TV REVIEW : Young Indy’s Slow Trek Across the Tube

“Indiana Jones--The Psychological Underpinnings.”

That would be a more accurate title for ABC’s talky two-hour premiere of “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” at 8 tonight on Channels 3, 7, 10 and 42. It would also reflect the initial low-intensity level of this ambitious George Lucas series about the youthful global exploits of Harrison Ford’s heroic archeologist-adventurer in the “Indiana Jones” movie trilogy.

The series will regularly air at 9 p.m., Wednesdays, bringing us Indy either at age 10 (Corey Carrier) or at ages 16 and 17 (Sean Patrick Flanery) in various international locales, and in the company of such famous figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, Norman Rockwell and Mata Hari at significant points in history.

Actually, tonight’s premiere consists of separate episodes of Jones’ early life awkwardly fused, with visible seams, into a single movie. It’s the 9-year-old Indy that we first meet, traveling to Egypt with his mother and lecturer father in 1908 and, in the shadow of the Great Pyramids, meeting the famed T. E. Lawrence before he becomes Peter O’Toole.

The two become involved in a murder mystery--featuring an evil curse, mummies and torch-lit underground tombs--that goes unresolved until the second hour, when the teen-age Indy turns up in Mexico and gets in a cross-fire between the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and the forces of invading American Gen. John (Black Jack) Pershing.

Uncommonly good production values--the series is shot in 15 countries with an ingenious, budget-stretching visual effects system that multiplies digital images--give “Young Indiana Jones” a rich, textured look far beyond most series. And Lucas has assembled an impressive group of directors and supporting actors (including Margaret Tyzack as Indy’s traveling tutor and mentor) for this TV occasion.

What it all adds up to tonight, unfortunately, is something akin to a very slow camel or burro ride across long stretches of arid desert. There’s dialogue galore, but comparatively little action and virtually no suspense. In addition, the device of having a decrepit 93-year-old Indy (George Hall) trigger flashbacks on his life is an intrusion that somehow detracts from the character’s mystique.

Having these young Indys whip their way through a literate, historical travelogue is a grand idea on paper. However, Lucas better step up “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” if it is to avoid becoming a temple of doom.