Queen's Ransom was the thirty-ninth episode of the 1991 animated television series, James Bond Jr, produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation. Written by Jim Carlson and Terence McDonnell, the episode first aired on US television on 7th November 1991.
Plot[]
The episode opens with James Bond Jr. sight-seeing in Hong Kong. He spots Walker D. Plank and his men pursuing a girl through the streets below and gives chase. Plank traps them in a runaway cable car; which they narrowly escape - falling conveniently into inflatable pool chairs at the Warfield students' hotel. It turns out the girl is Jade, daughter of Sir Alex Green, a missile engineer working on China's silkworm missile project. Both were abducted by Plank. As Trevor Trevor suffers a series of misadventures involving cheap suits and watches he bought on holiday, Bond and Jade sneak into Plank's river camp by night. Taking advantage of the squabbling ineptitude of Jaws and Nick Nack, they liberate her father and steal a junk transporting silkworm missile containers. As the villains chase them down the river in speedboats, Bond defends the vessel with Roman candles; ultimately repelling the boarders and sailing to safety.
The following evening Bond and his friends celebrate with the Greens aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 in Hong Kong harbour. It is revealed that the missile cases were empty - all fifty are onboard Plank's fleet of missile junks. Surrounding the ship, the villain threatens to destroy the luxury liner and Hong Kong unless the contents of the city's banks are turned over. James leaps overboard and boards Plank's ship; reprogramming the missiles and sending a message to the Hong Kong governor. He is cornered by Jaws and Nick Nack, but their incompetence provides Bond with an opportunity to trap them in the communications room using a fire axe. Up on deck, Plank confronts Bond, but ends up trapping his hook on the boat's anchor chain and is lowered into the ocean. After evading Jaws a second time atop the ship's mast, Bond dives into the sea and returns to the QE2. The authorities demand Plank's surrender, prompting him to launch the (unknown to him, reprogrammed) missiles at the liner - which instead sink his fleet.
This episode ends with the oblivious Trevor fainting upon learning what had occurred. Gordo pours punch over him to revive him - accidentally shrinking the cheap suit he had in-advisably purchased. Jade and James embrace, but their kiss is interrupted by her father; who asks who James did it. He quips the ships were junk to begin with.
Cast & Characters[]
Trivia[]
- The episode features reprogramming enemy missiles to destroy their own fleet, harking back to Bond destroying Karl Stromberg's fleet of stolen nuclear submarines in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
- Queen's Ransom marked the second of two episodes (the first being "Nothing To Play With") featuring Captain Plank in Hong Kong.