Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye

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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com

Indiana Jones
Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
TV movie
Written by Jule Selbo
Directed by Carl Schultz
Original air date: January 15, 1995

The war ends with Indy and Remy in possession of a treasure map.

Read the "Early November 1918" "November 11, 1918", "Late November, 1918", and "December 1918 – January 1919" entries of the It’s Not the Years, It’s the Mileage Indiana Jones chronology for a summary of this episode

Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology

This episode takes place from early November 1918 into January 1919.

Didja Know?

This 94-minute TV movie was based on the unproduced Young Indiana Jones Chronicles third season script "New Guinea, March 1919". It first aired on the Family Channel on January 15, 1995 as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye.

The closing credits of this episode give credit to actor Frederick Treves as Sir Peregrine Prentiss, but neither the actor nor character appear here. The original unproduced script for the "New Guinea, March 1919" third season episode featured a scene of Indy returning to London and visiting the Prentiss home to look up his former love Vicky Prentiss (from "Love's Sweet Song"), but Sir Peregrine informs him that his daughter has gone to San Francisco to pursue a newspaper career.

Notes from the Old Indy bookends of The Young Indiana Chronicles

There were no Old Indy bookends for this episode.

Notes from The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication that purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The Young Indiana Chronicles and the big screen Indiana Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes from a functionary of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor agency of the Soviet Union's KGB. The FSB relieved Indy of his journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The notations imply the journal was released to other governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some bookend segments of The Young Indiana Chronicles depict Old Indy still in possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never been resolved.

The journal finally picks up again after a jump from August 1916 ("Trenches of Hell") to November 1918 and the end of the war in this episode. Indy does write, "Not much time to write lately...and events too terrible to write about." That explains at least some of the lack of written accounts of his adventures. It is also possible that some pages were removed from this section of the journal by the FSB when it was in their hands.

Indy has drawn the image of Alexander on horseback in front of three mountains that he and Remy found on the tomb of Lycomedes. He notes that Alexander is riding in front of the middle mountain, which "could be important." Indeed, in the televised episode, the mountains represent three Hindu temples in a row and the strongbox is found cleverly hidden in the middle temple.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

Indiana Jones

Remy Baudouin

Corporal Rajendra Sing (dies in this episode)

Captain Stoomvaart

Indian Lieutenant

German soldier

Helen Seymour (voice in Indy's mind only, deceased)

Suzette Baudouin (nee Chambin)

Suzette's children

Ruth (Miss Seymour's housekeeper)

Henry Jones, Sr. (mentioned only)

museum curator

hotel clerk

Howard Carter

H. Zeich (dies in this episode)

E. M. Forster

Zeich's thugs

port ticket clerk

Lily (dies in this episode)

Ku Wong

Jambi

diamond trader (dies in this episode)

Dezare

fat man

Jin Ming (presumed killed in this episode)

pirates

headhunters

Biok (dies in this episode)

Amata (tribal chief)

Didja Notice?

The giant German gun seen firing at 0:26 on the DVD is a railway cannon, similar to the one seen previously in "The Phantom Train of Doom".

Indy and Remy are in the trenches again, this time looking to arrest a corporal suspected of exchanging munitions information
with the Germans. The corporal's commanding officer tells them the armistice goes into effect in an hour at 1100 hours. This tells us the day is November 11, 1918, the day of the Entente's armistice with Germany at the end of WWI.

At 5:15 on the DVD, Indy and Remy's ship approaches the White Cliffs of Dover.

Indy and Remy pull into England's Waterloo Station in London. The scene was actually shot at Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station in Prague, Czech Republic.

At 6:21 on the DVD, Indy is back at the Bridge of Sighs, near where Miss Seymour lived, as previously seen in "Love's Sweet Song".

Upon arriving at Miss Seymour's house, Indy learns she passed away just the week before, succumbing to a fever.

At 7:30 on the DVD, we see that Miss Seymour wrote her letter to Indy on October 3, 1918.

Indy and Remy learn that the treasure map they found on Corporal Sing's body may lead to the Peacock's Eye, said to have been a 140 karat diamond, part of a solid gold peacock statue once owned by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was a Macedonian king who ruled one of the largest empires of the ancient world and was never defeated in battle. The Peacock's Eye and the statue are fictitious relics.

At 10:26 on the DVD, Indy and Remy meet up with Suzette at the cafe she was seen to either own or manage in "Love's Sweet Song", the fictitious Cafe Belgique.

