Episode
Defenders of the Earth: Diamonds are Ming's Best Friends
Overview
Ming enlists the aid of the ruthless Beastmaster to create an army of Crystal Soldiers, beings grown from diamonds and invulnerable to everything except an extremely rare mineral called Orcite.
Details
- Series
- Defenders of the Earth
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 15
- Air date
- 1986-09-26
- Runtime
- 30 min
Episode context
Diamonds are Ming's Best Friends is Episode 15 in Season 1 of Defenders of the Earth. It aired on 1986-09-26. The runtime is 30 min.
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Episode 14: The Evil of Doctor Dark
Mandrake's old enemy, Damian Dark, and the latter's Psychic Warrior cohorts escape from jail and join forces with Ming's troops to search for the legendary Well of Essence.
Episode 16: The Men of Frost
For Ming's plan to blanket the earth with a veneer of frost to be successful, the satellite requires the strength of a Starblue Crystal, of which only three exist. During a ceremony in which Mandrake donates his Starblue Crystal to the Central City Museum, the Defenders fight off an invasion by Ming's forces and capture two of his Men of Frost, Elgar and Zikry. Rick makes good use of a new invention which re-humanizes Men of Frost and Elgar tells the Defenders of Ming's plan to conquer earth. Zikry however, remains loyal to Ming and sabotages Dynak X before our heroes discover his true "evil" side. When Ming locates the last remaining Starblue Crystal he launches the satellite. It appears that it may be too late to stop Ming, but the Defenders fly out in their battle ships, engage Ming's roboships in an outer-space dog-fight, and explode the satellite with seconds to spare.
More episodes from this season
Episode 13: The Lost Jewels of Tibet
Ming is seeking the Jewels of Power, but a female archeologist named Atuskedero is also after them and travels to Tibet with Lothar and Mandrake (the latter worked with her in his pre-Defender days) to find the Jewels before Ming's forces do. But, when the trio discover the Jewels, it becomes clear that they have the power to hypnotise anyone who touches them. Can the remaining six Defenders reach their two companions in time to prevent an ancient legend - which predicts that the Dragon of Vengeance will appear if the Jewels are ever disturbed - from coming true?
Episode 17: Battleground
Ming's forces travel to the planet Grubor, where they use his freeze-ray weapon to capture six Cave Slugs- invincible alien creatures the size of semi-trucks who can and do eat anything, including rock, metal and laser beams. They are harmless unless provoked, whereupon they counterattack with tremendous force. The Merciless One deploys his first Cave Slug in a mine tunnel beneath Monitor, and as the alien munches its way towards the Defenders headquarters, Kshin and Zuffy stumble upon it and must be rescued by the Defenders. At the time the Cave Slug breaks through the top of the Volcano and heads to Central City, Ming places the five other Cave Slugs in major cities all over the world. The Defenders make the costly mistake of attacking the Cave Slug, sending it on a rampage until Jedda uses her animal telepathic contact abilities to make peace with the alien monster. Infuriated, Ming decides that if our heroes won't provoke the creatures, he will; however, his attack on the earth is crushed when the Cave Slugs counterattack Ming's forces. The misunderstanding settled, the Defenders happily transport the Cave Slugs back to Grubor.
Episode 12: The Mind Warriors, Part II
The Defenders add a new twist to the Battle Simulation Room--a Thought-Transference Cap. It transmits the wearer's imagination directly into the simulation; Kshin loves to use it to scare the other Defenders the best he can. But Ming the Merciless has found a way to tap into the Room. Using his ghastly power source, he can use his own evil thoughts and intensify them into reality! What starts out as a thrilling simulation under Kshin is taken over by Ming and turned into a terrible fight to the death in the all-too-real Haunted World. While the older Defenders fight monsters, harpies and skeleton warriors, the desperate young Defenders destroy the simulator and end the horror.
Episode 18: The Panther Peril
When the famous explorer Andrew Huxley encounters the wrath of Ming the Merciless while on expedition in Africa, he immediately calls in the Defenders. Ming kidnaps the Chief of the Bandar tribe after destroying their village, and forces him to lead the way to the hidden Temple of Pantheria. Before the Defenders depart for Africa they confine Kisa in a forcefield- for her own, as well as the other's, safety- leaving the key card with Kshin, under strict orders not to let Kisa out or give the key card to any-one else, especially Jedda. A short time later Kshin, disobeying direct orders, hands over the card to Jedda, who lets Kisa free. Meanwhile Ming reaches the Temple of Pantheria, locates the sacred tooth and with its powers orders Kisa to attack and destroy the Defenders. Kisa obeys, wreaking havoc all over Central City. Rick and Jedda track Kisa down and just as Rick is about to shoot her, the Defenders locate Ming in Africa and, with the help of Mandrake's illusory power, wrest control of the sacred tooth. He reverses Ming's orders just in time to save Kisa and our heroes.
