Line #22 Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yijcposter_1784.jpg]]
2
3	->''Before the world discovered Indiana, Indiana discovered the world.''
4
5	A television series featuring the adventures of the silver-screen archaeologist Franchise/IndianaJones in his childhood and teen years, wherein he had a [[BeenThereShapedHistory remarkable tendency]] to keep [[InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous encountering famous people]] and events. The series was conceived and produced by the films' co-creator Creator/GeorgeLucas, who drafted a 70-item timeline of interesting moments in Indy's young life for writers to take story ideas from. The concept was inspired by the first act of the popular ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', which depicted Indiana as a teenager.
6
7	It originally aired from 1992 to 1993, taking the form of hour-long episodes, as ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles''. The series principally showcased Indy at the ages of 9-10 (as played by Corey Carrier) and 16-up (as played by Creator/SeanPatrickFlanery). The Carrier episodes focus on Indy touring the globe alongside his parents as part of a world lecture tour given by his father, a noted medieval scholar. The Flanery episodes primarily deal with Indy's service in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, in just about every theater you can think of. In each episode, Indy would meet some famous person from the early 20th century, and learn some sort of moral lesson. Yes, Lucas very openly envisioned the series as {{edutainment\|show}}.
8
9	Notably, the show aired in an extremely AnachronicOrder, with Carrier's and Flanery's episodes often alternating. This may have hurt the series in the long run. The writers produced scripts for three seasons' worth of episodes, including some stories that would introduce more characters from the films. However, the show was cancelled after its second season, before those episodes could be shot. Nonetheless, four additional TV movies were later broadcast from 1994 to 1996, which incorporated some material from the various unproduced scripts (though not from the ones which featured more of the films' characters, sadly).
10
11	George Lucas prided ''Young Indy'' on managing a film-level quality production on a television budget, helped by revolutions in digital technology, and he has said that the show was partly a test to see how far he could take the later ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels. Also like ''Star Wars'', the series was subject to subsequent [[ReCut furious re-editing by Lucas]], the new cuts first showing up during re-airings in the late 90s.
12
13	This re-cut version, with new footage added and other parts removed, is the only one currently available on DVD: it's known as ''The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones''. The ''Adventures'' combines the original ''Chronicles'' episodes into two-hour tele-movies, two shows per film (often in a quite different, and much more strictly chronological, order than in the original airings). Again, some of the newly shot material was based on the unfilmed ''Chronicles'' scripts. In keeping with the show's semi-educational nature the [=DVDs=] also feature numerous well-researched half-hour documentaries, which place the historical personages and events of the various episodes in context.
14
15	A notable proportion of Indy fans, regardless of their opinions of the series as a whole, refuse to accept the ''Chronicles'' FramingDevice, which depicts Indy as a one-eyed, possibly-senile nonagenarian (played by George Hall), pottering around suburbia and boring people (including his daughter and grandchildren) with reminisces of his GloryDays. It may or may not be significant that the Old Indy sequences were the first thing to be thrown out of the ''Adventures'' release, although his hand can be glimpsed closing Indy's diary at the end of the closing titles. One special feature-length broadcast of the original series, however, featured Creator/HarrisonFord playing a late middle-aged Indy in its framing device; this was kept.
16
17	In Summer 2023, a little over ten years after Creator/{{Lucasfilm}}'s acquisition by Creator/{{Disney}} in 2012, the entire series was made available for streaming on Creator/DisneyPlus (along with all of the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films) in preparation for the release of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny''.
18
19	----
20	!!''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' provides examples of:
21
22	* AffablyEvil: Embodied by several German officers whom Indy encounters.
23	** Manfred von Richthofen was very much so in "Attack of the Hawkmen". After shooting down the plane Indy was riding in and taking him prisoner, Richtofen invites him to have a nice lunch with several other German pilots (including a young Hermann Göring).
24	** Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was also quite affable in "Phantom Train of Doom". Even while actively trying to evade capture by the Allied forces, Lettow calmly discusses military tactics with Indy; and even after finally being defeated, he gifts Indy with a compass to show no hard feelings.
25	* AnachronicOrder: The episodes were initially broadcast in anachronic order. For the home video release, they were re-edited and put in chronological order.
26	* AncientGrome: Humorously invoked in "Athens, July 1910" when Indy and his father visit the ruins of an Ancient Greek amphitheater in Athens.
27	-->'''Indy:''' ''Wow!'' I bet there were lions and gladiators!\
28	'''Professor Jones:''' Junior, lions and gladiators were ''Roman'', not Greek.
29	* ArtisticLicenseGeography:
30	** The plot of "The Phantom Train of Doom" is kicked off when Indy and Rémy accidentally board a train to Moshi, Tanzania while trying to travel from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, and end up hopelessly lost in the middle of the savanna. In reality, Moshi and Lake Victoria are ''both'' west of Mombasa, and Moshi is about halfway between Mombasa and Lake Victoria -- so a train from Mombasa to Moshi would travel in roughly the same direction as a train from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, and their initial mistake shouldn't have gotten them ''that'' lost. They also somehow end up passing Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to Moshi, even though Moshi and Mount Kilimanjaro are roughly the same distance from Mombasa.[[note]] Moshi is, in fact, the capital of the Kilimanjaro Region, so Mount Kilimanjaro is visible from most areas in the municipality.[[/note]]
31	** In the first episode, Indy and Miss Seymour visit the Pyramids of Giza and wind up stranded in the Sahara after their guides abandon them. But Giza isn't a remote area in the middle of the Sahara -- it's a heavily populated suburb of Cairo. "Stranding" someone in Giza is akin to stranding someone in Long Island.
