Hans Zarkov

but

that science lab you were talking about so the rock is falling and it bursts through the you know roof and actually sets one of the guy's blankets on fire which is kind of funny they wake up and Dr. Zarkov here is freaking out because it's like eight 30 in the morning and the sun hasn't showed up.

Right.

It has nothing to do with the fact that his bed was on fire.

oh man the landing on this was pretty good though.

I liked how they smashed through the lab because it was right after the assistant runs out and then he runs back.

I love how Zarkov's like, you came back.

Like he was excited.

Only Dr. Hans

Zarkov knows the disasters are coming from outer space.

Unfortunately, when nobody believes him, his scientific response is to build a rocket and kidnap two strangers.

Football star Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are blasted across the universe to a mysterious planet Mongo.

Yeah.

I don't know why, it just makes me laugh.

But yeah, and then they end up meeting, you know, Dr. Hans Zarkov, who, you know, Dale Arden is basically a travel agent.

She's not a Lois Lane or anything.

And I just started to appreciate it, including the fact that to launch the – I mean, who comes up with this stuff? To launch the ship, he can't do it by himself, Dr.

Zarkov.

That's what I was doing.

I was looking for my pedal to push it.

the good by the bad guy and the wing men and the scene people and all of that.

And it worked.

And Dr. Zarkov.

Dr. Zarkov, yeah.

Now, one film that has a creative style that doesn't let it down, because it knows exactly what it is and it plays to it, is Flash Gordon.

The adaptation of Alex Raymond's comic book hero to the big screen by Mike Hodges had Sanjay Jones in the iconic lead role, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden, Topol as Zarkov and Max von Sydow as Ming.

It's gloriously over the top.

It's beautifully colourful.

Azura, the witch queen, ordered him shot the next time his voice was heard.

Back at the herdsman's cottage, Zarkov persuaded Dale that it was useless to follow Flash into the enemy territory, and the two settled down to wait for his return.

At the palace, the wizard Tal hit upon the brilliant idea of cutting off Flash's supply of magic invisibility, thus forcing him to appear again.

Then he set out at the head of a company of soldiers to locate and capture Zarkov.

While this was going on, Flash discovered the cell in which they had placed Kon, the Hawkman.

Still invisible, Flash snatched the flame rifle from an unsuspecting guard, and with it, melted the lock on the cell door and freed his friend Kon.

Stop.

Where are you taking me?

And I say Topple, I know he's called Columbo, but he's Topple to me, from Viewer Eyes Only.

He's Topple to me when he's Hans Zarkov in Flash Gordon, and he's Topple to me when he's singing with a fiddle on a roof.

So with that in mind, it's Topple and BB, and it's, of course, they're still doing that.

And Topple uses his connections and knowledge of smugglers' networks to help out the three.