Sonic Echo: 601 Sci Fi: The Official Adventures of Flash Gordon

Sunday Showcase highlighting some of the best audio storytelling found anywhere, all right here on the Mutual Audio Network. The Official Adventures of Flash Gordon And with that iconic opening music, at least from my childhood anyways, you are listening to Sonic Echo Season 6, I'm told, where I, Jack Ward, along with my amigos, talk about some of our favorite old-time radio shows.

This is the beginning of our science fiction deep dive. If you're just joining us, you came in a great time. So let me introduce first the one person I'd elect to play the incredible Ming the Merced List of Defendably Not Evil, Lothar Tupin. Hello brother. I'm really looking forward to this. This is going to be a very fun season and a very fun episode. Thanks for bringing this one, Jack.

Thank you so much. And on the other side, I'll be planet iceome. We have our rifle ruler of the planet, Mongo Baron, Jeffrey Billard. Good morning to you as well. Hello, Jack. Hi, Lothar. I'm excited to do the science fiction season. I've been waiting for this. I just didn't want to make you Zarkov. I'm like, you're bigger than Zarkov. Zarkov. Except didn't Brian Blessed play. Oh, he played the Hawkman.

He played the Hawkman. And he's amazing. That's right. He's amazing. Before we get started, well, these shows are definitively marked as kids shows. The shows we're listening to today. Our analysis I'm marking as PG because we may venture into deeper themes. I'm hoping we will. And so we also have two shorts, two short shows to analyze. Side A and side B from my old vinyl, which was the official adventures of flash Gordon.

I can probably recite it by by wrote. You know, I just I've listened to it so many times as a child. Anyone want to comment on on this? First of all, it's in 1966, which especially year in my heart as it was the year I was born. Stop counting people. Stop counting. The year start track. That's true. Anyone before we get going. Anyone want to talk about flash Gordon or science fiction or what you want to do for this season? It's kind of open up.

I've got some thoughts, but I'll let Jeff go first. So I don't just like start going down a rabbit hole. Okay. Sure. What do you think, Jeff? Science fiction has always been one of my favorite genres of literature. And I remember and it brings me back, when you talk about listening to this as an album when you were a kid.

And it just kind of brought me back to those days when I had these kinds of I didn't have this one. But I had these kinds of things and I would listen to it on our front of graph. And I would just sit there and put it over and over and over again. My poor mother, God bless her. You know, I had to listen to that about a hundred times.

And she never said anything. She was good about it. But I just remember that in kind of a feeling when I was listening to this version of flash Gordon that you sent from 1966, it kind of brought that all back to me. And that fund of the vinyl and you know, putting it on the needle. And it just transported me back, I think, to those days. And this kind of science fiction, I guess maybe it would be a genre, it might be juvenile science fiction or kid science fiction.

Like space patrol and things like that. And I love space patrol. And I just I loved kind of innocence isn't quite the word I'm looking for. But there's something about it that just just really gets me excited to listen and think about flash Gordon in particular. I think flash Gordon has been in every kind of media genre ever created. I mean, started out as a cartoon right a cartoon strip right and you know, it was radio show and TV show and movies and God knows what else.

I'm sure somewhere there's a live stage version of flash Gordon, but probably a musical too. And so it's great to start with flash Gordon just because it's iconic. I mean, you're going back to the 30s and science fiction for me in a more general way is just it was I really opened up my mind and things like Fahrenheit 451 those kinds of things just as a kid in middle school.

I had to go to most like I guess it was junior high, but it kind of opened up my mind all these new possibilities and and you know reading science fiction books and science fiction stories and you know, I saw. I saw you talk about your age I saw 2000 one of space saw it. I seen the theater when it came out nice and I remember sitting there and getting ready.

You know, those were the days of not the days of multiplexes days of one theater one movie. You know, and I'm sitting there and then the apes come on. I'm going to mine that right theater. I come on the right. You know, and I was just a kid, but then of course 2001 just blew my mind and I remember showing it to film students years later and they're looking at me and what the hell was that.

You know, and I go, you'll get it someday, you know, but but the whole science fiction thing and of course it goes into science fantasy and star wars and all that stuff, but it's just one of my favorite things in the world. So that's my long-winded introduction. So what do you have to say?

Well, first just about the whole vinyl record thing and childhood is that that's you know, and as we hear we'll talk more about our impressions on the other side, but there is a whole generation of audio drama producers that maybe some of our first audio dramas were things like power records.

Right. Something like this, you know, again, these little 45s or long running LPs or whatever, but you know, we didn't even really know that they were audio dramas at the time. They were just, wow, here I'm reading this thing. I'm listening to it. It's really cool. There's voices. But I think that influenced a lot. So I think that's a really actually important aspect of the continuation of audio drama that sometimes gets forgotten. So thank you for bringing that.

When it comes to sci-fi, I obviously enjoy it, but I've never considered myself the type of fan of that as I am of other genres that I know more about. So I'm looking forward to exploring more. And as I started trying to think, I'm sort of making some notes of like, okay, let's see what my thoughts are now and where they are at the end of the season after we've explored a lot.

But I have some sort of initial ideas, which is that there's, you know, a number of main modes that operate within sci-fi. And then there's a lot of different modes that would be space opera, which might also be considered the juvenile. Even though I think things like Heinlein's juvenile, like have space suit will travel or starman Jones, there's no space opera there.

It's closer to hard sci-fi, but it's still juvenile. So I think that's an interesting aspect. Then there's the social commentary aspect of it where sometimes they're making comments about today's politics, but doing it through a sci-fi lens. And then there's also the, like, the take a look at where we could go and you've got the utopian branch of look at what we could do. Isn't it amazing? Let's move towards that or the dystopian branch of the 1984's, the Brave New Worlds.

So many movies that came out in the 70's, Fahrenheit 451 that I know Jeff's going to be probably bringing in the future where they're going, you know, these are cautionary tales of where we could go and say don't go in this direction. You've got that social aspect and then you've got the hard sci-fi, which is sometimes the social stuff is there, but also tech speculation, you know, where could technology go?

How could we get faster than the light travel? How could we do various things? And then there might be three main intent. There's like cautionary aspirational and then spectacle, like, which we're going to get with Flash Gordon of like, let's just have a good time.

And then my sort of crazier idea, which is backed up a little bit by Northrop Fry is an idea I've had a long time, which is that science fiction, especially in the 20th century, as opposed to like Mary Shelley that was considered the first sci-fi with Frankenstein, is in a lot of ways mythologizing into the future.

We're doing the same thing we do to the past of like, there was a golden age and there were heroes and there was this amazing stuff that could go on in magic and strange creatures. Well, isn't that kind of what Star Trek's doing in the future? We're just mythologizing into the future.

And Northrop Fry had some really cool things that he was riffing off of Aristotle of modes of fiction that went started at the mythic, move down to Romantic, which would be like, you know, more like legends and things like that. And then you've got the high memetic, which is when you're trying to replicate, you know, reality in some way mimic reality, but it's at the level of like epics and tragedies and that sort of like, you know, still people are larger than life, then the low memetic.

And then finally the ironic and he had this thing where he goes like, after the ironic things started shifting back to the mythic again and he actually brought science fiction into it. And it was like, yeah, and this is perfect for us because we move from noir, which is the perfect ironic phase based on his terminology of this very cynicism worth watching the world horrible.

And then seeing that, you know, post World War II that started shifting and then you get started the real aspirational sci-fi. And that sort of really bloomed into it off. So I'm curious about exploring more of that and seeing where things go and looking at some of the mythological elements, which we can talk about a little bit when we get on the other side of Flash Gordon.

It's cool. A couple of things come to mind. First of all, it's funny that when Edgar Rice Burrows came out with Don Carter, that whole series was called a science romance. Yes. So it was a romantic and that old classic style in that old. But people don't even think of that anymore, even though certainly those kinds of writings continue to go that that genre style has broken down.

Whereas in the 20th century, we've had an explosion of genre when it comes to science fiction, you know, we have the punks, right? You've got the cyberpunk. The solar punk is kind of that really positive thing for people who don't know that sort of that positive future that was the idea that came from it, things like tomorrow land and that.

And then diesel punk and it's funny. This is sort of the mythological mythologizing of the future where you go back into the past and those 19th century things from Jewels, Vern and all that stuff. Well, that's that's steampunk really. Not like that when you look at it. Yeah. And within steampunk, you've got the two people describe themselves as having more of a verneon or a wellsian.

Yes. If they're utopian, as they're more of a verneon and if they're more cautionary, they'll be a wellsian steampunk. Exactly. That's the idea. It comes straight down to if you think science will solve everything, then Jewels, Vern is your man. If you think science is not the answer and nature is going to save your life, the natural world, it's going to certainly go back to the well style of things for sure.

The other thing that I find fascinating and it sort of touches on what we've done before. There was one famous author who came up with three genres himself. I can't think of anybody else who's done that and that's a growl and poe. And so he came up with the psychological thriller. He came up with the detective story with the murders of the rumor. A lot of people forget that. And then he also came up with the first what we call hard science fiction short story.

And that was the maelstrom, which people consider to be his first one. So that's well, very cool. And actually people consider Mary Shelley to be the first sci-fi writer, which was, you know, a little bit earlier. That was a good 100 years earlier. Yes. For sure. I don't know if her stuff would even be considered hard sci-fi in that respect for that reason. True. Yeah, sure. So this was the first hard sci-fi. Her stuff, the modern Prometheus had a little more.

She was pulling certainly from the science of the day, absolutely. But we're getting off course. For sure. There's a great, I'm trying to find, if I find it, I'll let you know. But there's a great quote from Walter Kern, who is the author who wrote up in the air that they made the movie about. Right. And he has this amazing quote about Edgar Allen Poe about the type of short story that he first did not, by the sense of genre.