32	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Sometimes in play, what with the show's propensity to have Indy interact with real people and bear witness to (or get involved in) real events, which sometimes get altered due to RuleOfDrama as a result. There's even a disclaimer to this effect that appears in the closing credits:
33	-->''This is a work of fiction. While Indiana Jones is portrayed as taking part in historical events and meeting real figures in history, many characters in the story as well as the situations and scenes have been invented. In addition, where real historical figures and events are described, in some cases the chronology and historical facts have been altered for dramatic effect.''
34	** In "Peking, March 1910", Miss Seymour pronounces the name of the [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Qin Dynasty]] (pronounced "Chin") as "Quin", and a Chinese guide promptly corrects her. This implies she was mispronouncing the Pinyin transcription, but the Pinyin romanization wasn't developed until the 1950s and took a few more decades before it became the standard. In 1910 the Wade-Giles romanization was the most commonly used, which transcribed the name phonetically as "Ch'in".
35	** [[Creator/StratemeyerSyndicate Edward Stratemeyer]] didn't have a daughter named Literature/{{Nancy\|Drew}}; his daughters were named Edna and Harriet.
36	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Contrary to what "Peking, March 1910" suggests, acupuncture is near-universally recognized as a pseudoscience, and has never been proven effective as a treatment for illness. The idea that acupuncture could cure typhoid fever is questionable at best.
37	* BaitAndSwitch: In "Florence, 1908", Music/GiacomoPuccini tries to convince Anna to leave her husband for him, and tells her to meet him at the train station so that they can run away together. Then at the end of the episode, Anna shows up at the train station where Puccini is waiting for her; [[spoiler:it turns out that she's there to greet Henry, who's returning from his lecture]].
38	%% * {{Bandito}}: "Mexico, March 1916".
39	* BeenThereShapedHistory: Riding with Pancho Villa, hanging out with Creator/PabloPicasso, losing his virginity to UsefulNotes/MataHari, inspiring the RedBaron to paint his plane red, helping [[UsefulNotes/TELawrence Lawrence of Arabia]] take Beersheba, competing for a girl's affections with Creator/ErnestHemingway and investing a murder by UsefulNotes/AlCapone are just some of the ''less'' extreme contrivances in young Indy's life. If someone's famous in the 20th century, chances are Indy has befriended, antagonized or slept with them. Well, it was a historical {{edutainment show}}...
40	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: In "Benares, January 1910", Miss Seymour discovers (much to her frustration) that she can't convince Annie Besant that Charles Webster Leadbeater's psychic visions are fraudulent, even after she discovers an early version of his prophecies that proves it. Leadbeater smugly allows her to take his book of prophecies out of his office because he knows that no amount of evidence will convince Annie to question her beliefs.
41	* BittersweetEnding: A very common thing in this series. Indiana Jones isn't able to change the course of [=WW1=] or human history in general. Very often, Indy DidNotGetTheGirl or isn't able to save some of his friends.
42	* BreatherEpisode: "Barcelona: May 1917", in which Indy meets a bunch of bumbling international spies (led by Creator/MontyPython's Terry Jones) and "Prague: August 1917", in which Indy embarks on a quest to install a telephone in his room...and meets Creator/FranzKafka. The two are combined in the ''Adventures'' version as "Espionage Escapades".
43	* CallForward: The Peacock's Eye is the diamond which Indiana Jones is seeking in ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''. It adds a bit more to his treasure hunting that not only was he seeking something he'd been after for decades, but he lost two friends over it.
44	* CassandraGambit: "Palestine, October 1917": Indy and his Arab cohort stage an elaborate con in Ottoman-occupied Beersheba whereby they "reveal" that 50,000 Allied troops are about to attack, which the German liaison officer, Schiller, scornfully dismisses as an elaborate illusion; consequently, the Turks are less than fully prepared when said 50,000 men crash into their defenses. Lampshaded by the more savvy Turkish commander, Colonel Bey: "An old proverb came to mind: 'A skillful liar will tell his enemy the truth, and convince him it's a lie.'"
45	* CharacterDevelopment:
46	** Watch the Young Indy series and see him slowly grow more and more cynical and wily, especially during his activities during WWI. The first time he shoots someone ever (during the Mexican Revolution) he actually ''apologizes'' afterward.
47	** Young Indy has to learn his famous IndyPloy the hard way, as when he does try to plan things out they never go as he intends.
48	** In "The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", the originally warm and joyful Rémy becomes chilly and unpleasant as he becomes progressively more obsessed with finding the titular treasure. Indy, meanwhile, gradually comes to realize that he cares more about learning about the past than about looking for treasure. This finally leads to the two friends breaking up, and Indy deciding to return home.
49	* CoolOldGuy: Old Indy definitely has his moments in the bookend sections.
50	* ContinuityNod: In "Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life", Indy miraculously survives a gunshot wound in a battle in Kenya after the bullet strikes a locket on his necklace. Said locket is the one that Princess Sophie gave him as a child in "Vienna, November 1908".
