In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
With a new Indiana Jones movie just around the corner, I thought it might be fun to take another look at an excellent series of tie-in novels featuring our favorite archaeologist. The character was created as an homage to the pulp heroes of the past, but ended up eclipsing many of them and becoming one of the most famous adventure heroes of all time. While Indiana Jones is solidly rooted in the real world, there have always been elements of fantasy and science fiction in his adventures. Whether they involve mystical artifacts, or remains of ancient civilizations, or even ancient aliens, Indy’s adventures unfold at the intersection of the real world and the world of magic and mystery
I found Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi in 2008, when the Indiana Jones novels were re-released in conjunction with the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There was a sales receipt still in my copy, used as a bookmark, that reminded me I bought the book at Walmart (and also reminded me there was a time in the not-so-distant past when Walmart had a much more respectable selection of books and periodicals than it has today). I’m not surprised I that I’d immediate snapped the book up as I’m a sucker for great covers, and it features a lovely illustration by Drew Struzan, commercial illustrator without peer, who has produced many a memorable movie poster and book cover.
It is hard to believe that over four decades have passed since Indiana Jones made his first appearance, and in that time, he has become a cultural force. Adventure and exploration are always popular themes in fiction, and the settings of these stories evokes a nostalgia for a (seemingly) simpler time when there were still blank spots on world maps.
At the same time, there were a few elements in the Indiana Jones movies that some felt were problematic even upon their initial release, most notably instances of cultural insensitivity and a lack of female characters in roles other than love interests. Moreover, attitudes toward cultural treasures have changed in recent decades: Indy’s assertion that such items belong in museums, intended to demonstrate his virtue, now comes across as chauvinistic or misguided in a time when most feel that the best location for such valuable artifacts is in their countries of origin.
About the Creators
George Lucas (born 1944) is a noted American filmmaker, writer, producer, and director. He broke into the big time with the groundbreaking Star Wars films, which were wildly successful commercially and became a cultural phenomenon. Lucas then created the character Indiana Jones in collaboration with his friend Steven Spielberg, who went on to direct Raiders of the Lost Ark, another huge commercial success. Each of those movies launched their own media franchise. Lucas was an innovator in other areas, including the marketing of tie-in toys and merchandise (which helped fund later efforts), the advancement of special effects through his Industrial Light and Magic company, and the advancement of sound design through his Skywalker Sound company. The animation studio Pixar was also born out of the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. Lucas has now largely retired from the industry, having sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012.
Steven Spielberg (born 1946) is a noted American filmmaker, whose primary work has been as a director. His first major success was Jaws, which he followed with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his collaboration with George Lucas on Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. the Extra-terrestrial. His career solidly established, he went on to direct and produce many other films, gaining both commercial success and critical acclaim (including three Academy Awards). Career highlights include the Jurassic Park franchise, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, and a host of other films. Spielberg also co-produced the groundbreaking drama series Band of Brothers and is a co-founder of the studios Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks.
Rob MacGregor (born 1948) is an American author who has written mysteries, adventures, young adult books, non-fiction, and media tie-in novels, including the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and six other Indiana Jones tie-in novels. The Indiana Jones books landed him on the prestigious New York Times Best Seller List. MacGregor studied archaeology in college, has studied dream interpretation, astrology, and divination, and teaches yoga.
Indiana Jones on Screen
The movie theater is where audiences first met Indiana Jones, and the hugely successful movies remain the core of the character’s appeal. There are five in total, all starring Harrison Ford, whose portrayal of the gruff and world-weary archaeologist fueled a large part of their success. The films also benefitted from brilliant musical scores from John Williams, in a style that evoked the famous work Erich Korngold did for Errol Flynn’s adventure movies; his memorable Indiana Jones theme is a rousing and memorable military-style march. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) presented Indy as an heir to the pulp heroes of the past, recapturing all the action and adventure of those old serials, though with a more cynical tone, with Indy racing Nazis in Egypt to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant.
