<<if $seenquest == "yes"&&$seenrace == "yes"&&$seenhadji == "yes">>Suddenly the Vertol began to descend.\n\n"We're there already?" Jonny asked.\n\n"Not just there," Race replied. "Look out the window."\n\nBoth of the boys crowded to the window on the pilot's side. Congregating in the field below, completely unconcerned about the giant jet lowering itself into the field with them, were a dozen or more horses.\n\n"I think I'm gonna like Utah," Jonny decided.\n\n[[credits, thanks, and fun stuff]]<<else>>\n[[Dr. Quest]] continued to talk quietly into the radio as [[Race]] flew onward. In the seat beside Jonny's, [[Hadji]] stared contemplatively out the window. [[Bandit]] <<if $seenbandit == "no">>snored peacefully in Jonny's lap<<else>>sat up in Jonny's lap and looked around<<endif>>.\n<<endif>>\n

The Dr. Quest and Race Show: Political Correctness in an Animated Series

This project was made in [[Twine|http://twinery.org/wiki/start]] and supported by the [[Hope College Mellon Scholars program|http://hope.edu/academic/mellon/]]. The purpose of the research was to analyse the role that racism and political correctness served in the different iterations of the Jonny Quest franchise. The original 1960s series and the reboot in the 1980s served as primary sources. This research is present via the framing device of the Quest team on the way to another adventure in the Vertol-1 jet (affectionately known as the Dragonfly).\n\n[[back|Start]]\n