51	* DarkerAndEdgier:
52	** Some WWI episodes such as "Trenches of Hell" and "Demons of Deception", despite the BloodlessCarnage, still show a gritty picture of trench warfare.
53	** "Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life". While Indy and Rémy travel with an army unit from the Belgian Congo across the African frontier, many of their men become extremely ill and die, including [[spoiler:Barthelemy]].
54	* ADayInTheLimelight: One episode focusing on Indy and his father (''Travels With Father'', especially the second half), and two focusing on Indy and his mother (the second halves of both Perils of Cupid and Journey of Radience).
55	* DeadlyGas: Indy witnesses poison gas attacks while serving in France. In at least one instance, the terror is amplified when [[KillItWithFire flamethrower teams]] emerge from the gas cloud.
56	* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
57	** In "Tangiers, 1908", the Jones family and Ms. Seymour arrive in Morocco, where chattel slavery is still legal. They have a debate with a local nobleman regarding the morality of slavery.
58	** In "Princeton, 1919" and "Chicago, 1920", Indy encounters some racist hostility for being a white guy trying to befriend black people.
59	** In "Hollywood Follies" while visiting a movie stage, Indy witnesses a snow scene being filmed, in which they blow powdered asbestos as snow to the face of the actress.
60	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Zyke, the one-eyed thief from "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", is initially implied to be the story's primary antagonist. [[spoiler:He abruptly dies at the halfway point after being betrayed by one of his accomplices.]]
61	* DownerEnding: A few episodes end on a less-than-high-note:
62	** "Love's Sweet Song" ends with Indy's girlfriend rejecting his marriage proposal, and even failing to talk again just before Indy is sent to the front lines of World War I.
63	** "Adventures in the Secret Service" ends with Indy [[CassandraTruth failing to warn]] his Bolshevik friend activists that the Cossack army is waiting for them with guns ready, as a result one of his friends is killed.
64	** "Mystery of the Blues" ends with the corrupt police chief burning the evidence that incriminates Capone and warning Indy not to meddle, a depressed Indy then starts playing the Blues.
65	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Most of the first episode with teenage Indy is in Spanish with English subtitles, both from the Mexican characters and Indy himself. This is a severe contrast to later episodes where TranslationConvention and JustAStupidAccent is the norm, with foreign dialogue only present when the script strictly called for it (e.g. Indy showing his knowledge of the German language when he volunteers for intelligence gathering in the Western Front).
66	* EdutainmentShow: The time period of the show permitted many historical figures and events to appear, although significant liberties were also taken.
67	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: In "The Phantom Train of Doom", the titular train is hidden in a tunnel inside a mountain, the entrance to which is disguised as a dead-end siding, with the tunnel door itself heavily camouflaged. The tunnel also contains living quarters for the train's crew and its detachment of soldiers, as well as a telegraph system to maintain contact with headquarters.
68	* EstablishingShot: A given in a show like this.
69	* ExpandedUniverse: The ''Chronicles'' spawned a 12-issue comic book series in 1992-3 from Dark Horse. These comics were more-or-less faithful adaptations of eight early ''Chronicles'' episodes, including the two-hour pilot. They even included the Old Indy bookend narration segments (although unlike his TV counterpart, the Old Indy of the comics doesn't wear an eyepatch, still having both eyes intact). There was one comic not based on an episode: ''Mid-Atlantic, April 1916'' (placed chronologically between ''Mexico'' and ''Ireland'').
70	* EyepatchOfPower: Senior-citizen-Indy sported one of these over his right eye, complete with a nasty facial scar trailing out from beneath. Because of the large time gap between the present-day (well, 1990s) ''Chronicles'' framing segments and the 1930s period films, this is also an EyepatchAfterTimeSkip.
71	%%* ForeignCorrespondent
72	%%* FramingDevice
73	* GenreShift:
74	** From TwoFistedTales to a edutainment series with far more family friendly content, and none of the [[ArtifactOfDeath Artifacts of Death]] the films were known for. Young Indy doesn't even have his whip.
75	** "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" is an adventure story for its first two thirds, but takes a markedly dramatic turn toward in its last third. After tangling with double-crossing thieves and a gang of Chinese pirates, Indy and Rémy ultimately spend the last act contemplating life and philosophy with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronis%C5%82aw_Malinowski Bronisław Malinowski]] while living with a group of Trobriand Islanders. It culminates in a BittersweetEnding when they realize that the {{Macguffin}} was just a stone, leading to the two of them parting ways.
76	* GirlOfTheWeek: To the point where, at one point. he ends up dating ''three'' girls at once — and gets his face shoved in a cake for his troubles. Another episode sees him in a relationship with none other than UsefulNotes/MataHari.
77	* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: Happens in "Athens, July 1910" (the second half of ''Travels with Father'') when Indy and Professor Jones go swimming nude in the ocean. While they're in the water, their clothes are ''eaten'' by a flock of sheep.
78	* GrailInTheGarbage: "Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom" depicts German troops in Africa using their old documents as field expedient toilet paper, which the British exploit to gain valuable intelligence. Zigzagged, however, as the Germans are well aware of their "toilet paper's" usefulness to enemy spies, this is simply a convenient means of disposal that also alleviates a supply problem.
