When thinking of geek cartoons to cover for this series of articles, Defenders Of The Earth came very high on my list. Shown on Saturday mornings throughout my 80s childhood, it ticked all the boxes. Lots of action-packed sequences; plenty of plucky superheroes with varied superpowers, giving you the opportunity to pick who you most aspired to be like; a truly powerful and very camp villain; and a strong, good vs. evil backbone to each week's story.

The best way to explain the central premise of Defenders Of The Earth is to listen to the theme tune, for the genius of the title sequence lies in its lyrics. The tune itself is fantastic but those lyrics, written by Stan Lee, describe everything you need to know about the show in a little over a minute. It's a masterclass in how to set a series up and represents, for me, the pinnacle of the cartoon title sequence. 

See what I mean? So from that sequence alone, we know that the Defenders Of The Earth are made up of Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and Lothar. We know that the villain of the piece is Ming The Merciless.

And we also know that the Defenders are helped out for four young scamps, and the obligatory annoying creature. The more I write these articles, the more I realise that certain fundamental truths are at the heart of many of the greatest cartoons.

Fundamental truth no.1 - There will be at least one young character to appeal to younger viewers. Younger viewers would love to be part of these animated shows so including characters they can relate to is a must.

Fundamental truth no.2 - There will be a cute/annoying/plain odd creature or pet which gets into scrapes/provides comedy/saves the day.

Fundamental truth no.3 - In any group of heroes, one will stand out as the one nobody wants to be.

In the case of Defenders Of The Earth this honour falls to Flash Gordon. The leader of the group and the man with the biggest beef with Ming (plus the only character to actually face Ming outside of the cartoon's universe), Flash was also easily the dullest leader. For starters, he's too all-American, too goody-goody to be a character you really want to be. He's also has no powers or anything unique about his person to speak of, other than superbly coiffed hair and, of course, a bloody brilliant aircraft.

The other three, on the other hand, are very distinctive. Lothar is amazingly strong. His partner, The Phantom, wears a purple jumpsuit ala Flashdance while Mandrake... well, Mandrake is just solid gold. Easily the coolest of the bunch, he's even handed the best line of the title sequence with all that crazy wailing.

Each of the characters had actually appeared previously in the comic books series from King Comics in the 60s. Mandrake and Lothar appeared in the same comic, Lothar being Mandrake's companion and friend. With that in mind, the bringing together of these four rather disparate characters doesn't seem as strange as it first appears. And while on paper it might not work, in does on screen, principally because the show stuck to what children - and geeks like me - love to see so much. Plenty of action, lots of displays of heroic deeds and week after week of evil schemes.

Oh, and the odd shot of Flash Gordon's ship didn't hurt.

As for superpowers, the Phantom's 'power of ten tigers' aside, there were few, which was another positive of the show and which helped it to stand apart from others. Here was a bunch of heroes, doing super things, but without any actual superhero powers to speak of. Indeed, for the strongest man in the universe, Lothar was often on the wrong side of a beating.

The cartoon was also notable for releasing a rather naff videogame that appeared on various platforms, including the Spectrum and the Sam Coupé. Particularly naff was the attempt to recreate the theme tune. As you can see here, it didn't turn out too well.

One other thing about Defenders Of The Earth is worth mentioning. In the way that many cartoon series of the time suffered from, the cartoon has some particularly jerky animation. I didn't care when I was a kid, but watching clips back now it is stark just how appalling some of the footage is.

Still, what does that matter when the action is as tantalising as it is in pretty much every episode, some of the best of which were Ming's Thunder Lizards, in which Ming thaws out some frozen dinosaurs to wreak havoc, and the five-episode long plot in which Ming's son Prince Kro-tan tries to overthrow his father. None, however, have a title as stupendously crap as Diamonds Are Ming's Best Friends.

Touché, scriptwriters. Touché.

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