Heroes

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
"Heroes"
Episode no.	H00616-94025
Airdate	September 18, 1996
Chief locations	Melos Island, Greece 26.32E, 37.01N (6,250 miles)
Vehicle(s)	Quest Helicopter PBY Catalina
Writer(s)	Matthew Malach Peter Lawrence
Guest roles	Frank Welker (Surd / Computer Voice / Medusa) Megan Cavanagh (Julia) S. Marc Jordan (Curator / Worker) Iona Morris (Teacher) Chick Vennera (Lorenzo)
Episode sequence	The Spectre of the Pine Barrens <--> The Ballad of Belle Bonnet
Other episodes

Despite the breaking of its head, the recovery of a statue of Apollo from Greece by Quest Enterprises heralds an important archaeological find—sure to catch the attention of Jeremiah Surd, who has his own plans for the monument.

Plot Summary

Teaser

Dr. Quest and Hadji observe the statue

Dr. Benton Quest flies in on the Quest Helicopter to visit Hadji Singh, who has been overseeing an archaeological dig in his absence. He notes that they've made a great discovery as a huge statue of the Greek god Apollo is lifted out of the ground. Dr. Quest notes that it may be the most important find in his life as he notices that the crane operators are being careless. The statue begins to fall, and before the workers can run a dolley under it the base hits the ground. Dr. Quest and Hadji struggle to keep it up right, but it threatens to crush them both.

Act One

Apollo is reassembled

They cannot save the statue, which falls to the ground, shattering Apollo's head. Back in Maine, Jonny Quest and Jessie Bannon are in school learning about the greek god. The bell rings, and the teacher demands that each student return from Spring Break with an essay on heroes numbering two thousand words. Race Bannon then takes the two to Melos Island via the PBY Catalina. The team examine the head, and Dr. Quest imagines that putting it back together will be a painstaking process. Jonny suggests numbering each fragment and scanning them into Questworld, where they can be assembled in virtual reality as a guide. He starts up the process as a wireframe model of Apollo is built in cyberspace with pieces slowly being fitted on. Jeremiah Surd is watching, and agrees that the statue could be the most important archaelogical find of the century; he notes that great power will be afforded to him in Questworld once the face is complete. While the program runs on the Quests' laptop, they return to the Quest Compound and open it up to view its progress. They cannot find the file, and accessing it produces a memory error. Jonny and Race go hot in cyberspace to find the problem, and equip a virtual file finder to help. It leads them to a place separate from Questworld where Hadji cannot track them; they behold a Greek temple (specifically, one built to Zeus) on a cliff above clouds finished in a slipshod manner. They head inside to find Apollo still being assembled, and as Race turns around he's caught face to face with the Medusa. He turns to stone as Jonny cries out at him to not look in her eyes.

Act Two

Surd as Medusa

Jonny turns and flees, ducking through temple corridors until finding a huge labyrinth. Medusa groans that she does not have time for this, and releases tendrils of her hair which become snakes to pursue Jonny. Back in reality, Jessie suddenly has an idea and enters Questworld. She finds a strange blue hole in the system's walls, and touches it only to be transported through the tunnel which allowed Jonny and Race to find the temple. Jonny finds himself backed up against a wall, and though he escapes being cornered in he is bitten on his index finger, which turns to stone. He continues running as Jessie enters the temple area in front, where she sees Race implanted in one of the gaps in the temple's front columns. As she cries out, Medusa appears, turns her to stone, and similarly places her in one of the gaps. Jonny is cornered again by the snakes, but reasons that perhaps a stone hand and foot would be useful. He allows his hand and left foot to be bitten, allowing him to safely hop away from the snakes and break through the walls until returning to Apollo. He confronts Surd outside, who declares that the statue had an innate power emancipated with the destruction of its head in Melos.

The virtual file finder offers escape

Some of the power is now in Questworld, and Surd plans to take it once the head is complete, at which point the temple will descend forever into the netherworld with the stony remains of the Quest clan embedded in the front. Jonny evades Surd's next attack as Medusa; she briefly stares into her own reflection, causing pain. As Jonny runs away, the head of Apollo is completed and begins glowing orange. Medusa pursues Jonny outside, where he finds the virtual file finder and holds it up to her, causing Surd to turn to stone. The stone effects on Jonny and the others are reversed, and they flee to the edge of the cliff; inside, explosions rock the temple and the head of Apollo blasts out. They take it and order the file finder to locate the Questworld mainframe; they're escorted away as the temple explodes, sending Surd flying. Once back in reality, they head back to Greece and assemble the statue, which is given to a Greek museum. In Maine, the teacher asks for their essays on Heroes; Jonny regrets that they were too busy, and Jessie announces that they have a huge story to tell.

Notes

Quotes

• Jonny - "Should I tell her my dad just saw Apollo lose his head?"

~

• Dr. Quest - "If it hadn't been for Hadji, my skull would be in pieces too."
• Jonny - "I doubt it, pop. You've got a pretty hard head."

~

• Hadji - "Every great fiction held strongly in human belief is the mistaken image of some great truth."
• Jessie - "What the heck does that mean?"
• Hadji - "To be completely honest, I'm not entirely certain. But you must admit, it does sound profound!"

~

• Surd - "Don't bother speaking to your friends. They're stone deaf!"

Trivia

• The Greek curator notes that several ancient Greek treasures are housed in museums in other countries. In the 1990s especially, this may have been partly due to the fact that Athens experienced serious problems with smog, comparable to the air pollution witnessed in Los Angeles. The smog ravaged parts of the Acropolis, leading to strict air regulations. Though lessened, the pollution can still cause smog sunsets and problems in the summertime.
• The Quest Byte supplies the system's origin. Back on Palm Key, Dr. Benton Quest developed a computer that could partially vectorize the human body, an effect termed hyperrealism. In phase two of development, wirematic stasis was achieved. Phase three involved block mannequin maturation. Phase four was the achievement of cerebral chrysalis. Phase five witnessed the construction of mellifluous resonance. The final phase saw the building of the current world.

From: Episodes