Episode 11: The Mind Warriors, Part I
Ming lures Kshin to Ice Station Earth by kidnapping Zuffy, then probes the dark side of Kshin's imagination to create fearsome warriors capable of destroying the Defenders. While the heroes work diligently to dismantle the Doomsday Warhead, a device left in the universe from an earlier holocaust, they are invaded by RADIAN, BI-NINJA, RIPPER, ZALZAR, JAMMER HEAD, and NEUTRON MAN, all products of Kshin's mind. Two of the evil warriors recapture the Doomsday Warhead and transport it to Ming's asteroid base, while the rest stay on to finish off the Defenders. Meanwhile, the young Defenders fly to Ice Station Earth to rescue Kshin. With the help of Dynak Y the super heroes
trick the mind warriors into thinking they're dead. With Kshin free and the Doomsday Warhead moments from being launched against Earth, Kshin uses the good side of his imagination to make all the Defenders even stronger, enabling them to defeat the mind warriors and reset the guidance controls in the Doomsday Warhead, thereby blowing up Ming's asteriod base and saving Earth.
Episode 19: Fury of the Deep
Ming's attack on an oil platform, to capture a main computer containing the earth's entire energy network, is foiled by the Defenders, but all is not lost as he spots oceanographer Maurice Quiston using a brainwave transmission helmet to communicate with sea creatures. Ming appeals to Quiston's love of the sea world and convinces him to join forces in battling the ocean-destructive forces of modern society. With Qusiton operating out of Ice Station Earth, all the ocean's inhabitants obey his orders, joining together to attack oil tankers, undersea food farms and sewage systems all over the globe. Meanwhile the Phantom, and old friend of Quistons, finds the oceanographer's floating sea-platform vacant, while Falsh, Lothar, Jedda and Mandrake try to save the food farm from destruction. Quiston discovers that Ming has double-crossed him when the Evil One destroys his sea platform. He joins forces with the Phantom to stop the ocean life's attacks and then blows up his brainwave transmission helmet and computer in the control room of Ming's Ice Station Earth.
Episode 10: The Hall of Wisdom
The incredible Hall of Wisdom pays its-2000-year, 24-hour visit to the Galaxy. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Ming to get his hands on the dreaded Quasar Weapon, with which he can conquer the Earth.
Episode 20: Family Reunion
Ming captures the Phantom and Jedda as they return from the race against N'Dama (really the Phantom's brother Kurt Walker) for the Jewel of Zandoon. Once again his old self, Kurt Walker stows away on Ming's ship, and back at Ice Station Earth he watches as Ming places the Phantom in the Deep Freeze Chamber. Small Fry, a monkey the Phantom and Jedda picked up in Africa, sabotages the wiring of the Freeze Chamber, buying the Phantom more time and allowing Jedda and Kurt to escape into the corridors of Ming's hideout. Jedda saves Kurt's life more than once before he finds the Golden Chamber and turns himself back into N'Dama; however, he refuses to help Jedda save the Phantom until she promises to reject the Phantom's birthright and becomes his protege. Using his skull ring the Phantom escapes the Freeze Chamber and is horrified to find Jedda in the uniform of the Weather Demon. N'Dama steals the valuable mineral Thalacitrate, which will allow him to remain N'Dama forever, from Ming. The Phantom and Jedda, poised for take-off from Ice Station Earth, benevolently save N'Dama's life, prompting the Spirit of the Winds to restore her birthright before he disappears in a mysterious flash of light.
Episode 9: The Revenge of Astra
The vengeful space princess Astra creates an army of clay soldiers. The daughter of Princess Aura, Astra is convinced by Ming that Flash Gordon was behind her mother's death. She uses blue clay from the Bandar village to create her army.
Episode 21: The Defense Never Rests
The Defenders fly into space to investigate a mysterious comet and discover, too late to break from the tractor beams dragging them toward the comet, that in reality it is an Ilyrian spaceship. Inside the ship the Defenders are informed that they will be tried as the greatest criminals in the galaxy, with Ming as the accuser!! In exchange for his irrefutable evidence against the Defenders, the Evil One receives, under the pretense of "tools to rebuild the Earth", an anti-gravity device, a space warp drive, a machine to quadruple food harvests, and an energy shield to make all weapons obsolete, but these "tools" will actually serve to help Ming conquer the world. When the evidence is presented in court- film of the Defenders (actually Ming's Android Clones)- committing heinous crimes against the people of earth, things look bleak for our heroes. Rick, L.J. and Jedda manage to escape and invade Ice Station Earth, where they locate the androids and uncover Ming's plan. Back on the Ilyrian ship the Defenders are found guilty and sentenced to banishment to a galaxy 300 light years from earth, however just prior to their transport the young Defenders burst into the courtroom with the androids and save the day.