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"Henry, you are emotionally involved. Not good idea in spy business. It makes your loyalties very cloudy."
Stefan[src]

"Istanbul, September 1918" is the twenty-third episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the seventeenth episode in season two. The episode originally aired on ABC on July 17, 1993. For home video, it was paired up with "Transylvania, January 1918" to become Masks of Evil.

This is one of only four hour-long episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (along with "Paris, May 1919," "Prague, August 1917," and "Palestine, October 1917") to be made without bookend segments featuring George Hall as Old Indy.

Plot summary[]

Indy becomes engaged to an American woman working at an orphanage in Istanbul—but she knows him as a Swedish journalist for the Balkan News Agency named Nils Anderson and has no idea he is secretly there for French Intelligence on a mission to offer Mustafa Kemal a separate peace between France and Turkey, with a double agent called "The Wolf" amidst his network of spies working to betray those efforts at any cost.

Appearances[]

Cast and characters[]

Locations[]

Miscellanea[]

Behind the scenes[]

Production[]

Principal photography for this episode took place from January 5 to February 3, 1993,[1] with location filming throughout Istanbul, Turkey, including landmarks such as the Pera Palace Hotel, the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, and the Topkapı Palace.[2]

Deleted scenes[]

Framing bookends, unrealized on-screen, were written for the episode which depict the elderly Indiana Jones in New England, where he attends the wedding of his grandson Charlie. However, Jones catches the groom outside trying to run from his commitments despite his love for his bride. The archaeologist's memories of his time with Molly Walder and her death bring himself to tears but inspire Charlie to follow through with his vows. Jones watches the ceremony though it's his lost marriage to Molly that he pictures.[3]

Continuity[]

  • Mustafa Kemal is repeatedly referred to as spending most of his time on "the front" because he was in command of the Ottoman Seventh Army at this time.
  • Stefan suggests that Indy previously lost a bet in Ankara, but that Indy "would never admit it."
  • While still posing as Nils, Indy nevertheless tells Molly about his past romance with Vicky and her saying that they could be two different people after the war.[4]
  • Once he reveals himself, Indy also tells Molly about his experience fighting in the trenches and seeing "thousands of people killed for nothing."[5]

Release[]

Television[]

"Istanbul, September 1918" was first broadcast on July 17, 1993.

Home video[]

This episode was edited into Masks of Evil in 1996, which was released on VHS in 1999 and on DVD in 2008 (as part of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Three, The Years of Change).

Reception[]

Director of Photography David Tattersall received an ASC Award nomination in 1994 for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular Series for his work on this episode, but lost out to Roland "Ozzie" Smith for the two-part Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman episode "Where the Heart Is."[6]

Film and television scholar Mimi White wrote about this episode in her analysis of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as an instance where Indy's presence offers the disenfranchised "an opportunity to articulate positions that are subsequently 'lost' in the sweep of world historical events."[7]

Notes and references[]

  1. Young Indy Filming Timeline
  2. Istanbul 1918 (Masks of Evil) - Young Indy Film Locations
  3. "Istanbul, September 1918" teleplay
  4. "London, May 1916"
  5. "Somme, Early August 1916"
  6. Past Nominees & Winners - The American Society of Cinematographers
  7. White, Mimi (2001). "Masculinity and Femininity in Television's Historical Fictions: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," in Edgerton, Gary R. and Rollins, Peter C., eds. Television Histories: Shaping Collective Memory in the Media Age (The University Press of Kentucky), pp. 42-44.

See also[]

External links[]

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Episodes
Season One
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6
Season Two
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12
13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18
Unaired: 19 · 20 · 21 · 22
Cancelled: "Berlin, Late August 1916"
Intl. variants: Great Escape · Chicago (1 · 2) · New York (1 · 2)
TV movies
1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Lost Chronicles
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12
13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21
Related
Bookends · The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones re-edit (Connectors)
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