Indy and Remy discover hidden writing on the treasure map, visible only when wet. The message reads, "Above the tomb of Lycomedes, the horses will show you the way to Alexander's greatest triumph." There are several men called Lycomedes in Greek mythology, none having a connection to Alexander; according to a note by the FSB in The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, the Lycomedes mentioned is the one who was the king of Scyros during the Trojan War in Greek mythology. Scyros is an island in the Aegean Sea. As far as I can find, there is no tombstone of Lycomedes reconstructed in a museum in Alexandria as Indy says he saw when he was a kid.

At 13:11 on the DVD, a travelling map on screen shows Indy and Remy's sea route to Alexandria. They leave the port of Liverpool in England, stop at Lisbon, Portugal, then Algiers, Algeria, then get off at Alexandria in Egypt.

The ship seen at the Alexandria port at 13:30 on the DVD is the S.S. Kristina. This is the ship Indy and Remy arrive in, though it's not clear if it's the same ship they left Liverpool in.

At 13:36 on the DVD, we see the Grand Hotel Continental in Alexandria. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious lodge.

Indy and Remy stay at the Hotel du Nil in Alexandria. This appears to be a fictitious hotel. "Hotel du Nil" is French for "Hotel of the Nile."

As Indy and Remy check in at the hotel, Indy asks the receptionist if he can direct them to the Musee Greco-Romain. This is French for "Graeco-Roman Museum".

Indy is excited to hear that Howard Carter is staying at the same hotel in this phase of his ongoing search for the tomb of the last boy king. Howard Carter (1874-1939) is best known for his discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. Indy met Carter previously in "My First Adventure".

When Carter invites Indy and Remy for a cup of tea in the hotel lounge, the writer E. M. Forster is with him, currently researching a book about Alexandria. Forster (1879-1970) was a British author known for his novels of the Edwardian era of the British Empire. The book about Alexandria referred to here is probably his 1922 travelogue Alexandria: A History and Guide.

When asked what he thought Alexander's greatest triumph may have been, Forster suggests several possibilities: uniting Greece, crossing the desert to Susa, cutting the Gordian knot, or discovering the Oasis of Siwa and being declared the son of Amun-Ra there. These are all true accomplishments of Alexander. Susa was an ancient city in what is now Iran. The Gordian knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great of a knot on an ox cart made up of a tightly-wound bundle of other knots that was so complex it was impossible to tell where to start in order to untie it. Alexander's solution was simply to bypass the untying of the knot by either (depending on different versions of the legend) pulling the linchpin from the yoke, thus freeing the cart from the ox, or just cutting through the knot with his sword. The moral is that there are often ways to work around a problem that make the problem itself moot. The oracle at the Oasis of Siwa is said to have confirmed Alexander's divinity as the son of the Egyptian god-ruler Amun-Ra.

Indy deduces that the temple on the Alexandrian map must be in India, so Remy says they must go to Bombay. Bombay has been known as Mumbai since 1995 and is the most populous city in India and known as the nation's financial center.

After being waylaid by Zeich, Indy and Remy discover he has taken the SS Von Diemen, which stops at Port Said, Suez, Bombay, and Java. Java is an island nation in Indonesia.

The travelling map shows Indy and Remy staying on top of Zeich on the ship all the way to Java, debarking at Batavia, the modern-day city of Jakarta.

Zeich's rickshaw pulls up to what appears to be called the Batavia Hotel. As far as I can tell, this was a fictitious hotel for the time.

The Dutch diamond trader remarks to Ku Wong that the "fat man" is waiting for them in Singapore to receive the diamond.

The giant statue of a seated figure that Indy and Remy approach at 30:07 on the DVD appears to be of the Hindu god Shiva. Several other Shiva statues are seen later inside the Javan temple.

Even though Indy and Remy are supposed to be walking in the middle of the wild jungle in approach to the ancient Javan temple, at 30:29 on the DVD, there appears to be a fence line masked by hanging palm fronds in the background!

The ancient Javan temple where the strongbox is found is actually the 15th Century Wat Phra Si Sanphet Buddhist temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand.

The subtitles of this episode spell the last name of Indy and Remy's treasure hunter nemesis as "Zyke", but the man's passage ticket from Batavia to Singapore aboard the SS Vondel at 36:19 on the DVD has his name written as H. Zeich. Since he is German, "Zeich" does seem to be the more proper spelling. The shooting script also spells it that way.