But something along the lines of a snapshot of a person's psychological state at this moment in time that we get to experience from an expressionistic point of view of it being internal and external, you know, something more epitomized even in like the Telltale Heart, where that type of short story hadn't really been done before and now it became and then it becomes very prevalent. So he was quite influential.

I think his journalistic perspective being a journalist is what really sort of helped structure that more often because you had only so much time to give you a moment in time in journalism for the same reason, at least modern, more modern journalism for that reason. So yeah, no, that's very, very cool. I also just wanted to again just express that just like Jeff was going on. This was probably the first album my parents gave me.

They did end up giving me some Marvel superhero ones and the original Superman radio show I got as well. I got a Conan one, which I've obviously later as well, but I got a lot of that's a power records one. I have that same Conan one. I got a giant slug. Yes, and I love that one. That's a good one. And then I got a start track one, too, power records start track and the Marvel's one was a three-parter, which was fantastic for Spider-Man and Captain America.

And so there are three different stories on that. But the reason I want to this, I know I'm kind of cheating because this is 1966 and not officially golden, golden nature radio. This is so structured like an old time radio show and the actors are definitively very much from that. So I don't think I'm cheating too much. And also like I was mentioning with the importance of those records to a whole generation, I think makes it worthy of inclusion.

Even if we have to put the old time maybe in the in the scare quotes for this, you know, particularly time. I have a question for you guys because Lothar talked about learning things and I always learn a lot when we do this. My question is how did we end up putting the suffix punk on all of those names? I think it started with cyberpunk, right? It started with cyberpunk and it was I forget the guy's name off the top of my head, but he did mirror shades. He coined it because it was.

I thought it was not snow crash. The guy did snow crash. No, it wasn't. Neil Stevenson came a little later. He'll see later. Okay. I forget I forget the I did a sterling. I think his last name was sterling. William Gibson started out. There was a whole group of them that started out in the Austin, Texas and areas around there. And they were all writing together and came out of a John Shirley was another one. They were looking at like the not aspirational parts of it.

Right. Look at how bad things are going. Look at where technology's going. Let's where corporatism is getting us. Let's just extend that into the future. And of course, there's a certain punk rock attitude of having that kind of social critique that was going on. Especially this was they were starting to write in the early 80s and starting to publish and starting to get big by the late 80s. Yeah, that's one of the few sub genres of sci-fi that I really, really liked was cyberpunk.

Of course, I felt like I was going to be a programmer at that time before I learned that I suck at it. So the whole cyberpunk world appealed to my noir sensibility. Because that's the other aspect of it is that you read especially William Gibson's first few novels. And it reads like Raymond Chandler. He's he's he's his voice, but you can see that he's definitely got a Raymond Chandler influence. Neural man sir. Monerly so. Monerly so overdrive and was the third one. Can't see. Can't see.

Okay, can't zero. Yeah, I just wanted to say that for the audience. So yeah. And so then they took that punk suffix and just added it. So it's like calling somebody a workaholic type of thing. Yes. Right. And that type of a thing is the hall. And Sterling and Gibson wrote a book called the difference engine. So they had already been doing cyberpunk. They created this based on the idea of what if was it Babet, the guy who created the created the difference engine.

He couldn't actually build it at the time, but it was it would have been like a steam powered computer basically in the Victorian era. And they basically wrote speculative fiction saying what if that had been working? What if he had gotten that to work? What would that have created the world like? So the cyber punks were the first steam punks. Oh, okay. And then you've got horror or splatter punk, which is whole another thing where another author another editor said, let's just do this.

And all the writers are like, yeah, that's great. That's your word. We're not going to adopt it. So that's the way there are splatter punks. But yeah. Yeah, solar punk kind of died for the most part too for that same reason, right? It makes no sense to have punk in there. It's no. No, it's not. It's really solar punk is the opposite of dystopian fiction, which would be. He'd tell me why have the punk out there. It's like the inversion of Eric the Red naming at Greenland. Yeah. Love it. Love it.

Well, then if you guys are ready, let's listen to a side A and side B first the decoys of Ming the merciless apologies to Lothar and side B flashboard and the mole machine. I will get you flash Gordon. The official adventures of Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon. Hero of outer space. With his sweetheart Dale Arden and his good friend, the great scientist and inventor, Dr. Hunts, Zarkov.

Flash Gordon is able to travel far in outer space to distant planets and other solar systems seeking new adventures and discoveries and defending his native earth against all aggressors. Flash Gordon's deadliest adversary is the evil Ming the merciless who rules the planet Mundo. In the aftermath of a daring raid on Ming's headquarters in Mingo City, Flash learned of a secret squadron of Ming's rockets which were preparing a surprise attack on Earth.

Before he was able to escape with the news, however, Flash and Dale were taken prisoner by Ming who bloated over his trial. At last, the mighty Flash Gordon is now my humble prisoner. Are you not proud of your father, my dear aura? It is a good omen for the rocket attack your planning further. I am going to give Flash Gordon back to them first, my dear. You're going to what?

I surprise you, eh? You don't know my whole plan yet, aura. Since you have proven yourself loyal to me, you have a vital role to play. What must I do? Now listen carefully, my dear. Flash, please try to get some rest. You can't get out of here by pacing the floor. Dale, I'll never forgive myself for letting you come with me on this mission. I've always been with you, Flash, and this is the way I want it to be. No matter what happens. Flash! Flash Gordon! Who's that? Someone outside the door.

Flash Gordon! Can you hear me? It's a woman. Who's there? I am aura, and I must speak to Flash Gordon. aura, Ming's daughter? Yes, but speak softly. The guards must not hear. Stand back from the door. Both of you, I have the special light key that will cut the alarm from the outside. I am opening the door to come in. It is aura. Shhh, quiet. Both of you, we can talk safely now. But I have only a few moments. Listen carefully. I have come to help you escape.

You helping us to escape from your father? Yes. I can't stand it anymore. It's terrible war. The killing. I want to help end this slaughter. But if I help you, you must promise to intervene for my father. I don't want to see him killed. Please promise that you will see to it that he is only exiled, if I help to overthrow him. Flash! Don't believe her. It must be a trick. No! No, I mean it. You don't even have to believe me now. But you will, if I help you escape back to earth, I won't you?

Escape! But how? I have a plan that will work. At least it will get us outside the prison. But even if we get outside the prison, you know it's impossible to get away from Mungo. Where would we get a rocket ship? Oh, you forget. I am the emperor's daughter. I have my own personal ship. Only a short distance from the prison. Once we get a board we're safe. My ship, leaving the planet, will not be challenged. That's... that's possible, all right?

I don't like it, Flash. I never trust her. That's because you're an earth woman. You think with your heart, not your head. Dayal, listen. We must try it. I... I don't know, Flash. There is no time to waste. Give me your promise. That you will seek leniency for my father if I help you escape. I give you my word. That your father will not be executed. All right then. Now, listen carefully. My father is planning to come here soon and question you.

I will make an excuse to come with him. The guards will be waiting outside and when we are together in here, I will signal you. You will overpower my father and with myself as your escort, we will be able to walk out past the guards and out of the prison before they realize what's happened. You will not be silly or a... how can I overpower your father with guards outside the cell? Here, take this ray gun. You can set it for a temporary paralysis.

You're giving me a ray gun? That should prove you can trust me. I must go now. Hide the gun and wait for my signal when we return. Now, stand back from the door. Oh, Flash, it sounds too good to be true. I know, Deal. But we'll have to trust her for now. I'll never trust her. I saw the way she looked at you. She's tried before to get you to like her. Yeah, that was a long time ago, Deal. When I first met aura, we thought she was loyal to Baron the rightful rule of mango, not Ming.

Yes, she fooled you then. And she's fooling you now. You can't beat jealous of her, Deal. Oh, can't I? I know what's at stake. The survival of Earth. We must get back there to warn them. I'm making this decision, Deal. It's our only chance. Everything already grows? Yes, Lord Ming. The ray gun aura gave them has been altered so that it will fire, but have no effect upon us. We must pretend to be unconscious. Yes, good. You know your part, my daughter? Yes, father. I am ready.

Very well. Is this their cell? Yes, my lord. Gams, you know what to do? You will wait outside here. Yes, sir. Very well. Open this door. We will go inside. Stand back from the door, prisoners. The Emperor Ming approaches. Ming? Yes, Flash Gordon. I have come to show you that I can be lenient if you will cooperate. What do you want? Close the door, guards. Guards, wait outside. Now then, you two. My daughter has convinced me to try to be lenient with you.

If you will tell me the location of Earth's defense bases, I will reconsider the order for your execution. What? Never. Flash, no. What? All right, Ming. The tables have turned. You and Grads back up against that wall with your hands over your head. Where did you get that weapon? From your daughter, Ming. She's fed up with your one bloodshed. An exchange for our escape. I have agreed to seek leniency for you. Orra, is this true? Yes, father. I'm sorry. There's no other way.

I should kill you now, Ming. But I'm going to keep my word. Flash, they're out. The guards, Orra. How many outside the door? Just two, but they can hear nothing. Open the door, Orra. What? Do as I say. Dale and I need their uniforms. It'll make it easier to get out of here. Dale, take the gun. When they end up paralyze them, I'll stay by the door and keep it open. Now, Orra. Call them in. Guards, in here. Hey, we're in for a flash. The gun is jammed. I won't get them. Go away.

That'll hold them for a moment. Take the other ones uniform, and then we'll tie them up. I already have both of you. We must get out before anyone sees this cell. I'm almost ready. I will leave the way. When we're challenged, don't speak either of you. I will do the talking. You will be escorting me out. Are you ready? Yes. Let's go. Now. I think we're clear now. Check the instruments, please, Flash. Yes, we're at about 250 mile per minute.

