"This is an incredible talented group," Darabont asserted, "from all walks of life, all different perspectives and point-of-view. We all, of course, have strengths and weaknesses, but we manage to complement one another. For example, there’s nobody better at writing a sentimental, hearts-and-flowers kind of show than Rosemary. I couldn’t write that kind of stuff nearly as well as she does, but then again, I write a pretty damn good battle scene. It all evens out."
As with the series’ writers, a group of highly acclaimed directors from all over the world were brought aboard to helm each episode. Among them were Jim O’Brien, Terry Jones of Monty Python, Nicholas Roeg, Bille August winner of Palme D’ Or in 1991, René Manzour, Deepa Mehta, Carl Schultz, Simon Wincer and Vic Armstrong, the former stunt double of Harrison Ford in many films.
In September 1990 all of the writers were invited at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranchfor a story conference that lasted a whole month. During that month all the writers lived together under the same roof working from seven-thirty in the morning until seven-thirty at night. Every day was spent to plot out an episode and the next morning rewriting that episode. Following Lucas’ schedule they managed to write fifteen episodes in thirty days.
Most of the writers had never before worked in a group and they enjoyed the whole experience. "It’s been inspiring," said Matthew Jacobs. "Personally, I’ve never done this before, working in a group. But when you’re working that way, you don’t know who in the group is going to write which screenplay. So we all go through the process, caring about every story, because we might have to write that one. We write out a little list of our favorites. We don’t know… maybe we’re not going to get the ones that our favorites. This is the way I’d like to work on other projects. I think it’s a shame that writers can’t talk more to each other and may be able to exchange ideas."
At the end of the month each writer was assigned to write two episodes and from those basic outlines, which were very structured, McCallum went off to scout for locations and get the necessary permissions. Naturally, different episodes appealed to different writers for different reasons: some liked romance more, others liked action, and still others liked such serious topics as the horrors of war, or the differences in world religions and so.
Jonathan Hensleigh who wrote the India 1908 episode defended his episode of choice and explained its educational value. "This episode is an explanation of the world’s religions. Benares is the most holy city in India, and all the religions are kind of featured there prominently, you know, there’s an enormous Islamic mosque, there’s a Buddhist temple, there’s an Episcpalian church, there’s all kinds of Hindu temples. The India episode will actually be the most controversial of any, I think, because any studio executive will tell you that you can’t show anything that has to do with religion on American television. And this one hour is a comparative study of the world’s religions, basically, with Indiana Jones."
Matthew Jacobs chose Kenya 1909 and Vienna 1908. "I particularly wanted the Kenya episode, because the idea of doing an ecological adventure story was very strong. Teddy Roosevelt is a great character, and the relationship between Indy and the Maasai boy was something that I knew I could write well, and I knew would be great. Also, it’s interesting this story is about language as well. Whenever Indy travels, he tries to learn the language, and so you’re talking about communication between two boys from totally different cultures."
Rosemary Sisson opted for two very different stories, China 1910 andLondon 1916. Although the first required extensive research on the Chinese culture, the other, was taking her back to the familiar time period she wrote about in the British series Upstairs, Downstairs. "I think the England episode is very simply a statement that a woman can have a career," said Sisson. "It’s set in its own time, because it’s not such a new message for today, but it is looking back at a time when a woman’s principal objective was to marry and have children. If she couldn’t marry and have children, as many women after the Great War couldn’t because their fiancés were killed, then in a way she was a failure." The other subject Sisson explored in that episode was the age-old concept of timing in love. "I think the charm of the England episode is that, in a way, Indy is the right man at the wrong time, which is something else that happens. His love, Vicky, admits she’ll probably never love anyone as much. They were simply at the wrong time and place."
Frank Darabont could not be present at the first writers’ meeting at the Ranch because he was busy in Los Angeles doing rewrites on The Rocketeer. But even though he got the left-over episodes he said he really lucked out. Darabont’s first episode, which was initially supposed to be a single episode, got expanded into two parts because the source material provided by the research was so vast and rich. The episode begins in December of 1916, in German East African. The Belgian and the British forces were pushing the Germans east to try to get them out of Africa. Indiana Jones and a group of fellow soldiers were given the assignment to trek across Africa and pick up a shipment of weapons and bring them back, which in 1916, was not an easy task because helicopters had not yet been invented then. In fact, in 1916, the only way to get across Africa was by train, boat, or walking. But the real problem in 1916 Africa was not so much battle casualties but disease.
Lucas and McCallum with the writing group.
Darabont and Carrie Fisher not included.