By David Weiner In the wake of STAR WARS back in 1977, I was ravenous for any similar excitement available on the big screen that had even the most basic similar elements of my new favorite film — as long as it had outer-space adventures, laser battles, Imperial-style regimes, spaceships, aliens, and rebellious heroes battling larger-than-life villains, I was good to go. When my dad was a kid (he was born in the ’30s), his STAR WARS was FLASH GORDON.