The thing that bugged me about the Flash Gordon serial(s)

[vakkotaur]

In the 1970s I saw the old Flash Gordon serials on TV. Parts of them were obviously artifacts of how the effects, such as they were, were done. The smoke going up from the rocket ship exhaust while also dripping down showed that the models were horizontal and rather crude (making them vertical and adding a fan might have been enough to make it more believable) but that didn't bother me just too much. The limitations of effects and use of handy equipment (a super beam device that looks just like a studio light...) were forgivable. The fantastic plot wasn't a big deal either. The real problem was the ray guns.

The problem with the ray guns wasn't a "how do they work" thing. It was fantastic, there were ray gun, it worked. Except... those little handheld ray pistol were deadly. One hit and a person was down if not outright dead. Fine, that's the point of the thing (this was decades before the idea of a stun setting). But when Flash was sentenced (yet again) to be executed, he was strapped into a chair and this huge ray gun that looked like an emplaced machine gun or more would be aimed at him... and cause discomfort. Not death. Buster Crabbe would seem to struggle for ages.

Fine, the hero needed to live on and live long enough to be rescued yet again - and at least it was thew hero that sometimes needed rescuing not always Dale Arden. But this was an Evil Overlord list thing. Had Ming had any sense at all, he'd have had someone use one of the sidearm ray pistols and been done.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Of course, a good percentage of the rules on the "Evil Overlord" lists come from the mistakes made by Ming in those serials :)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

That may well be, but this one that bugged even as I watched it as a kid. It's sort of like the Flintstones car problem (http://vakkotaur.livejournal.com/65543.html). It was the one thing that, despite all the other unbeleivable things that held up somehow, broke the suspension of disbelief.

[foolscap001.livejournal.com]

It's much the same in James Bond movies--the closer the hero gets to being killed, the stupider the moves the villain makes. In the 007 case, he gets a sudden urge to explain his Evil Plan, figuring Bond will be dead soon anyway...

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

"Wait a minute... you sly dog, you got me monologuing!"

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

I think there's something in the contract you sign when you become an Evil Overlord™ - you have to have a Fatal Flaw™.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

They sign and honor contracts?