The latest incarnation of Flash Gordon sees Emperor Ming assisted by a Deviate – his sometimes-obsequious, sometimes-scornful aide, Rankol. British-born actor Jonathan Lloyd Walker has been a science fiction fan since childhood, and as well as appearing in numerous series, has contributed scripts to such shows as The Outer Limits. During a visit to London, he told Paul Simpson about his experiences on Mongo...

How did you hear about the new Flash Gordon?

I was in LA and my agent said they were casting Flash Gordon, shooting in Vancouver. Originally, I read for Zarkov; the producers really liked what I did but they had a more comedic idea for Zarkov, so they asked me to read for Rankol. My agent sent me the description of the character, and he sounded really interesting.

What did they tell you about him?

They didn't give me a whole lot at first. They gave me a two page description of Rankol and his back-story, why he is physically how he is, what role he plays in Ming's court, and some hint of where the character might be headed.

For the audition, they gave me the scene from the pilot in which I torture Flash, and the first time Dale and Flash get brought in to meet Ming. I liked the sense that there was a lot of subtext as to what Rankol was all about. He wasn't being very clear in his answers – they were layered with a bit of metaphor and a bit of mystery. I thought that if I got to play that in the character, it'd be interesting.

Had they worked out Rankol's relationship with Ming, or was that an organic process during the first season?

A bit of both. As originally conceived they had some idea of how Rankol may have his own ideas about things and may not be as loyal and as faithful to Ming as first seems to be the case. However, I also believe that they had thought about Rankol only being in the first six or seven episodes and then killing him off. But I know that once we got into making the show, they thought he was a really interesting character. They were happy with what I was doing, and they thought there was room to let this character grow. That's when it really began to spin up in terms of figuring out more layers and more intrigue for him.

Did you get much input into his journey?

A certain amount. [Executive producer] Peter Hume is a very crafty writer and definitely came up with a lot of this stuff himself; I had a very good relationship with him throughout the season. If I had thoughts or ideas I would call him up or email him and I was quite happy that a number of them were incorporated. I don't want to take credit for too much, because I believe Peter did a fantastic job.

How did your relationship work with John Ralston as Ming?

I think it evolved. As it began, John and I got along well and had a good rapport. At the outset, as written, Rankol was just subservient to Ming, so it was easy to set that relationship up. As it fleshed itself out and became more layered, the dynamic shifted. I also believe John came to find the character. By his own admission, he was hired very late in the process. Having no reference for Flash Gordon prior to that, he tried to find the character. I think the writing started to change to reflect some of the things that he was bringing to the table. Not only does Rankol change as the season goes along, I believe Ming does as well.

Is Rankol a character you can see a lot more scope in?

Absolutely. I think that there are some very interesting places that Rankol can go. The logical thing would be to really play out the idea of what he might do if he assumed control himself. As the season goes along, you get the sense that he does lose faith in Ming and does get [disenchanted] with this person who he thinks is really losing the plot and thinks about the options if they were to get rid of him.

I would love to also see them delve into a bit of back-story. It's all very well that Rankol is where he is, but how did somebody who is part of this shunned underclass of Deviates get to where he is?

How is Rankol's gliding effect achieved?

If you had a magician on the phone, would you ask, "I love that trick where you saw the lady in half – how do you do that?" He would be unwilling to reveal the secret. I'm happy for people to speculate! I think it would diminish the effect of it, revealing it. But I would love there to be a couple of scenes out of his means of locomotion. Wouldn't it be great if we had a scene where we see Rankol out of it, and see him get in and have to regain his composure? It would be a fun thing to play.

Has the concept design you reprinted on your blog (blog.scifi.com/flashgordon), showing Rankol with a flipper, been realised on screen?

Not really. There was some attempt to do it with the pilot – the torture scene ends with Aura coming in and shooting Rankol to the ground and rescuing Flash from this torture device. Originally there was a scene, which we shot, of Ming coming in and finding Rankol lying on the ground, out of the device, with his deformed appendages very visible. I think that it visually didn’t work and they decided to cut around it a little bit. I think some of the audience got a glimpse of it, and there's an understanding that there are deformities underneath.

Were you aware of the back-story?

I didn't know a whole lot about Flash Gordon. As a kid, I'd seen the 1980 movie and didn't really like it very much. I told my agent that if it was going to be like that I didn't want to do it. They told me that wasn't what they planned and the more I looked at it and saw the different ways that Flash Gordon had been realised, from Buster Crabbe to the Filmation version... they've all been unique in their own way. Here's a chance to take this interesting sci-fi cornerstone and take it in a new direction.

What sets Flash Gordon apart from other sci-fi shows?

As the season goes along, there are some really interesting character dimensions that creep in about this world of Mongo that reflect very heavily on modern-day society. We're a resource-based economy. Water is one of those commodities that we don't realise is dwindling, and the wonderful thing about science fiction is you can sometimes take a contemporary issue that hasn't become front-burner and discuss it in a way that foreshadows something that could happen if we're not more careful.

I think we turn on the taps sometimes and think it's an innate right to have clean drinkable water. Even today in most of the world, that's not a given. This show allows us to look at some interesting things in a fun science fiction way.

Flash Gordon is currently airing on the Sci Fi Channel UK.