Gina Holden plays Dale Arden in the Sci Fi Channel’s reimagining of Flash Gordon, which has just arrived on DVD. She speaks to David Grove about her contemporary take on the character.

How would you describe your version of Dale Arden?

She’s very much a modern woman, which is to say that she’s balancing a career with her personal life, which is very complex on the show. Dale was in love with Flash Gordon, but they’ve been separated and now she’s with another man. But her feelings for Flash are still there, even though she tries to deny it.

I think on the show the more Dale and Flash argue, the more you can tell they’re in love with each other, although they have a warm relationship for the most part. She’s a very complex woman. She’s balancing a career, a love triangle, and she’s going on all of these strange adventures with Flash. She’s very smart and focused. She’s a great character to play.

Do you see your Dale Arden as being a lot stronger than previous versions of the character?

Definitely. In the movie and the serials she was your typical damsel in distress. She wasn’t that smart, she basically relied on her beauty, and anytime something scary happened, she would just faint. She was a simpleton. This Dale is much stronger. She’s not afraid of anyone, and she’s right there with Flash when he’s fighting Ming.

We joked on the set that a lot of the time it’s Dale who ends up saving Flash’s life instead of the other way around. She’s not a scared girl anymore. She’s tough on this show, and I’ve got to do a lot of stunts. I’ve been thrown against walls, that kind of stuff. Dale gets her hands dirty.

How would you describe Dale’s look?

She’s a career woman and she dresses that way when we’re on Earth, but I have a lot of different costumes on the show. When I’m on Mongo and Ming has me and he’s trying to win me over, seduce me, I wear this Asian-themed costume where I sort of look like a Lotus flower. That’s what Ming wants to see me in.

That’s ironic, because my career started in Canada when I was fifteen and I was signed by a Japanese talent agency. I went to Japan and worked for years there as a model, appearing in magazines and cosmetics ads, so I understand Asian culture very well. In fact, a lot of the fan mail I’ve been getting from Flash Gordon has been from Japan.

How would you sum up Dale’s relationship with Flash Gordon?

Complicated! They were sort of high school sweethearts and they haven’t seen each other for a long time until they’re thrust back together at the beginning of the series. They were in this small town, they had a sweet relationship, but she wanted to leave the small town and go to college and Flash wasn’t able to make a commitment to her.

Obviously, they still have feelings for each other and their relationship evolves as the series goes on. It’s obvious that he’s the love of Dale’s life, and it’s just a question of when they’ll get together. It’s hard because you want to maintain a sense of mystery in terms of their relationship, but you don’t want to drag it out so long and make the audience go “Okay, when are they finally going to get back together?”

What’s happening on the show is that their adventures are so wild they don’t really have time to talk a lot about their feelings for each other.

What’s been the biggest challenge for you on the show?

The biggest challenge for all of us is to avoid making the material seem like it’s campy or too silly. The way we avoid that is to approach the material really seriously. This is an action-adventure show so there’s going to be a lot of humour, but it’s not like the 1980 film.

There’s a subtle theme on the show about the way the environment is being damaged. Mongo is a planet that’s been completely destroyed because of the damage to its environment and the lack of water. Obviously there’s a parallel there between Mongo and our own world, but the show isn’t preachy at all.

We want to mix action with a lighthearted tone, much like they did on a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Finding a consistent tone has been the biggest challenge, and the other challenge for Eric Johnson and me was learning about the Flash Gordon legend, and reading up on the rich history of the characters. Eric and I both spent a lot of time on the internet.

Do you see Ming as being pure evil?

I would describe Ming as being ‘intelligent evil’ or ‘charming evil’. He’s very charismatic, and I think John Ralston found the perfect tone, because his Ming is a million miles from your stereotypical Asian-influenced villainous Ming character.

He’s not just an old despot anymore. This Ming has a lot more dimensions. Ming rules his planet by fear, by his reputation, so he doesn’t have to resort to violence a lot of times because everyone is so scared of him to begin with that they just give in. It’s tough for Dale and Flash because they’re trying to overthrow Ming but at the same time they’re trying to rescue Flash’s dad, so Ming sort of holds that power over them.

What’s been your favorite episode?

We did an episode called Ascension, which was really wild. This is the episode where Flash meets these bird people called Dactyls who are Hawkmen. Ming sends them through the space rift and they’re hunters who take this kid and are going to eat him. Me and Flash have to save this kid with all of these Dactyls flying around. That was a lot of fun because I’d never been surrounded by Dactyls before!

Flash Gordon: The Complete Season 1 is out now on region 2 DVD.