Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate; Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician — battling the villain Ming the Merciless in the year 2015. Supporting characters include their children Rick Gordon, Jedda Walker (daughter of The Phantom), Kshin (adopted son of Mandrake), Mandrake's assistant Lothar, and Lothar's son L.J.
Defenders of the Earth was directed by Bill Hutton and produced by David J. Corbett. The music & theme were created by Rob Welsh and Tony Pastor, with the lyrics written by Stan Lee (Spiderman creator). The show lasted for 65 episodes.
Plot
The planet Mongo is dying, so Ming the Merciless chooses Earth to be his next home, and to enslave its people. Flash Gordon heads to Earth to warn everyone of this new threat, but just as he arrives his spacecraft is shot down by Ming’s Ice Robots. Luckily he crashed near the home of Mandrake, who rescues Flash from the burning remains of his craft and hypnotises the Ice Robots into thinking that Flash has taken off in his spacecraft.
Flash tells Mandrake and his friend Lothar about the impending invasion and that Ming has kidnapped his son (Rick) and his wife (Dale). Mandrake and Lothar offer to help rescue Flash’s family, by returning to Ming’s home planet of Mongo. During the rescue attempt, Dale was killed by Ming, who escaped to Earth, where he would co- ordinate his plans to take over the Earth.
A new organisation was setup to stop this from happening - The Defenders of the Earth. This consisted of Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, Lothar and their children. A new base was built, called Monitor, which was housed inside of a volcano and used geothermal power to run it. Monitor also housed a Super Computer called Dynak X.
Cast
Flash Gordon (voiced by Lou Richards)
Hero on Earth, who battles against Ming the Merciless to save the planet. Flash is a fantastic pilot who flies into battle even when outnumbered. He was devastated by the death of his wife at the hands of Ming, and has vowed to stop Ming at any cost.
Mandrake (voiced by Peter Renaday)
A famous magician who appears on television. He is the master of magic and illusion, and can hypnotises people into imagining things are really there, when they aren't. Mandrake can also detect the presence of evil.
The 27th Phantom (voiced by Peter Mark Richman)
Known as 'The Lord of the Jungle' or 'The Ghost that Walks'. He is very agile and can call on the power of 10 tigers when needed. His real name is Kit Walker. He used to live in Skull Cave, which was located deep in the African jungle, until he was asked to help Flash track down Ming. The Phantom saw that Ming was a threat to all the inhabitants of Earth, so agreed to become one of the founders of The Defenders of the Earth (much to the annoyance of his daughter Jedda). Because of this new responsibility he has had to move from Skull Cave to the Headquarters of The Defenders of the Earth (Monitor).
Lothar (voiced by Buster Jones)
A strong man, but became stronger when Rick Gordon created him some electronic bracelets. Since receiving them, he can shoot energy bolts from his hands and create energy fields. He is good at fixing things and has a knowledge of astro-mechanics.
Ming the Merciless (voiced by Ron Feinberg / William Callaway)
A Dictator and ruler of galaxies. His home planet Mongo is dying because of the lack of natural resources, so he has decided that Earth will be his new home planet and that he will invade it and enslave the planet's population. He has a pet serpent called Mongor, who he like to set loose on people. Ming commands an army of Ice Robots to enforce his rule throughout the galaxy. On Earth he decides that he will setup base in the Arctic, where conditions are favourable for his Ice Robots. Ming is constantly trying to destroy the Headquarters of the Defenders of the Earth (Monitor). He keeps coming close, just not close enough.
Rick Gordon (voiced by Loren Lester)
Son of Flash Gordon. It was Rick who escaped on Mongo from Ming’s clutches and disrupted the Inquisitor’s process of draining his mother’s life force. But he was too late to save her. But he used the crystal that the Inquisitor created, which contained her essence, in the Super Computer that he designed and built (Dynak X). Maybe he was hoping his mother could live on? Dynak X became the first computer to have a personality, which would enable it to come the best.