(WARNING: This fanscript serves to admit my bias for the original series. It is far less objective than the academic portion of this project.)\n\n[[back|credits, thanks, and fun stuff]]\n\n\nThis (very satirical) fanscript was written immediately after viewing the television movie Jonny's Golden Quest, which was affiliated with the 1980s iteration of the show. Like many other fans of the original series, I found the movie to be the cinematic equivalent of coming home from a long overseas trip to find a beloved friend has let a giant parasitic insect burrow into and disfigure their face. You don't know whether to hug them or cart them off to the asylum.\n\n\n\nJonny's Golden Quest; or, a Dramatic Interpretation of Heartbreak\n\n\n\n(The classic JQ quartet--Jonny, Hadji, Dr. Quest, and Race, are scuffling about in a jungle, in search of rare plants.)\n\nRace: You really think the flowering pteranadon shrub grows in these conditions?\nQuest: Well, we have to try. Unless we can locate that plant, we will never be able to create the antidote to...\n\n(Suddenly his video com beeps)\n\nQuest: I'd better take this.\n\n(He turns on the com and all gather around to stare into it. For a momet, no one says anything.)\n\nQuest: That's unusual.\nRace: What is it, Dr. Quest?\nQuest: I don't know, Race, but it seems to be molesting my parapower ray gun. Oh well, I'll just alert the guards...\n\n(Dr. Zin bursts suddenly out of the bushes. He holds in his hand a small remote control, with which he flies a small helicoptor. The helicoptor hooks the com and flies away. All look after it)\n\nZin: I wouldn't do that if I were you.\nQuest: Curse you, Zin, and...\n\n(A violent crashing starts up in the background, headed for them through the trees.)\n\nZin: Hm.\nQuest: Part of your plan, Zin?\nZin: Not mine.\nRace: Then who...?\n\n(Rachel Quest bursts out of the forest, bradishing a repeating sentimentality rifle. With her is Jessie, carrying a political correctness cannon. They take aim at Quest.)\n\nRachel: Join us, Benton.\nJessie: Join us.\nHadji: Who... What are they?\nRachel: We are the token females.\nJessie: Token.\nRachel: Join us, as your colleagues have done already.\nJessie: Join usss...\n\n(Enter Jade from the brush. She is contorted, caught between suave '60s Jade and helpless Golden Quest-era Jade)\n\nRace: My god, Jade. What have they done to you?\nJade: Run... boys... before they get you too...\nRace: I can't leave you like this.\nZin: Er... I could...\n(He begins backing away)\nJade (with tears in her voice): Race\nRace: Jade?\nJade: Race... do you... remember... that time I killed a leopard with a handgun?\nRace: I remember.\nJade: That was... pretty awesome.\n\n(She falls to the ground, does a little convulsive twitching, then morphs completely into worthless Jade. At the same time, Rachel opens fire on Jonny, who falls)\n\nRemaining Quest trio: Jonny!\nZin: My god.\n\n(Jonny sits up. He looks about dizzily, climbing to his feet. He spots his father)\n\nJonny: Dad?\nQuest: Son?\nJonny: You... you killed Mom.\nQuest: Excuse me?\nJonny: It's your fault she's dead! You should have just shot him!\n\n(Points at Zin, who jumps back defensively)\n\nZin: I had nothing to do with this!\nQuest: What are you talking about? She died at the hands of Russian agents! I wasn't even in the room!\nJonny: That was never canon!\nQuest: We implied it. If we'd implied it any harder we'd be Scooby-blinking-doo.\n\n(Jonny kicks him in the shin and runs to Rachel)\n\nJonny: Mom! Mom!\nQuest: That's not your mother! I've never seen this woman before in my life!\nJonny: She is my mother! You just don't love her! Or me! You don't know how to love!\nHadji: Dr. Quest! That gun... it's loaded with ANGST!\n\n(Rachel and Jessie aim their weapons at Quest)\n\nRace: Dr. Quest, Hadji, run!\n\n(He flings himself in front of the guns as Quest, Hadji, and Zin flee. Race, struck, falls to the ground beside Jade in a flaily pile of ineffectual. Meanwhile, the trio crashes through the brush)\n\nHadji: We're all gonna die we're all gonna die we're all gonna...\nQuest: We won't.\n\n(Hadji looks back, and a stray shot ricochets off the gem of his turban. The shot strikes Zin in the shoulder. He screams and stumbles)\n\nHadji: Nooo!\n\n(He tries to drag Zin along after, but already Zin is transforming into ancient psycho asthmatic Zin)\n\nZin: Help me... please help... I can't... must slaughter.... my own minions... no good reason...\n\n(He grabs Hadji's arm)\n\nQuest: Hadji!\nZin: Logic... Logic is fading...\n\n(He is fully transformed into Golden Quest-era Zin, complete with lung problems. Dr. Quest grabs Hadji and begins hauling him along)\n\nHadji: Dr. Quest, no! We have to help him!\nQuest: Forget him, he's lost.\n\n(They run on, but suddenly a cannon blast explodes a few feet from Hadji. He shrieks)\nHadji: Something bit me!\nQuest: No... no... No!\n\n(He hauls Hadji up on his back and staggers on. A sentimentality bullet strikes him in the shoulder he falls)\n\nHadji: Dr. Quest! Dr. Quest, speak to me!\n\n(Quest coughs)\n\nQuest: Ow.\nHadji: Get up, Dr. Quest. You have to get up.\n\n(He tries and fails)\n\nQuest: We have to take the cyanide pills.\nHadji: No. No!... Wait. You have cyanide pills?\nQuest: In case I ever fell into the hands of enemy agents.\nHadji: You did that, like, thirty different times.\nQuest: That was then, this is now! It's the only way. If we don't do it now, it's space next, Hadji, understand? We'll have our own orbiting space station and I can't go like that. We have to end this now.\nHadji: But I want to live, Dr. Quest. I want to live.\nQuest: You'll be conducting Roman sewer ghosts. You'll magic-gem them into attacking one villanous henchman, and then it'll never be mentioned again. Can you live like that? Can you?\nHadji: I...\nQuest: Answer me!\nHadji: I... I... No.\n\n(Quest takes out two pills. They each crush one between their teeth)\n\nQuest: I'm sorry it had to end this way, Hadji.\nHadji: Me, too.\n\n(After a moment, Hadji stops moving)\n\nQuest: I guess I'll never know if there could have been a live action movie.\n\n(Pause)\n\nQuest: Thank god.\n\n(He dies. After a moment Rachel and Jessie enter. Rachel kicks Quest's foot)\n\nRachel: Well, bummer. He's dead.\nJessie: Oh well. I got a better idea, anyway. Let's do a live action Scooby-Doo movie and make Mr. Messick cry.\nRachel: What an idea!\nJessie: We'll have to exchange our guns in for farting sound effects and bad CGI, but I think it's a solid trade.\nRachel: You're simply brilliant, m'dear.\nJessie: Why, thank you.\n\n(They link arms)\n\nJessie: So what do you think of the name Mary Jane?\n\n(exit both. Fin.)\n\n\n

