The Sci-Fi Channel’s Flash Gordon is another provocative and insightful rereading of the source matter in the manner of Battlestar Galactica.

Instead of the simplistic binary oppositions of good and evil as previously embodied by Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless, this production has brought the characters down to Earth by portraying them as ordinary people. Flash is no longer the “Yale graduate and world renowned polo player” of the 1930’s comic strip but Steve “Flash” Gordon, a struggling mechanic devoted to his mother and a marathon champion in a small town. This retelling has rejected the white, male privilege of the past in favor of the realities of the 21st century.

Dale Arden is no longer simply a “passenger” but an independent woman, university graduate, and reporter for the local TV station. This change provides a feminist “anchorage” as detailed by Barthes of the program’s narrative to counter the typical patriarchal assumptions of such narratives. That this is the case is clearly demonstrated when Dale identifies a “slave girl” as Ming’s daughter, Aura, which Flash had earlier overlooked, no doubt blinded by the centuries of white, male privilege that has shaped his (and our) culture.

The most perceptive alteration of the characters is Ming himself. Previously a stereotyped oriental-appearing tyrannical ruler with the appellation of “the Merciless”, Ming is now an unremarkable appearing caucasian man to perfectly convey Arendt’s “banality of evil”. With respect to contemporary issues, Ming’s power is through his acquisition and distribution of his region’s natural resources with clean water, a clear allusion to the power manifested in the control of oil supplies. Water also denotes environmental concerns in the suggestion that if Ming has one of the few operations that can purify water then there must have been some wider despoliation of the environment by a short-sighted society which allowed rampant and uncontrolled industrialization.

That the misuse of technology is one of the main subtextual themes for this retelling of Flash Gordon is evident in the characters of Flash, Dr. Zarkov, and Rankol. While a modicum of technology is beneficial as illustrated by the down-to-earth use of understandable mechanics of automobile repair, more advanced technology is demonstrated as questionable by Zarkov’s meddling with the natural order of things which has opened a rift between Flash’s world and Ming’s domain. Even more destructive is the advanced technology used by Rankol, Ming’s chief scientist who uses his knowledge for torture, again a reference to the Arendt’s exploration of the “banality of evil”.

Finally, there is Flash’s presumed dead father. Flash’s denial of his father’s death and belief of his father being abducted signifies the contemporary break-up of the family in the 21st century, particularly in cases where a mother has had to struggle with raising children on her own after the father has disappeared. Flash’s obsession with finding his father indicates the void in his life of a father figure which a boy needs to mature into a responsible independent adult. This theme is cleverly contrasted with Ming’s daughter seeking her father’s approval.

In future episodes it will be interesting to observe how these subtexts play out. Those viewers and reviewers who have failed to note these obvious points have clearly demonstrated they are only viewing the most shallow reading of the surface of the narrative and do not have the insight into recognizing the deeper meanings and subtexts that await one who is willing to delve deeper into the narrative.