The next film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), set in India, was darker still, and while it was successful, there were complaints about the violence portrayed, especially against children. The third movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), deliberately took a lighter tone, featuring the bickering family dynamic and eventual reconciliation between Indy and his father, played by Sean Connery, as they raced the Nazis (once again), this time in search of the Holy Grail. And for a time, it looked like this would be the last Indiana Jones movie. George Lucas went on to produce a television show called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The series lasted for two years, from 1992 to 1993, with some made-for-TV movies following in 1994. The series focused on Indy meeting people and witnessing events from actual history in the early 20th century, and related historical documentaries were also produced as companion pieces to the series. Corey Carrier played Indy in episodes where the character was aged 8 to 10, while the charismatic Sean Patrick Flanery played Indy in his teen years.
After an almost two-decade gap, the movies continued with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), in which Indy clashed with Soviets searching for secrets in South America. And now, after another long gap, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) is being released in theaters soon. All the previous Indiana Jones movies and TV shows are now available for streaming on Disney+.
The Indiana Jones Tie-Ins
Indiana Jones is not only a movie and TV character, having appeared in many other types of media. Several comic books portrayed his adventures, including a continuing series from Marvel Comics, and a collection in mini-series format from Dark Horse Comics. There were also a plethora of Indiana Jones toys and games. Dozens of video games were developed, many of them very popular. There have been role-playing games, board games, Lego building sets, action figures and other toys, not to mention expensive replica wool felt hats and leather jackets for sale.
Indiana Jones-themed attractions are located at Disney Parks around the world. At Disney World in Florida you can find “The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!” and “Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar” (named after Indy’s pilot in the first movie). At Disneyland Paris there is a roller coaster called “Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril.” And there is a thrill ride called “The Indiana Jones Adventure” at Disneyland in California and at DisneySea in Japan. [And it is here I must disclose I am personally a part of the Indiana Jones franchise, having been chosen from the audience to play an extra in the Disney World stunt show a few years ago…]
In addition to the main Indiana Jones tie-in novels, which I will discuss below, there have been a number of books featuring the character. There were novelizations for each of the movies. There was a series of eight books by Wolfgang Hohlbein published in Germany, though they have not been translated into English. And younger fans of Indy could enjoy children’s books from Scholastic Books, dozens of Young Indiana Jones books, and a series from Ballantine Books called “Find Your Fate,” where the reader could choose different options during the narrative.
The Indiana Jones Novels
In the wake of the first trilogy of Indiana Jones movies, a series of tie-in novels was commissioned. It was published by Bantam Books, an imprint that, starting in the 1960s, had great success reprinting the adventures of action heroes from the pulp magazine era, most notably the hyper-capable scientist and do-gooder Doc Savage. The first six Indiana Jones novels were written by Rob MacGregor, who also wrote the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novelization. The books pick up where the TV series left off, with Indiana graduating from college. The only character who appears from the movies (besides Indy) was Marcus Brody.
These first six books were Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (featuring the secret of the Oracle of Delphi), Indiana Jones and the Dance of the Giants (Stonehenge and druids), Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils (secrets of the Amazon), Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge (the legend of Noah’s Ark), Indiana Jones and the Unicorn’s Legacy (the secret power of the unicorn’s horn), and Indiana Jones and the Interior World (in which a lost race threatens invasion from a subterranean world). In 1991, noted techno-thriller author Martin Caidin picked up the series with Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates (modern pirates in aircraft, and the only installment in the series I was never able to find), and Indiana Jones and the White Witch (druids versus the sword of Merlin). Caidin, however, fell ill and turned the series over to Max McCoy.
Starting in 1995, another four novels appeared, including Indiana Jones and the Philosopher’s Stone (the secret of alchemy), Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs (dinosaurs are not quite extinct), Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth (the secret of Ultima Thule, a secret land beneath the Arctic), and Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx (ancient mysteries of the Sphinx). More characters from the movies showed up over time, including Sallah, Lao Che, and Belloq. As mentioned above, the novels were re-released in 2008, in conjunction with the movie Indiana Jones and Crystal Skull, and there was one final book issued in 2009, from author Steve Perry: Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead (voodoo and zombies).