"This is the Vertol-1," Dr. Quest was saying, "requesting permission to land. No, no runway needed. Just a clear field will do."\n\n[[back|Dragonfly]]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBetween the original sixties and the "second season" of the eighties, the Jonny Quest franchise was drastically toned down in terms of violence. Before the second season, actual deaths had been shown onscreen--a shipful of enemy agents blown sky-high in "Mystery of the Lizard Men," Russian submarine pilots crushed by falling glaciers in "House of the Seven Gargoyles," and a corrupt Maharaja shot dead in "The Riddle of the Gold," to name just a few. There were even a few deaths (albeit offscreen ones) that could be attributed to the Quest family. These included numerous villains killed in an avalanche caused by Dr. Quest (Calcutta Adventure) and the crew of a sub killed by their own mine (Pirates from Below). The deaths of villains--and, indeed, the deaths of presumable heroes; see "The Invisible Monster"--were rarely treated seriously. Deaths of villains were shown as just, and the deaths of heroes (again, see the death of Dr. Isaiah Norman in "The Invisible Monster") served to set the plot in motion.\n\nThese violent deaths were replaced with more cartoonish antics in the second season. With its scientifically implausible characters (for instance, a sidekick for the Quest crew made entirely of granite and called, with a straight face, Hardrock), the tone of the show evoked images of Hanna-Barbara's other famous work, Scooby-Doo, from the same era.\n<<set $seenquest = "yes">>

Jonny Quest was an animated sci-fi television show from Hanna-Barbara that first appeared in 1964. It featured, for the time, astonishingly realistic animation. The titular character was an eleven-year-old boy who went on adventures with his scientist father (Dr. Benton Quest), a government agent/bodyguard/tutor/pilot (Race Bannon), and an adopted Indian brother (Hadji). The setting of the show varied from week to week and could be anywhere from the Canadian wilderness to an island off the coast of China to the African jungle. Having previously funded only relatively inexpensive cartoons (such as Looney Tunes and The Flintstones), Hanna-Barbara was unprepared to handle the cost of the realistic animation and canceled the series after only a single season.\n\nTwenty-one years later, Hanna-Barbara returned to the franchise with a supposed "second season." This version of the show reflected standard H-B fare for the time and was reminiscent of the current Scooby-Doo franchise. Fans of the original series saw this as a significant step down in quality, and the show was too similar to current, more popular shows to break out. It also lasted only one season. Two made-for-tv animated movies were made in association with this version of Jonny Quest (or JQ for short), one in 1993 (Jonny's Golden Quest) and one in 1995 (Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects).\n\nThe Quest family returned one last time in Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures. This show began in 1996 and lasted two seasons.\n\n[[back|

Obliviously to question of what the Golden Spike site was, Bandit snored peacefully on Jonny's lap.\n\n"Bandit!" Jonny gave him a shake. "We're going to Utah!"\n\nThe puppy opened a single eye, looked up at him, then put his paws over his eyes and buried his head in Jonny's lap.\n\n[[back|Dragonfly]]\n\n\n\n\nFan lore has it that Joe Barbara, producer of Jonny Quest, ordered Bandit be added to the show in order to help out a friend in the stuffed animal business who had made too many stuffed bulldog toys for a deal that later fell through. This story is attributed to Comico writer Bill Messner-Loebs, who in turn had heard it from JQ creator Doug Wildey.\n<<set $seenbandit = "yes">>