Does Ming's sensing equipment check position beyond here? Only for approaching objects. It's safe to set our course for Earth now. Then we've made it. We're really free and on our way to Earth. Yes, Dale, and you must admit our kept a word was... I told you we'd make it. My ship doesn't get radar challenged, leaving Mongo. You know that my father's rocket attack is planned for 8 am to model Earth time. Yes, I know.

But what you probably don't know is that Ming is sending two waves of attacking rockets. Two waves? Why? The first wave are merely dummy rockets, decoys with remote control and no warheads. They're designed to draw all of Earth's counter rockets and anti-missile fire. That way Ming hopes that the second wave of attack... We'll catch your son of the only secondary line of defense. Yes, it's a clever plan. A secondary offences are only for small, localized rockets.

It'd never be enough to stop Ming's interplanetary cruisers. Precisely right. My father isn't exactly a fool, you know. How many ships in each wave? 150 in the first wave, the decoys, and 200 in the second. But Ming may change his plans. Now that you've helped us escape. No, the attack countdown has already started and he doesn't know that I learned of the attack plans. He'll attack on schedule. But you'll be able to warn Earth in time.

Flash, what about contacting Earth now? Let them know right away. Not yet, Dale. We're still too close to Mongo. Look, keep the weight of your silence till we're just outside of Earth's defense perimeter. Would the Melod Ming wish someone to eat or drink? No, no, not now, Graves. I have had enough. Are you still tracking my daughters? Yes, Melod. They are still headed for Earth. Good, good. My plan is working superbly.

Melod, forgive me. But as your advisor, I still fear for the Princess or a safety. Graves, as your Emperor and Orr's father, I tell you to stop worrying. If I know Flash Gordon, Orr will be safely at his side in some command post when the attack comes. And since Flash Gordon must by now be thoroughly convinced that there are two waves of my attack, you will order Earth not to fire at what he thinks are decoys.

And by the time the Earth fools realize they are not decoys, they will be well inside Earth's line of defense. Even the Earth people will not let their entire planet be destroyed. They will be forced to surrender with my ships over every major city. Besides, Graves, you know I would not hesitate to sacrifice even her life if it meant the success of my plans, my conquest of the Earth. Nothing will stand in means way. Well, Ash, I couldn't believe my ears when the report came. But you are safe.

Yes, Dr. Zarkov, it's good to see you again. And, Dale, my dear, we were so worried. I'm fine, doctor. You received our message about the two waves of Mings attack? Yes, the Flash. General Garsell has asked that you, in your military rank of Colonel, take command of Earth's line of defense. Yes, Colonel Gordon. Your knowledge of Mings' strategy has proven invaluable. Flash Gordon, help! With these men! Release her, General. Princess Or is in my custody.

It's all right, Sergeant. The woman is in Flash Gordon's custody. Bring her here with us. It will lucky me up. Is this the way you keep your promises, Flash Gordon? You're free, Orra. You heard the General just now. You will stay with me during the next eight hours. Flash, wouldn't it be better if she were under guard? Colonel Gordon, our security may be compromised if I want to with us in the Command Post General. I think the meeting is... And I want to use Command Post D. Do you understand?

Post D. But... But... Colonel Gordon knows what he's doing. You can trust him, General. Right. Earth's defense will receive my orders from there. Ah, yes, I understand. Good. Dr. Zarkos, you and Orra come with Dale and me. We haven't a moment to lose. Colonel Gordon speaking, give me a time check. Time 754 AM attack power minus 60. Sightings report. Three or negative. No enemy or skin sight yet. Stand by, Orra. The attack is due for 8 AM, isn't it?

Yes, that's right. Surely you know that my father's attack fleet uses the new stellar drive power. You should pick up their traces no more than four minutes before attack time. Are they that fast? The stellar drive is useful for attack forces but not for long range cruising. We use it also for our attack missiles. Stand by. Report. Enemy attack fleet. Area 44. Position 12. Approaching 1000 miles per minute. Put them on the viewing screen as soon as they're in range. Report.

Type a number of enemy ships. Attack force. Approximately 300 rocket ships. 300. Time 8 ST 7. The stellar drive. Those are the decoys. The first wing. They're on arm. They're too far away to tell but 300. Enemy attack force. Forming divergent radar. Area 26. 13. 44. And 31. This is the first wave, right, Orra? Yes, sir. Enemy attack fleet. In viewing screen range. There they are. On the screen. Agering primary defense perimeter. Request the stellar guard's order to attack.

Do not attack. Repeat. Do not attack enemy ships. All primary defense stations. No attack. Flash, I hope you know what you're doing. What's the screen, Dale? I see them. They're hundreds of them all right. Enemy fleet. 500 miles. Inside the defense perimeter. Red alert. Sensing detectors. Red alert. Red fare. Red alert. They are armed. You fools. Did you think my father and I would give up so easily? Our nuclear attack force is now inside your defense perimeter. Without a shot being fired.

You're a helpless. You lied to us. Why you? Let her go, Dale. Those rockets. You gave the orders to let them go through. Don't touch that firing button. I'm still in command here. Look at the screen. The rockets. Who knows? They're being attacked. The enemy fleet. They're being destroyed. Yes. Our primary defense force. No. There are your doubts. They're wiped out, Dale. You see? But how? This is Command Post D. That means D for dummy.

And Dr. Zakaht Phani established this false command post long ago with General Garcin. Just find emergency like this. All of my orders were dummies. Yes. The actual defense was controlled by General Garcin. His orders destroyed Ming's fleet. How did you know? I suspected you from the start, Aura. I knew there wasn't going to be any second wave of attack. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard there were 300 ships. Your father's entire attack fleet. Oh, Flash. You knew all the time.

But we had to play along with the Dale in order to escape. I couldn't even tell you what I was doing. And what shall we do with our guest now, Flash? We can use her as a hostage against Ming. My father knows that I was prepared to sacrifice myself. Kill me if you wish, but you will never defeat Ming. I don't think that's the answer, Zakaht. Ming would sacrifice his daughter if necessary. I have a better idea. She'll be held here on Earth in our protective custody.

And I wanted to see as much as possible of our way of life. When she's seen what freedom and democracy are really like, she may understand why we are fighting this war. And she'll be more useful on our side. You're not going to kill me? Oh, put me in prison. It's never too late for a little education, my dear princess. And who knows, one day? Flash may be right. After all, your sympathy is used to lie with King Baron, the rightful ruler of Mongolia. Oh. I don't know what to say.

All right. We do want to help you if we can. Let her stay with me for a little while, Flash. All right, dear. Take care, there. Dr. Zakaht. Yes, Flash. With Ming's attack force wiped out, you and I have some very urgent business in Washington. Let's go. After years of bitter conflict, many powerful forces united under the friendship of Flash Gordon are at last able to overthrow the evil power of Ming and end his rule of the planet month.

Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zakaht returned to Earth to find that scientists had developed weapons powerful enough to destroy the world. Dr. Zakaht retreated to his secret laboratory to experiment with mongo inventions. It is there that Flash and Dale are now headed. Oh, Flash, we've been away so long. It will be good to see Dr. Zakaht again. Yes, Dale. You know, the radio is sounded exciting as a kid. He must have finished his new project. Flash, Dale! Hello, my friends.

Dr. Zakaht. Dear Zakaht. I'm so happy you've come at last. Hey, you have quite a layout here, Dr. Zakaht. Very impressive. Yes. There are many young scientists gathered here to devote their lives to keeping peace in our universe. But you will see all of this later. Now you must come with me to see my prize. Here, into this elevator. Stepping into a high-speed elevator, the three scientists descend swiftly a thousand feet below the surface. You see my friends.

In the event of nuclear war, we think it is possible that human life can survive underground. And since I've always wanted to explore the inner Earth, we have been working on a new transportation machine. I call it the Moor. It is capable of pouring through solid rock. How incredible! It's up ahead of it as it travels through any medium. Solid liquid. It can navigate underwater and fly through the air as well. There it is, my friends. My underground ship. The Moor. Oh, it's so big. Amazing.

Flasher, you're willing to test it with me? A dark eye. I thought you'd never ask me. Just a second. Have you forgotten me? No, Dale. I haven't. I want to keep this test very private. We'll need you here to keep in radio contact with us. Hmm. Well, I don't know. Oh, come on, Dale. We won't be gone for more than a few hours. Well, I'm outnumbered. You win. But please be careful. Both of you. Good girl. Hmm. Oh, another kiss like that, and I won't let you go. Come, my friends. We must get ready.

The incredible bullet-shaped Moor Machine begins its test journey. The huge silver ship pours its way straight down through layers of solid rock. This is amazing, Doc. No human beings that have ever gone down this farm at the Earth's core. We don't yet know what we'll find as we descend. Here, raise the cooling level. The outside temperature of the rock is rising. Oh, that knob there. Right. Does the radar show another element below us? Hmm. We're approaching an area. Different density.

Yes, it must be a liquid. Look, through the viewing port, water, here in an underground ocean, another sea beneath the Earth. There are huge creatures out there, exterior lights. There, under a ration flash. Look at the size of those monsters, like serpents. Turn on the cameras. If I didn't know better, I'd say we were back on mango. Can they harm the ship? I think not. We're moving much too swiftly. And the instrument's look. The radar shows an end to the water. More rocks ahead.

No. Some kind of light atmosphere. We should be into it soon. That's it. We're in free atmosphere. There's light up ahead. Look, there. Yes. We've come out of the depths into some sort of huge cavern. There's a kind of a beach. And look, a city. There may be live beings down here. I must stop. This is a fantastic discovery. Incredible flash. The instrument show this atmosphere is perfectly able to support human life. We can breathe out there. And that city. We must get a closer look at there.