The books were solidly written and researched, resulting in well-paced adventure stories that made for enjoyable reading. They remind me of the adventures of Don Sturdy, one of the better lines of adventure books created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate in the 1920s and ’30s (and since Lucas gave a tip-of-the-hat in that direction by having Young Indy date Stratemeyer’s daughter in one of the Young Indiana Jones episodes, I suspect these books were indeed an influence). In a more general sense, the Indiana Jones novels also reminded me of adventures that filled pulp magazines like Argosy and Blue Book in the years between the World Wars.
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi
The book opens with Indiana finishing his undergraduate work in ancient languages, one of the last times in his life he would follow the path his father had set out for him. He nearly derails his college graduation with a tasteless prank featuring effigies of the founding fathers hung from lampposts. He is saved by the intervention of one of his favorite teachers, Mr. Conrad. He says farewell to his roommate, Jack Shannon, a scion of a local crime family, who shares with Indy a passion for the new musical form, jazz. Then Indy heads off for graduate studies at the Sorbonne. There he becomes smitten with a lovely but enigmatic Greek teacher, Professor Dorian Belecamus. Her lectures introduce us to the MacGuffin of the book, the secret of the Oracle of Delphi. She convinces Indy to come to Greece with her as an archaeological assistant, despite his protestations that archaeology is not his field. Shannon shows up in Paris, pursuing good jazz music, and as does Conrad, having lost tenure when he stuck up for Indy in the founding father scandal.
Soon Dorian and Indy are off to Greece on a train, and she takes him as a lover. Indy doesn’t realize it, but she wants a dupe as much as she wants a language expert, and her motive in romance is control rather than affection. There are mysterious events on the train, and when the two reach Athens, it is clear they are being followed. Dorian is involved in political intrigue along with her long-time paramour, the cruel Colonel Mandraki. She is also a member of the Order of Pythia, a group that intends to revive the Temple of Delphi, with Dorian as the oracle. When the king is lured to Delphi by news of this new oracle, Dorian and Mandraki plan to assassinate him and overthrow the government.
Indy knows none of this. He only knows that there are locals who want him gone, and who are willing to resort to violence to make it happen. Dorian has him lowered into a chasm to read a tablet, where he falls, falling victim to the hallucinogenic mists that emerge at predictable intervals. Indy also finds a mysterious rock that might be an ancient meteor, the Omphalos. The mists only bring erratic behavior, but the Omphalos seems to invoke visions of the future. Soon the king arrives, along with Greek army troops loyal to Colonel Mandraki. So do Shannon and Conrad, having learned that Dorian has a murderous past, and wanting to help Indy. And of course, the Order of Pythia has its own agenda. Indy finds himself caught in a tangle of conspiracy and violence, and while the archaeological puzzle intrigues him, he will be lucky to get out of this turmoil alive.
MacGregor has done his homework and does a great job of evoking Parisian society and Greek political intrigue in the 1920s. There are just enough hints about ancient magic to keep the reader intrigued, and the action moves at a rapid clip, as Indy races from one predicament to the next. The book is a solid start to the series, and it ends by including the first chapter from the next book to whet the reader’s appetite for further adventures.
Final Thoughts
I’m not sure how many of you out there have read the Indiana Jones books, but if you have, I’d welcome your thoughts. If you haven’t, some are available in electronic versions, and copies can occasionally be found in used bookstores.
And certainly, since pretty much everyone has been exposed to Indy in at least one of his many media incarnations, comments on the other adventures of the character, and his place in the pop culture pantheon, are welcome as well.
Alan Brown has been a science fiction fan for over five decades, especially fiction that deals with science, military matters, exploration and adventure.
Honestly kinda stoked about this! I read every Indy book I could get my hands on as a kid after seeing the movies, including the Young Indiana Jones Adventures tie-ins (this was in the mid-2000s). I think I still have a copy of The White Witch in a box. I also read the Rob MacGregor novelizations of the movies more than once.
