The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

[Allyn Gibson]

Something I wanted from Young Indy way back when was a Sherlock Holmes episode, with the young Young Indy meeting Sherlock Holmes in his retirement home on the Sussex Downs. (For various copyright reasons, it would've been unlikely to happen, but it would have been cool.)

I told my brother about my fevered wish. "But, Lucas wants Young Indy to be historically accurate." Well, the Ernest Hemingway World War I episode blew that impulse out of the water. ("The Secret of the Blues" is actually okay, but the World War I episode buys into Hemingway's self-mythologization of his World War I experiences.)

In my mind, young Young Indy met Sherlock Holmes. I know it. Even if George Lucas never told that story.

I should point out, when I discuss the series with others...

Young Young Indy -- Corey Carrier
Old Young Indy -- Sean Patrick Flannery
Old Old Indy -- The eyepatch guy

 

[Greylock Crescent]

^ I like the Sherlock Holmes concept. Besides, the fully-realized vampire that Indy met in "Masks of Evil" is of dubious historical "accuracy."

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

When this came on when I was in Junior High, I had a friend who was really disgusted by the show. He was like, "What's next, Star Wars Junior?"

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Something I wanted from Young Indy way back when was a Sherlock Holmes episode, with the young Young Indy meeting Sherlock Holmes in his retirement home on the Sussex Downs. (For various copyright reasons, it would've been unlikely to happen, but it would have been cool.)

I told my brother about my fevered wish. "But, Lucas wants Young Indy to be historically accurate." Well, the Ernest Hemingway World War I episode blew that impulse out of the water. ("The Secret of the Blues" is actually okay, but the World War I episode buys into Hemingway's self-mythologization of his World War I experiences.)

In my mind, young Young Indy met Sherlock Holmes. I know it. Even if George Lucas never told that story.

I should point out, when I discuss the series with others...

Young Young Indy -- Corey Carrier
Old Young Indy -- Sean Patrick Flannery
Old Old Indy -- The eyepatch guy

I think Sherlock Holmes is public domain now.

 

[Broccoli]

If you're going to watch the Young Indy Chronicles, you'll have to accept (at least to some degree) that the stories are conceptually very different from the films. If you can get to that point, you can enjoy parts of the series. But it can be very dry. Worse still, the mood of the series swings in wildly different directions (often within each two-hour "chapter") making the overall experience a bit disjointed and disconnected.

That's my main problem: the way they ultimately structured the series for video and DVD release. If they left them as individual episodes, I don't think the wildly different tone would be that noticeable, if at all. But forcing two episodes that are radically different in tone is, I think, counterproductive to the enjoyment of an installment.

The worst offender that springs to mind is Perils of Cupid. The first part is a childlike innocence story about Indy "falling in love" with Princess Sophie. It's a very sweet and cute episode. Then we shift into the second part that has a very serious tone where Indy's mom falls for another man and nearly leaves Henry Sr. True, both deal with the concept of love, but the way the concept is approached in both segments is radically different from one another.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I think Sherlock Holmes is public domain now.

Everywhere but the United States. The Casebook doesn't fall completely into the public domain here until 2023 or so, barring any more extensions to copyright terms.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

If you're going to watch the Young Indy Chronicles, you'll have to accept (at least to some degree) that the stories are conceptually very different from the films. If you can get to that point, you can enjoy parts of the series. But it can be very dry. Worse still, the mood of the series swings in wildly different directions (often within each two-hour "chapter") making the overall experience a bit disjointed and disconnected.

That's my main problem: the way they ultimately structured the series for video and DVD release. If they left them as individual episodes, I don't think the wildly different tone would be that noticeable, if at all. But forcing two episodes that are radically different in tone is, I think, counterproductive to the enjoyment of an installment.

The worst offender that springs to mind is Perils of Cupid. The first part is a childlike innocence story about Indy "falling in love" with Princess Sophie. It's a very sweet and cute episode. Then we shift into the second part that has a very serious tone where Indy's mom falls for another man and nearly leaves Henry Sr. True, both deal with the concept of love, but the way the concept is approached in both segments is radically different from one another.

I definitely agree with that. Letting each episode stand on its own merits, instead of forcing them into two-hour (well, 90 minute, really) "chapters" would have been a much better narrative decision. It'd make each installment a bit more easy to digest -- and would keep some of them for dragging on for so god-awful long. And I don't think doing so would have been to the detriment of the better Chapters, like Oganga, or the more coherent installments, like Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. Splitting great stories into "Part 1" & "Part 2" doesn't necessarily diminish each part.

And yeah, Perils of Cupid was a particularly bad juxtaposition.

 

[Angel4576]

Got the entire series on DVD.

The SPF episodes are much stronger on the whole than the CC ones.