If they're living people. Yes. We cannot leave here without a brief exploration. Check with Dale on the radio and tell her what's happening while I get some gear together. Right back. As flash and zarkov leave the mole. They step out into an eerie world within a world. An underground city carved from the rock. The two walk cautiously past huge pillars of limestone. A strange yellow light bays the whole scene. Then as they climb over a huge boulder at the entrance to the city. Zarkov, look out.

Those men. Catch her. Catch her. My god, little boy. Do not be afraid, circus men. Flash, look. A woman. Gods, let them stand. It's alright. I am Princess Dahl. My father rules this world. You will not be harmed if you come quietly with us. We come in peace. We may know harm to you, your people. They didn't take my gun. Keep it hidden, Flash. But don't be hasty. To the palace. Come. The strange procession walks through the eerie city.

As they round the curve, the huge ceiling of the cave above them rises abruptly into darkness. And from out of the high darkness comes a strange sound. The flutter of giant wings. Look out. A killer bird. A huge flying replica. God help. Look, the guard dropped his spear. I'll get it. The bird is going for the girl. Look out, dollar one. Pull the spear, Flash. Right. Perfect. You got it. Oh, you saved my life. You were brave. And I thank you. I assure you, my father will be most important.

I will be the best. I will be the best. And I thank you. I assure you, my father will be most grateful. Please, I feel a little weak. May I? Yes, yes. Lean on me. Can you walk like this? Oh, yes. Keep your arm around me, though. This way, follow the path to the palace. Welcome, surface min. I am Crank Hill, Supreme ruler of Crank Helium. I am grateful to you for saving my daughter's life. This is my friend Dr. Zakoff, and I am Flash Gordon. For your brave deed, you will be given your freedom.

Within the confines of Crank Helium, the machine you came in must be destroyed, however. If our existence here becomes known on the surface, we would be unable to stop the invasion of greedy and warlike sephas people. You mean you intend to keep us here? We are scientists. We have obligations to our own world. Our law does not permit strangers to leave here. But come, let us die. Later, we shall introduce you to the wonders of our world. Now look here.

Not now. Do not oppose the will of my father. Zakoff, we can't let them destroy them all. Don't worry, Flash. They can't get into the machine. They are a primitive form of culture. They have no weapons capable of destroying it. Where Shantzarkov settled down to an uneasy truce. Under the king's watchful eye, they eat an exotic meal. And then, Flash asks Darla to show him around her underground world. Your food was strange and very good, Darla. Most of it is made in our food laboratories.

We have many forms that grow without sunlight. What's that noise? You will see it in a moment. It is a river of molten lava. Look around you. Is it not beautiful down here, Flash? I think you might like living. Queen King. Darla, you must make your father realize we cannot stay here forever. He is not in my power to release you. But I'm sure I can help make you happy here. What's that? There it is. The river of love. Good Lord. The heat. This is molten lava.

Look at that fiery river boiling and seething. That is our only danger here. But our greatest part. You can see how the lava is eating away at the banks of rock. Burning it away gradually. What are you doing to stop it? We can only build more walls of rock. See there? Those people work. Why they are people. They look so strange. Why? They have green skins. They are the lava people. The texture of their skins makes them able to withstand the terrific heat.

But we have had to enslave these creatures to keep them building the rock ramparts. Their slaves? Yes. It is tragic. But the very existence of our beautiful city depends upon maintaining this wall. I have always hoped that someday my father would be able to free those poor creatures. But... Dala. If the lava flow is the only problem, I think my friend Dr. Zakoff and I may be able to help you find a much better solution. Let's go back to the palace.

Your Highness, we are convinced that we can divert the lava river that indangers your city. If you allow us to return to our ship, we can make preparations there. Stop. Do you take me for a fool? I am not deceived by your words. You are planning to escape. No. Oh, father, they are honorable men. If you would give them a chance. Silence, daughter. Gods! Confine these men to their quarters. Quick, Zakoff. Run for them all. I'll try to hold them off. I'm going with you, Dr. Zakoff.

My child, you'll put yourself in danger. But gods will not throw their spears when they see I am with you. Run. I'll fire over their heads. He has a weapon. Don't worry. Flash will not kill any of them. It's flash, alright? Yes. See, hurry, comans. Flash. Keep going. Get to the mall. Follow me. This is a shortcut to your ship. Ah, she's right. See it up ahead. Oh, come back here! They're following us. We'll make it if we hurry. That ladder. There. Unlock the hatch. You get down along the board.

But, do as I say. I'll fire over their heads again. That's not them before. Come on, Flash. Get up here. I'll start the engines. Hurry. Oh, what is this machine? I've never seen anything like it. You haven't seen anything yet, Dara. Keep looking down through that window there. Headed for the lava river, Flash. Then we must angle the ship so that I can use the atomic drive mechanism to blast a new channel through the rock. We will divert the river away from the city.

Zackoff, we have to get clear space. A wave of many of those lava people down there. We shall. Here. Let me handle the power controls while you steer the ship. With Flash at the wheel, Zackoff delicately adjusts the atomic power drive. As the powerful reaction blasts a new channel through the rock floor of the cave, the river of molten lava slowly begins to run into the new channel.

As Darlo watches an amazement through the ship's window and the people of Trent Killium watch from their city, the boiling river of flames slowly recedes from the edge of their rock city. Now, run swiftly and fully down the new pathway, created by Zackoff's atomic power. Having successfully completed the river's diversion, Zackoff heads them all back to the beach and lands once again. Alright Flash, open the hatch and get that girl back to where people are.

Right. Darlo, I hate to leave you like this. After all you did to fire your father, you'll be pretty angry. Oh no, I will be alright. After what you've done, my people will be eternally grateful. You hear that? There acknowledge you already. Perhaps then we may come back someday. You will always be welcome here. My father is a just man. He will realize that you will keep your word and guard our secret home. I know you must go back, but I wish you could stay here with me.

Flash, I have deal on the radio hurry. And Darlo, my home is up above. I want you to be well-awaited in the ship when we start the engines and keep your people back. I don't want anyone hurt. Goodbye then. Flash Gordon. Come back soon. Flash! Right, Doc. Here I am. Flash, who are you talking to? What's happened to you down there? I've been so worried. And we've had a little trouble down here. Tell you all about it in a few minutes, Dale. Hang on. Look outside, Flash.

Is it clear for me to start the engines? One second, Doc. I'll see. All clear, Doc. Follow me. Are you coming back, Flash? Yes, Dale. We're coming home. As Flash and Zarkov reenter the underground sea, heading back to the surface of the Earth, they know in their hearts that someday they will return to the secret city, the beautiful underground cavern. The world beneath the Earth. And we are back. Well, gentlemen, lots to talk about. Let's start with the decoys of Ming the Mercellus.

Since Lothar deferred to Jeff to begin with, we'll start with Lothar. What did you think? Well, first off, I have to say, I love the Groovy soundtrack. That was just rockin'. That was like, it's great 60s. And then it turns into, the exploitation film music of the 70s and stuff, I'm just like, okay, this is great. I have to say that this was charming. It is juvenile-ish. But let's not approach it as anything other than something that seeds a love of story and joy.

And just even having the old cast, I mean, Buster Crab was Flash Gordon. He sounds nothing like a young man. He was completely miscast if you're just going for a vocal quality. But it reminds me of some of the stuff that Big Finish does with their Dark Shadow stuff, where they still have, when they can, the original actors and actresses playing their characters. And sometimes it's like the actor, whose name I'm blanking on right now, who plays Maggie Evans.

She sounds like a grandma, and she's playing like a 25-year-old person. But it's wonderful that they keep the original cast around, that they keep that continuity. I can suspend my disbelief that way. And it was wonderful that they got Buster Crab, and I assume some of the other actors in there as well. But maybe you can speak more to that when it comes back around to you, Jack. So I really enjoyed the wonderful innocence and joy of the whole thing.

I agree. And Buster Crab was close to 60 when they did this. So yeah, and I think if it's Big Finish 2, who does Doctor Who? Yep. I think that they bring back all the old doctors and do the same thing with it. So that was kind of cool. You know, to see Buster Crab, because I had seen, I think my first introduction to Flash Gordon was in the old cereals that they were playing on TV. And so Buster Crab is in that.

And so for me, he exemplifies Flash Gordon, even more than Gale Gordon, who played it in the old cereals, right, the old time radio shows. Right. For me, so Buster Crab was quintessential Flash Gordon. And so to hear him on that record, even though he was a little lung and tooth to playing the athletic swimmer football player, Flash Gordon guy, I just thought it was great. And Lothar's word of charming is spot on. I mean, it's just, it just like I said in the opening, it just brought me back.

I listened to it probably five or six times over the course of the last couple of weeks. And every time it was just like sheer joy. And I think that's what I get from listening to space patrol or something like that. It's just, it is what it is. It's just a fun story. And there's clear cut bad guys and clear cut good guys and women. And it's just, it's very, there's not a lot of complication in there. It's just, oh, look, there's a bad guy.

How are we going to get him this week, you know, happy or, you know, or let's go Dale or Dr. Zarkov or, you know, so it was just, it was just a lot of joy to listen to it. And the 1966 part, that chunk of the 60s, that 64 to 66 part, before the Vietnam War really went massive. And all that, there was some kind of an innocence to me there. And it's to me, it's like Sinatra and Dean Martin and those kind of shows. And you know, that kind of cool vibe. I love that time period.