Peril at Delphi imprinted on me because of being That Kid about Greek mythologu. In hindsight, Dorian was also a formative character (darkest of academics! femmest of fatales!)
I collected the MacGregor novels when they first came out, though I don’t think I read any of the Caidin or McCoy ones. I thought they were pretty good, but a bit more adult than the movies, and not quite as swashbucklingly fun. It disappointed me that they didn’t feature Indy’s early encounters with the Ravenwoods, Sallah, or Belloq, though it sounds like the later novels did some of that. I think Marcus Brody was in them, though I’m not sure.
It’s a bit inaccurate to say the novels pick up where Young Indy left off, since the novels came first (the last two MacGregor books were released during the series, but would’ve been written before it aired). They don’t overlap chronologically, but the books don’t reflect any of the backstory the show established, so I’m not sure they’re quite compatible in how they portray Indy. For instance, if I recall correctly, Peril at Delphi showed the post-college Indy killing for the first time and exploring how he felt about that, whereas Young Indy later established that the pre-college Indy fought in World War One and got rather accustomed to killing.
Moreover, attitudes toward cultural treasures have changed in recent decades: Indy’s assertion that such items belong in museums, intended to demonstrate his virtue, now comes across as chauvinistic or misguided in a time when most feel that the best location for such valuable artifacts is in their countries of origin.
I thought that’s the delightful irony of the character. He may be an intellectual by early to mid 20th century standards, but he’s almost every bit as violent, reckless, and possessive of shiny gold things as the ancient empires he studies.
@3/Winslow AZ: I’ve seen it argued that, as imperialistic as Indy’s attitudes may be in retrospect, at least his commitment to scholarship made him a better alternative to profit-driven antiquities thieves like Belloq. If Indy hadn’t put the artifacts in a museum, they would’ve been stolen by someone else, sold to private collectors, maybe used to fund criminal activities, etc. (Or used by Nazis or cult leaders to take over the world.) So he was sort of the equivalent of a white-hat hacker, using the same methods as the black-hats but for less rapacious ends. (Despite having a brown hat. And didn’t Belloq have a literal white hat?)
@@.-@.
Good point. And yes, Belloq did indeed wear a white hat. And a white jacket, I believe.
You know, all the best to Mads Mikkelsen, but it’s going to take quite a lot to knock Belloq off the top spot of Indy villains for me. Because I think it’s that exact white — er — gray hat quality that made him interesting. Not only was he a “shadowy reflection” of Indy, that film took the time to humanize him a bit. I’m thinking of the scene in the tent when he and Marion are getting drunk. It’s wonderful. He laughs when she aims a knife at him, then is equally afraid when Toht holds up his “torture” device. Then later he’s horrified when Marion in thrown into the Well of Souls. He isn’t unflinchingly EVIL. He’s a corrupt human.
Fingers crossed the new film repeats these shades of gray for its characters.
@5/Winslow AZ: I have always thought it’s a shame we only got to see one — well, technically two confrontations between Indy and Belloq. You’re right, they did have an interesting rivalry. It’s too bad they killed him off, since it would’ve been nice to have him return. Heck, given that Temple of Doom was actually a prequel, set a year earlier than Raiders, they could’ve still made Belloq the villain there. (Although maybe they thought that would confuse the viewers who missed the date captions. As recently as this past year, I had a conversation with someone who didn’t know ToD was a prequel.) And maybe then we could’ve avoided ToD’s horribly racist, demonizing portrayal of Hindu religion and culture.
@6.
I had never thought of using Belloq again in Temple, but yeah, that could’ve added quite a bit. Truth be told, I too was unaware that that movie was a prequel for a very long time. Embarrassingly long.
Coming from an academic background in archaeology: I’ve always thought of Indy as a very plausible character for his historical setting, being a sort of intermediate species between the Victorian-era gentlemen tomb raiders like Heinrich Schliemann, and the modern academics more interested in data than treasure. He’s got a foot in both of those worlds.
