Chapter Three - Queen of Magic

Flash remembers the Nitron Gun in the nick of time and blasts his way out of the chamber. That's an entirely acceptable way out of a cliffhanger, so no cheating on this episode.

However, Team Flash's problems are far from over, as the Martian guards have now plucked up the courage to enter the caves where the Clay People live. As a result, they now have two groups of people after them. 

We get that same effects shot of the Clay People emerging from the walls again, followed by a fight. However, a form of gas seeps into the caves and Dale collapses. Poor old Dale, always the first to pass out. 

After that, everyone else starts passing out too. Flash seems to have better lung capacity than the others because he tries to rescue everyone but eventually he sinks to the ground, a victim of the Sleep Mist.

When they awake, they find that they are all mysteriously dressed in space costumes. Dale's is particularly impressive. That means the Clay People undressed every member of Team Flash, which is a little bit weird. Probably best not to think about it too much. At least the Clay People have good taste in clothes, because they've picked out what is essentially the classic Flash Gordon costume.

After everyone wakes up, they find themselves in an audience with none other than the Clay King. Flash explains that they are also enemies of Ming and His Royal Clayness tells them that Azura's magic keeps them as men of clay and can return them to normal. He tells Flash that her power comes from a jewel worn round her neck. He then says he's going to keep Dale and Happy hostage until Flash and Zarkov break into the palace and bring Azura to the Clay Kingdom. Flash says “Well, Queen Azura, here we come” and actually looks quite happy about it. 

Flash and Zarkov board a Strato-sled, dressed as Martian guards. They head for Azura's palace. They're chased and fired on by a guard in another ship, but nothing really comes of that. When they land, Flash pretends he's captured Zarkov and tells Azura via the intercom that he has a special message for her ears only. We also get this model shot of Azura's Martian kingdom, which seems a little...sparse.

On their way to Azura's palace, Flash and Zarkov have to cross a Light Bridge. That's going to be important for later, just wait and see. One of the guards scoffs, “These Earth men must be a stupid lot – he's evidently never seen a Light Bridge before”.

Once in Azura's throne room, a still-in-disguise Flash hams it up a treat for an audience of scantily-clad handmaidens. “Flash Gordon is on his way here now!”, he says, clearly enjoying himself. 

In fact, he gets a little carried away, telling Azura that her guards will be no match for Flash Gordon because the Clay King has rendered him invisible and he could be standing right beside her as they speak.

Anyway, it does the trick. Azura puts her hand to the jewel and Flash seizes his moment, grabbing it off her and revealing who he is. Flash and Zarkov escape with Azura as their hostage. 

Meanwhile, Ming has been watching everything and he orders a guard to destroy the landing tower with the Oscillator, just as Flash, Zarkov and Azura cross the Light Bridge. Why he didn't just turn off the Light Bridge when they were halfway across isn't entirely clear. Maybe he's saving that for a future episode. Anyway, the building collapses around them, with Flash heroically trying to protect Azura as it does so. He's nothing if not a gentleman, after all.

 

Chapter Two - The Living Dead

This episode introduces a cool-looking comic-strip-style recap via Ming's communicator screen thingy. That's great – and it's a lovely nod to the original comics – but it means the chapter title gets relegated to a box in the corner, which is a shame.

Anyway, back to the cliff-hanger, with Zarkov protesting “The retarding rockets don’t seem to make any difference!” before their ship hits the Nitron beam and spins out of control. Except it doesn't. Despite the fact that the ship is clearly spinning, everyone is still standing inside, as if nothing has happened. Zarkov says that they hit something (in space?) that knocked them out of the beam just in time and that's the end of it. Bit of a cheat, really, not that that's a surprise with these things.

Observing from below, Ming does some stirring and tells Azura: “We must stop at nothing to rid ourselves of these earth people.” Azura, Ming and some Martian guards give chase in a spaceship, though they're all pretty nervous about heading into the Valley of Desolation, because that's where the Clay People live and no-one has ever survived an encounter with them, or something.

Sure enough, Flash, Zarkov, Dale and Happy all crash-land in the Valley of Desolation, with their ship a total write-off. “And I promised my wife I’d be home for dinner”, says Happy. There's no time for wallowing though, because the Martian ship comes in for a landing, causing them to hide behind some rocks while Ming and his guards search for Flash and his friends.

Flash being Flash, he spots his moment and leaps in to knock out a few guards before boarding Ming's ship. (“Flash, no!” screams Dale, as she seems to be contractually obliged to do every episode). There he comes face to face with Azura, who signals Ming before casually disappearing in a puff of smoke. Flash: confused.

Ming's ship is apparently called a Strato-sled. Dale, Zarkov and Happy quickly jump aboard and they force a pilot to help them take off, nearly running over a furious Ming in the process. This bit is speeded up for some reason, so it's doubly hilarious.

