"Flash Gordon" serials (1936)

 

Background

The serials "attained their greatest popularity and success in the 1930s, a decade which...also 'witnessed an extraordinary...outpouring of faith in technological progress.'" At this time, the elements of this approach to storytelling "had begun to take on new resonance: when a technological or machine-consciousness would cast those characteristics in a different light, begin to suggest their growing influence on and sway over the human." Thus, in a way, "the imaginative text emerging in this machine age often does not simply 'contain representations of the machine--it too is the machine.'" (Telotte, p.93, 97)

 

Summary

In the "Flash Gordon" serials adapted from the DC comic strip, the hero, Flash Gordon, his girlfriend Dale Arden and the scientist Dr. Zarkov battle their enemy Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo who wants to take over Earth.

 

Questions

1. What is the role/function of robot? Why was it created?

"Annihilants" are the robot soldiers belonging to Ming the Merciless. The Annihilants can adapt to any environment and are designed as "remote-controlled weapons of destruction."(Telotte, 99-100)

 

2. How human is it? How human is it meant to be?

Annihilants have a human-like form, but are completely metal. Due to their strength, they seem invincible. Ming, who controls every move of the Annihilants, designs them as perfect soldiers in order to conquer and destroy the humans.

 

3. How does it act in society? How do humans react to it?

In "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe," when Ming unleashes the Annihilants upon humans, the robots initially causes near panic. However, Flash shows that the Annihilants "are just simple machines, little more than, as a chapter title puts it, 'Walking Bombs' which 'must be controlled by humans' to have any effect."(Telotte, p.100)

 

4. What are the consequences within the context of the world of the work?

Flash Gordon humiliates Ming by revealing the secret of his robot soldiers. With the very remote-control device Ming used to set the Annihilants upon human civilization, his robots are exploded one by one and so present no further threat.

 

5. Does it introduce a new idea or aid in the evolution of the robot? i.e. What's its contribution?

Ming's Annihilants cannot function without a human being to control them. Thus, the portrait of robots throughout the serials "reassures us that in this world man is the creature who thinks, whether he is calculating ways to destroy other humans or figuring out how to overcome whatever obstacles he faces, including robots."(Telotte, p.100)