Young Indiana Jones v01e01p02

My First Adventure - Tangiers, May 1908

Indy's second adventure is a direct-to-video episode that was shown on TV. Family Jones travels from Egypt to Morocco where Indy gets a bitter taste of real life. The theme of this episode is rather dark, exposing Indy to the concept of slavery and the horrors of child slavery. I honestly do not think that the episode could have been aired on US television without causing discussions that might have hurt the show. The (historically correct) topic combined with a strong religious setting (Islamic country) was simply a too hot potato.

Despite the possibilities the episode failed on several levels for me. Young Indy was a little brat in his first adventure but in this one his behavior is really bad. Of course this is part of the story because he is suppose to learn that he should not be a brat. Still it did not work for me, maybe it could have been written differently. Also Indy did not seem to get that his "friend" (the slave boy assigned to be his companion) might not have tried to save him because out of friendship. In reality he simply would have been punished or killed for not helping his master. This could have really been written more clever. The episode clearly shows that is has been filmed 5 years after Indy's adventure in Egypt. Corey Carrier looks and sounds different due to his age difference. This does not work when you are chronologically watching the show.

Something that did work was the story of how Indy learned to use makeup to disguise as a local. He will use this skill years later in the Barcelona episode when working as a spy. Setting stones for a canon overall story of his life is the way to do it. That way the child slavery topic and how it affected Indy's life can the reason for Indy's behavior in Temple of Doom. So the basic idea of the episode is good.

14 years ago ...

Digging through my piles of old stuff I found my old copy of the Star Wars magazine #1. Printed in 1996, it got a bit dusty but it was still an entertaining read. I did find a long article about the coming Star Wars prequels that contain lots of info about the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. After all YIJC was a technical training ground for lots of the effect later used in Star Wars.

To preserve this little gem I scanned the article and added it to the IJC library.

Young Indiana Jones v01e01p01

Plan for 2010: Re-watch the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and comment each episode :)


My First Adventure - Egypt, May 1908

The original cut of the first episode of the YIJC was one of the best episodes of the whole series. Combining the story lines of the 9 years old and 17 years old Indy gave a perfect introduction to the series. In the DVD version the episodes are re-cut and chronologically sorted. While this does put order into the sometimes chaotic time line, it also removed the variety. The next 10 episodes will feature a very young Indy with very little action.

Nevertheless the first half of the My First Adventure episode is a fine first episode. Indy sees his first tomb, get action with skeletons, there is a mystery and a traitor. That's good elements for any Indy story. Indy is a bit of a brat, but his behavior is not that bad in this episode. After all there is lots of story to tell e.g. the whole setup for the world-tour of lectures of Dr. Jones senior. The episode got re-cut for the release, due to the missing second part. The re-shot scenes at the end of the episode stick out and could have been done better. This leaves a little bad taste and I really would like to see the Mexico episode now - but no, next will be an all new adventure, that has never been shown on TV.

LEGO goodies from Munich

I have been on a business trip in Munich the other week. I was not expecting anything Indy as I was in a rather industrial area of the city. But my sheer Indy-luck let me stumble over another great treasure: Indy goods from a LEGO store. They not only had all the regular sets but also some keychains that I never saw in Austria. They even had all of them but Indy already in the dumping price bin for an Euro each (the regular price was 3.99). And even better, they had an Indy LEGO t-shirt on sale as well. Those little treasures saved my trip for sure :)