And we’re back with a young Indiana Jones in the Europe of 1917.

After their recent exploits in Africa, Indy and Remy manage to weedle their way into the French secret service.  Remy becomes the proprietor of a restaurant which will be a contact point for French spies (and subsequently disappears – again – from the episode (although they do have a touching farewell scene) and Indy finds himself working with a group of American volunteers making up a flying unit.  Indy is their new reconnaissance photographer – a hugely dangerous job.

The first half of the story mainly concerns itself with dramatic air battle between Allied and German planes, leading up to a confrontation with the legendary ‘Red Baron’ – Manfred Von Richthofen.  Later, Indy is sent on another undercover mission to make contact with a Dutch engineer – Anton Fokker, who is making state of art planes for the Germans.

There are some exciting air battles, pretty convincingly staged as I presume they weren’t actually in the air for most of it, and a dramatic denouement with an exploding factory.  There is also a hugely fun James Bond-esque scene where Indy is given a load of gadgets to aid his mission to contact Fokker.  However, the main point of interest for me in this episode was the guest cast.

I’ve commented before on various British actors popping up in the series, particularly those with Doctor Who credits to their name.  Attack of the Hawkmen continues this game and ups the ante quite considerably.  As Baron Von Richthofen, we have none other than Marc Warren – Elton Pope and him from Hustle.  He is really good in the role.  As Anton Fokker, we have a surprising Dutch accent from Craig Kelly – Vince, the Doctor Who fan, from Queer as Folk – RTD’s groundbreaking series.  He is slightly less convincing than Warren but Geoffrey Whitehead also appears, a familiar face on TV, particularly in a regular role in Lee Mack’s sitcom, Not Going Out.  But then one member of the guest cast surpasses all of these….a certain Jon Pertwee appears as a German commanding officer!  Putting on his best German accent, Pertwee dominates his scenes like the pro he is.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much interplay between Pertwee and Sean Patrick Flannery, but it’s a delight to see him on screen in a very different role to what I usually see him in – whether that’s Doctor Who or Worzel Gummidge.

Attack of the Hawkmen is very much in the ‘ripping yarn’ camp of Young Indiana Jones episodes and, as such, hasn’t a huge amount to write about.  It’s enjoyable but ultimately not as affecting as episodes such as the previous episode set in Africa.  It does seem that, in the ‘War Years’ part of Indy’s life the series seems to be making sure he experiences as many tropes as possible.  So we’ve had ‘Soldier Indy’ in the trenches, ‘Flying Indy’ in this episode and we’ll be getting more of ‘Spy Indy’ and then ‘Desert Indy’.

There is far less emphasis in these episodes on debating philosophy, or science, or the arts as there was in the earlier episodes (and this was probably because the series was focussing on Indy’s education) and much more on ‘thrilling adventures’.  The navel-gazing is much more balanced in these episodes.  I know these episodes were more split up and spread out on original transmission, but with this in mind it’s amazing that the through line of tone and style is maintained as well as it is.  As a result, these episodes feel much more satisfying for the viewer than some of the earlier ones which tended to get quite po-faced in their approach to history.