Moreover, attitudes toward cultural treasures have changed in recent decades: Indy’s assertion that such items belong in museums, intended to demonstrate his virtue, now comes across as chauvinistic or misguided in a time when most feel that the best location for such valuable artifacts is in their countries of origin.
But those countries of origin nowadays generally have museums of their own. It is not chauvinistic or misguided to say “this ancient carving from Bolivia shouldn’t be in a cave in the middle of the jungle full of deadly booby-traps, it should be in a nice air-conditioned museum in La Paz where scholars can look at it and study it”. Indy never says “that belongs in my museum”.
@9/ajay: In the classroom scene in Raiders, Indy shows Marcus the few pieces he managed to acquire from the Peruvian temple, and Marcus agrees “the museum will buy them as usual, no questions asked.” An earlier line confirms that Indy’s attempt to acquire the idol was “for the museum,” and Marcus mentions the International Treaty for the Protection of Antiquities with the implication that he’s choosing to look the other way when Indy’s methods violate it. Later on, in the scene in Indy’s apartment, Marcus confirms to Indy that the government men have agreed to let the National Museum have the Ark. So it was, in fact, quite explicit that Indy’s intention was to bring the artifacts he acquired to the United States.
That’s the thing — Indiana Jones isn’t meant to be a pure, clean-cut hero. He’s more of a roguish antihero, basically the archaeological equivalent of the gentleman thief archetype. He’s perfectly happy to steal other countries’ cultural treasures so he can sell them for a profit, but he chooses to sell them to the National Museum rather than to criminals or millionaire hoarders. And Marcus doesn’t worry too much about how Indy got his prizes as long as his museum gets the prestige of having them in its collection.
@10.
Indeed, there’s more than a little Fred C. Dobbs in Indiana Jones, especially the harder edged Indy of Raiders.
Which, slight tangent, is why the now popular criticism of Indy not affecting the plot of that movie doesn’t bother me. If Treasure of the Sierra Madre was an influence, then of course he should be at the mercy of greater forces and glumly walk away in the end without his prize (though much better than what Dobbs got). But unlike Star Wars, with its heroes marching up the steps in triumph, Indy and Marion walk down the steps in the end, no richer but maybe a little wiser. It’s the busted lip noirish ending for a pair of noirish characters. Less about heroes and more about people happy to have survived all that mileage.
@11/Winslow AZ: “then of course he should be at the mercy of greater forces and glumly walk away in the end without his prize (though much better than what Dobbs got).”
He got Karen Allen in the end, so yeah, I’d say he came out of it pretty well.
Indeed, I’d say the core plot of the movie was less about preventing the Nazis from getting the Ark — which was never going to happen given the divine forces involved — and more about preventing Belloq from getting Marion. The Ark was more of a MacGuffin, narratively subordinate to the more personal stakes. And Indy did save Marion, by fighting through to ensure he was with her at the climax and by telling her to keep her eyes closed at all costs.
In the same way, Last Crusade was fundamentally less about the Holy Grail than about Indy mending his relationship with his father. Maybe part of the reason Temple of Doom is less effective is because the personal stakes aren’t on the same level. (Although KotCS has pretty personal stakes with Indy & Marion’s son, but that doesn’t make it a great movie. So it’s not a sure thing.)
In short, the people who say Indy doesn’t affect the plot are defining plot too narrowly. Sure, the events with the Ark may have unfolded the same way without him, but you could say the same about the heroes in a disaster movie. The volcano or earthquake or planetary collision or zombie plague would’ve happened the same way with or without their actions, but the plot is about how they survive the inexorable and save the people they love.
@2 Now that the Young Indy adventures are on Disney Plus, I will take a look at that transition from TV series to books again. And as I recollect, Indy’s WWI adventures were more about survival than learning to fight and kill. The TV series was, after all, intended for children.
@11 I never thought about the symbolism of walking down the steps at the end rather than upward in triumph. Nice observation.
