(No fear of a spoiler here. The author assumes that everyone and his brother has seen these shows at least four or five times, so discussion of plot outcomes would be redundant.)The Flash Gordon series is not shown on TV today, mainly because it is completely obsolete scientifically. In its favor, it handled issues much more complicated (read: "adult") than shows like Rocky Jones.) The science is just completely magical.For instance, Gordon travels to distant galaxies with Dale and the Doctor. However, it is not until later in the series "The Lure of Light" that a faster than light drive was developed. So how did they get to these places and return to earth so quickly?The time travel episodes do not fare any better. In "Deadline at Noon," the bomb planted by an enemy agent who traveled to the distant past to bury it, was buried under the rubble of a building in West Berlin. Apparently the very late (compared to the bomb) building was constructed by persons who did not realize they were incorporating a prehistoric bomb into the structure. The so-called deadline is not effective, because with time travel, there is plenty of time to stop anything. You can take as long as you need. The planets Neptune and Saturn are depicted as rocky planets with humans living on them.Asteroids are depicted as very tiny, earth- like planets, with vegetation and breathable atmospheres.Flash Gordon apparently did outdo Start Trek, though with the time travel episode. Since the characters went back centuries to 1954 Germany, the film is able to use the set of local Berlin areas, (As Star Trek used Los Angeles) to give the episode a much more realistic feel as far as the filming is concerned.Finally, the selection of West Germany to film this production was ingenious. Although the aliens are all too humanoid to be completely believable, they have great difficulty speaking English, as if it is a language alien to them. This does add to the realism, since in almost all sci-fi shows, the aliens speak better English than the Earth people do.

I was given a DVD of four of these episodes by my husband for Christmas when he couldn't find at the store the movie I had specifically requested. It probably cost a dollar and was in the cheapest possible packaging. I was screaming I was so excited. I have often thought of this series that I watched when I was young. I only remembered the name of Flash, but as soon as I read that he modeled for "Doc Savage," I recognized the resemblance.The music sounds like Prokofiev's "Rite of Spring" at times and I agree that the German sets verge on the expressionistic. I'm sure I spend more on a week's worth of groceries than they did for the sets AND costumes. In fact, the costumes on "Akim the Terrible" look like they are handmade from a high school production. The German actor in this show who plays Kurt I think is very good and looks familiar; however, no credits are given for any actor except the three leads. One more thing, where did the commissioner get his eyebrows? These shows are great. I played them twice because I only had the four. Have to see if I can get any more. I'm sure it won't break whatever budget I have.

Digiview Productions has just released three of the series' 39 episodes on DVD, including "Deadline at Noon," "Flash Gordon And The Planet of Death" and "Flash Gordon And The Brain Machine." These are the only episodes I have seen, so keep in mind, all comments are based on this limited exposure. By today's standards, 1954's "Flash Gordon" might not make it to a fan-film awards show. The writing is atrocious, the acting could best be described as forced melodrama and the production values are comical ("Deadline at Noon" includes a lengthy discussion between Flash, Dale and the good Doctor commenting on the wonders of stock footage, for example.) Also, the 'science' behind the fantasy is so dated, it's hilarious (1,200 years in the future, the state-of-the-art still includes Geiger counters.) For all that, Flash Gordon has its good points, one of which has to be Flash's space ship, the Sky Flash, which looks pretty darn good for the early days of television. I'm sure that when "Flash Gordon" was watched through the eyes of a child in the mid 1950s, it had everything a "Star Trek" or a "Battlestar Galactica" had for future generations of young TV fans: plenty of action, adventure, ray guns, space ships and far-flung planets waiting to be explored. In short, if you're a Flash Gordon fan and an all-around sci-fi movie geek like I am, this is some of the best entertainment you can find at the bottom of the DVD bargain bin.

The Flash Gordon 1950's TV series is interesting, mostly due to it's being one of the first science fiction series to be shot on film. The fact that it was made in the still recovering post WWII Germany, and the later episodes in France gives it different look and feel than comparable American lensed shows, such as Rocky Jones, Spacer Ranger.Some of the German episodes are rather dark and grim, with an almost expressionistic look. The budgets are quite low, and while there are a number of model shots of the space craft (such as Gordon & Co.'s Skyflash) many of the effects in the German episodes are largely photo and cel animation. The French episodes feature the Skyflash II, a very shiny rocket model, which seemed to complicate matters for the slightly more ambitious FX in the later episodes.Male model Steve Holland played Flash, which is intriguing, as Holland was the artist model used by James Bama for the Doc Savage novel reprints that were highly successful in the 60's and early 70's. Holland turned up on the cover of many action hero paperbacks. For someone with no real acting experience, he's not too bad -- but he's certainly no match for Buster Crabbe's portrayal.Joe Nash is generally quite good as Zarkov. Irene Champlin seemed to have some trouble (as did many of the actors) in getting her lines out and try to make an actual performance gel in the rushed looking -- possibly single take -- scenes.Producer Ed Gruskin was known for his work in radio (including a Doc Savage series) and writer Bruce Elliot wrote for the pulps, notably a number of Shadow novels under the house name of Maxwell Grant.Some of the music by Roger Roger (yep, that's his name) in the French produced episodes will be very familiar to viewers of low budget horror and Sci-fi films of the 50s,60s, and 70's. The tracks became part of a music library, and are still licensed for use today.