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The New Adventures of Jonny Quest (1986)

First episode title: Peril of the Reptilian

How familiar with the show am I?: I recognise the name Jonny Quest, but that's about it.

Is this the first episode?: This is a continuation of the 60s TV show "Jonny Quest", but this is unambiguously the first episode of this particular incarnation.

Jonny Quest is a boy who travels around with his father and friends and gets put into all kinds of danger. Why is he doing all this and not going to school? The reasons are vague.

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I should start by going through the main characters more often, shouldn't I? It's a lot less awkward than introducing the characters as they first occur in the episode, I find. I'll still avoid referencing anything about the characters that isn't in the episode itself, unless it becomes critically relevant to the discussion. So, this show features:

• Jonny Quest, an energetic blonde boy, who owns a white dog named Bandit with distinctive black markings around his eyes, hence the name

• Hadji, an Indian boy in a turban who appears to have magic powers

• Dr Quest, with a beard and a suit, a scientist and Jonny's father

• Race Bannon, a white-haired muscly tough guy

Underwater, some fish flee as a reptilian man in an outfit that's mostly a torso strap and shorts swims past. So, there's the episode title explained right away in the first shot. Efficient.

Cut to a building with a bunch of radar dishes on it. A pair of workers inside are commenting on how they haven't detected anything interesting tonight. I suppose this is a military facility, in which case, no news is good news, right?

The lizard man comes out of the water nearby and tears his way through an electric fence - there are visible sparks but he doesn't react at all. And then he starts smashing up a radar pylon with a few swings of his huge tail. The workers notice that, of course, and they grab their guns and run outside, but all they can see is the sparking, smoking wreckage. While they're not looking, the reptilian sneaks inside the building and breaks more equipment with his claws and tail, then flees back into the water, the building burning behind him, the workers never even having spotted him. In this scene, multiple signs are visible on the building that say "IDED" - whether this is supposed to clarify what kind of organisation runs the place, I do not know.

Next, in a lab are three men. Their clear leader is Dr Phorbus, a man with black hair with two white streaks through it, wearing white. He also has a vaguely Igor-ish assistant, an old man with a very slight hunchback but no speech impediment, and a tough guy with a Southern accent and an eyepatch. They are all very pleased to hear reports that the radar base is destroyed and that no-one has any idea who did it, and then the reptilian returns through a pool in the floor that presumably links up to the sea that led to that radar base. There's a blinking red light on the lizard man's chest, and Phorbus, telling assistant Simon that there is so much more he can do, directs a remote control at it, making the creature's eyes glow...

Now we come to an actually labelled US Air Force base. A kind of two-layered aeroplane, like it has a smaller aeroplane with its own cockpit on top of the main body, takes off - we can just about see that the smaller part is labelled "Questor II". In the main cockpit, Dr Quest is driving the plane, and a female general is sitting beside him, complimenting him on how impressive the plane is. Or on his piloting skills. Or both!

Dr Quest sends a message on his radio, from Questor I to Questor II, and inside the smaller plane we find Bannon driving, accompanied by Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit (in Jonny's lap). Dr Quest lets them know they can detach now, and Bannon pulls a lever, causing the smaller plane to separate from the larger one and race ahead independently. The general is of course impressed by this too. The loops the smaller plane does look like they should cause the passengers to experience some brutal G-forces, but everyone is still calmly in their seats when we cut to back inside, even Bandit (although he does cover his eyes with his ears when Bannon announces he's going to do a corkscrew).

There's more praise from the general about the plane's equipment as the plane lands, and she tells Dr Quest there's something she needs him to use it for.

Dr Quest: I had a feeling there was more behind this visit than a simple demonstration.

So, later, everyone is on board the main body of Questor I, Bannon piloting it this time, while everyone else is gathered around a computer. Dr Quest explains that three radar bases on separate islands have now been attacked, leading them to conclude that there must be something in the space between them that's enabling this, whether it's a boat or an underwater base. Now hang on - these attacks are all mysterious ones where they've seen no sign of the perpetrator, but they think they can just make an assumption like that about where they're operating from?

