Jonny Quest (TV Series) The Quetong Missile Mystery (1965) User Reviews

I can't believe it - an episode I've never seen!

[bensonmum2 · 8/10 · 5 March 2010]

While visiting some unnamed Southeast Asian country, Dr. Quest is asked by the local authorities to look into the strange happenings in the nearby Swamp Lake. None of the police patrols that have gone into the swamp have returned. What lurks in these murky waters? How about a band of ninja types guarding a secret missile installation. Things could get quite tricky for the Quest Team.

A few random things about The Quetong Missile Mystery:

• To my utter surprise and delight, I realized almost immediately that I had never seen The Quetong Missile Mystery. I'm not sure how I missed it either when I was younger or when I went through the episodes when I bought the DVDs. But how cool – a new episode!

• The bad guys in The Quetong Missile Mystery are great. The black clad ninja-types in the trees, the traitor Lt. Singh, and the head baddie General Fong are an impressive cast of villains. One of my favorite bits comes near the end when Gen. Fong barks the orders to catch and kill the Quest Team. You wouldn't see anything like that in today's overly PC cartoons. Fong is just awesome.

• I knew I recognized the voice of Commissioner Wah and was delighted to discover Keye Luke's name in the credits. How cool is it that Keye Luke provides some of the voices for this episode? To me, it's just about the coolest thing I've run across in a Jonny Quest episode. I know he did a lot of things, but as a huge fan of Charlie Chan, Keye Luke will always be #1 son Lee.

Overall, The Quetong Missile Mystery is another great installment in the Jonny Quest series. I'll give it an 8/10.

Race and Dr. Quest front and center

[Fluke_Skywalker · 6/10 · 20 August 2023]

It's not often that the title character spends most of an episode on the sideline, but that's exactly what happens here. In fact, Jonny and Hadji do all of nothing, spending very little time on screen as they wait to be rescued.

Instead, Race and Dr. Quest move to the forefront and as a result the tone feels a bit different than your standard "Jonny Quest" episode. I'm not saying that it becomes more serious, but it does feel less... juvenile. To that end, there are deaths here. Yep. Deaths plural.

Early on a few pesky guys get too nosy and the baddies blow them up. I kept waiting for them to resurface (figuratively and literally, as they were in the water when they went Kaboom!), but they never did. And then at the end, the big bad gets blown to smithereens and the guys give him a "Well, that's the end of him" sendoff.

Keep in mind that this was the 1960's. When I was growing up in the 80's, G. I. Joe would shoot down a Cobra jet or helicopter and seconds later we'd see the pilot parachute to safety. Or, more infamously, neither side could hit the broad side of a barn with their laser rifles. So seeing this sort of thing here came as a huge shock to me.

This isn't a particularly great episode. I think the show works best when it's more fantastical and sci-fi than it is here. And I really believe that it missed having the boys along for the ride.