Defenders of the Earth The year was 2015 and this was when 2015 was some thirty years away. The Earth was under constant attack and this was where the Defenders of the Earth came in. The Defenders of the Earth were comprised of: Flash Gordon; Phantom; Lothar, who was the strong one; Mandrake, the magician; Rick, who was Flash Gordon's son; Jedda, who was Phantom's daughter; LJ, who was Lothar's son; Kshin, an orphan, with his pet alien Zuffy and Ming the Merciless. Basically, they succeeded in defending the Earth, even though they seemed to spend most of their time standing around talking, as opposed to making a visible effort to defend the Earth. Britain imported this cartoon from the USA in about 1988. Each episode lasted approximately 25 minutes. It was a very popular cartoon and much merchandise was available. KIDS' PROGRAMMES OF THE 1980S PAGE