The Invisible People is more of a “human” story, closer to the previous Troubled Waters and not at all like The Alien Solution.  It features Lana quite prominently, possibly explaining her absence from the previous story, and T.J. is back after being conspicuous by his absence for two episodes.

On the beach, Clark, Lana, and T.J. are doing background for a homeless feature, contrasting those who have nothing against those who live in luxury next door.

Next door, Gerald Manfred (Sonny Shroyer) is doing a deal to sell his property for many millions of dollars but the deal won’t go through while he has such “disagreeable” neighbours. Clark is interviewing Damon (Greg Morris), the leader of the homeless family, when they are attacked with fire bombs.

T.J. tries to get Manfred to help, but he’s unconcerned. Everyone on the beach fetches buckets of water from the sea.

Hidden, Clark uses his superbreath to blow sand onto the fire, putting it out. But it’s too late for their food, which is ruined.

Lana asks for food from Manfred, but he refuses to help – instead preferring to throw food at the seagulls.

Damon reveals that Manfred is responsible for the current predicament.  His throwing of food causes the homeless to rush his property and the police are called.

When calm is restored, Lana’s legs arrive with some replacement food.

One of the women explains that they’re only homeless because of jobs promised by Mr Manfred. He lured them there with the promise of jobs at a new electronics factory he was opening up – that’s where their skills lie. Unfortunately, he then changed his mind and chose to open the factory in Korea leaving the families without any means of getting back home. Those who were able to go did, but Damon arrived to help those who couldn’t leave to fight back against Manfred.

At that moment, Damon returns with a story that the police let them go to save having to feed them.  Manfred receives a letter saying that he has just one week to clear the beach before the multi-million pound deal goes sour.

Damon organises everyone to look for anything that can replace the lost or burned tent pegs, and Lana and T.J. offer to help if Damon will answer some background questions. Clark holds back to keep the site safe from further attacks. Damon explains that he used to be in the rat race himself, running his own businesses, but he prefers a hands-on approach to helping people.

When T.J. and Damon go off to check further down the road, they’re attacked by two men posing as policemen.  An unconscious T.J. is bundled into a van, with the brakes off, and Damon is dragged away yelling and fighting.

Lana hears trouble and Damon shouts for her to “help him”.  Confused, she finds T.J.’s camera on the ground, and sees the van barrelling away.

Clark hears Lana’s calls, and quickly excuses himself from his beachball game with a child.

With T.J. rescued, he tells of Damon’s kidnap. Superboy organises a search, with each of the homeless people taking a balloon and scouring the city. If anyone sees anything, they’re to let the balloon go and Superboy will see it.

While the search is on, Lana learns from T.J. who hired the fake policemen based on the uniforms he saw. She goes to investigate the company and stumbles in on Manfred and Damon.

Lana escapes, but is quickly recaptured – but not before one of the balloon carriers sees her.

Superboy arrives in the nick of time.

To avoid prison and the scandal, Manfred agrees to do right by the people and open up that factory that he’d promised.

His job done, Damon leaves the beach to find others that need his help.

It’s a run of guest stars today, this time with Greg Morris (“Barney” from Mission Impossible) and Sonny Shroyer (“Enos” from The Dukes of Hazzard) duking it out in this impossible mission.

The episode is more of a morality tale (“don’t forget the homeless”) than it is a Superboy adventure.  I particularly appreciated the dig about local people being forced out of work when business is outsourced to other countries.  In this episode, the fault is at the feet of a greedy businessman but, in the real world, it’s our governments and politicians that betray those who put them in power – and that’s even worse.

It’s good that stories have morals, but they shouldn’t replace the actual story.  Like the previous episode, this story is simplistic and tells the same story of the big money-grabber and the poor struggling honest people.  That’s fine, but too many of them in a row and this series will get a bad reputation.

At least both T.J. and Lana get into the action in this episode.