@13/Alan: Yes, but I don’t think Young Indy’s adventures in WWI were entirely bloodless. I mean, there’s an episode where he was at the Battle of Verdun. (Which was the one episode I missed, so I had to buy the comic-book adaptation to find out what happened. I really should rewatch the series on D+ so I can finally see that one. I also appreciate that it’s rearranged in chronological order, a way I always wanted to revisit it, though I gather the movie recuts omit the Old Indy frame sequences.)
@12.
Yes, I like the disaster movie comparison. It’s kind of funny how sneakily personal the Indy movies can be. We get so focused on the plots and MacGuffins we tend to overlook the character work.
Been fun chatting about this. Thanks, all.
Now bring on that Dial of Destiny!
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles were fantastic introductions to history. I still remember with great pleasure the episodes where Indy was caught up in the Russian Revolution, in early Hollywood, and in the Irish Revolution — not to mention that some wonderful actors were in them, starting with the great Margaret Tyzack as his governess. Really happy to learn they’re available on Disney+, I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet & pay their fee for a month or so!
I watched the first of the Young Indy installments on D+ last night. It was frustrating to hear George Hall’s narration from the original premiere episode redubbed by Corey Carrier. And rearranging the episodes in chronological order didn’t work for the premiere, because the premiere movie told two linked stories about Indy dealing with the same stolen artifact at age 9 and then later in his teens. Breaking up the two parts means that the first story just cuts off abruptly without resolution, and there isn’t even any kind of transitional narration to the next part telling an unrelated story. Also, Carrier is clearly significantly older in the second half of the recut movie, since apparently his storylines weren’t filmed in chronological order.
Another consequence of cutting out the Old Indy scenes: They established that Old Indy had an old, timeworn journal packed with accounts of his adventures, a major prop in the show, and the first 9-year-old Indy episode shows Henry Sr. giving Indy the blank journal. In the re-edited movie, that scene has no payoff, aside from the closing shot of the end credits, where you can see Old Indy’s wrinkled hands closing and patting the journal, a shot that no longer has any context.
I’m torn, because I always wanted to rewatch Young Indy in chronological order, but I hate not being able to see the original uncut versions. At the very least, they should’ve kept the pilot movie intact and done the rest chronologically.
@17 I am rewatching Young Indy also, and they seem to be the reshuffled versions from the DVDs I bought years ago. Removing the old Indy framing segments and grafting two stories into a single longer episode definitely created continuity issues and created some choppy endings.
@18/Alan: Yeah, I gather those are the versions Lucas prefers, so the original versions are forever buried in the vaults along with the 1977 cut of Star Wars. I think maybe the Old Indy frame segments were the network’s idea and Lucas didn’t like them, or something like that.
Incidentally, it turns out that the re-edited Young Indy movies aren’t entirely in chronological order after all, or rather, they’ve retconned the chronological order of Corey Carrier’s episodes into a different sequence. The Sean Patrick Flanery episodes are mostly in their original chronological order with one exception.
Also, it turns out that the second half of the pilot movie was newly made in 1996 when Lucas commissioned the re-editing, which explains why Carrier is visibly years older than in the 1992 pilot. That’s just bizarre. I suppose it was necessary since there were only nine Carrier episodes and they needed to expand it to an even number. But then, why not place it at the end of the sequence so it would make sense for Indy to be older? It might be because it’s set in Tangiers, so they put it between the other two Africa segments, Egypt and British East Africa (though that’s a pretty roundabout trip through the continent).
Unfortunately, the show perpetuates a rather stereotyped way of portraying Africa — the first segment is pharaohs and tombs, the second is morally inferior Arabs who keep slaves (with a white reporter who uses brownface to disguise himself as an Arab and is depicted heroically), and the third is nomadic tribesmen who are happy to drop everything in their lives to be helpful to the white hero on safari with Teddy Roosevelt. They were trying to be all “Oh, look how inclusive Indy is since he easily makes friends with black people!”, but it still comes off as culturally condescending, and it completely ignores the rapaciousness of the Scramble for Africa and the struggle of indigenous peoples to resist European conquest and subjugation. It has not aged well.