79	* GreatWhiteHunter: UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt is portrayed this way in an episode set in Kenya in 1909. He kills dozens of rare animals in order to have them shipped back to America so that they can be displayed in museums, where ordinary people can come to be educated about them. Indiana eventually gets him to see the contradiction of someone who has such high regard for animals shooting so many of them.
80	* GreenAesop: "British East Africa, September 1909", where Indy learns the importance of sustainable hunting after meeting former President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, who's trying to find a rare fringe-eared oryx so that he can shoot it and display its taxidermized body in a museum. While Indy is unable to dissuade Roosevelt from killing the oryx, he convinces him to leave most of its herd alive so that the local population will be able to repopulate. He also proves that the oryx only became a rare animal because it depends on a local plant that was nearly wiped out by human development -- demonstrating that all living things are connected.
81	* HalloweenEpisode: Though not aired (in the USA at least) during the initial series run, "Transylvania, January 1918" seems to have been intended as one with its bookends of Old Indy with trick-or-treaters, supernatural plot, and the villain of the episode being [[spoiler:a reincarnated {{UsefulNotes/Vlad\|TheImpaler}} {{Dracula}}.]]
82	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Indy and Rémy in the war episodes.
83	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Indy meets many people who were already famous during his lifetime or would be become more famous in later decades (for a sample, see below under InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous).
84	* {{Homage}}:
85	** Part of the "Prague, August 1917" episode involves Indy (who's just trying to get a phone installed so he can take an urgent call) struggling with insane bureaucracy and even being arrested, tried and jailed for no very good reason. [[note]]Fortunately he manages to secure his release by signing a form which states that his arrest was due to a bureaucratic error.[[/note]]This is a massive ShoutOut to Creator/FranzKafka's ''The Trial'' - not surprising, since Kafka later turns up as a character - but very much PlayedForLaughs, as is the entire episode.
86	** The first half of the Congo storyline (aka ''Oganga, The Giver And Taker Of Life'') has '''a lot''' of parallels both to ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'' and ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', with Indy's regiment going through a long trek through the jungle and down the Congo river that increasingly threatens everyone's sanity. Both films draw heavily from ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', which was also set in Africa.
87	** "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" was pretty clearly inspired (at least in part) by ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''. The titular {{Macguffin}} was supposedly once part of a priceless gold statue of a bird with diamond eyes, and the villains plan to sell it to a mysterious figure referred to as "The Fat Man". And just like in that film, [[spoiler:it ultimately turns out that the {{Macguffin}} [[AllForNothing wasn't really the priceless treasure that the characters thought it was]]]].
88	* HotterAndSexier: The UsefulNotes/MataHari episode has a lot of bed scenes with her and Indy, and has her belly-dancing for his pleasure.
89	* HowUnscientific: The Transylvania episode.
90	* IAmDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: The... Eye... of the Peacock! THE EYE... OF THE PEACOCK!! {{Subverted\|Trope}}, however, in that Indy and Rémy have to find the map on the guy's corpse rather than him ''giving'' it to them.
91	* IKnowKarate: Indy himself briefly, Northern-Style Kung-Fu to be exact, on the South-China seas.
92	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Selous destroying an entire train in East Africa, with a single shot, from about a mile away!
93	* InSeriesNickname: During his childhood, Indy is still primarily called "Henry" by most people in his life. But he's "Indy" to his friends, and "Junior" to his father.
94	* IndyPloy: We find out where Indy learned it from.
95	* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Indiana Jones meets countless celebrities of his day. Some people who were already famous around the time he met him, others [[YoungFutureFamousPeople would become celebrities in later decades]]. Among them are UsefulNotes/TELawrence, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, Joseph Joffre, Albert Schweitzer, Emperor Karl of Austria, UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, UsefulNotes/MataHari, Creator/PabloPicasso, Sidney Bechet, UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, Music/GeorgeGershwin, Princess Sophie of Austria-Hungary, UsefulNotes/CarlJung, UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud, Alfred Adler, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Creator/FranzKafka, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Sean O'Casey, Creator/NormanRockwell, Krishnamurti, Annie Besant, Mustafa Ataturk, Music/GiacomoPuccini, Creator/ErichVonStroheim, Creator/JohnFord, Manfred von Richthofen (aka the RedBaron), Anthony Fokker and Creator/LeoTolstoy. Even that little boy he saved from a smallpox-stricken village in Africa [[note]] in the Old Indy bookend, he is stated to have been a young Barthelemy Boganda, the first President of the Central African Republic [[/note]]!
96	* {{Irony}}:
97	** The series' original airings ended with a Creator/{{Paramount}} Television logo that had a jingle that sounded like the theme to fellow Lucasfilm property ''Franchise/StarWars''. It's actually a re-arrangement of "Paramount on Parade". During the time this series aired, Paramount owned the rights to ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Trek]]''. All episodes of ''Star Trek'' series aired between 1987-2005 ended with a logo that used this jingle.
98	** At the end of "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", Indy and Rémy decide to part ways after Indy decides that he doesn't want to waste his life on a fruitless quest for the titular diamond, while Rémy refuses to give up looking for it. This is incredibly ironic if you know that Indy is the one who ultimately finds the diamond: the Peacock's Eye is the diamond from the opening of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''
99	* LighterAndSofter: Almost any episode involving Kid Indy (played by Corey Carrier), which usually lack the violence found in episodes about Teen / Young Adult Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery).