There is a strange amount of cloud cover directly between the islands, and when Bannon takes them through it they find there's a whole uncharted island there! Bandit looks out of the front window eagerly, only for a huge red winged reptile to fly out of the sky in front of them, making Bandit jump back into Jonny's arms. Dr Quest comments that it looks like a pterodactyl but with the head of a brontosaurus. I'd say that it gives the immediate impression of a dragon.

The Questor touches down in a lake surrounded by swampy forest - Jonny is excited by these surroundings but Hadji is now nervous. He should be - as they land, the reptilian is watching from a distance...

Dr Quest and Bannon are preparing to explore in a large wheeled vehicle stored inside the Questor I, which is just that big. Jonny is trying to insist that he and Hadji should be allowed to come too, to get a picture of the flying creature, but he's told it's too dangerous and he has to stay behind. See, this is where the weirdness of this whole set-up is clear. Why does Jonny get taken on all these adventures but get told he's not allowed to help? Bannon says that if he wants Jonny and Hadji's help he'll call them on the "comu-con", patting a device on his hip. A track descends from the plane to let the vehicle out, and it becomes clear that it's amphibious, since it takes them along the surface of the water.

Jonny, befitting his personality, immediately suggests taking a little boat also present in the plane for a "test run". Both Hadji and Bandit seem nervous. By the way, I'd like to note that Bandit is much more cartoonishly drawn than the more realistic human characters - you'd almost expect him to speak!

Dr Quest and Bannon drive up out of the water and through the forest. Unnoticed by them, a flower sprouting from one of the trees opens up to reveal a camera, from which Phorbus is getting a live feed in his base. He zooms in on Dr Quest and comments, "Well well, Benton Quest, after all these years". He gets a little evil laugh in there too. And then he tells Simon to fetch Patch - that's the guy with the eyepatch, of course.

The reptilian is lurking around in the lake as the hatch descends again and Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit go zooming off in the speedboat. Once again, Bandit is the one most scared by what they're doing.

The other vehicle has stopped and Dr Quest and Bannon have got out - Bannon is sure from some tracks on the ground that they're not the only vehicle that has come through here. Dr Quest is just suggesting that they should contact the general and let the military take over, when they hear a noise and look through some bushes to find another huge dinosaur hybrid, most prominently having the back plates of a stegosaurus. Then they go to rush back to the vehicle only to find it's being attacked by another hybrid, this one with the horns of a triceratops and the sail of a dimetrodon. And what I think is an ankylosaurus's tail club? Dr Quest is identifying all the parts he can but he doesn't get a chance to say that one as Bannon says they need to get away from there, which is right, to be fair.

But then Simon and Patch appear, Simon firing some sort of laser gun at the dinosaur, chasing it away. Dr Quest thanks him, but he explains that this stun gun is equally useful against dinosaurs and "unwelcome visitors", and he points it at Dr Quest and Bannon! That seems rather unnecessary this early on - he could probably have got them to go where he wants with a convincing story of what they could find on this island first, and only revealed his true nature when necessary. But, as I always say, I love a stupid villain.

In the swamp, the speedboat has reached an edge of the water and Jonny and Hadji have got out, Jonny taking pictures of the place with his little camera. He decides to get a picture of Hadji and tells him to say "cheese", and Hadji responds that in India they say "Ganges". A bit stereotypical to have him say something to do with his country, but at least it's a word that would actually make you do the "cheese" mouth movement rather than something that is only there for the joke. Unseen by them, the reptilian emerges from the water and grabs the boat, pulling it away. Bandit is still asleep on top of it!

Hadji turns around at the sound of a roar - a huge purple T-Rex-like dinosaur with wings has emerged from the forest. I have to say it - Barney? The roar wakes up Bandit, and his barks alert the boys to the fact that the boat is drifting away (the reptilian has disappeared but he already got the boat moving). I had no idea up until this point that Hadji had any kind of magical powers, so it was a bit random when he started waving his hands and shouting "sim sim salabim" until the rope attached to the boat started floating towards the boys so that they could pull it back to shore. And Jonny tells Hadji he needs to teach him how to do that, so it's not an innate power either. No idea what's up with that. The purple dinosaur is still coming towards the pair, so they get in the boat and speed away.

