Night of the Zinja
| The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest | |
| "Night of the Zinja" | |
| |
| Episode no. | H00616-94045 |
|---|---|
| Airdate | April 14, 1997 |
| Chief locations | Tokyo, Japan 140.03E, 36.01N (10,800 miles) |
| Vehicle(s) | Dragonfly Jet Quest Utility Vehicle |
| Writer(s) | Glenn Leopold |
| Guest roles | Quinton Flynn (Guard) Rob Paulsen (Guard) Clyde Kusatsu (Dr. Zin / Guard) Lucy Alexis Liu (Melana) June Angela (Anaya / Airport Security Guard 2) Tim Lounibos (Dr. Hatani / Airport Security Guard 1) James Shigeta (Dr. Yamashiro / Japanese Prime Minister) Ed Winter (U.S. President / Guard) |
| Episode sequence | General Winter <--> The Robot Spies |
| Other episodes | |
Upon his deathbed, Dr. Zin commands his daughters to carry out his dream and eliminate the Quest family. The operation begins when an android assaults Race and the team in Tokyo to recover Dr. Quest's movement prototypes.
Contents
Plot Summary
Dr. Zin appears to be dying with his daughters by his side in his home. He tells them that they must pick up where he has left off and continue his plans; they declare that they will restore the Zin dynasty. Dr. Zin then seems to die as the candle by his bed goes out. Meanwhile, Race, Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji land in Tokyo, Japan to deliver bioelectric mechanical prototypes to Dr. Yamashiro, one of Dr. Quest's colleagues. As Race makes the exchange, a man in a trench coat grabs the case and begins fleeing the area. Race tries to subdue him but is knocked back; the airport guards fail as well. Jonny rips the case from the man and throws it to Jessie, who the man leg sweeps. Another hit by Race knocks him into the airport's x-ray scanner, where Hadji learns that the man is in fact a robot. The robot punches through the device, grabs, the case, and speeds away on the tarmac with a motorcyle; Jonny runs at impossible speeds behind him thanks to one of the prototypes. The robot races astride a plane and knocks Jonny down after the adventurer catches up; he rolls into the path of the plane.
Act One
Jonny picks himself up and races away just in time to be blasted back by the force of the airplane's taking off. The QUV drives up with the team inside to pick him up; he regrets missing the thief, and asks for some noodles. Hadji states that the side effect of the prototype's causing enhanced metabolism is an incredible hunger. The QUV pursues the robot on the freeway; it takes a side road running parallel to a bullet train. The robot jumps onto the roof of the train, able to walk thanks to magnetized feet. Race equips grappling gloves and has Hadji take the wheel while he jumps onto the train. Jonny follows with his prototype enhanced running abilities, and nearly falls off the train after arriving (only to be caught by Race). The robot continues firing deadly ninja stars at Race and Jonny while a helicopter floats above to pick him up. As he nearly escapes on a rope ladder, Race returns fire with one of the ninja stars to break his footing. The case falls, and Race hands it to Jonny while he engages in physical combat with the robot. From the van, Jessie and Hadji watch helplessly as Anaya descends the ladder and grabs the case from Jonny. He hangs on to try and recover it, but Anaya boots him back to the roof of the train, where the robot obtains an overpowering grip on both.
Act Two
Race and Jonny hang on the side of the train as the robot prepares to slice them. Race grabs the robot's head, exposing its metal skull; he hits the robot's arm to make the firing mechanism jam. He then throws the mechanical man onto the path of a train going the opposite direction, smashing him for good. After Race and Jonny are picked up at the next train station, they return to the smashed android to investigate. Hadji finds that the android's homing device is still active, and Race dons its clothes and human face mask to infiltrate the Zin hideout in the warehouse district. He wears a button that relays audio and visual data to the QUV outside. The twins are preparing two new robots with the prototypes installed; one wears a face mask to appear as Race. The real Race is still undetected, and nods when the twins ask him if Jonny Quest and the others have been taken care of. Outside in the QUV, the team hear how they speak of Dr. Zin and deduce that he is dead; Jonny takes off to possibly act as Race's backup. He watches the new Race robot depart on a jet, and takes off after it believing it to be the real thing. Inside the warehouse, the twins gloat over the coming assassination of the Japanese prime minister and the president.
Jonny's cries sound loudly on Race's transceiver, alerting the twins to the fraud. They sick the other android on Jessie's father as his QUV uplink goes to static. Hadji warns Jonny that he must go to the prime minister's to stop the killing before he and Jessie escape the QUV to avoid the other robot. On the road, the Race robot fires enough ninja stars to wreck Jonny's bike; he continues the chase on foot. Hadji and Jessie look through the roof of the building to see Race apparently incapacitated by ninja stars; the Zin twins hear them up there, and the other robot brings down the ceiling by cutting through with ninja stars. Jonny arrives at the regal residence to find guards strewn about. He begins climbing a wall beneath the Race robot as the American president and prime minister hold talks. Their guards fail to stop the Race robot, as does the katana behind the prime minister. Jonny bursts in and holds it at bay while explaining that the robot is not actually Race. The twins are unhappy that the mission is taking so long when Race plucks a ninja star embedded in his coat and throws it at the other robot. He goads the robot into shooting up the android control console, rendering both useless. Hadji and Jessie then make short work of the Zin twins. Dr. Zin appears and berates the daughters for failing on the console screen; he then seems to walk out with a gun, and orders the twins to get to the helicopter as he will shoot Race personally. The team throw a ninja star and Race knocks him across the room, where he's revealed to be a robot with a bomb. Race and the others narrowly escape in the QUV, just in time to watch the helicopter take to the skies with a loudspeaker threat from the twins.
Notes
Quotes
- Zin Twins - "The blood of Mongol warriors runs through our veins. out of chaos, the Zin dynasty will rise again!"
~
- Race - "Since when could Jonny run like that?"
- Hadji - "Since when he could not resist putting one of his father's prototypes into his sneakers."
~
- Jonny - "Thought you might need some back up."
- Race - "You and I are going to have a serious talk when this is over."
~
- Anaya - "Nice to see you again, Hadji."
- Hadji - "The pleasure is not mine."
~
- Race - "Hey bucket-head, wanna try again?"
~
- Dr. Hatani - "...What's happened?"
- Jessie - "You lost!"
Goofs
- The Zin twins are ostensibly Chinese or Mongolian, yet they use the term "Gai-jin", which is an exclusively Japanese term for foreigner.
- The president's hair color has changed from gray to brown. It's the same president, as he refers to the events of Without a Trace.
- Tim Lounibos is incorrectly credited as Tim Lonibus.
Trivia
- Whether this takes place before or after General Winter is unclear, and depends on whether the Dragonfly Jet here is Dr. Quest's spare.
- The idea of a Race double had its origins in "Double Danger", a classic series episode.
- The Quest Byte, written by Karen Ferguson, features Jonny's attempts to reach the engine of a high speed elevated train in a futuristic city. He drives a stake into the car, activating its ability to fly and avoid a broken bridge. The byte is rendered with impeccable quality and direction, and would have made for one of the show's most engaging Questworld sequences if used in a regular episode.
Storyboards
Storyboards from this episode and Other Space were auctioned on Ebay.
From: Episodes
- This page was last modified on 21 November 2021, at 16:10.
- Privacy policy
- About QuestFan
- Disclaimers