100	* LineOfSightAlias: When joining the Belgian Army underage under an assumed name ("Henri Défense", from "Défense de Fumer/No Smoking"). Rémy points out how dumb this is and explains that he didn't even have to do it in the first place as the Belgian Army at the time (1916) accepted almost any able-bodied volunteer regardless of age or nationality (although Indy does lie about his age as well).
101	* LooseCanon: In relation to the movies; WordOfGod [[invoked]]described the Creator/HarrisonFord films as InUniverse adaptations of the actual Henry Walton Jones Jr's life, and the series was to tell the ''real'' history. References to the show did show up in further ''Indiana Jones'' media, as when Indy talks about meeting Pancho Villa in ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]''.
102	* LoveTriangle: Between Indy, a young Creator/ErnestHemingway, and a beautiful Italian girl. In the end [[spoiler: [[TakeAThirdOption the girl marries her childhood friend]]]].
103	* MamasBoy: As a child, Indy is considerably closer to his mother than his father (with whom he often has a strained relationship). In the opening of the very first episode, he outright describes her as "the sweetest, smartest, and most wonderful woman who ever lived".
104	* MrFanservice: Probably not originally intended that way, but with as often as Sean Patrick Flanery [[ShirtlessScene takes his shirt off]]...
105	* MsFanservice:
106	** The legendary UsefulNotes/MataHari, in the series' big HotterAndSexier episode.
107	** Creator/CatherineZetaJones has a belly-dancing scene in ''Daredevils Of The Desert''.
108	* MultinationalTeam: [[OldSoldier The 25th Royal Fusiliers]] in "The Phantom Train of Doom" include the British big game hunter Frederick Selous, the British spy Donald Parks, the Texan cowboy Bill "Big Mac" Macmillan, the Australian sailor Birdy Soles, the Kenyan tracker Mr. Golo, and the Hungarian circus performer Zoltan--plus Indy, a hapless American teenager serving in the Belgian Army.
109	* MusicalEpisode: Both "Mystery of the Blues" and "The Scandal of 1920".
110	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In "Athens, July 1910" (the second half of ''Travels with Father''), Indy and Professor Jones are forced to walk to a Greek monastery naked after their clothes are eaten by sheep while they're bathing in the ocean. It's PlayedForLaughs.
111	* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Done in the name of RuleOfCool, and to allow for a greater variety of stories. Indy's service in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI sees him fighting on the Western Front, East Africa, Palestine ''and'' Italy -- and he serves as a soldier (rising to the rank of captain), a motorcycle courier, an aerial reconnaissance photographer and a spy (in that order); that last one sees him travel to various places in addition to the afore-mentioned war theatres. All before his twentieth birthday! There weren't many real World War I veterans who served in so many roles.
112	* NomDeGuerre: In the war episodes, Indy is referred to by the name of "Henri Défense" -- this being the name he used when he signed up with the Belgian Army in 1916, even though it was not necessary for him to use an alias as the Belgians were by that point not fussed about where their recruits came from.
113	* NonIndicativeName: Despite the title, only the second half of ''Travels with Father'' is ''actually'' about Indy travelling with his father; the first half is about him running away after a fight with his parents. This is because the film is a mashup of two Corey Carrier episodes that were filmed, but never made it to air during the original series' run due to its cancellation; they were originally supposed to be titled "Russia, March 1909" and "Athens, July 1910".
114	* NoodleIncident: The history of the eyepatch.
115	* NostalgicNarrator: Senior-citizen-Indy. And, in "Mystery of the Blues", [[Creator/HarrisonFord MOVIE Indy.]]
116	* {{Oireland}}: The episode featuring the Easter Rising. Humorously, the first half or so of the episode consists of Sean O'Casey and Sean Lemass complaining about the stereotypical "Oirish" portrayal of their nation, then drops straight into the same stereotypes that were lambasted earlier.
117	* OldSoldier: Four soldiers still fighting on the Allies' side in Africa in ''The Phantom Train of Doom'' movie.
118	* {{Omniglot}}: Following the advice of T.E. Lawrence, 9-year-old Indy takes care of learning the local language of every country the family visits during their world tour. At 16 he engages in a duel of languages with the daughter of a diplomat, but loses because he can't speak Welsh. Later in the series he has a similar exchange with an American Intelligence officer, and forces a draw by using sign language.
119	* OncePerEpisode: If you're watching one of the Corey Carrier episodes, Indy will almost certainly sneak away from his family at some point to go exploring (most likely while he's supposed to be studying).
120	* ParanormalEpisode: "Transylvania, January 1918" involves Indy and a team of spies visiting an apparently haunted Transylvanian castle and trying to find a rogue Romanian general, who is heavily implied to be some kind of {{Dracula}}-style vampire.
121	* ParentsAsPeople: The series isn't shy about portraying Indy's parents as three-dimensional human beings with their fair share of virtues and flaws. Henry is a frequently grumpy and humorless man with a bit of a temper, and Anna (briefly) contemplates having an affair.
122	* PhonyPsychic: Charles Webster Leadbeater, the leader of the Theosophical Society, is strongly implied to be one in "Benares, January 1910". Miss Seymour attempts to expose him after discovering that he heavily edited his "prophecies" to make his benefactors happy.
