Entry 7: My First Adventure

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Indy Timeline: 1908

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is a television series that first premiered in 1992 on ABC.  The basic premise of the show is to take the viewer on a tour of the world in the early 20^th century, as seen through the eyes of a young Indiana Jones.  In each episode, young Indy (played by either 9 year old Corey Carrier or 18 year old Sean Patrick Flannery) travels to exotic locales and meets famous historical figures.  Originally, each episode was about an hour long (around 44 minutes to account for commercials), but these episodes have been awkwardly merged for the DVD release into 90 minute affairs that combine two (often unrelated) episodes.  The goal behind merging the episodes is to let the viewer follow the life adventures of Indy in chronological order.

And so, the journey begins on DVD with Volume 1 of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: The Early Years.  Episode 1 is simply titled: My First Adventure. 

The opening sequence for “My First Adventure” is as different from the opening of the three four feature films as it could possibly be.  There are no boulder traps, Shanghai shootouts, train escapes or nuclear explosions.  Instead, we get a crappy looking title card (pictured) over a suburban Princeton home, some light music, and the voiceover provided by Carrier.  We see baby Indy (sans fedora) climbing around on the roof of his house with his father haplessly chasing after him (“JUNIOR!!!”).  The narration then tells us about his dog, his loving mother, and his childhood hi-jinx.  This is all very cheesy and reminded me of “Little Rascals” or similar old-timey shows I have never seen. 

Fortunately, this does not last long and the basic premise that drives the series begins.  Dr. Henry Jones Senior, Professor of Medieval History, has written a book on Chivalry and is to go on a world tour to promote it!  His wife and Henry Jr. will be joining him on this journey around the world.

The first stop is London and then to Oxford, where Henry Sr. convinces his old tutor, Mrs. Helen Seymour, to accompany the family on the trip as a teacher for Henry Jr.  My initial impressions of Carrier as Indy here are negative- he seems wooden and has a tendency to overact.  His reaction to meeting Mrs. Seymour for the first time (“I HATE her, she’s a WITCH!”) reminded me of Hayden Christiansen/Jake Lloyd’s overwrought portrayal of Anakin Skywalker (“It’s WORSE!  He doesn’t UNDERSTAND!”) in the dreadful Star Wars prequels. 

The group then sets off for Cairo.  A great strength of the series is that it is all shot on location.  You can tell that these are real places and not Hollywood sets- it also seemed that a lot of the extras were natives, which adds to sense of authenticity.  After a bit of clinical exposition on the embalming process for mummies and the history of the pyramids, Indy meets his first famous historical figure at Giza -  a  young T.E. Laurence (Ned), just back from his journeys through Syria.  As luck would have it, Mrs. Seymour knows Laurence from his days at Oxford.

I liked the portrayal of Laurence as an intellectual adventurer, and he fits here as an early inspiration for young Indy.  Laurence gives good (if simplistic) advice to Indy on the world’s religions and the importance of learning foreign languages.  The interactions between Laurence (played by Joseph Bennett) and Indy are pretty good and as the episode went on, I started to warm to Carrier’s performance in these scenes. 

Indy, Mrs. Seymour and Laurence then take off for the Valley of the Kings to visit an expedition led by Howard Carter (famous person #2).  Carter is barely in the episode, but is worth a mention.  Things get exciting as a tomb is opened, and shortly thereafter, there is a murder at the dig site!  Just when I thought Carrier was doing alright in the role, his overacting struck again, most notably with the line: “HE THAT ENTERS MY TOMB SHALL BE BURNED BY MY FIRE!” 

The episode progresses in the style of a Hardy Boys novel as young Indy and Ned track down the killer.  They are hot on his trail when the storyline abruptly ends without much resolution (a throwaway line about how “he got away”).  Suddenly, we are off to Tangier, Morocco. 

Even though “chronologically” this trip takes place immediately after the Egypt adventure, it was actually filmed a couple of years later.  This is jarring when we see Carrier as a 9 year old in one shot and then he suddenly is a 12 year old in the next scene. 

In fact, everything about the second half of “My First Adventure” is completely different from the first half (it was originally a different episode, after all).  Rather than a swashbuckling adventure into the mummy’s tomb, the second half focuses on child slavery and human trafficking. 

There is a lot of exposition here, and much of it is interesting and informative regarding the slave trade in 20^th century Morocco.  Things take an unexpected turn however.  When Indy ventures into the marketplace disguised as a dark-skinned North African, he and his slave friend Omar are captured by slave traffickers who deal in children.   They repeatedly attempt to escape, but fail.  After watching the slavers attempt to break the children by beating them, we eventually wind up at the marketplace, where they are being auctioned off. 

Fortunately for Indy and Omar, they are rescued at the last minute as a result of the cunning work of a British reporter working on the ground in the country.    On the whole, I thought this was a pretty good episode, but it was also a bit terrifying.  Omar warns Indy not to tell the slavers he is American, because they would simply kill him and destroy his body rather than have to deal with the headache of a diplomatic incident.  This rings true, but was not what I was expecting on the heels of the tomb raiding adventure.  To call “My First Adventure” one movie is farcical- these are two completely different stories. 

I should also note that the sound effects and music are all pretty damned good- good production value for a TV show, to be certain.  I even noticed that some of the sound effects are pulled from the feature films, which is a nice touch. 

Also, I was repeatedly struck by the creepiness of the performance by Ruth de Sosa as Indy’s mother.  From the movies, we know that she passes away before Indy reaches adulthood, so an effort seems to have been made to make her ghostlike in this opening episode.  Everything she says has an ethereal quality to it – it is as if she is dead already.  She creeps me out.

In sum, I found “My First Adventure” to be an uneven, and sometimes rocky ride.  As a fan of Indy, it provides some interesting insight into the character and I accept it as part of the canon.  His brief time in bondage adds a layer to Indy’s anger at seeing the child slaves in Temple of Doom.  His boyhood friendship with T.E. Lawrence fits perfectly with the character and his life’s trajectory.  The fact that the episodes were all shot on-location adds a level of realism to the show and – especially when coupled with the historical exposition in the dialogue - almost feels like a documentary at times.  When the acting isn’t bad and the plot isn’t completely cheesy, that is. 

Indy Rating: 6.5/10