Simon and Patch are now driving the big vehicle and have Dr Quest and Bannon captive in the back. Simon tells Dr Quest he's taking them to a reunion with Dr Phorbus, and Dr Quest recognises that as the name of a biochemist. Whether he already knew that Phorbus is a bad guy isn't stated yet. Then Bannon surreptitiously presses a button in his belt, and, back on the boat, something starts flashing red on the console, letting Jonny and Hadji know that the other two are in trouble. Now, obviously the boys aren't supposed to be on the boat, so I can only assume that they would have received the same signal if they had been on the plane too. Anyway, Jonny swerves the boat to take them to the origin of the signal. The boys are both in seatbelts but Bandit seems to be hanging on for dear life on one of the seats!

Phorbus's lair is actually a big metal structure with spider leg style struts sticking out of it in all directions. Outside of it, the captives are meeting with Phorbus, Simon still pointing the laser pistol at them, and Dr Quest remarks that Phorbus is up to his old tricks - ah, so he was aware of what this guy was like already, then.

Phorbus boasts about his hybrid experiments, and about the fact that his base has a shield which means they'll never be able to harm him. Apparently it specifically gets dangerous around sundown, and the animators have paid attention to this mention of the time of day and have coloured the sky appropriately, and, even though this show isn't big on shading, have also added some plain black shadows onto the characters to give the impression of a low sun - however, this ends up making it look in several shots as if Phorbus has a beard.

Dr Quest then asks Phorbus whether the boys will be safe - Phorbus says that they'll be fine if they weren't stupid enough to go outside the jet. Now, even though Dr Quest obviously doesn't know about their initial trip in the boat, he has since called them for help, so he will certainly be worried that they're in danger now. Patch says that, if they are that stupid, they're "reptile meat". I think he means reptile food... reptile meat sounds like it means something different.

Speaking of the boys, they're still on the speedboat tracking Dr Quest and Bannon, when the reptilian pops up out of the water, and grabs hold of the boat - this guy is so strong that it actually prevents this seemingly jet-propelled boat from moving! He grabs Jonny out of the boat, which somehow doesn't just go speeding off without him, and it looks like something terrible is about to happen... when the red light on the reptilian's chest blinks, and he puts Jonny down and walks away through the water. Hilariously, the timid Bandit starts barking at the lizardman now that he's clearly not going to attack! Jonny states the obvious by speculating that someone must have called him off.

In Phorbus's base, he explains to Dr Quest and Bannon that he cloned his dinosaurs from DNA retrieved from fossilised bones, as he holds a bone up in demonstration. Why are you touching a valuable fossil with your bare hands, Phorbus? You are a scientist! You should know better!

Dr Quest: I imagine certain foreign interests paid a great deal for those secrets.

Dr Phorbus: And they'll pay even more for my ultimate creation!

I believe this show is just meant to be set vaguely in the future, so it's no wonder they're vague about what foreign countries might be enemies. Were they thinking Soviet, or something else? As Phorbus mentions his ultimate creation, the reptilian steps out of the pool by way of demonstration, and the captives are shocked as Phorbus explains that the lizardman is made out of DNA from dinosaur and human bones. He does say bones, implying fossils, but you have to wonder if he's killed anyone for these experiments... Bannon realises that the reptilian was what attacked the radar bases, and Simon explains it was a test of his capabilities, as Phorbus unveils a whole army of as-yet-inactive reptilians stored in chambers in the walls, ready for sale to foreign nations.

Dr Quest walks towards Phorbus, calling him a madman. So Simon points the gun at him, but Bannon expertly kicks the gun out of Simon's hand. Phorbus orders the reptilian into battle - he wraps his tail around Bannon's leg and dangles him upside down to prevent him reaching the dropped gun. The reptilian definitely seems strong enough to just thwack Bannon down on the ground and smash him to pieces here. But that wouldn't be child-friendly now would it? So Phorbus's plan will not be so simple.