In the Strato-sled, Flash finds a powerful ray gun, which he plans to use to destroy the Nitron Beam. There's an exciting chase sequence, during which the pilot escapes using parachute-like wings (these will be important for later) and Flash somehow manages to shoot down a spaceship with an ordinary handgun. He hits a Martian in the shoulder and everything. One shot!

It's no use though, as they're outnumbered by Martian ships and can't reach the tower, so they land near some caves and hide. Flash uses one of the ray gun's two shots to dislodge some rocks, cutting off the guards. 

Inside the caves, Dale screams and faints. When she awakes, she tells Flash that she saw people appearing out of the walls!

Flash assumes Dale is talking nonsense, but then the Clay People materialise, in a great looking sequence that will be used A LOT in Trip to Mars, so get used to it. There's an accompanying musical cue too.

Understandably freaked out, Flash and his friends run away. Happy shoots a Clay Person with the gun, but the Clay People just fall about laughing, the implication being that bullets go straight through them.

Now even more panicked, our heroes run into a chamber that has a pointy stalactite ceiling, never a good sign. Sure enough, they find themselves trapped inside as the ceiling starts to lower on top of them. Oh no! 

Chapter One - New Worlds To Conquer

Episode One picks up right where Space Soldiers left off, with Flash, Dale and Zarkov returning to Earth in their rocket ship. Amusingly, despite leaving Mongo a long-haired blonde, Dale is now a brunette with a fashionably short hair-do.  

Feted upon their return, Zarkov holds a glitzy press conference, taking the opportunity to issue a stark warning, saying that it's very likely the Earth could be invaded in the near future, and that aliens might even develop light-speed travel methods. Cut to Ming (who – surprise!- is not dead after all) and Queen Azura, who are, at that very moment, beaming a Martian to Earth.                                                              

Although he dies immediately afterwards, the Martian plants a device which issues a hissing cloud of steam and soon, there is chaos and destruction on Earth as a result of “atmospheric disturbances” and the Light Ray, which is also still needed for some reason. 

None of the scientists can agree on what to do, and it's determined that Zarkov is the only man who can save the Earth. He hasn't even bothered to attend the meeting with the President though, as he's off doing experiments with Flash.

Enter reporter “Happy” Hapgood (played by Donald Kerr), a new character who's clearly been brought on board in order to give the Trip to Mars a bit of comic relief. He uses a clever reporter's trick to track down Zarkov and Flash, just as they parachute out of a crashing airplane they've been using for their experiments. 

Dale's there too, along with an impressively powerful wind machine.

Flash, incidentally, does not take kindly to nosey reporters and he traps Happy in some barbed wire. Bit of a school bully move, if you ask me. Not cool, Flash. Still, it gives you a flavour of the sort of comic relief you can expect from ol' Happy.

Anyway, Zarkov concludes from his airplane-based experiements that there's a Light Ray from Mongo that is causing all the destruction, so he immediately announces that he's going back into space. Flash and Dale say that of course they'll go with him too. You'd think Dale would have had her fill of Mongo, given all the Tigrons, Octo-pods and forced marriages, but no, she's well up for it.

Meanwhile, on Mars, we discover that the Light Ray is extracting the Earth's supplies of Nitron (that's nitrogen to us Earthlings), which Queen Azura needs for her war against the Clay People of Mars. 

Azura's full title is “Azura, Great Queen of Magic”, and we get a demonstration of her powers when she turns a supposed traitor into a Clay Person and banishes him, before disappearing in a puff of smoke herself. It's not entirely clear how she can just turn her subjects into Clay People, but no doubt it will all make sense later on.

Incidentally, the Clay People make-up is deeply disturbing and I remember being transfixed by it as a kid. It's still creepy now. 

Anyway, there are early indications that maybe Azura isn't so bad after all, as she asks Ming to switch off the Light Ray now they have all the Nitron they need. Ming, however, refuses, saying he's going to kill ALL EARTHLINGS as a revenge for his defeat at the hand of Zarkov and Flash. Azura seemed perfectly okay with Ming killing Earth's atmosphere in their previous scene, but whatever.

Meanwhile, Zarkov, Flash and Dale have wasted no time and are already on their way in the rocketship. It is safe to say Dale has not packed appropriate space-wear. 

Of course, they also discover that Hapgood has stowed away on the rocket, apparently without realising that doing so could lead to him ending up in space. Not the brightest tool in the box, that Hapgood. Needless to say, Flash isn't happy about it.

Still, there's no time to fight, as Zarkov discovers that the Light Ray isn't coming from Mongo, as he previously thought, but from Mars, Also, his calculations are off, or something, because the ship crashes straight into the beam! There's a flash of light and the rocket drops like a stone, going into a deadly tail spin. How will our heroes escape?