The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
Greetings, ‘The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones’ is a television series based on the early exploits of George Lucas’ beloved globetrotting adventurer which ran from 1992 to 1996. Numerous writers and directors worked on the show at various points including Carrie Fisher of ‘Star Wars’ renown and Monty Python’s Terry Jones. The programme was initially aired as ‘The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles’, consisting of 28 episodes and 4 TV films, but this was later reworked with episodes being fused together and stripped down to 22 films. The primary cast consists of Corey Carrier and Sean Patrick Flanery as a child and teenage version of Indy while Harrison Ford reprises the role in one episode. George Hall played an elderly Indiana that bookended the episodes but he was cut from the revamped version. Other prominent actors and actresses involved are Lloyd Owen as Henry Jones Sr., Ruth DeSosa, Margaret Tyzack and Ronny Coutteure. There are also a considerable number of recognisable stars such as Ian MacDiarmid, Christopher Lee, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Daniel Craig who often portray historical persons or one off antagonists. The music was composed by Laurence Rosenthal.
The plot begins in Princeton in 1908 when Henry Walton Jones Jr, best known as ‘Indiana’ since naming himself after his much adored childhood dog, learns some exciting news. His strict father Henry, a revered lecturer of medieval literature, has been booked for a two year world spanning lecture tour that will lead him to many exotic places. The nine year old Indiana will be accompanying his father and mother Anna as they travel the world but it’s not all fun and games as he will be rigorously tutored by one Miss Helen Seymour. The first stop of the tour before travelling on to the desolate deserts of Egypt is to Oxford where they are to pick up the reserved Seymour who had taught Henry Sr. in his youth. Indiana soon learns that she can be quite a demanding tutor, especially when he often wants to slack off and have adventures, but the two develop a warm affection for each other over time. Once the Jones family reach Egypt, Seymour takes Indiana to the Great Pyramids as part of his academic studies.
It is a seemingly small world as they met up with T.E. Lawrence during their visit. It is revealed that the man who would become famous as Lawrence of Arabia was a former pupil of Seymour’s for a short period of time as well. He strikes up a good rapport with the young and eager to learn Indy. So much so that he invites Jones to witness an excavation occurring in the Valley of the Kings. Indiana gladly accepts and is introduced to Egyptologist Howard Carter during a dig at the ancient tomb of an Egyptian architect called Kha. Once inside the newly opened tomb, they discover the mummified remains and a jewel encrusted Jackal statue with rubies for eyes. One of Carter’s stationed guards was found murdered as night turned to day with both the mummy and treasure having gone missing by the time the sun rose again. The more superstitious workers believe a curse had befallen them for violating the final resting place. Indiana and Lawrence have less fanciful theories and suspect there is a murderous thief in their midst which they intend to discover the identity of.
While this series certainly wouldn’t appeal to everyone thanks to its campy and cheesy feel, I certainly enjoyed it despite there being some slower episodes thrown into the mix. Indiana meets many notable figures of the early 20th Century such as Sigmund Freud, Louis Armstrong, Franz Kafka and an old Wyatt Earp which I found an appealing aspect to the show. He also gets entangled or embroiled in many important events too such as the Easter Rising or the Russian Revolution and the show tackles many genres including war stories, espionage tales as well as slapstick comedy. The fused episodes usually work quite well and appear fairly seamless or thematically linked but it could sometimes by very jarring too. One particular example is ‘Masks of Evil’. It is a spy thriller that has a brooding first half in which one of Indy’s many love interests is killed by a rival intelligence agency in Istanbul. By in the end of the episode he is witness to many supernatural occurrences and facing off against a Dracula-esque Count in Transylvania. Overall, I found it to be a nice little gem full of fun escapades that has been sadly and largely forgotten about with the passage of time.
Plot=9/10
Characters=910
Special effects=7/10
Overall=9/10
Quote of the Day
You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life.
Han Solo
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