And with that, those stings, the music, like you said, love, it was the first thing I was going to say. I just absolutely adore that. It was like, for me, I remember my childhood. I remember just being so excited to watch Johnny Quest. And it was on, like, when I was a kid, it was on like Tuesday night to seven or something. And if you missed it, you missed it. You remember those days? You know, we had to be channels and no DVR or anything. And, Saturday morning cartoons. The best. The best.

And it reminded me of that feeling I got when my mom used to make me take a bath and go, come on Jeffrey, something to call it. Johnny Quest is like, I'd run downstairs, you know, I was probably half wet still. You know what I mean? I was just going to. And, you know, and that music came on, you know, Dan and, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, getting the Sunday newspapers at my house growing up.

And. You had to like, bite my brothers and sisters and stuff for the paper. But once you got the comic section, you know, and you just, it was that, all the, that pages and pages of color comics and, you know, and you were reading flash gardeners in there and all those great comics that went, you know, and you got the ink all over your hands and stuff. It was just, it was just, it was, it was, it was, it was. So we've had you make your own little things.

But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, so I guess what I'm trying to say in a really long-booted way is, it goes back to that kind of the innocence thing in my life of, like, like, picturing you, Jack is a little boy up there in Canada playing that record over and over and over again. And they, with Patrick Heaver, he said, he said, you know, and just those, those great moments, that, that's what I think what it was to me.

And it brought me back to the 1960s and my childhood and that feeling. So I just, I love to absolutely adore it. I'm so glad to hear that. I, for myself, it's such a point of joy. And just, I probably haven't heard it in 20 years at this point. So, I'm really listening to it. A lot of things came to mind. Buster Crab became, because of this album, became one of my heroes. And I hadn't even seen any of the serials at that point. The next time I saw him, I didn't recognize him.

But my parents pointed him out. And that was on Buck Rogers in the 25th century. He actually showed up as a guest. And he called himself Gordon. And he said, he's flying, he's flying the space fighter and he said to the Gil Gerard at the time, he said, I've been doing this longer than you've been alive, boy. You know that. And I didn't catch any of the meta conversation at that point. But between him and Clayton Moore, I did watch all the time.

And I did watch all the Clayton Moore loan rangers when I could as a kid, all the television show. I found that their genuine belief that doing the right thing will give you the right way of dealing with things in life. I found that as a really good and you know, my family supported all that. And I was very lucky in all shapes to have the family that I have.

I thought as for young kids, as I'm listening to now, the interactions that he has with the women in his life for boys, there's so few opportunities for boys to sit there and say, how should you respond to this when it happens? Right? So in the decoys of Ming the Merciless, and I think we can get into the story, because there's a problem in the story that didn't recognize until I listen to it now. But I don't know about that. And not that it's any big deal.

But how he treats his Princess Ardala and how he convinces Dale to treat Princess Ardala, despite her duplicity and stuff like that. I was taken by the fact that if you just treat people with decency and kindness, maybe you can give them the opportunity to change. And that doesn't always happen, of course, but it doesn't hurt to have kids to have that idea. Then to just automatically give them the idea to try to write anybody off who they don't like or something like that.

From a kid's perspective on a very young perspective, that's kind of a good, for me, it was a good, it's a good foundation to start off with. Be the bigger person. What do you think about that theme aspect? I think it's a great point. Go ahead, Luther. Oh, yeah, I mean, it's a, you know, these were meant for kids. They were meant to teach them, you know, morals.

You know, I think it'll be interesting when, you know, maybe later on in the season, we can, you know, explore the similarities with buck Rogers because this was a response to buck Rogers and a copy of buck Rogers. So it'll be a good for me to sort of compare the two. But yeah, I was meant to, to provide. Which he played as well in this series. He played buck Rogers too. By the way, he was the top guy for all the syndicated serials. He also played Tarzan.

So, of course, he was, he was a limpic swimmer. This is one of the reasons why I sent you guys that show, if you remember, back in the day, night calls the green Falcon. This, this parkens back to me that same kind of thing. And obviously, our Robert MacGamen who wrote that longer novella of it. It's a fantastic story. He felt the same way. He could see that kind of interaction. Because green Falcon is exactly the same way as well, you know.

Do the right thing and you'll do right well with it, right? So anyway, this didn't mean it in a rough little thought. Go ahead. Oh, there's just a, you know, we get back to the mythologizing aspect. And one of the things that mythology's do is they reinforce the cosmology of what is the order of the universe. And by that, they also mean a moral order. What is good for the gods? What are the gods? Whoever those gods are?

Whatever your pantheon what is good and what is evil and the good is usually what is on the side of the gods? And when people from an anthropology of how do you be a human? Is, well, let's do what the gods do in the way that's appropriate for us as mortals. Reinforce and reestablish that order. And we get that very strongly here, very much almost like a folktale to where you've got, you know, because he was a polo player before he was considered a football player.

Yes. But here you've got the local boy, you know, local boy who everybody likes and appreciates who suddenly gets the thrust into a some sort of strange, folkloric world goes down the rabbit hole, gets taken away by the spaceship, goes through a time warp, whatever it is, ends up and becomes the hero. It's like we're into folklor, you know, we start off with mythology, but now we're in sort of like high romance folklore. Right.

Just with spaceships instead of dragons and elves and things like that. Oh, that's a great point. I didn't think of that. By the way, his original name is Clarence. Clarence, Lyndon, Crab. No wonder. Oh, oh, oh, Buster Crab. I thought you meant Flash. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Buster Crab. Sorry, my mistake. Sorry, you were saying good job. No, no, no. It was playing Tarzan. I guess that was a thing for swimmers, right? Johnny Wisemaller. Yes. And all that.

And just very interesting. And so I think of that learning those types of lessons, Jack, that as you spoke, is important. You know, it's important that we want to teach our kids a good way to be. And, you know, so the way they do it, the way they treat the princess there, you know, rather than, you're not going to, and she's, she's shocked. And, you know, you're not going to lock me up. Right? Because she's coming from Ming, right? Where it's like, of course, she's going to lock you up.

And he's like, no, no, you're in my custody. Go live with Dale for a while, you know, and, you know, just, you know, it's just kind of, it's back to that kind of pre-Vietnam wariness and things, you know, or what we put that in quotes. You know what I mean? Yeah. What we perceive as the fifties and kind of romanticized ways, right? I'm, I don't really believe that, but it would kind of, that's the way that we feel about it sometimes.

And I thought it was really good the way that, when they're in Command Center D there or whatever, you know. I love it. And, and the first time I was listening to it, and I was like, they kind of got me, because I'm going, and she's like, the, you know, the missiles or whatever, you know, the rocket chips have gotten through your defenses. And I'm like, geez, how's he going to figure the, how's he going to get out of this? I really, I was really, you know, and then I was like, haha, guess what?

I duped you. This is the dummy, the D stands for dummy here. That's right. You know, and so they asked they all blow up and everything is okay. And I just, I thought that was really well done, you know. They got me too. They, okay. Yeah, because, well, what, I'm like, wait a minute, Colonel Flash going, I know he's the main character or anything, but the Colonel is telling the general what's going on. No, no, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.

And then you find out, oh, he was cluing him into what was going on. And it's like, of course, I'm going to defer to you for a command center D because I'm going to lead the real attack. And you go do your thing over there. And it's like, oh, now it made sense. I was, I actually was a little surprised and, and a little bit impressed, and I wasn't expecting that. No, I wasn't either. So that was really fun. That was my, that was a, re-listening now. That was my structural or problem.

Even though I love that, that's my structural problem with the actual storyline because, remember, they said originally that the whole idea of having the two waves of attack is that once they get past a certain place, you can't fire off the rockets and say people against the missile attack, right? So are they feeding them the wrong numbers? Because the first attack would have gone through the wrong numbers and they would have known right away, right? That it actually was stopped.

So they didn't, you know what I mean? Like, you're a little kind of confused at that point. If you think about it from the way that was originally described. So yeah, there's that. I mean, you can comment on that. But I, I thought I'd bring this other aspect that is important. I think we're not supposed to think about it that close. No, no, no, no. And I agree. I agree. This is just, you know, 58-year-old Jack thinking about what, you know, eight-year-old Jack never even considered.

To bring Aristotle in again, we've got Mythos, which is plot. We've got Ethos, which is character in setting. For sure. And we've got Dianneuio, which is thought and theme. I don't think Mythos plays too much into this one. Oh, yeah. No, I just watched a video on Fallout and the guy just like, poo-pooed the whole series. And I'm like, you're really over thinking the things you shouldn't think about. So, right.

What I wanted to talk about was looking back, I really love the character of Flash and how he treats the people around him, especially the women. Now, the women, this was written for boys mostly. It's power fantasy. It's power fantasy. It's power fantasy. For sure. But think about this in the respect that he never tells Dale what to do really. He never tells any of those people what to do. And he always listens to what they have to say.

And he's not the one pressuring them into relationships or anything like that. He's like, this is what I'm planning to do. And yes, they follow him and all that kind of stuff. That's all part of the power fantasy. But he's not overbearing on other people. He's just like, I got something that I need to do. And it's great that you're following me to do it. And I looking back, I really appreciate about that too.

I know from a modern perspective, I'd rather have Dale do things like, oh, what's that Flash? And, you know, and her having a jealousy with our daughter and stuff like that. But from the perspective of him talking to them like they are real people back in the 1960s, that's a pretty cool thing. So. There seem to be a little bit of a, sort of shut up and sit down lady. This is what we're doing anyway. So I didn't quite see it quite as a gallotarian as you. But listen to it again a few more times.

You know, but there is definitely the idea of like, wow, okay, every single kingdom you go to, you're going to have an oppressive ruler with a beautiful daughter who suddenly will become a traitor to her cause because she loves you Flash. That gets put into the, you're into the second episode already, right?

