Jonny Quest "Arctic Splashdown" #1.2 (1964) (TV)

Jonny goes to the North Pole, 26 November 2008

A rocket headed for space goes off-course and crashes in the Arctic. The rocket was armed with an auto-destruct mechanism, but it mysteriously failed to activate. Dr. Quest and family are sent in to investigate and retrieve the valuable scientific instruments on board the craft. But Quest and Company aren't alone. There's a foreign power prowling beneath the Arctic ice flow who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the rocket's many secrets.

"Arctic Splashdown" proves that not all episodes of Jonny Quest were created equally. To the best of my memory, this has to be one of the weakest of the bunch. The problem is nothing much happens and there's no air of menace so often present in the show. The episode features one of the lamest baddies the Quest gang would run across. After firing a torpedo at Quest's ship and hitting an ice berg instead (Am I supposed to believe he didn't see that giant floating block of ice?), #1 baddie decides not to fire again, but wait for later. Huh? How stupid is that? "Arctic Splashdown" isn't a total waste as it does feature some pretty cool gadgets like the ice skiffs (I think that's what they're called), that groovy Jonny Quest music, and that overall sense of nostalgia that I always get when watching Jonny Quest. A 5/10 seems about right for this episode.

5/10