Crack that whip
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I'm inclined to go with Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life, or "German East Africa, December 1916" and "The Congo, January 1917".
This is one of the stories I think works beautifully in its "movie" reconfiguration, even with the dubbing and loss of Old Indy and all; even though the two halves are distinct, the first flows into the second wonderfully, and the two parts taken together are so moving and poignant. The Old Indy bookends are essential, and the things lost here do grate, as they always do, but this story also gains from the joining, and this one really works so well as a "movie." I think sometime I'll just have to make a point of watching "German East Africa, December 1916," "The Congo, January 1917" and Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life back-to-back to get the full experience.
I think it does so much to show who Indy really is and how he got to be the way we know him from the feature films - the events in this one episode, perhaps more than any other, do more IMO to shape and mold his philosophical outlook on life. Here he sees colossal waste of human life in fruitless enterprise, very much in keeping with the Verdun material, and yet in the same two-part story he also witnesses noble human endeavor in all its finest. Even if one set aside all the other things we know he's seen and heard and done by the time he's in his mid-thirties, I think the experiences of this one episode go a long way toward showing how the same individual who can be a cavalier, mercenary figure, fallen from the pure faith of archaeology and motivated to some extent by fortune and glory, seemingly unwilling to let romantic commitment hamper his sexual adventurism, can also hold the idealistic, noble spark that drives him to sacrifice his prizes and take on immense personal risk to save innocent lives and liberate powerful relics from evil agency. Albert Schweitzer's "reverence for life" philosophy is, I think, essentially what propels Indiana Jones through the adventure in the temple of doom, the quest for the Ark, etc., when he might be content to walk away with only his own life secure.
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But aside from that? I want to say (to use a mix of original episodes and movie reconfigurations):
? "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal" (the perfect introduction to the show, and bridge from the original movies to it)
?"Paris, September 1908" (an adventurous escapade no less entertaining for taking place entirely during Indy's boyhood, in a metropolitan setting, and in the art world)
?"British East Africa, September 1909"
?"London, May 1916" (featuring the young woman I like to think of as one of the two all-time great loves of Indy's life, the other of course being Marion)
?"Somme, Early August 1916" & "Germany, Mid-August 1916" / Trenches of Hell
?"Verdun, September 1916" & "Paris, October 1916" / Demons of Deception (such starkly contrasting episodes, but at the same time the movie reconfiguration does allow for inclusion of material "too sensitive" for television, and the movie's more powerful for it; if I overlook the omission of the old Indy bookends, it's hard for me to say which I prefer more here, for the moment, though that might change with fresh viewings of both versions)
?(Young Indiana Jones and the) Phantom Train of Doom
?"Barcelona, May 1917" (very funny!)
?Attack of the Hawkmen (featuring IMHO the best aerial combat to date in the entire Indy mythos, whether from TV show, movie, novel, comic or game - the only better Indy fight involving aircraft was set entirely on the ground, near the Tanis dig site; this also has a nicely "adventurous" feel to it, and Indy looks rakish even in a very different leather-based getup from the one in which we're most accustomed to seeing him)
?Treasure of the Peacock's Eye (not too hard to see where this sort of adventuring is going to lead, is it?
- a nice tie to the movie series, even with its different, distinctly YIJ style)
?(Young Indiana Jones and the) Mystery of the Blues (great bookends in this one plus a different sort of philosophical exploration in how it delves into what makes jazz, and a rare Indy screen tale in which the original score takes a back seat to the source cues, for reasons more than warranted)
... and, uh, all the rest. Perhaps I'd better just say I love this show (or better yet, this character and all his adventures, whether for the large screen or the small one)...
This is one of the stories I think works beautifully in its "movie" reconfiguration, even with the dubbing and loss of Old Indy and all; even though the two halves are distinct, the first flows into the second wonderfully, and the two parts taken together are so moving and poignant. The Old Indy bookends are essential, and the things lost here do grate, as they always do, but this story also gains from the joining, and this one really works so well as a "movie." I think sometime I'll just have to make a point of watching "German East Africa, December 1916," "The Congo, January 1917" and Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life back-to-back to get the full experience.
I think it does so much to show who Indy really is and how he got to be the way we know him from the feature films - the events in this one episode, perhaps more than any other, do more IMO to shape and mold his philosophical outlook on life. Here he sees colossal waste of human life in fruitless enterprise, very much in keeping with the Verdun material, and yet in the same two-part story he also witnesses noble human endeavor in all its finest. Even if one set aside all the other things we know he's seen and heard and done by the time he's in his mid-thirties, I think the experiences of this one episode go a long way toward showing how the same individual who can be a cavalier, mercenary figure, fallen from the pure faith of archaeology and motivated to some extent by fortune and glory, seemingly unwilling to let romantic commitment hamper his sexual adventurism, can also hold the idealistic, noble spark that drives him to sacrifice his prizes and take on immense personal risk to save innocent lives and liberate powerful relics from evil agency. Albert Schweitzer's "reverence for life" philosophy is, I think, essentially what propels Indiana Jones through the adventure in the temple of doom, the quest for the Ark, etc., when he might be content to walk away with only his own life secure.
---
But aside from that? I want to say (to use a mix of original episodes and movie reconfigurations):
? "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal" (the perfect introduction to the show, and bridge from the original movies to it)
?"Paris, September 1908" (an adventurous escapade no less entertaining for taking place entirely during Indy's boyhood, in a metropolitan setting, and in the art world)
?"British East Africa, September 1909"
?"London, May 1916" (featuring the young woman I like to think of as one of the two all-time great loves of Indy's life, the other of course being Marion)
?"Somme, Early August 1916" & "Germany, Mid-August 1916" / Trenches of Hell
?"Verdun, September 1916" & "Paris, October 1916" / Demons of Deception (such starkly contrasting episodes, but at the same time the movie reconfiguration does allow for inclusion of material "too sensitive" for television, and the movie's more powerful for it; if I overlook the omission of the old Indy bookends, it's hard for me to say which I prefer more here, for the moment, though that might change with fresh viewings of both versions)
?(Young Indiana Jones and the) Phantom Train of Doom
?"Barcelona, May 1917" (very funny!)
?Attack of the Hawkmen (featuring IMHO the best aerial combat to date in the entire Indy mythos, whether from TV show, movie, novel, comic or game - the only better Indy fight involving aircraft was set entirely on the ground, near the Tanis dig site; this also has a nicely "adventurous" feel to it, and Indy looks rakish even in a very different leather-based getup from the one in which we're most accustomed to seeing him)
?Treasure of the Peacock's Eye (not too hard to see where this sort of adventuring is going to lead, is it?
- a nice tie to the movie series, even with its different, distinctly YIJ style)?(Young Indiana Jones and the) Mystery of the Blues (great bookends in this one
plus a different sort of philosophical exploration in how it delves into what makes jazz, and a rare Indy screen tale in which the original score takes a back seat to the source cues, for reasons more than warranted)... and, uh, all the rest. Perhaps I'd better just say I love this show (or better yet, this character and all his adventures, whether for the large screen or the small one)...