123	* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The team of Allied spies Indy meets in "Barcelona: May 1917" are initially operating this way - they tell Indy that it's easier to hang out in the same bar and get drunk with the city's German agents instead of faffing around with a bunch of cloak-and-dagger nonsense. Naturally, Indy's arrival causes some espionage hijinks to ensue.
124	* PlanningWithProps:
125	** One of the WWI episodes used this to explain the complicated tangle of alliances and old grudges that set off the war. One notable segment had Austria (salt shaker) threatening Serbia (plate of meatballs) depicted by salting and eating the meatballs.
126	** In another episode Indy and his Bolshevik friends illustrate the differences on the distribution of wealth between Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism and Communism by cutting Indy's birthday cake in different sized slices... and then one guy illustrates Anarchism by grabbing the entire cake.
127	* PocketProtector: In "Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life", courtesy of [[ContinuityNod the locket that Indy got from Princess Sophie as a child]]. It leads his native Askari soldiers to believe that he has supernatural powers.
128	* PosthumousCharacter: It's established in "Peking, March 1910" that Indy had a younger sister named Susie who died at a young age (presumably of illness) before the events of the series. When Indy catches typhoid, he worries that he's going to die young "like Susie".
129	* PunchClockVillain: The Germans (in this case UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany) reprise their original films' role as antagonists. Justified, as the stories are set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI where the Germans fought against the Allies.
130	* PuppyLove: Eight year old Indy and Princess Sophie of Austria-Hungary.
131	* RankUp: Indy starts out in the Belgian Army as a corporal, but he and Rémy are both promoted to lieutenant as a perk after being transferred to East Africa. Indy is later promoted to captain after helping capture a German machine gun nest in a battle in Kenya.
132	* ReCut: In the original ''Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'', most of the episodes began and ended with short scenes featuring a nonagenarian Indy (with an EyepatchOfPower) in the then-present day (c.1992-93). He'd narrate adventures from his youth--the titular "Young Indy" stories, here told in flashback--to basically anyone who'd bother to listen (and some who didn't). However, in the later ''Adventures'' re-edits, the Old Indy segments were edited out entirely. Instead, newly (and often, poorly) shot linking footage, starring the other original members of the Young Indy cast (that is to say, the characters from the around-WWI era) was used to bridge the gaps. The recut also removed Old Indy's daughter and grandchildren, leaving their canonical existence uncertain (especially in the light of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', which gives Indy a son but no daughter, and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' in which it is established that he has an estranged god-daughter but no actual daughter, as far as we can tell).
133	* RedRightHand: By the time Indy meets Demetrios again in Mexico, he has lost a hand and is nicknamed "Claw".
134	* RefugeInAudacity: Selous' plan to "infiltrate" the German camp in ''The Phantom Train of Doom'' is...to [[PlayingDrunk pretend to be drunk]], and brazenly swagger into the camp drunkenly singing "O Tannenbaum". It never occurs to the Germans to check to make sure he and his companions are actually on their side.
135	* RuthlessModernPirates: In "The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", while Indy and his friend Rémy are traveling on a cruise ship through Southeast Asia in 1919, the ship gets attacked and robbed by Chinese pirates. The pirates' leader is a woman who was disguised as a singer, entertaining the passengers (and took a liking into Rémy) until her men boarded the ship.
136	* SceneryPorn: The series loves to linger nostalgically on famous landmarks as establishing shots for the country of the week Indy is adventuring in. The series was intended to be semi-educational. Notably, though: since the showrunners still had to work with a small fraction of the budget that the films had, many of the establishing shots are clearly {{stock footage}}.
137	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: In "The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", the local barfly Lily tells off a wealthy (crooked) man that "money doesn't excuse bad manners" and walks off in anger.
138	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight:
139	** In the first part of "Demons of Deception", Indy purposely crashes his motorcycle that's carrying a message to an army commander with orders to start an attack that intelligence knows it's going to be useless and will result in hundreds of allied casualties.
140	** In "Oganga the Giver and Taker of Life", Indy refuses to leave behind a child who's the sole survivor of a plague-ravaged village, and defies his superior officer for it.
141	** A smaller one, but in the second half of "Journey of Radiance", Anna gives money to the man the Chinese family they are staying with is in debt to. She's told not to at first, but insists on repaying them for housing her and her son when Indy was gravely ill.
142	* ShoutOut:
143	** When Indy and a couple other men have escaped from the Austrian secret police by hiding in the sewer, one of them remarks [[Film/ANewHope "What an incredible new smell you've discovered!"]]
144	** There's a throwaway gag in "Attack of the Hawkmen" where Indy, after being captured, [[NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine has been invited to dinner]] by Baron von Richthofen:
145	--->'''Von Richthofen:''' ''[snaps fingers]'' [[Music/TheBeatles Sergeant! Pepper!]]
146	** In "Prague, August 1917", Indy's espionage contact is [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther an incompetent buffoon with a strange accent... who's named Clouseau]].
147	** Indiana Jones' best friend during his days in the military is a Belgian named Rémy. This could be a shout-out to ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'' creator Creator/{{Herge}}, whose real name was Georges Remi. Steven Spielberg became a fan of ''Tintin'' after people told him ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' had the same atmosphere as the ''Tintin'' comics. He had never heard of it, bought an album and was immediately hooked.