Our daughter has a long and, and I love the fact that our daughter has this very long and confused sort of relationship with Flash, where she sometimes truly loves him, sometimes truly loves Baron, and sometimes truly loves her father and really inappropriate ways. And her father does as well. And they sort of float all of this kind of thing back in front. And sometimes she just does it for herself, right? You know, her therapy bills are really big. Oh, crazy, crazy.

And by the way, when we're talking about Dale, they didn't have the woman who played sort of the original Dale, which I just saw a little documentary on on YouTube before this started. Gene Rogers. If Buster Crab was sort of pulled out of nowhere and just brought into central casting, so was Gene Rogers. She was actually called in by a nationwide look for fresh faces, people who didn't want to go and check in this stuff. And the guy, I forget the guy's producer, was named was Rogers last name.

And it was for eight women in a boat or something like that, which was about as pornographic as you could possibly get, because there's a big shower scene and they're all in their undies. And she got in and then her mother and her liked California's weather so much they stayed. And then she ended up doing all these different cereals. Marywell, you know, the famous old-time radio adventure series. Oh, yeah, it's a fun one. You'd like it Jeff. I'd look for it anyway.

Anyway, she decided that she was finally getting some better roles and she didn't want to do the famous flash Gordon with Buster Crab, a boat, a couple of years later, there were like three cereals that she didn't end up doing one of them. So I'm sad she wasn't involved in this, but I mean, they could only have so many anyway. So was it Connie or or read a Lloyd that played Dale? I don't know. And that's the really crazy thing. I actually I went in and look at it.

But it doesn't say who is who and obviously I looked up the cast on the record. It's right. And so Jackson Beck was a narrator and they don't say what they are. Ronald Liss actually actually wrote it as well. And I did figure out what Ronald Liss had done before and read a Lloyd. I'm sure it was read a Lloyd to be honest. I think played Dale and Karine Orr, who's a Canadian actress at a Quebec and still around.

I think she played our dollar because I think she played our dollar in another show at some point. Okay. And then we have George Petrie and produced and directed by her galowitz. I got to tell you this though and I'm sorry for taking over all of this. I'm sure. But I actually went to my AI to see if it could come up with information about all of this stuff. Right. So I asked them like, so who's the list of people from the cast of the official ventures of Fash Gordon?

It literally came up with entirely different list of actors, not even Buster Crab. For that thing. So I think we're safe for the AI right now. But her galowitz was famous for doing a lot of CDs and vinyls and stuff like that for the disc hogs marketplace. So I think he was involved in Leo the Lion, which is by the way, the kids version of MGM records because Leo was the lion in MGM. And so I didn't realize that. So the Leo the Lion record label, which did a lot of these kids productions in that.

That's MGM records. You know, I also have to say you're mentioning of Jackson Beck. That, you know, I didn't really know his name, but man do I know his voice. He was all over the place in like, so one of the ubiquitous voiceover people. For sure. I heard him everywhere. What about you, Jeff? I know. I don't think so. I probably have, but I didn't recognize it the voice. Really? The official adventures. I think I've actually heard him in like those Lawrence and Bass or whatever.

Chris Bess. Oh, the rank and bass. Yeah, rank and bass. Like his voice is so familiar for me. He might have been in there. He was definitely did the new adventures of Superman. I think he played Perry White, Space Cadet. He was the narrator. He played Alfred Pennyworth on the Superman episodes where it had Batman in it. I think Richard Liss is famous for doing Robin in the Superman series.

Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, but Jackson Beck was, yeah, he played Bluto and and and some other adventure stuff. He played Bluto in Popeye. That's the only thing I could find Richard Lissin was playing Robin in Superman. But he was in other all-time radio stuff. It's so weird that we have this black hole when it comes to these particular productions. There's very little to be able to find about it.

You know, getting back to the records of listening and it's funny, Lothar, you... I may have mentioned this to you before, but there's a man or astro-man songs like Secret Agent Conrad or something. Oh, yes. There's this voice that's like, you know, get him, you fools! I had to know where that was from because I love it. And so I did some research and it's from a vinyl record of GI Joe. And that's like Cobra Commander or something. Nice. Yeah, whatever it is. I don't know what it is.

But I just to go back and to find that it came off of GI Joe, little 45, it just cracked me up no end. So it's just... I just love this whole thing about, like I keep saying, the 45s or the albums or whatever it was. And just kind of a simpler time, I'm just gonna sit down, I'm gonna play this about 800 times, over and over again. And it's just... it's so much fun. And I loved it. And I loved the second one too. The second one was so absurdly fun.

Yeah. This is all fodder for my Biff Sträker series. Oh, yeah. So much of Biff Sträker is built on this and the Buck Rogers things that we do. And I have a whole series where he actually goes into the Hollow Earth part as well. So you have to do all these things. Well, there's an ocean down there, buddy. There's an ocean down there, for sure. And a princess. But they also talk about issues of slavery, right?

And so they bring that up in a way for juveniles to sort of think, oh, yeah, not everybody is set the same way. And there are reasons why they have them and is that right. And Flash is very clear to say, no, this isn't right. This has to be changed in one way or another. I love how they sort of like leave Dale back behind. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, that's part of I think what Lofar was saying. Yeah, it's like, no, you're not coming with you. You got to say the idea.

Yeah, this is for the men, you know, type of thing. But Flash could have lost. I need to be able to flirt with the the pretty princess and you're going to like be, you know, stepping on my on my moves. Right. That's right. And it's another thing where they could have just they were in that that drill ship there, that mole ship. They could have just left, right. But no, they went and they diverted the river of lava, plasma, whatever lava. Yes. And then came back because Dale, they left.

Maybe that's why they left the out behind for story purpose. I don't know. Yeah. But, you know, then they have to go back and say, hey, okay, well, we'll let you go as long as you promise not to say we're here. That's right. But it's, it's just great. Yeah. And we should probably talk about the importance of Flash Gordon in some other aspects. But before we do that, because it didn't, it inspired some things that are still really huge today.

Things could have gone very differently if George Lucas had gotten the rights to Flash Gordon. Let's just say it could have. Yeah. But before we do that, have either of you read the novel When Worlds Collide from 1933, because that was one of the major influences for how Flash Gordon came out when they were saying, hey, we got to have something to compete against Buck Rogers. No. No. But I read about it when I was doing research for this. And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

So, no. Yeah, I've seen the book before in, in used bookstores and never knew its importance or anything. It's by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wiley, but no, nothing about it. So it might be something fun to read at some point and then maybe revisit a little bit later when we get back more into more space opera. Yeah. As people may not know, George Lucas tried to get the rights to Flash Gordon. And when that failed, he started developing what became Star Wars.

So Flash Gordon spurned in a lot of ways or sport all of so much of what we consider sci-fi, which is really high space opera. Right. Yeah. And Lensman, too, he tried to get the rights to Lensman at the time. Oh, really? That would have been fascinating. Yeah. But he couldn't get that either. So he, but and you can see that the Lensman pulled all the Jedi order stuff. And so he was really pulling all different kinds of things to create something.

And cough cough, tune, cough cough, Frank Herbert 100% right? So, but you're right that Flash Gordon is, is a response to Buck Rogers because Buck Rogers was probably the first. And I have this beautiful big long book of Buck Rogers comics. It's like the biggest book in my bookshelf. And it has the original like 2066 Ammergetten 2066, which is the original short stories of Buck Rogers is based on for that reason. So yeah.

Yeah, I think it's interesting that you should go back to the Star Wars reference again. And talking about Lucas and that. He makes no bones about the fact that so much of the Star Wars, you know, it's comes from Curacao, right? Hidden Fortress. Hidden, you've ever seen the Hidden Fortress movie. Yeah. Yeah. So we get R2D2 and three C-through period. Yeah. Curacao. They have those two clown characters, you know, and then you have the old samurai and the princess who has to get back home.

And so, and he pulls from a lot of places, but I think the cool one of the coolest things I remember reading was that Scorsese and Spielberg both credited Curacao a lot of their success in film. And so in Curacao is less filmy made called Dreams, which is a very cool film. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. They actually, Lucas Spielberg and Scorsese actually put up a lot of the money for that film.

And they said they did it for Curacao, you know, as a thank you, you know, like in Scorsese, he's actually in it. He plays Van Gogh, right? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a, if you've never seen Dreams, it's absolutely spectacular. It's so beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah. Lucas pulled from a lot of places, one of the other big ones, which was unfortunate because Luke Besson made a film that people thought was more of like a rip off of that sort of thing, but actually Valerian, which was originally Valerian in Lorilline as a Franco Belgian comics that is where he got so much of his visuals. I love that movie. I know that. And I like one of the few people who did, but I love that movie. Yeah. I like it. I didn't know that though.

Yeah. There's some really interesting political comics, like little, the one panel ones that the guy who created Valerian did after Star Wars came out where it has Valerian in Lorilline meeting like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. And then talking in them to, oh, those are your adventures. Yeah, we already did that years ago, you know, things like that. His way of saying, like, yeah, basically you ripped me off. And it's like Lucas is brilliant in a lot of ways. One, he's a brilliant businessman.

Right. He's a brilliant technologist. And he never liked the idea of writing and stuff. He was always into the technology. That's what he wanted to do. So it doesn't surprise me that he's a magpie. But yeah, I can understand why Frank Herbert considered that he ripped him off. I can understand why the Franco Belgian guy whose name I'm forgetting thought that he ripped, yeah, it was ripping off. And saying to the flash Gordon, he's a magpie.