The speedboat reaches the end of the swamp, but it has a trick we hadn't seen yet - Hadji and Jonny each take one section out of the back of the boat, and those removed sections transform into futuristic one-wheeled motorcycles! Bandit hops onto Jonny's one and off they ride! As they go, they comment on how there might be some of those dinosaur hybrids nearby, but luckily for now they manage to miss them all.

They discover the edge of the forcefield that protects the lair, which is portrayed as some vertical yellow glowing bars - it seems like the idea is that a human can just walk between the bars but none of the dinosaurs would fit. And, just outside the forcefield, Simon and Patch have tied Bannon to a tree, intending for the dinosaurs to get him! It's just so weird that they do want him dead, but didn't just have the reptilian, a supposed super-soldier, do it himself... They leave him tied up to be eaten and go back through the forcefield.

Jonny and Hadji motorcycle over to Bannon and start to untie him, but the big purple dinosaur steps through the forest towards them! Bannon heroically tells the boys to leave him and run through the forcefield, but obviously they're not going to do that. Instead, Jonny gets back on his motorcycle and starts circling around the hybrid to distract it while Hadji continues untying Bannon. At one point the dinosaur successfully knocks Jonny off the motorcycle with its huge tail, but Jonny gets out his camera and uses the flash, which makes it cover its eyes. How did he know its eyes would be so sensitive? Or is the flash just so strong that it would've blinded Hadji if he'd used it on full blast on him? Bannon and Hadji get through the forcefield and Jonny just makes it after them, the big dinosaur slamming into it repeatedly and getting repelled.

In the base, the reptilian has his big tail around Dr Quest, while Phorbus and Simon explain to him that his jet is going to crash land in the ocean for everyone to assume that he and his party had died. But then the lights start flickering, and we see outside that the dinosaur's repeated attempts to break the forcefield are causing a malfunction - and it seems to work! The forcefield disappears! ...At least, it did look like the dinosaur caused it, but then, in the base, Patch reports that the cables were cut, and holds up an axe which he says he found near the generator. Are... are we meant to recognise that axe? Have I missed a plot point somewhere? It never gets mentioned again. I'm very confused by this.

There's nothing between the people outside and the huge dinosaur, and everyone inside starts running around in a panic too, as they can hear it coming. Simon is specifically trying to find the stunner gun, which we last saw dropped on the floor. Dr Quest escapes the lizardman's clutches in the confusion and Jonny calls to him from outside, so Dr Quest is able to escape the building and join Jonny, Hadji, and Bannon in the big vehicle. It actually looks quite a way down from the upper level of the base that he's on to the ground level where the vehicle is waiting, and they kind of just gloss over how he makes it down.

The dinosaur gets right up close to Phorbus's lair now, its face right outside the window, so the reptilian smashes the window with his tail and jumps onto the dinosaur's head, basically wrestling it! Simon finds the gun, but it's too late - in the struggle, the dinosaur gets slammed into the building, which starts to collapse. There's an explosion effect and the whole place catches fire. On the vehicle driving away, everyone speculates on whether anyone made it out alive, but it really didn't seem like there was enough time.

Indeed, the next scene is the whole party back on Questor I, saying that they checked all through the ruins and there was no sign of anyone alive. It's daytime now, so that search must have taken all night. Then Bandit starts barking at something down below, and they look to see the reptilian emerging again from the swamp water, shaking his fists towards them. Of course, he was outside with the dinosaur when the lair was destroyed, so it looks like he got away. Bannon and Dr Quest comment on the weird cloud cover again as they fly away from the island:

Dr Quest: Cover for a mad scientist, with a mad dream.

Well, one thing I do have to say about this show - given that it's intentionally keeping to the style of a 1960s cartoon, and a Hanna-Barbera one at that, I was impressed by the quality of the animation here. The story wasn't bad either, but the characters themselves didn't leave much of an impression on me. Still, I won't be dismissing it completely.