That Saucy Bastard

Continuing on my sci-fi 'trip', I'd recently watched the 1980 cult classic film 'Flash Gordon', re-released on DVD. It's in turn based on a comic strip by American artist Alex Raymond from the 1930s, and which has gone through a few incarnations on the small screen since.

Flash!! Aa..Ah!!

The premise of the story is that a ruthless dictator from another galaxy (or star system) is bombarding Earth with meteors. Flash Gordon, a polo player, is caught up with heroine Dale Arden and the Russian scientist Zarkov - who believes he has discovered the source of these attacks - in a space adventure to the distant planet of Mongo, homeworld of said dictator, Ming the Merciless.

By today's 'standards' in the mainstream, the whole premise of such a story may seem unbelievably camp and even dated. Indeed, that is why the concept of Flash Gordon has attained a sort of cult status in the sci-fi world, even recently being re-imagined into a TV series in recent years.

But it is probably precisely because it has a certain cult status, with a pedigree from the Golden Age of science fiction, that it is so notable.

Not only does it have that '80s, big-hair, over-the-top kind of feeling, it has that kind of unabashed sexiness too, which is probably partially a holdover from the '70s.

Take, for instance, the Mongo Princess Aura (right).

I must confess that I didn't like the movie that much...it wasn't the campiness as much as that some sci-fi ideas or stories, in my opinion, are difficult to translate onscreen.

Sometimes I prefer the printed word - on hardcopy, not even online. And I don't just mean text either, but graphics: the picture from (one of) the comic strips below, for example. Or the picture after that?

Really, what could beat the panache of the written word on nicely-drawn pictures with the classic, clean lines? I like this style, among others.

But of course, in some cases, nothing can beat live action.

I especially like a scene from the movie between Dale Arden (Flash's girlfriend, female lead, generally all-around eye candy, on the left) and Princess Aura (right). It's very...touching ;-)

I won't comment on the relatively recent TV series, as I haven't actually seen it, even though it only ran all of one season, that was about 2 years ago. But have a look at the actress who plays the 21st century version of Dale Arden - Gina Holden...

'Nuff said!