Indiana Jones was clearly a character that had captured the public’s imagination after three theatrical movies with blockbuster grosses, so executive producer George Lucas decided to move Indy to the small screen with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The series began as a string of hour-long shows, though surprisingly anemic ratings persuaded Lucasfilm to shift to making periodic movie specials instead. The show began with Indiana Jones as a child before catching up with the archaeologist as a late teen/young adult. Although the movies focused on Indiana’s spectacular encounters with fantastical elements, the TV show threw our hero into the middle of historical events, with Junior interacting with luminaries such as Pancho Villa and British suffragettes.

The show now arrives on DVD as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, and some of the hour-long shows have been edited together to form 90-minute features. Volume 2 contains “Trenches of Hell”, “Demons of Deception”, “Phantom Train of Doom”, “Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life”, “Attack of the Hawkmen”, “Adventures in the Secret Service”, “Espionage Escapades”, and “Daredevils of the Desert”. You don’t get the title sequence that played in front of each episode. Instead, each “movie” has a new title card that bills the joined episodes as a chapter that belongs in the same chronology as the theatrical releases.

Volume 1 ended with Indiana Jones falling in love with a suffragette played by Elizabeth Hurley. After she rejects his marriage proposal in favor of focusing on her career, Indy heads to Belgium to fight in World War I on the Allied side. Volume 2 is called “The War Years” as the “movies” take place during the 1914-1918 era. This set is more exciting than Volume 1 as the stories are more focused than the ones seen in the first set. Also, Young Indiana Jones was the first time many American viewers saw stars like Daniel Craig and Catherine Zeta-Jones. (Both are now prominently featured on the cover even though they appeared in only one episode.)

How does Young Indiana Jones stack up against the Spielberg-Lucas-Harrison Ford incarnations? Well, as I wrote in the first paragraph, the TV show focuses on real history instead of supernatural powers, so how much you get out of it depends on what you bring to the table in terms of personal hobbies. Also, for adults, these “movies” may seem a tad didactic and obvious. For example, in “The Perils of Cupid” (from Volume 1), within a matter of minutes, the term “powder keg” is repeated at least six times. For history buffs, this might be laughable, but for young viewers who don’t know anything about pre-WWI geopolitical struggles, Young Indiana Jones does a great job of teaching by repetition. I’m not damning with faint praise; if I had kids, then I’d watch these shows with them in the hopes of getting them interested in history as early as possible.

David McCoy