"He floats in a suspensor ring"...That was how Rankol's strange form of locomotion was described to me back when I was first cast in the role. "Why is that?" I asked. And the answer was part of the reason I chose to take on this great and mysterious character.

Hello. I'm Jonathan Lloyd Walker and SciFi have asked me to post from the set of "Flash Gordon" with some tidbits and anecdotes that I hope peek your interest. Since this is the beginning of my blog it felt appropriate to actually write about the beginning of my relationship with this character and how I've chosen to play him.

As you may have read from the character description on this site Rankol is a deviate. What exactly is a deviate? Well it turns out that the water on Mongo is tainted...it's mostly turned into something called "grey water". The stuff is so toxic that those who drink it can develop horrible physical, mental deformities. You may remember the grotesque figure that Flash and Dale get imprisoned with in the first episode. He, like Rankol, suffers from these deviate deformities as do a whole host of other unfortunate outcasts that are forced to live in exile in the Banelands. Since the pilot showed only a brief glimpse of what lies beneath Rankol's robe I thought I'd share with you a pre-production sketch of the character and the rig he uses to travel around. As you can see in the image Rankol has one shrunken leg (called the "baby leg" by most of the cast and crew). His other limb is ostensibly a large marine mammal-like flipper. This is why Aura referred to Rankol as "flipper foot" in the episode "Ascension". Essentially Rankol cannot stand or move by himself. Ingeniously he built a device that can elevate him vertically and allow him to float around through mind control alone. It's a very cool concept and one I think the effects team have done a great job executing.

Rankol also has a metal fitting bonded to his head through which part of his brain is visible. This is also one of Rankol's deformities, a brain abnormality that has to literally be held inside his skull by a bolted plate. This encumbrance in particular causes Rankol a great deal of pain that he manages through meditation and by remaining as calm and unemotional as possible. I made this physical choice in the performance as it seemed logical that a man so horribly afflicted would have to manage his pain quite carefully. I drew from the experiences of an old friend who suffers from terrible migraines and needs, most of the time, to remain calm in order to deal with the pressure and discomfort. This is why Rankol frequently speaks with such a measured and restrained tone...he's literally trying to keep the pain from overwhelming him.

What I can tell you about the episodes yet to come is that Rankol has a lot more going on than you might suspect. Although Ming's subordinate, and lucky to be in such a position in light of his abnormalities, he's a man with his own ideas and agendas. I think you'll see a very different side to Rankol in the coming weeks and I for one am very excited that I've been given the opportunity to dig deeper into his mysterious ulterior motives.

Well that's all for now. I'll be back soon with more. Thanks for tuning in!