(Is it inappropriate for me to keep talking about Young Indy in a thread about the novels? I’ll stop if it is.)
@20 Discussion of Indy in all his incarnations is welcome here.
Speaking of that, my wife recently got me two of the new Indiana Jones Lego sets just to be nice. The first was the Well of Souls (the tiny Ark of the Covenant does not have an opening lid, which I appreciated, as I was afraid of my head melting or exploding during assembly). And the second set was a huge one featuring the temple from the opening sequence of the first movie, complete with rolling Lego boulder and all the traps. I always had a few small Lego sets around the house, but since I am retired, I find I enjoy building them. They are like giant, intricate 3D jigsaw puzzles.
@21/Alan: In my childhood, Lego sets were just bricks that you could put together however you wanted; even minifigs didn’t come along until I was ten. My best friend in my preteens had the space set when it came out, and that was awesome, but we built our own spaceship designs and moonscapes out of the pieces provided. I’ve never quite gotten the appeal of Lego sets that are meant to go together a single specific way, though I guess the jigsaw puzzle analogy helps.
I keep noticing scenes in Young Indy where Indy acquires souvenirs or draws pictures in his journal that were probably meant to tie into the Old Indy frame sequences — probably the sort of thing where he came upon the picture or item at the start of the episode and started reminiscing about the adventure it came from. Without the frames, those moments feel a bit disconnected.
I’d also forgotten how bland the actors playing Indy’s parents were. Lloyd Owen is no Sean Connery. He doesn’t even have a Scottish accent most of the time (he’s English).
@22 Indy’s parents were pretty bland, and those first episodes were not my favorites. The episodes where Flanery played teen Indy was my favorite part of the series, especially the ones where he was paired up with his Belgian friend Remy, a likeable rogue.
@23/AlanBrown: Flanery wasn’t bad, but I always had trouble with his complete lack of resemblance to Harrison Ford, particularly his voice, which sounded more like Michael J. Fox. By that age, Indy’s voice should’ve deepened all the way. I actually found Corey Carrier more convincing as someone who could grow up to be Harrison Ford.
The second half of the third Young Indy movie is an episode that apparently never aired on ABC, so this was my first time seeing it. Indy’s mother almost ran off with Giacomo Puccini. I didn’t expect that.
Took me a while, but I finally finished the Corey Carrier portion of Young Indy. I put off watching the last movie, set in Benares and China, because I was worried about how Orientalist and/or condescending it might be, after the flawed handling of the Africa episodes.
The Benares episode, involving Annie Besant’s Theosophical Society and the young Krishnamurti, was actually pretty good at letting Indian society speak for itself about its culture (through Krishnamurti’s lessons to Indy) and taking a more skeptical view toward the Westerners romanticizing and co-opting Eastern spiritualism for their own purposes.
Unfortunately, the China episode was rather exoticizing and uncritically perpetuated a number of stereotypes and anachronisms. It made the common mistake of conflating the currently standing Ming Dynasty iteration of the Great Wall of China with the very different, long-gone Qin Dynasty wall that preceded it by millennia. And the plot involved Indy getting typhoid and needing “Traditional Chinese Medicine” and acupuncture to cure him — even though the idea of “Traditional Chinese Medicine” as a systematic discipline wasn’t invented until the 1950s, when Mao Zedong promulgated it as a patriotic alternative to imperialist Western medicine. And even Mao didn’t believe it actually worked as anything more than a propaganda tool, any more than multiple Chinese scholars over the past few millennia have bought into the clutter of folk superstitions that Western New Agers latched onto as a medical miracle from the exotic East.
One point in the China episode’s favor, though, is that it’s the only time I’ve been impressed with Ruth De Sosa’s acting as Indy’s mother, when he was sick and she got maternally adamant about doing what it took to save him.