So, but, you know, he was at the right place at the right time. And he was able to make it visually so damn impressive because of what he was absolutely skilled at. For sure. It just took off. I'm sorry. I didn't know Frank Herbert made comment about. No, I didn't know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was very bitter. Really? Yeah. Well, because he didn't like the heroic stuff in, well, he was trying to, the whole thing, he went against it.

Yeah. Yeah, he was trying to like basically talk about be cautious of your heroes. Yes. Of who you make a hero in a martyr and a Messiah and all this stuff. And also it's like, okay, we've got the desert planet that they have to farm moisture. And you've got the, you've got the promised hero who's going to come and save everything.

Oh, except you've just turned it into the most simplistic space opera-seat type thing as opposed to me trying to make commentary about politics and religion and social structures and things like that. By the way, I don't have ever mentioned, but the Dune book series is my parents favorite book series of all times. Is it really? Yeah. I know it's off subject, but I was going to ask what do they think about the new movies?

They quite enjoy them. They actually went with my sisters. They didn't take me. But I'm out the hinterland now. In fact, I haven't seen the second movie yet. I'm still hoping to. It's beautiful. I'm not a huge Herbert fan of his presence. I was a little dense for me. Right. But I'm really impressed by how this guy won paste it and Villainu for how we pronounce his name. Yeah. And there's this one scene that almost is completely monochromatic in the new one.

And it is just getting all of my aesthetic buttons pushed of just like that type of 70s. It's very surrealistic, dreamlike, amazing. And it moves the story along. It's like that scene itself was for me worth the price of admission. Yeah. I think I read the first two books of Dune and then I was kind of like, I don't really get this. And then I watched the movie. I watched the David Lynch movie and I was like, this is like a trip. And then I watched the first Dune movie.

I haven't seen the second one. I was kind of like, yeah, it kind of the whole thing kind of leaves me kind of flat. Well, it's a downer. It's a downer. And you need to sort of be in the mood for almost like a noir sci-fi. Yeah, because you don't really, I don't really like any of the characters except for like Zendaya when she plays that character. But for different reasons.

But the, I guess I like the guy that Jason Amoa played, I don't know what the camp members, he's got like a regular name doesn't he's like Joe Smith. You know, the guy, but it's everybody else's these long names. He's like, so I was never a big Dune fan. I'll watch this second movie when it comes around to whatever service I have.

But there's some really cool spectacle that again, if you can deal with the downer political message, there is some amazing things you would appreciate on the big screen just from a visual point of view. Oh, I agree. And it isn't it directed by a fellow Canadian Jack French Canadian Danny Villanue or France. That's how I think he's French Canadian. Wow. That's cool. He did Blade Runner 2049 or I will. And I liked the way he did that as well. So yeah, it was excellent.

Yeah, he's got a really strong out to her sensibility. I really appreciate it. For sure. And we're getting way of field here, but you just mentioned Blade Runner. So I love the kind of innocence of this. But I really love Blade Runner type. You know that science dystopian. When I saw Blade Runner in the theater, whenever it came out 84 or whatever it was, I was just blown away. Ridley Scott always does a great job with the amazing son and all that stuff.

The continual rain and the darkness and you know, Kira started lighting that's going on. And I just was like, that movie just blew me away. This brings back and I'm glad we're going to PG. This brings back the PSD I had being in the classroom because a student asked me once, who's your favorite writer? And I said, oh, I love Dick. Oh, geez. And the laughter went for 20 minutes until I was told later on, it's PKD. Just say PKD from now on. Oh, is that what you do? Or just I just fall up K dick.

I love his because again, it's a very, it's a very trippy science. All the 70 stuff was trippy science fiction. Warcock, it was fantasy. I know, but he was still in that same kind of vein and same with Herbert. Herbert did it like the San Rogan barrier and the white plague and all of that stuff had lots of interesting trippy stuff to it.

And I think that little Gwyn has gone on record trying to advocate for Philip K. Dick and saying, yeah, people see him as a sci-fi writer and of course he is, but look at him from another way. He's one of like a North American English speaking version of magical realism. And from a certain point of view, I definitely get that completely. You know, he's writing in the pulp genre, so he's not going to do it. Marquez does and I end there and people like that.

But there is this sort of like, especially with his later things of like, yeah, the normal part of life in Berkeley, California and oh, wait, I'm getting something beamed into me from some strange satellite that has some connection with the no sticks. He despised how people put down science fiction as a genre. He really felt it was true literature as I do first and that makes sense. So anyway, we've gone very far. I want to go back to it.

Before we go back, I just got to ask Lothar this because I know he'll love you. So you speak in of Ursula McQueen who had love in the earth, see books and all that. Has anyone ever made those into a audio drama? The earth see all those. I don't think so. I know there's audio books, but I don't actually like. Yeah, I think they have. There's some film adaptations of Lathof heaven, which is one of her sci-fi novels. She might have done.

There might be a British version of the dispossessed as an audio drama series. So that sounds familiar to my brain. I saw an animated fears back and animated one of her see. I think Pierce Brosnan was one of the voices. It's actually really good. I really should really enjoyed it. Yeah, the RC series is really good. At least the first three. I know there's a couple more she wrote later. Yeah, Jans Radham and she liked them, but she says they're a little different.

They kind of go in a different direction, but original trilogy. I really liked it and I think is underrated for adults as well people. Oh, it's juvenile. It's just kids fantasy. There's some actually deep philosophical thought in there. For sure. A lot of good. You brought that up in there because I find that I still at my age, I can still enjoy a really well written young adult book. I'm trying to think of one I've read not too long ago.

So I think that if you discount, especially young adult fiction, I think you're doing yourself but disservice potentially because there's some really good stuff that's in that young adult section. Yeah, I mean, I had my whole love of CS Lewis from that. Oh, God. Oh, I so anyway, back to back to poor flash. I wanted to ask what you thought of the sound effects side of things? Were you are the audio drama folks?

What did you think of how they did the sound and the way that they put the story together that way? Jeff, let's start with you. I thought the way they put the story together was quite good. It flowed. I enjoyed it. I could follow it. I was, you know, we talked about the missiles in the end where they kind of duped me. That was good. And, you know, the sound effects, they really don't leave an impression on me. So maybe I don't really know what to say about that, about the sound effects.

I think maybe I was too into the story and what they weren't really resonating with me. I think the sound effects for me at least, they didn't take away from the story. They added to the story really well. So like, you knew the sound effect after you heard it the first time of the door opening from the prison gate. You knew they were coming in. You knew the sound effects of the mole machine going through the lava, right? You could.

So it all added pictures into my head, but because the story was dialogue was just enough, the narration was just enough. I felt that it wasn't like overdone or underdone. It really helped paint it. What about you, little star? What do you think? I thought it was solid workmanship. It didn't impress me artistically in some way. There's certain times where people will use the sound effects where it almost feels like it is aiding the plot in a way that language can be.

And that's the time where I go, wow, that was really done really well. And it's not necessary, especially for something like this. It was solid sound effects. They were good. It was didn't blow me away, but it certainly did what it was meant to do for what it was there to accomplish. So. Oh, it's just straight forward storytelling sound effect for that reason. Yeah, absolutely.

I couldn't find who did the music, and I really wanted to know because the music really got me going every time I would hear it. And it was almost stock in some ways because it didn't change like it wasn't the suite of stuff. It just sort of came in at various different times and had this really like. Element to there was this two different kind of elements, but it reminded me a little bit of there was some Italian cop TV shows that have a certain type of soundtrack.

You can actually track down CDs that were sold to English speaking audiences of like Italian cop show theme music. And you've got 90 minutes of you know a double album on CD produced in the late 90s for this stuff for early 2000s. And it reminded me of that sort of thing. So there was like it still went on beyond the 60s, but it just had that sort of like big bombastic. You know, theme music sound. And no, it's not going to have a full orchestral progression.

It's like, yeah, we're doing this for 30 seconds to three minutes, and that's it. Wow. That's cool. I didn't know that about the Italian car show that that's really cool. But I have to think there wasn't a huge budget for this thing. Right. And so probably it was all just stock stuff, you know. And I don't mean that as a slight because I thought it was fantastic. But you know, they, you know, so they're just probably using whatever they can get their hands on in terms of at the time.

You've probably spent some of the budget on the artwork on the album because boy, that's beautiful. That's kind of cool. I love it. There is a lot to it. When you really look at it and there's a whole section on the back of the album where like a square where they actually tell you about Buster Krabs. So I'm sure that was part of it as well. Like just a big. Yeah, you can find it. Like I found it when I was doing research. I found some of them for sale out there. So I haven't seen yet.

You could see the front and the back, you know, and. And so I was reading. I was reading it. I was looking at the cover and I was like, this is really cool. You know, and it just reminds me of that, you know, that old time comic book art type thing in the black lines. And it was just really well done. It was really fun. Fun to listen to. Yeah, it was fun. I think that the actor George O. Petri, he was probably used for a lot of different voices because he was very famous in radio drama as well.

He played a lot of stuff that I didn't, I don't know, Charlie Wilde, private detective. Call the police I've heard of before, but I've never listened to, but I have heard the adventures of the Falcon, which is another big series that he was in for that reason. So that was very cool. And apparently in when it comes to film stuff, he was been movies such as baby boom. If you remember that in 80s. Yeah. And the very famous planes trains and automobiles. And I love that movie.

So, so that's that's what I can say about him, the other person I wanted to mention just very briefly was. Corinne or and like I said, she's sort of the bit of a Canadian connection there as well, who and she started working at the CBC worked in mountain playhouse in Montreal and crest theater in Toronto. So she done, done a lot of work in the CBC and various different shows. She worked at CBS Radio Mystery Theater programs. Nice. And she was a huge thing.

