The producers of the first Flash Gordon series rang up such a profit from its comic strip space age hero, they decided to create a follow-up serial, March 1938's "Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars." Universal Pictures, Flash Gordon's distributor, saw its original 1936's series on the space traveler as one of cinema's more profitable cliff-hangers. Its 13 chapters were inexpensive to produce, captivating viewers by the series' believable characters and situations. The studio decided to launch a second series based on Alex Raymond's 1936 book 'Flash Gordon and the Witch Queen of Mongo.' The first episode of "Trip To Mars" was Chapter One: 'New Worlds to Conquer.' Flash Gordon and his crew members return to earth after their adventures on the planet Mongo, which saw them battling its emperor Ming the Merciless. Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) and Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) enjoy a massive New York City ticker tape parade in their honor before they're sent back on their space ship to investigate the origins of a death ray aimed at destroying earth. Accompanying the trio is wisecracking reporter Happy Hapgood (Donald Kerr), who accidentally finds himself on board. Following the beam originating from the planet Mongo, the earthlings find Ming (Charles Middleton) hasn't died after all, as the first series' conclusion implies. Ming has teamed up with Azura (Beatrice Roberts), the Witch Queen of Mars, to construct and operate a huge Nitron ray designed to end earth's existence. Among Azura's evil act is her uncanny ability to reconstitute her subjects into living clay people forced to live in dark caves.
Unlike the first 'Flash Gordon" serial, "Trip to Mars" doesn't contain the vast array of colorful characters. Critic Jeff Blake noted, "Its focused plot line surpasses the episodic story of the earlier serial. 'Trip to Mars'' script wisely spreads its plot developments over the course of the serial, instead of introducing all its ideas in the first chapter and letting them tread water until the final one." Blake complements Buster Crabbe's role as the serial hero, describing Flash "is just as tough, chipper, athletic, and likable as in the first serial-and a good deal more wise and resourceful than before, improvising strategy and coming up with plans in tough situations instead of just trying to batter his way out."
"Trip to Mars" consisted of fifteen 20-minutes long episodes, each ending in a cliff hanger. Such suspense forced viewers to return to the theaters the following week to find out if Gordon and company lived to see another day. As soon as the weekly series wrapped up in October, 1938, Orson Welles delivered his hysterical 'War of the World's' radio broadcast. Universal quickly edited the Flash Gordon chapters into an hour 40 minute feature film called "Mars Attacks The World," released a week after the Welles' broadcast in early November 1938. The feature film was a big hit with Flash Gordon fans and non-fans alike, who were suddenly caught up in the Martian frenzy. This assured a third series was a guarantee, which resulted in 1940's 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.'
