I loved this series as a child and remembered many of the stories years later owing to it being repeated a few times in the UK.
The Return of Anubis was one of the episodes I remembered best of all (despite only initially seeing it once when I was around 4 years old) as while I had an embryonic appreciation of what a visually interesting culture Ancient Egypt was this was my very first introduction to the god Anubis, and I thought he was a really cool looking character!
The mixture of sci-fi fantasy and ancient cultures always intrigued and made for some interesting visuals and plot points here (the eponymous jackal-headed antagonist, pyramid-shaped spaceships, archaeologists getting transformed into Egyptian style wall paintings and our heroine Astraea getting temporarily imprisoned by mummy-bandages!). Such details add fun to the episode and helped spark my interest in the ancient culture.
The story itself is fairly lightweight (this is a 70s children's show) but works nicely and the theme of a misunderstood and initially unwelcome alien visitor also plays out well (quite how the ancients apparently managed to turn Anubis to stone for a few millennia is rather glossed over, given that he was rather more powerful and advanced than them, but I'll let that pass for the sake of keeping the story moving!).
This is one I happily re-watch for its nostalgia and fun visuals, though having become a bit of an Egyptomaniac over the years since first seeing this (and thanks in a small part to seeing this at an early, impressionable age) I admit a degree of bias! ;-)
The Return of Anubis was one of the episodes I remembered best of all (despite only initially seeing it once when I was around 4 years old) as while I had an embryonic appreciation of what a visually interesting culture Ancient Egypt was this was my very first introduction to the god Anubis, and I thought he was a really cool looking character!
The mixture of sci-fi fantasy and ancient cultures always intrigued and made for some interesting visuals and plot points here (the eponymous jackal-headed antagonist, pyramid-shaped spaceships, archaeologists getting transformed into Egyptian style wall paintings and our heroine Astraea getting temporarily imprisoned by mummy-bandages!). Such details add fun to the episode and helped spark my interest in the ancient culture.
The story itself is fairly lightweight (this is a 70s children's show) but works nicely and the theme of a misunderstood and initially unwelcome alien visitor also plays out well (quite how the ancients apparently managed to turn Anubis to stone for a few millennia is rather glossed over, given that he was rather more powerful and advanced than them, but I'll let that pass for the sake of keeping the story moving!).
This is one I happily re-watch for its nostalgia and fun visuals, though having become a bit of an Egyptomaniac over the years since first seeing this (and thanks in a small part to seeing this at an early, impressionable age) I admit a degree of bias! ;-)