She even showed up for the PBS series reading Rainbow Years later, kind of thing. So, but we know we're from cartoon adventures, sort of the adventures of the Galaxy Ragers, Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, which I'm not familiar with. But her most famous role is 1960s anime speed racer, where she plays the girlfriend, Trixie. Trixie. Oh, wow. No kidding. I'm better than playing Chim Chim. That's for sure.

I remember with the back in the day when you had like three channels and PBS and if you parents bought you the UHF antenna, you'd get three more channels around what I was. Here in Massachusetts, Channel 56 out of Boston used to have like speed racer, Kimber the white line. And I remember watching speed racer and it was a speed racer where they had the mouths that moved or I think it was. No, that was that was clutch cargo. Oh, okay. With the kind of weird mouth thing that was happening.

Like that and I was going, wow. You know, I don't know if that's anime or pre-anime or where that was just crappy American animation. Is that what that was? There was nothing Japanese about clutch cargo. I have never seen clutch cargo. It's really hard. They animate and they're not even really anime. They're more like still like cell images and then they've superimposed to where basically a human mouth is where it is and it's a human mouth talking in live film.

Superimposed into a into the weird animation. It's very uncanny valley and a bit disturbing. But I do remember watching the flash Gordon cartoon, which I thought was pretty decent. Right. Of course we haven't mentioned Lothar is waiting for you to mention it. You know, Freddie Mercury. Oh, flash. That was a great film. Yeah. Flash, flash, I love you. But we only have 17 hours to save the earth. That's right. And the actor who played him, I forget his name now. Does anyone remember his name?

Who played that flash? Nope. I mean, he still goes around. So I love the movies as flash. I think the movie Ted brought him back into people's consciousness. So you know what the one that Seth McFarland did with the fluffy bear that comes alive. Yeah. Yeah, they actually brought him in and he talked and we're like, you're flash Gordon. And they had a so kids kids younger than 10 years ago knew who flash Gordon was because of the Ted movie.

So that was the best part of that as far as I'm concerned. A little quick thing on Rita Lloyd, who I think I think was probably Dale Arden. She's not, I couldn't find much for her even on IMDB. She was famous for guiding light as the world turns and loving. So she got most of her work done through soap operas from what I could tell from that. So yeah, there we go. Yeah. It's so little even when we talk about, like I said, Ronald Liss as Robin. I tried to find anything he'd written.

Otherwise, not even AI could help me out with that. No idea of anything that he's written since then or before. Fascinating because it was like for a kid's stuff that was really well done. That's a story. I think anyway for sure. No, I thought so. I mean, they did two basically 15 minute, you know, a little bit longer story. And you know, the first one was a little bit longer the second. But you know, it was like that was really tight plotting for again for a kid's audience.

It's like they weren't trying to bring in tons of subtext or theme or whatever. They're just telling a good story and they did a great job. It was a little full of offering. Thank you so much for bringing it Jack because we got to explore a little bit of your childhood. I know. I still have that picture a little Jack was sitting around. I'm literally lying on the couch because we had like a little music room. And we had this little treasure chest that or it's not a treasure chest,

but I thought it was a treasure chest. It's like a semen's chest that would open up. And my parents put the stereo, the record player in it with all the records. I have it now still, of course, my I keep everything my parents throw. And so I've cleaned it up and I and I have all my video game stuff in there. And so I would lie on the couch opposite of that in this little eight by eight music room. And replay the same records over and over and over again.

God bless my mom because of because the kitchen was right next door. And I'm sure she was tired of hearing the same stuff over and later on the same meal young and hairy Chafen and Simon Garfunkel albums that I would play on a regular basis. I'm the second. Well, I think that's I think we covered the intro at least flash Gordon. Unless there's something else you guys want to talk about when it comes to this. They're very straightforward.

Yeah, I would encourage people to go and put on internet archive. It's even on my listen to it on Spotify, the original, you know, Gail Gordon, flash Gordon, cereals on radio. You know, I would it's a little different feel to it, but it's it's worth listening to. And there's two, three seasons of it, maybe. Yeah. Same thing, 15 minute, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, I think on some of them.

And but it's worth listening to and you get all the characters like the hot man and in all of the you know, those people that were cool that I thought were cool in the cartoon when I was watching the cartoons. You know, the hot men dudes flying in and so I would encourage people to go out and to listen to those and to well, I hope I hope I get to book Rogers too. Yeah, you know, listen to the old book Rogers. I don't know how many of them are still around, but.

There's a fair amount which is good. Yeah, online. There's a fair amount. Not as many as flash or no, sorry, I'm thinking of Superman. I think they're probably about the same amount you can find. And if you want to go for a deep comedic cut, you can always go to the adventures of Flash Gordon. And that's Tom Conkel and Pete Lutz comes in and plays in a bunch of those.

So it's a bunch of those and they take the original scripts and then they throw in all the dirty new endos that are involved and riff a little more off of that. And they're kind of fun to do as well. And those are like actual Hollywood actors getting in and to do it and having fun over. It started during the COVID times, so that's fun. What about you, Lutz? Really liked the show. I would love to see what else comes up when we have more space opera, whether it be Buck Rogers or other stuff.

And I know that we're going to be moving into some social speculation with Jeff next month, right? Yeah. Have you picked something yet? Are you still in the middle of deciding? Well, I was in the middle of deciding, but I'm definitely going to do Fahrenheit 451. Just because it meant so much to me and I think it was so precious and you know where nobody reads and everyone has the big screen. And you've directed it on stage. Twice, yeah. Wonderful. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah. I did the sound design for one. Yes, he did. Well, if I did the sound design for the second one, it was so cool that people were like getting blown out of their seats because I had it. It was pouring away up and it was keeping people's. I'm wearing the sweat shirt. You said me for doing that. Wow. I'm part of the drama club. I think he's got this sound design. Is this what you mean before I knew you guys? No, no, no, this is after this is after Bill. Yeah, you know about it.

You just I just. It's my brain. It's my brain. I was a 2017, 2018 somewhere there. Yeah, it's right before I retired. Yeah, it's like, yeah, you came up and you said, you know, Bill used to do this for me, but would you be willing to now? I'm like, of course I would. Yeah, I used to call Bill and go, Hey, I need some sound effects. All right, miss. I'm the list. I was like that, you know, and he'd send me a million sound effects.

And I was thinking about him because I was going through the sound effects for a C-shoe. Thanks for agreeing to be in that, by the way. That would be awesome. You know, I was pulling all bills, all the sound effects out and getting that all set up. And it's just was a lot of fun. Took me down memory lane. So I was listening to some OTR swag cast this morning. Nice. I just kind of randomly came up and so I guess it's probably not that random. Seven victim came up. Nice. Oh, nice.

You know, I can hear, I can hear Bill, you know, yeah, man, it's Groovy, seven victim. Both are his wife, Jan, man, played the lead dude and even Jack Ward of the Sonics Society. You know, it was so much fun to hear that again after so many years. We used to talk about power records a lot too, Bill. Yeah, Bill loved power records, power records for the same three. Yeah, always used to send the bills, links out his links. It was always power records stuff.

A lot of Doctor Who and in that was big finish probably, but his power records and, you know, he loves sending that stuff out. There's a very particular series that I can't remember what it's called, that it was British series in science fiction that he loved. And I want to find it for our series, but he sent it several times. So I don't know if you guys remember that. Really good. Do you remember stuff?

Do you remember what the basic, um, it was, I think they were, it's been so long since I've heard it, but I think it had to do with like first contact of some sort. Like first contact with an extra terrestrial? Yeah, I think it's an alien first contact that was going on and they were trying to make it to like Mars or something and they were all sorts of problems on the ship. It was really well done too. I'm gonna have to go back. Look for it.

I've listened to some of those BBC ones and I think they're excellent. Absolutely done. Really good stuff. I just really good stuff. And there's three, I can't remember their names, but there's three main ones I remember listening to and I don't know if it was one of those, but. Yeah. Go back to your office. I have a million bill email still on my system. So maybe I'll look back. He'll have sent it to you four or five times. It's a typical bill we have doing stuff.

I don't know if we sent you this before, but. Yeah, you sent it to me last week and the week before that too. That's right. Well, it's not a beginning of a season until we evoke Bill's name. So I appreciate that too as well. Thanks everybody. It's official. Thank you for the sci-fi. I'm gonna throw on on the back just because, and I don't do this forever, but I wrote a song for BusterCrab. Oh, no. I sent you all my music. So you guys have it's called hearing gone. It's called hearing gone.

So I'll throw that at the end of the credits. You can skip it if you want folks or you can listen to it all you want, but it's all about BusterCrab. There you go. Jack's a great folk musician and a great songwriter. I think in some ways. That's actually one of the things you do best. Well, it's funny. I saw my first girlfriend years ago before I met my current wife and previous relationships. We had a beautiful afternoon on the canoe at my parents' cabin or house a while back.

And when she found out I stopped performing, she was visibly shaken. It really shook her up. And she's a painter and continued painting. I think I heard her. When I told her I stopped performing for people and so I've written songs for a long time. I'll never forget that look on her face. I don't want to see that on anybody's face again. I'm going to keep doing stuff as much as I can. Thank you again so much. You can go out in your new town. You can go out in Busk and your new town.

That's down the main street. Everybody will see me since it's one street. All four people. And the pet beaver of the town. I just want to throw that back. I didn't know. And it's all that. You got your beaver and your maple pruer. This is joyous. I hope we can do this in a couple of weeks again and keep them a moment. Absolutely. Thank you so much brother Lothar. Thanks for coming in. My pleasure. This is a blast. Thank you so much. Jeff, it's great to see you again. Oh yes, this is delightful.

Have a great day folks. Take care. Adios. This has been an electric Vaikuna production. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.