The basic story follows Flash and his companions as they travel to Mongo, where they are forced into battle by its ruler, Ming the Merciless, his daughter Princess Aura, and his army of Metal Men.

In the opening scenes, after being captured by Ming's Gill Men, Gordon, Arden, and Zarkov meet King Thun the Lion-man and Prince Barin of the forest-kingdom of Arboria.

The remainder of the first season consists of the adventures of Gordon and company across the face of Mongo, in traditional pulp style passing from one near-death situation to another.

Flash later gains the aid of King Vultan, ruler of the Hawkmen, and the bandit chieftain Gundar, the Desert Hawk, as friends and allies.

Vast forests give Prince Barin's realm of Arboria its name, and there are deep and shallow oceans inhabited by many life forms.

Mongo is home to a variety of races of sapient life, though the most common breed appears, at least on the surface, to be classic Homo sapiens.

At the very least, it is known that the people of Coralia adapted themselves artificially to underwater existence, and in fact retain the technology to transform air breathers such as Flash and Dale and Hans into water-breathers, and back again.

Cruel, cold, arrogant, avaricious, ruthless, and Machiavellian, Ming is the epitome of the tyrant, yet he is brilliant, referred to by some as the greatest scientist in the universe, and politically and diplomatically capable.

His personal race is unclear, his ears are pointed, his teeth seem fanged, his frame oddly thin yet very strong and claims to be immortal, with some supporting evidence.

His sexual tastes seem varied, to judge by the various types of female we see in glimpses of his harem, but he seems to find Dale Arden particularly attractive, and his daughter Aura seems to be a Homo sapiens, so presumably Ming is not very alien.

The second season was not so well received (and was not seen in some areas, due to being scheduled at 12:30 pm Eastern/11:30 am Central and thus often competing with sports coverage) and the program was canceled shortly after its completion.

[6] Delta Home Entertainment in the UK on Region 2 DVD on August 15, 2005, released a 3-disc set of the complete series to "The New Adventures Of Flash Gordon".

[8] In 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released a 2-disc set of the first 14 episodes of season 1 titled: "The Adventures of Flash Gordon" with no additional special features.