148	* SickEpisode: "Peking, March 1910" (included in the film ''Journey of Radiance''), where Indy catches typhoid fever in China.
149	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Rajendra Singh, the treasonous Indian soldier in "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye". He's killed in the first few minutes of the story, but the entire plot is kicked off when Indy and Rémy find the map to the titular diamond in his pocket.
150	* SpinoffBabies: Of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', showing young Indy and his father. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Had the third season been filmed]], we'd also have been treated to a younger Belloq and the first onscreen apparition of Abner Ravenwood.
151	* StartMyOwn: In ''The Phantom Train of Doom'', one of the {{Old Soldier}}s tells Indy they formed their own unit since all the conventional army units considered them too old to fight.
152	* StockFootage: Noticeable in battle scenes, which often feature shots inserted from war films. There is also the occasional recycled footage from the series itself (in one episode with teenage Indy in Paris, you can see briefly see Indy's father and childhood nanny on a carriage from the time they visited it during the World Tour).
153	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite taking place in the same universe as the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films, the TV series take a much more grounded approach to history for the most part. There's only one episode which involves the supernatural (''Masks of Evil''), and sometimes Indy doesn't save the day or achieve a decisive victory.
154	** Indy's attempts to join the war and heroically fight against German aggression prove to be pointless. The conflict is a GrayAndGrayMorality battle that ends indecisively.
155	** In ''Adventures in the Secret Service'', Indy spies on his Russian communist friends, as per orders from the French secret service. They find out about this and want nothing to do with him anymore, even when his position allows him to know about an upcoming massacre of a communist demonstration by Cossack soldiers. It ends badly.
156	** In ''The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye'', Indy believes he can track down the titular gemstone that belonged to UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat. Indy might be an intelligent AdventurerArchaeologist in training, but the Peacock's Eye is an immensely valuable relic that was looted by treasure hunters centuries ago, and has traveled far ever since. Indy could spend the rest of his life following up leads and never find it. It also sours his friendship with Rémy, who invested his fortune backing Indy's hunch. Made more poignant when you realize the intent is that it is the diamond in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' that Indiana went to elaborate lengths (including losing a friend) for, only to fail to recover the item again.
157	** Indy tries to reign in Erich Von Stroheim in ''Hollywood Follies'', but finds the film crew turning against him, and the director fully capable of leaving him in the dust. The fact he just walks in and tries to order people around works about as well as you'd expect.
158	* TactfulTranslation: While fighting in the Mexican Revolution, Indy is tasked with translating the {{Title Card}}s of captured American silent films and newsreels. When the reel turns to the revolution from an American perspective, Indy attempts to play off the footage as respectful to Pancho Villa, but fails: the revolutionaries shoot up the theater.
159	-->'''Title Card:''' To the Halls of Montezuma! US troops sweep into Mexico.\
160	'''Indy:''' US troops ... pay a courtesy visit to Canada.\
161	'''Card:''' General Pershing: "We shall soon have that cowardly bandit Pancho Villa on the run."\
162	'''Indy:''' It says General Pancho Villa ... is a great man.
163	* TheTeam: The 25th Royal Fusiliers in "The Phantom Train of Doom" are a special group of volunteer soldiers who all have their own unique specialties and areas of expertise. There's Selous (TheLeader), Parks (strategist and second-in-command), Birdy (naval expert), Zoltan (knife expert), Golo (expert tracker), Big Mac (DemolitionsExpert), and Indy (translator and train expert).
164	* TimeshiftedActor: Corey Carrier as Very Young Indy, Sean Patrick Flanery as Young Indy, George Hall as Old Indy. And, for one episode only, Harrison Ford as No Longer Young But Still Not Old Indy.
165	* ToiletPaperSubstitute: In "The Phantom Train of Doom", German troops use old memos and other documents, actual toilet paper being virtually impossible to acquire in World War I East Africa.[[note]]"Documents, memos, invoices... once delivered, it goes straight to the outhouse."[[/note]] Knowing this, Indy and his comrades raid a German latrine for intelligence.
166	* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Both Indy and his father take this opinion of Indy's mother after her death. Notable because one episode is all about showing her as a regular person who is tried and tempted (notably, with cheating on Henry Sr. with Music/GiacomoPuccini) and makes mistakes like anyone else.
167	* TranslationConvention: For simplicity's sake, most of the episodes set in Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI feature the actors speaking English, but with the characters clearly meant to be speaking French or German. For example: when Indy meets UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle in "Germany, Mid-August 1916", De Gaulle initially suspects him of being a German spy because he doesn't speak French well enough to be a native speaker.
168	* TroubledButCute: Lily, Indy's [[GirlOfTheWeek temporary love interest]] in ''Treasure of the Peacock's Eye''. First introduced as an itinerant barfly in Bombay, she apparently ekes out a living by seducing wealthy men and convincing them to take her under their wing. Shortly after they meet, Indy takes pity on her when she draws the ire of the authorities in Bombay and gets kicked out of town. [[spoiler:She turns out to be a professional criminal in league with Zyke, ultimately murdering him and stealing the Peacock's Eye when he tries to betray her.]]
169	* {{Tuckerization}}: Rajendra Singh, the treasonous Indian soldier from "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" (the guy who Indy and Remy find carrying the map to the titular diamond), may have been named after Raj Singh, the child actor who played the Maharajah in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''.
