Guin was an American writer born in 1929. Her Hainish universe consists of the books The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Word for World is Forest and the short stories The Day Before the Revolution and The Matter of Seggri.

  • Star Wars (1977) is sometimes considered not to fit the definition of science fiction. You can examine why this might be in the first episode of the podcast What is Science Fiction?

  • Dino De Laurentiis was an Italian American film producer born in 1919 in Italy.

  • Federico Fellini was a highly influential Italian filmmaker known for classic films such as La Dolce Vita and 81/2.

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs was a prolific American writer born in 1975. He is known for many adventure stories and for creating Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.

  • Battlestar Gallactica debuted in 1978. There is also a TV series that released in 2003.

  • Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was a TV series that debuted in 1979 and based on the original character.

  • Blake’s 7 was a British science fiction TV series that debuted in 1978.

  • Ian M Banks was a British writer of science fiction born 1954. He also wrote under the name Ian Banks when not writing science fiction. His Culture Series is highly influential and is a Space Opera.

  • Colin Greenland is a British science fiction writer born in 1954. His Plenty series is an example of Space Opera.

  • Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British writer born in 1972.

  • You can learn more about the USA policy of isolationism here.

  • You can learn more about celebrated film director Frank Capra’s Why We Fight here.

  • Bablyon 5 is a space opera TV series that debuted in 1993

  • Ann Leckie is an American writer born in 1966. Her first book of Ancillary Justice won multiple awards and is part one of a space opera trilogy.

  • Fu Manchu is an East Asian supervillain created by Sax Rohmer. The character first appeared in the story The Zayat’s Kiss in The Story-Teller magazine in 1912.

  • Charlie Chan was created in 1919 by Earl Derr Biggers, an American writer born in 1884. Biggers disliked the negative Asian stereotypes he saw and created the detective as an alternative to those.

  • Mr Moto is a Japanese secret agent and was created by John P Marquand, an American writer born in 1893.

  • Walter Orland’s IMDB page can be found here.

  • The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Gentleman’s Agreement were both attempts to restrict East Asian immigration.

  • The Japanese won the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

  • An article from February 20th 1937 from the Motion Picture Herald details the ten films that China banned.

  • This is the article by Mark where he talks about his love of the 1980 Flash Gordon.

  • The novelisation of the Flash Gordon 1980 film which Mark says is “clearly not written for children” is by Arthur Byron Cover.

  • Richard O’Brien is a fantastic actor (amongst other things) and is definitely underused in Flash Gordon.

  • The Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio broadcast led people to believe the world was being attacked by aliens. You can learn more about it in the podcast episode on The Invisible Man at 27:18.

  • Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga is a four part epic western film series. The first part was released on June 28th 2024.

  • The IMDB page for the 1990s Flash Gordon cartoon where he is a kid on a skateboard can be found here.

  • The new Flash Gordon comic will be released on Wednesday the 24th of July 2024. You can order the issues and download issue 0 for free here.

  • The IMDB pages for the film serials of The Phantom Empire and The Undersea Kingdom.

  • Nicolas Roeg was the British film director first intended to direct the 1980 Flash Gordon.

 

NEXT EPISODE!
The next episode will be covering an array of films about ‘Mad Scientists’ from the 1930s and early 40s. 

I will share some of the titles here but it will be a topical discussion. Boris Karloff who came to fame for playing the monster in Frankenstein (1931) plays the role of the mad scientist in multiple films during this period, many that stray away from the science fiction genre or have a strong crossover with horror film. Some of these are: The Man Who Changed his Mind (1936), The Invisible Ray (1936), Black Friday (1940) and The Man with Nine Lives (1940).

Aside from those we also have the film Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), The Island of Lost Souls (1932) and both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde films (1931 and 1941). Metropolis (1927) has the scientist Rotwang who is an excellent earlier example of this trope.

You can check JustWatch to find where these films are available to buy, rent or stream in your region. I have found many on Apple TV and some are available on YouTube.

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