The canister of chemicals which so cruelly exploded at the end of last week’s enthralling chapter has rendered our two heroes unconscious.

"You’ve troubled us for the last time" says an over-confident guard after examining the bodies. He switches on the telecaster to report success to Ming.

But wait! Flash lives.

And plays dead.

Ming and Azura are delighted. They declare their intention to visit the corpses immediately and laugh at them. I’ve added the last bit but I would expect them to cackle in an evil way, if only a little bit.

Flash stops playing dead and a fight breaks out.

Zarkov gets his gun and they demand to know where the antidote to Dale’s spell is.

The guard gives in and tells Flash it is on the bench behind him. Flash picks up a test tube and Zarkov, trained scientist, can do a full bio-chemical analysis just by looking at it. It is indeed the antidote. Dale will be back to normal in no time. Will anyone notice the difference?

They make their way to the palace to rescue Dale but find Azura and Ming coming the other way with their posse.

They hide.

Ming explains his plan to Azura and obviously hasn’t noticed how badly it failed.

Flash and co creep into Azura’s palace.

Flash knocks out a guard. Just for fun I think.

Flash finds Dale looking helpless and vacant.

He offers her a joint the antidote and she begins to stir.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Azura has concluded that Ming’s plan has failed.

Azura readies her sapphire and pops back to her palace as if by… oh.

Ming on the other hand has to walk.

Dale has recovered. She recognises Flash and wants to get away from the palace.

Azura’s magic seems to have landed her in a cupboard by mistake. How very Rentaghost.

She spots Flash and has another go.

She reappears behind Flash. Is it me or is that arm chair giving her a funny look?

Flash and Azura flirt for a few moments.

Ming orders the guards to execute Flash but Azura intercedes.

She says she has other plans for Flash Gordon. Zarkov and Dale are appalled.

Azura says she will protect Flash with all the magic at her command. Ming replies that he holds the black sapphire and that means her magic is useless. Azura is appalled. Way to ruin your alliance Ming. You and Judy have one tiny little tiff and you pull out your black sapphire. I think we now know why Ming has to resort to kidnapping, torture and spells to get himself a girlfriend.

Ming the Moron gestures with the hand holding the box and takes his eyes of Flash Gordon. It’s all fine and large to make speeches about how powerful you are but if you’re also a dope they don’t carry much weight. A fight breaks out.

Now Flash has the black sapphire, a gun and he seems to have won Azura over to the babyface team.

Ming goes outside to feel sorry for himself.

The gang go across the light bridge bound for the Clay People.

Ming suddenly jumps from the light bridge and flies down to the ground.

"He has on a bat wing suit" says Flash. I bet Buster’s eyes rolled when he saw that in the script.

They leave in Azura’s personal rocket ship. The train would’ve been quicker. I wouldn’t mind sharing an intimate compartment with Azura.

Ming orders the cream of Azura’s soldiers to fly after them and shoot down her rocket ship.

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about these two. They spot Azura’s rocket ship and decide to run for it.

Flash has written a note and placed it in one of those winged helmets. He drops it out of a window because obviously anyone on the ground would assume a bomber was dropping a note rather than, say, a bomb.

When the helmet doesn’t go off, Happy and Barin decide it must be safe. They read the note, wave to Flash and agree to follow in Barin’s rocket ship.

But wait! Here come the bad guys.

They drop a bomb on Happy and Barin and are surprisingly successful for so inept a race.

Azura seems strangely happy that her bombers are in hot pursuit. A couple of minutes ago she seemed to be on Flash’s side. Women. It’s true what they say - you can’t trust the evil ones.

Azura tells Flash that if he gives her the black sapphire and surrenders she might be lenient with him. She’s just a generic brunette if she’s lenient – I want her feisty and domineering. We – I meant we, the audience, want her feisty and domineering. We not I. This is an objective report.

The bombers start dropping their bombs. This one nearly hits Azura. Maybe she’ll get the message that Ming has betrayed her soon.

Azura makes a run for it.

Flash follows her in a foolish attempt to save her evil life.

A bomb goes off, killing him instantly.

Only a miracle could save him. Hmm…