170	* TwoTimerDate: Actually three-timer in "The Scandal of 1920"
171	* {{Uberwald}}: "Transylvania, January 1918"
172	* VampireEpisode: "Transylvania, January 1918" has Indy traveling to the eponymous region and facing off against a rogue Romanian general/nobleman named Mattias Targo, who believes himself to be the reincarnation of UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, but it turns out he's an authentic vampire (probably the real Vlad Tepes himself). [[ParanormalEpisode An uncommon episode]], considering that it's the only one of the entire TV series to have supernatural elements (despite the fact that magic is known to exist in the ''Indiana Jones'' universe).
173	* VastBureaucracy: In "Prague, August 1917" Indy encounters these in Austro-Hungarian Bohemia, and is driven mad with frustration (Franz Kafka has a small role there). Although the bureaucrat in charge of dealing with bureuacratic errors is actually quite helpful -- his department even issues simpler forms.
174	* WarIsHell: In "Spring Break Adventure" Indy writes to Ned about how he wishes he could be in the war and it's mentioned that Ned wants to see action. The series shatters Indy and Ned's idea that WarIsGlorious throughout the series by showing the horrors of the trenches, machine guns, artillery, chemical weapons, and disease culminating in "Winds of Change" where it's shown how badly the war has broken and changed Indy and Ned.
175	* WellDoneSonGuy: Just like in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Indy has a strained relationship with his father; In his early years his father was a stern but loving family man if a [[TheStoic little emotionally distant]], but after Indy's mother died his father in grief shut himself in his work. More poignant in the episode when after being away for several years fighting in [=WWI=] Indy returns home and is received by his father as if he just left the last week.
176	* WhamEpisode: "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" features both [[spoiler:the death of Miss Seymour]] and [[spoiler:Indy and Rémy's friendship ending]]. Indy is never quite the same after either event.
177	* WheresTheKaboom: Happens twice in "The Phantom Train of Doom": first when the bombs' timers fail (forcing the team to hijack the titular train in order to blow it up), then when the bomb attached to the train's cannon fails to explode thanks to Indy carelessly letting [[DemolitionsExpert Big Mac]]'s detonator caps get wet. [[GreatWhiteHunter Selous]] is forced to improvise a Plan B, and manages to blow up the train by [[ImprobableAimingSkills shooting the rigged bomb from a distance with his hunting rifle]].
178	* WhiteMansBurden: Discussed in "Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life". [[WideEyedIdealist Indy]], serving as an officer in the colonial Belgian Army, is honestly convinced that European rule can benefit Africa. But one of his Congolese troops, Sgt. Barthelemy, knows better and [[BrutalHonesty points out]] that the war is nothing more than competition between European empires for control of African land, and regardless of who wins, African people will get the short end of the stick.
179	* WhosOnFirst: In "Athens, July 1910", Professor Jones tries to give his son a lesson on Ancient Greek philosophy after they catch a ride from a local Greek man named Creator/{{Aristotle}}...whose donkey's name is "Creator/{{Plato}}". Much confusion ensues.
180	-->'''Aristotle:''' No, you're wrong!\
181	'''Professor Jones:''' Well, Aristotle said it.\
182	'''Aristotle:''' No I didn't!\
183	'''Indy:''' Uh... Perhaps it was Plato.\
184	'''Professor Jones:''' Well, Plato said it too, but--\
185	'''Aristotle:''' Ah, Plato never says anything.\
186	'''Professor Jones:''' What are you talking about?\
187	'''Aristotle:''' ''Plato's a donkey!''
188	* WideEyedIdealist: This series reveals how idealistic Indiana Jones was in his youth, often to the point of naivety.
189	** As a preteen kid, he was too innocent and frequently wandered off on his own to explore the amazing world around him, often being oblivious to the potential dangers waiting for him.
190	** As a teenager, he decided to volunteer as a soldier and spy in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, acting under the belief that he was doing something very heroic by fighting on the Allied side. But some traumatic experiences gradually erode his prior beliefs, especially in realizing that the conflict was [[GreyAndGreyMorality far from being as black-and-white as he thought it was]].
191	* WonTheWarLostThePeace: How the first act of "Winds of Change" ends.
192	* WorthlessYellowRocks: Played with in "Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom". Indy is decidedly nonplussed when ordered to risk his life behind enemy lines for "toilet paper"... until he learns that lacking real toilet paper, the Germans have resorted to using old documents from which he and his companions can gain valuable intelligence.
193	* WorthyOpponent: Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in the East Africa episodes. When they meet face-to-face, Von Lettow and his rival Frederick Selous take the time to complement each other's tactics from a previous battlefield skirmish. And after Indy is forced to let Von Lettow go after attempting to capture him and bring him back to the Belgian lines, Von Lettow gives Indy his compass as a parting gift.
194	* YouAreInCommandNow: In "Trenches of Hell" Indy ends up being in command of his unit as all superior officers are dead.
195	* YoungFutureFamousPeople: A few of the historical figures in the show are introduced ''before'' they were famous. For example: UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle is introduced as a common French soldier, UsefulNotes/TELawrence first shows up as a young assistant on an archaeological dig in Egypt, Creator/ErnestHemingway shows up as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy who competes with Indy for a girl's affections, and Ho Chi Minh is a waiter.

Context Series / TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles