Yup. Or, more accurately, was the “first pitch” for what eventually became JQ. H-B wanted to do a Jack Armstrong cartoon (since Doctor No had inspired an adventure/spy craze in the US), did some test footage (including the famous escaping-from-Zulu-warriors footage in the JQ end titles*), but ran into problems getting rights to the character. So it was retooled (with a bit of Terry and the Pirates thrown in) into Jonny Quest.
* The Zulu footage was never used in the actual JQ, which is probably just as well, even if there were also racially problematic depictions of “Pygmies” and Amazon tribesmen (and Chinese, and pretty much every other non-European type they ran into, though both Germans and Russians don"t come off particularly well, either). But that’s why the figures in the “Q-disc” in the JQ end titles don’t actually look like the JQ characters.
So I picked up the new Mutants and Masterminds Basic Hero’s Handbook and wouldn’t you know I was very surprised to find evil alternate universe Princess Radiance among the villains.
While not an accurate description when I read the character’s backstory or description of their powers, I did find it visually very similar to what I’d imagined as a Summer outfit back in the butterfly phase.
Just as we ended up in the future trying to fix the AltFuture timeline, the Menagerie Prime timeline is certainly some AltUtopia timeline’s project to fix (or be threatened by).
What do space adventurer archaeologists do, where do they hang out, and what do they mess with?
Sentient moon bases (“Dallos”), also here at about 7 minutes in. Notable that about 2 minutes after the laser barrage starts, Earth forces back off as you hear the moon base itself roaring.
Weapon systems (“Metroid”). The suit Samus wears is the product of Chozo tech, who weren’t quite long gone Precursors but who definitely left a lot of interesting ruins laying around.
Religious sites (“Star Wars: Jedi Knight”). The Valley of the Jedi is considered “strong with the Force” in Star Wars terms and is a strategic resource in Jedi-Sith conflicts.
This may not be the media inspiration you’re looking for, but I found these quotes inspiring. From here:
Archaeology is more about the story that can be derived from the object and the context in which it was found.
and:
Archaeology has an ethical dimension that is often neglected in storytelling in favour of the artefact. Digs are often culturally sensitive, especially around the exhumation of human remains and artefacts of religious or spiritual significance (which for some cultures is everything). Any interference with the past raises issues.
So basically, there’s room for a scifi archaeologist character who isn’t just being chased by a horde of faceless natives and we’re rooting for him rather than them - an adventurer archaeologist character could be a champion of such people instead, telling the story of their civilization and working with them in some kind of resistance effort (though this is more of a Firedrake story), or understanding the significance of something the crew is asked to smuggle, and facing the moral choice of whether to do it (e.g. Firefly’s “The Train Job”).
Apparently this is the plot of Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego. Given the quality of a lot of their animation, I’d at least give the first episode a watch with this sort of description:
It would figure that once we finished up our Masks game, someone would make a new Masks character sheet that includes all the new playbooks (and a lot of nice quality-of-life upgrades).