In the back of the Dragonfly, popping his ears with his fingers and holding his bulldog puppy in his lap, eleven-year-old Jonny Quest was formulating his questions.\n\n"So where are we going, Dad?" he asked his father.\n\n"Brigham City, Jonny." The family bodyguard, Race Bannon, didn't even look up from the controls of the plane. "The Golden Spike Site."\n\nDr. Quest, radioing in for permission to land, held up a finger for silence.\n\n"Brigham City?" Jonny looked over to Hadji, in the seat across from him. "Where's that, do you think?"\n\n"Utah," Hadji said decisively.\n\nJonny looked doubtful. "Are you sure? I thought we were going somewhere with horses."\n\n"Quiet, boys," warned Dr. Quest.\n\n[[about this project|project]]\n\n[[about the Jonny Quest franchise|JQ]]\n\n[[continue|Dragonfly]]\n\n<<set $seenquest = "no">>\n<<set $seenrace = "no">>\n<<set $seenhadji = "no">>

"What's the Golden Spike site?" Jonny asked, leaning over the pilot's seat to see where Race was piloting.\n\n"Why don't you look it up in your history textbook?" Race replied. "It's packed in the back."\n\n"Never mind. I want it to be a surprise."\n\n[[back|Dragonfly]]\n\n\n\n\nOne of the aspects of the show that went on to garner the most attention for the original series was the relationship between the two adult leads. According to the series, Race was a kind of hybrid of bodyguard and tutor, there to protect Dr. Quest from enemy agents and teach Jonny and Hadji algebra. Race’s handlers imply in the episode “Mystery of the Lizard Men” that he was brought in to keep Dr. Quest in line following the death of the unnamed Mrs. Quest. To some extent he even seems to function as the mother figure in the family. He is the character arranging the boys’ care while he and Dr. Quest ski off into danger in the episode “The Calcutta Adventure” and the one who keeps an eye on them at the beach while they’re at home on Palm Key. Then, of course, there’s the fact that much of the fan base exposits: “Well, when two unattached adults are off having adventures in hot steamy jungles and rescuing one another…” In other words, an unproven fan theory states that Dr. Quest and Race are a homosexual couple. \n\nTo be fair to the original series, this theory is never explicitly validated. In fact, the writers and producers seemed to recognize the implications and gave Race his own (very heterosexual!) relationship with a female adventurer name Jezebel Jade. Jade, as she comes to be known, serves as a kind of femme fatale. When she is introduced in the episode “Terror Island,” Race comes to her for help in tracking down the kidnapped Dr. Quest. He implies that perhaps she knows more than he does about the situation She replies, “I almost never kidnap my friends… for money, that is.”\n\nJade's character was virtually unrecognizeable in the second season. She had been reimagined by the show's creators as a red-headed Carmen Sandiego-type adventurer, and, in the second season-affliated movie "Jonny's Golden Quest," was shown to have not only been briefly married to Race, but to have given birth to a daughter as well. This daughter, Jessie, went on to join the Quest team in later iterations of the show--most noteably The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.\n\n<<set $seenrace = "yes">>

Many thanks go out to the website ClassicJQ.com and its hosts, Lyle Blosser and Craig Fuqua, and also to the Hope College Mellon Scholars Program for making this project possible. Double thanks to Dr. Courtney Werner, who kept me in line and listened to me ramble for hours about random JQ-related trivia. I'd also like to thank my fourth grade teacher, who inadvertantly scarred and blessed me for life by leaving "Curse of Anubis" on while she sat for me. She had no idea the kind of Jonny Quest-obsessed monster she created.\n\nTo visit the awesome ClassicJQ site, click [[here|http://www.classicjq.com]]. To read an embarrassing fanfiction, click [[here|Golden Quest]]. For more (slightly less educational) text adventures by the same author, click [[here|http://textadventures.co.uk/user/view/jvi_bccstuabfedjwdpk1a/tildy]]. To learn more about the Mellon Program, for which the project was done, click [[here|http://hope.edu/academic/mellon/]].\n\nTo my knowledge, there were at least two Jonny Quest-themed video games available through adbandonware. One, Jonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld, is playable online and available [[here|https://archive.org/stream/zx_Jonny_Quest_in_Doctor_Zins_Underworld_1991_Hi_Tec_Software_cr_The_Spirit/Jonny_Quest_in_Doctor_Zins_Underworld_1991_Hi_Tec_Software_cr_The_Spirit.z80?module=spectrum&scale=2]]. The other, Curse of the Mayan Warriors, is downloadable and requires an emulator (such as DOSBox) to run. You can find it [[here|http://www.myabandonware.com/game/jonny-quest-curse-of-the-mayan-warriors-29f]].

