Mongo is ruled by the ruthless dictator Ming, who controls "Source Water", the only source of safe drinking water on Mongo. Unlike the previous adaptations, he is only called "the Merciless" in closed circles and is publicly called "Benevolent Father". He also exhibits the traits of modern, media-savvy dictators, rather than the more simplistic, stereotypically evil characterization of earlier incarnations. Also unlike previous depictions, Ming resembles a blond Caucasian human rather than a bald East Asian man. Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, is disturbed by her father's brutality. The series adds a new non-Terran character, Baylin, a bounty hunter from Mongo. She finds herself trapped on Earth and becomes a comrade of Flash, Dale, and Zarkov and their guide to Mongo and its inhabitants.
The peoples of Mongo live in "cantons", tribal groups that echo the animal-human hybrids of the original comic strip. The cantons include the Verdan, based on Prince Barin's forest-dwelling people from the strip, the Turin, based on the strip's Lion Men, the Dactyls, the series' version of the strip's Hawkmen, the Omadrians, women, who create powerful medicines, the Frigians, who live in the frozen wastelands, the Tritons, who live beneath the ocean, and the Zurn, painted blue "Magic Men" led, by queen Azura. There is also another group known as the Deviates, mutants whose ancestors drank "Grey Water", toxic water to survive. The Deviates are led, by Terek, their unofficial king, later revealed to be Aura's brother and are distrusted, by almost everyone.
Recurring
Anna Van Hooft as Princess Aura
Panou as Nick Gilmore
Giles Panton as Joe Wylee
Jill Teed as Norah Gordon
Carmen Moore as Joely Lavant
Carrie Genzel as Vestra
Craig Stanghetta as Terek
Steve Bacic as Prince Barin
Ty Olsson as Prince Vultan
Jody Thompson as Azura
Reception
The show was not well received. Metacritic gave the show an average score of 35/100 based on reviews from 13 critics. UK science fiction magazine SFX described episode 3 as "possibly the worst episode of anything, ever", and as part of their 200th issue features, they named the series as the worst they had ever reviewed. The New York Post gave the show 0 stars describing it as "a disgrace to the name of the enduring comic-strip-character-turned-movie-and-TV space hero". Another UK science fiction magazine, TV Zone, in a review for episode 13, stated "the series continues to improve, and you start to see the meaning in the producers' madness - they must have hoped they could lull passing viewers into watching Sci-Fi with pedestrian, mainstream plots, before building up a world of Dune-like complexity...which might even have worked if the early episodes hadn't been so dire that no-one but reviewers are still watching". When the show premiered in the UK, the magazine recommended it to readers, noting "you may well be wondering, considering the vitriol of our early reviews of the series, why we're picking out Flash Gordon as something to watch out for. Well, the point is that while the early episodes are dire, this is one series that does eventually and we mean eventually, reward patience and endurance".
In August 2007, Best Buy offered an exclusive DVD that included "The Premiere Episode", selected deleted scenes (with incomplete effects) and a gallery of series concept art. This release includes the truncated 65-minute version of the pilot, exactly as it aired on Sci-Fi four days prior. Subsequent DVD releases include the full 87-minute version of the pilot, split into two parts.
Phase 4 Films released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 (Canada only) in July 2009. The 5-disc set features all 22 episodes of the series.
Mill Creek Entertainment has released the complete series on DVD in the USA in April 2013.