Kshin (voiced by Adam Carl)
Adopted son of Mandrake and is currently studying at high school in Central City. He had some problems with bullies, but instead of defending himself he said that he couldn't fight them as the Defender of the Earth code of practice says he shouldn't fight. So instead he read Mandrake's magic books and brought a demon to life, called Shogoth, to teach the bullies a lesson. Of course once the demon taught the bullies a lesson it wanted to continue to do similar things, and ignored Kshin’s attempts to control it. Eventually Ming captured the demon to help him defeat the Defenders of the Earth, but didn't take into consideration that it wouldn't follow his orders and instead would cause chaos. It was Kshin that found the caves under Mandrake's mansion, which would later be used to house the HQ of The Defenders of the Earth (Monitor).
Jedda Walker (voiced by Sara Partridge)
Daughter of The Phantom. She has a bond with a black panther called Kisa and can talk to it telepathically. She learnt telepathy from the Bandar Tribe, and how to establish a link with Kisa and others. Ever since they moved to the Defenders of the Earth HQ (monitor) she has constantly been complaining. Jedda wants her father and herself to return to Skull Cave in Africa and to the humidity she was used to. Also she misses the excitement of the jungle. Only when a cave was discovered, in Monitor, that had 80% humidity was she happy, as they could create Skull Cave 2 there.
LJ (voiced by Dion Williams)
Lothar Junior, named after his father. He is friends with Rick Gordon and loves to put into practice his martial arts skills (especially if there are bad guys on the receiving end).
Zuffy
A Zuffiod who helped Rick to hide from Ming, on the Planet Mongo. When Flash came to rescue his wife from Ming's machine, The Inquisitor, it was destroyed. Luckily Zuffy rescued the crystal that had Dale's personality downloaded into it. It seems that Zuffy became more attached to Kshin, rather than Rick, and they became great friends.
Dale Gordon / Dynak X (voiced by Diane Pershing)
Wife of Flash Gordon, and the mother of Rick. She was captured, along with her son, by Ming, and used as bait to capture Flash Gordon. Ming tried to get her to tell him where Flash was hiding, or face the Inquisitor, a machine that drains the life force from a person into a crystal. She refused and so Ming let it loose on her, and she died during the process. The machine had downloaded the personality elements of Dale into a crystal (which even showed Rick which way to go, when trying to rescue his father and friends). This crystal was used to give Rick's supercomputer (Dynak X) a personality.
Ice Robots
They are Ming's army and are lead by Garak. They have 4 arms and are made out of Ice. They have the ability to fix themselves and have ice machines that are capable of building ice bridges instantly. Ming is always using them to try to destroy Monitor.
Krill
They are a race that have encountered Flash Gordon previously and have embraced him as a friend. They have promised to help Flash whenever they can, and even came to Earth to build the Defenders of the Earth HQ, Monitor, for him.
Spin-off
Comic books
- A short-lived comic book series published by "Star Comics" (an imprint of Marvel Comics).
Books
- In addition to the four-issue Marvel Comics miniseries, there have been books including:
Golden Books
- Root of Evil
- The Frozen Fiends
- The Deep Freeze
- Ming the Menace
- The Creation of Monitor,
- A House Divided,
Golden Super Adventure Book
Golden Story Book 'n' Tape
Theese two book also came out as audio books.
Figures
- A line of action figures produced by Galoob included Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Lothar, the Phantom, Ming and Garax.
Games
Computer game
- A PC video game was also made. It featured the various heroes from the series on a quest to defeat Ming.
Card game
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Note
As a marketing ploy, the Sunday strips of Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician all mentioned the Defenders of the Earth on the strip of September 28, 1986. This is the only appearance of the Phantom and Mandrake in the Flash Gordon newspaper strip, as well as the only appearance of Flash Gordon in the Phantom and Mandrake newspaper strips. Since the Defenders of the Earth storyline was out of continuity for all three newspaper strips, this sequence was shown as an alternate reality.