"I've never been to the West before," Jonny confided to Hadji. "I can't wait to ride a horse like a real cowboy!*"\n\nBandit<<if $seenbandit = "no">>, who until this point had been sleeping peacefully, woke up and<<endif>> began to bark.\n\n"Neither can Bandit," agreed Hadji. "Let's hope he likes them better than camels!"**\n\n[[back|Dragonfly]]\n\n\nA recurring problem in the original series is poor handling of the representation of non-American characters. “Native” characters in particular—that is, any non-white character—tend to fare the worst. With a few notable exceptions, dark-skinned characters tend to be villains. In the episode “A Small Matter of Pygmies,” Race and the boys are being hunted by a tribe of airplane-worshipping pygmies. The pygmies are portrayed as animals, by both their way of life (they live in the forest, wear clothing made of leaves, and worship the planes) and their actions (they sacrifice fellow tribesmen by staking them to the ground in panther territory, tie the Quest team to stakes, presumably for later sacrifice, and track their quarry by going down on all fours and sniffing the ground “like dogs”). They are given no redemption in the show. At the end of the episode they are chased off into the forest by a helicopter.\n\nA racial profile of the villains of Jonny Quest proves particularly telling. Of the human villains in the original season, the majority of villains are either of European or Asian origin. This creates an interesting parallel with the second season. During the sixties--the era of the Vietnam War, and well within living memory of the Korean War and World War II--a number of the villains were either Asian (Indian in "Calcutta Adventure," Chinese in "Terror Island," and Chinese again the "The Quetong Missile Mystery") or German (Heinrich von Froelich, the villain of "Shadow of the Condor," was a former WWI flying ace who longed to relive the glory of shooting down Allied planes). During the eighties, the Quest team still seems to be fighting earlier wars--sometimes literally (a wild time machine enters the fray in "Forty Fathoms into Yesterday").\n\nHadji proves an odd duck, being the only non-WASP member of the Quest team. Being from the "mystical" far east, he is shown to have many of the powers then-associated with the Orient: he can hypnotize villains with the jewel set into his turban ("Pirates from Below"), levitates Jonny and Bandit on multiple occasions ("The Robot Spy" and "Pirates from Below," to name a few), and charms snakes and ropes both (snakes in "The Curse of Anubis," ropes in "Calcutta Adventure" and "Riddle of the Gold"). In the original series these were presumed to be sleight-of-hand tricks (in multiple episodes he made objects appear and disappear), but in the eighties series the powers were expanded upon, most noteably in the tie-in movies (in "Jonny's Golden Quest," he seems to have the power to control the undead).\n\nApart from the powers, however, Hadji seems very Americanized. He speaks English well (according to "Calcutta Adventure" he was taught by an American marine stationed in India), treats the very-American Quests as his family, and uses very American phrases in his speech ("We have a saying in my country, too," he tells Jonny in "The House of the Seven Gargoyles." "I'm from Missouri!")\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n*According to Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey, there was never a western-themed episode of the original series because "the one thing everybody in animation avoids, at all costs, is horses. Horses are murder to animate." When asked if he might consider using a more cartoonish horse animation, he replied "You couldn't have a horse that didn't look realistic in Jonny Quest."--from the background material of the JQ Comico book "Werewolf of the Timberland"\n\n**In the original series episode "Curse of Anubis" Jonny is excited to finally get to ride a camel, only to discover that Bandit is very camel-sick.\n\n\n<<set $seenhadji = "yes">>

Megan Stevens