Shifting Sands was the fourth episode of the 1991 animated television series, James Bond Jr, produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation. Written by Doug Molitor, the episode first aired on US television on 19th September 1991.
Plot[]
The episode opens with James Bond Jr. and the students of Warfield Academy visiting an Egyptian archaeological excavation at the recently-discovered tomb of Pharaoh Hiphurrah. All present are shocked to discover two tomb robbers already inside the sealed site. They drive away the looters and later return to investigate, joined by the lead Professor's student, Cleo Daway. While in the tomb, Trevor Noseworthy accidentally triggers an artificial earthquake with one of I.Q.'s gadgets; trapping the party inside with the seemingly reanimated mummy of Hiphurrah.
Whilst investigating the burial site, Bond and Daway discover a tunnelling warship owned by S.C.U.M. operative, Pharaoh Fearo. They are taken captive aboard the vessel, where the villain explains his plan to reclaim his supposed inheritance: the treasures of Hiphurrah and the rich oil fields of the Sinai Peninsula. A brief escape attempt ends in re-capture. As they tunnel under the Red Sea, Fearo prepares to begin extracting crude oil; trapping Bond and Cleo in a section of pipeline. They escape by eroding the metal with acid, inadvertently flooding the vessel with crude oil and forcing it to surface. While Fearo and his men remove the oil, Bond returns and boards the craft with the help of a local sheikh. Fearo tries to shoot him, but misses and ruptures a pipe; spraying himself with crude oil. He is subsequently taken into custody.
Using the tunnelling machine, Bond returns to the burial site to save his entombed friends from suffocating. There, he unmasks the supposed-mummy who is menacing the group; revealing him to be Fearo's cousin. They return to the students' hotel, where Cleo tells Bond that while their cultures are too different for them to "blend", she wants to give him a memento of their time together. Nearby, the eavesdropping Trevor falls from the adjacent balcony into the hotel's pool.
Cast & Characters[]
Trivia[]
- Describing the episode as "20,000 Leagues Beneath the Desert", writer Doug Molitor cited it as one of his favourite self-penned episodes alongside Going for the Gold.[1]
References[]
- ↑ Edlitz, Mark (13th September 2020). "Writing James Bond Jr. – Part Two", The Lost Adventures of James Bond: Timothy Dalton’s Third and Fourth Bond Films, James Bond Jr., and Other Unmade or Forgotten 007 Projects (in En-US). Bowker. ISBN 9781735461618.