Zeich's passage ticket seems to indicate the SS Vondel departure scheduled for 12/7/1919, but it is still 1918. It's possible the 1919 date is a leftover from the original third season script that was missed by the prop master.

At 36:43 on the DVD, a sign behind Indy at the port ticket office reads BEMANNLNGSLEDEN. This is Norwegian for "PERSONNEL LINE". Another sign as the pair board the Vondel partially reads KAARTJES GEREED HOUDEN INSPECTIE. This is Dutch for "KEEP TICKETS READY FOR INSPECTION". Java was colonized by the Dutch in 1596.

At 37:31 on the DVD, a door on the ship behind Remy reads PAD/GANG VRIJATEN. This is Dutch for "CLEAR PATH/HALLWAY".

The song Jin Ming sings in the restaurant of the Vondel as Remy eats dinner is "China Dreams" (1917). Later, she sings "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" (1818).

At 44:03 on the DVD, Indy walks past a painting in the ship's hallway. It is a painting of a ship at sea. The picture frame has "N.Y.K." at the top. Possibly, this is meant to be a ship of Nippon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha (N.Y.K.), Japan Mail Shipping Line, a shipping company founded in 1885.

At 46:57 on the DVD, the word GEVAAR is painted next to a door on the ship. This is Dutch for "DANGER". On an adjacent wall, the words NAAR DE CABINES mean "TO THE CABINS".

At 47:09 on the DVD, Remy knocks down several of the pirates with a shuffleboard cue.

At 47:42 on the DVD, Indy does a forward-flip over a flight of stairs and his fedora falls off his head, landing on the top step. But when he lands at the bottom of the stairs, his hat his back on his head.

At 47:53 on the DVD, Indy is slammed into a wall and his hand bumps open a window blind. In the next shot, the blind is closed again, but then in a third shot, is open.

A pirate yanks the key to the box from Indy's neck, breaking the leather thong upon which it is strung. This is a common film trope to make the removal more dramatic instead of just pulling it off over the person's head or unlinking the clasp. If someone tried this for real, it would cause the person's head and neck to be yanked around and likely cause injury to skin and muscle in the neck.

After they are marooned on a small island, Indy and Remy are each given a human skull by the tribe that has taken them in. When the pair are taken to a sleeping hut for the night, a tribe member motions for them to use the skulls as pillows. There is an actual Indonesian native tribe of Papuan headhunters called the Asmat who are known to use human skulls as pillows.

The natives take Indy and Remy to another island where they meet Bronislaw Malinowski who is studying the natives of the island of Kiriwina, part of the Trobriand Islands. Malinowski (1884-1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist known for several years of research on the people of the Trobriand Islands.

At 1:18:12 on the DVD, the boom microphone can be seen poking down from the top of the screen.

Malinowski explains that the Trobriand people use yams as currency. This is true.

Talking about his future plans, Indy tells Malinowski that he plans to go to the University of Chicago to study archaeology, having become interested in archaeology after going on a dig with Howard Carter in Egypt and spending time at another one in Jerusalem when he was a kid during his father's lecture tour. The Howard dig was in the aforementioned "My First Adventure". The Jerusalem dig is an unchronicled adventure, probably a reference to the script outline "Jerusalem, June 1909" for the unproduced third season of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; that outline describes that little Indy would have met his future mentor Abner Ravenwood for the first time and would also meet a grave robber who would convince Indy to help search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant underneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Malinowski helps Indy translate the inscriptions on the stone found in the strongbox. It apparently states that monks hid the Peacock's Eye in the Temple of Piety in India. As far as I can tell, the Temple of Piety of India is fictitious. There was a Roman temple by that name from 191-44 BCE.

At 1:26:49 on the DVD, a boom microphone can again be seen poking down from the top of the screen.

Remaining friends, Indy and Remy part ways at the end of the episode, Indy to return to America to enroll in classes at the University of Chicago for a major in archaeology, Remy seemingly to continue his search for the Peacock's Eye diamond. Did Remy ever find it? Well, it seems not, though Indy may have... To wit, earlier in the episode, the museum curator in London showed the two a glass reproduction of the eye and it looks essentially the exact size and shape as the diamond Indy later attempted to procure from the criminal Lao Che in 1935 in The Temple of Doom. The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones has Indy referring to the Lao Che diamond as the Peacock's Eye and it is also referred to as such in the 2008 junior novelization of The Temple of Doom.

Peacock's Eye replica in this episode	Lao Che's diamond in The Temple of Doom