'The Vanishing Earth' (4 Parts) by Brian Finch and Roger Price

The Tomorrow People are worried by the dramatic increase in natural disasters on Earth. Meanwhile, Ginge and Lefty have gone on holiday to the seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea. At the seaside amusement arcade, the two bikers are watched by a mysterious man, and Ginge meets a girl named Joy, who, together with a scruffy man named Smithers, runs the local ‘Haunted House’. Ginge is kidnapped by Joy, who is working for a strange hooded figure known as the Spidron. Using a matter transporter, Ginge is transported to Spidron’s lair, where he is brain-washed and put to work. Lefty is worried about Ginge, and contacts the Tomorrow People. Stephen goes with him to the amusement arcade, where they discover the matter transporter in the ‘Haunted House’. But they are seen by Smithers and Joy - Lefty gets away, but Stephen is captured by Joy and thrown into the sea. John and Carol arrive in order to save Stephen, but the mysterious man has already rescued him, and he teleports himself and Stephen away. Carol and John find Stephen back at the Lab, unharmed, but Stephen, Kenny and Tim do not remember how Stephen got back. The mysterious man reveals himself to be Steen, a Galactic Policeman, who is chasing the criminal Spidron, who has been raiding planets for Magnamite, a rare substance that holds planets together. Steen, Carol, John and Stephen use the matter transporter in the ‘Haunted House’ to travel to Spidron's base. But Spidron releases all his captives from mind-control, and in the ensuing panic, opens the lava ducts in order to flood the base. Ginge breaks free and closes the lava ducts, while Steen, Carol, John and Stephen find the Spidron's control room, just as he and Joy teleport away. Later, as the natural disasters continue to get worse, Joy goes to Spidron's hideout near his spaceship, and they prepare to leave Earth with the Magnamite. The Tomorrow People track Spidron's spaceship to South-East London, where they find a sewer entrance, Spidron uses mind-control to make Ginge and Lefty stop his pursuers, but his control is weak. He double-crosses Joy, and escapes in his spaceship. Steen arrests Joy, who reveals that she has also double-crossed Spidron by keeping the Magnamite on Earth in the mining areas; when the lava reached the storage areas earlier, the Magnamite flowed back into the Earth's crust, thereby stabilising it and averting the destruction of the planet.



Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Kenneth Farrington (Smithers), Kevin Stoney (Steen), Nova Llewellyn (Joy / Sandor), John Woodnutt (Spidron), David Weston (No. 300), Bara Chambers (Control Voice)

Directed by Paul Bernard

TX:
Part One - 9th July 1973
Part Two - 16th July 1973
Part Three - 23rd July 1973
Part Four - 30th July 1973

Notes:
*Featuring John, Carol, Kenny, Stephen, Tim, Ginge and Lefty