Science fiction's goofiest gadgets and technology By Brad Reed

Ah, Flash Gordon, the timeless story of a blonde-haired All-American dude who fights an interstellar war against a licentious racist caricature named Ming the Merciless. The cheesiness of Flash Gordon's technology literally spans decades, from the zombie-creating "Dehumanizer" Ray (which only works temporarily) in the 1930s serial films to the memory-sapping "brain drain" machine in the 1980 feature film (which doesn't work at all). The best gadget, however, has to be Ming's "power ring" that looks like an oversized mood ring and that has the power to both destroy planets and make unwitting Earth girls perform sexytime dances for his entertainment.