Classic Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest Season 1 - The Invisible Monster


© 1998-2004, Lyle P. Blosser, Craig Fuqua

Z-19, , 1/28/65, 8/5/65.




Flubs:
  • When Dr. Norman calls Dr. Quest at the beginning of the episode, Race is monitoring the ham radio with headphones on. Understandable, since Dr. Quest's laser experiment is pretty loud. But when Dr. Quest talks to Dr. Norman, Race is still wearing the headphones even as we hear Dr. Norman's voice over some speakers. Normally, ham radio sets prevent sounds from coming through the speakers if headphones are plugged in. And if Race had somehow switched on the external speakers for Dr. Quest, even though we didn't see that, why did he keep the headphones on? (Reported by "psyche78")
  • As the Quests fly to Cave Island, the interior views of the airplane clearly show individual windows and a solid detailed ceiling overhead as you migh texpect. But when exteriors are shown of the plane, you don't see windows but instead a glass bubble over the occupants of the cabin. You can even see four silhouettes in the exterior views. As the trip progresses, the interior and exterior scenes cut back and forth, repeating the inconsistency. (Reported by John Clark)
  • When the energy monster first leaves Dr. Norman's lab, we can see it as a quivering blob of light; but a second later, it's invisible as it makes footprints in the ground outside the lab
  • In the second village, as the monster approaches, Jonny is standing between Hadji (on Jonny's right) and Race (on Jonny's left). But when the view cuts to a longer shot to show them lifting off via the rocket belts, Hadji is in the middle (between Jonny and Race) instead -- it appears as if Jonny and Hadji have instantly switched places.
  • During the scene where they're searching for the monster so they can paint-bomb it, there's a shot of the team flying with their rocket belts, with Race and Dr. Quest in the foreground. The exhaust from Dr. Quest's rocket belt can be seen in front of the bags of paint Race is carrying, even though Race is in front of Dr. Quest (the exhaust should be completely hidden).
  • When the shot of Race hovering with the rocket belt is shown just before he and Dr. Quest make the paint bomb run, the bags of paint being held by Race do not have any ties on them. The ties appear in all other scenes.
  • When Race and Dr. Quest, hovering on jet packs at nearly the same altitude, threw paint bombs at the energy monster, Dr. Quest (carrying red paint) threw first, at least several seconds before Race (carrying blue paint), but the blue paint bomb hits first. Either this is a mistake, or Race has an incredible arm! With the second set of paint bombs, the order of throwing and arrival at the target is corrected.
  • Once the invisible monster is painted (made visible), it no longer leaves footprints! (Reported by William Halverson)
  • When Dr. Quest flies off to become "bait" for the monster, Bandit quickly runs out after him. If you watch closely, as Jonny yells Bandit's name to get the dog to stop, Jonny's mouth doesn't move. (Reported by William Halverson)
  • When the monster is being destroyed, Dr Quest's flashlight can be seen on the ground where he has thrown it to lure the monster. Apparently, the apparatus that destroys the monster also destroys the flashlight, as it has vanished too. (Reported by William Halverson)
  • In the episode, the jet packs worn by Dr. Quest, Race, Jonny, and Hadji are shown in a few close-ups. The jet control (a rotary dial with marked positions) is marked with "reverse". I am not sure that reverse would be valid functionality for a jet pack worn on the back. Also supporting this observation is that the exhaust nozzle of the jet pack is directed downward, which does not lend itself to "reverse". (Reported by JBofAZ on the ClassicJQ Forum)

Trivia and items of interest:
  • The voice of scientist Isaiah Norman was provided by John Stephenson, who originally provided the voice of Dr. Quest before Don Messick took over.
  • The VTOL plane was new in this episode (according to Jonny's comment at the start of the adventure), presumably needed to replace the other small jet destroyed in "The Fraudulent Volcano". Since a VTOL was also seen in the earlier episode "Riddle of the Gold", we can presume that the VTOL in that episode was not the Quest's but the government's instead.
  • The Quests must have flown eastward to get to Cave Island, since they arrived over the western part of the island first, and had to cross the island to get to Dr. Norman's lab, which was on the eastern side of the island.

    And since they left Palm Key in the late afternoon/early evening, and arrived at Cave Island just after dawn, it seems likely that Cave Island was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. My reasoning follows: If they left around 6:00 pm EST, it would've been then 11:00 pm along the Greenwich meridian; if dawn arrived at 6:00 am local time on the island, then that would mean about a 7-hour flight if the island lay close to that meridian. If they'd flown due east, or northeast, they would've been flying over land (Africa or Europe, respectively) by then. If they were travelling due south; they'd have ended up flying over South America. If they flew westward at all, they would've had to fly *more* than 12 hours (until the sun could catch up with them from behind) and the more westward-trending their course, the longer this would have taken. This doesn't seem likely, because Race commented that Jonny and Hadji slept nearly the entire trip, and 12 or more hours is a very long time to sleep (in addition to being a very long time to fly an airplane). So their course must've been tending toward the southeast, placing Cave Island in the Atlantic, probably somewhere near the equator.

Link to the restored end credits for the episode.

Link to some episode cel images






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