The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne — Season 1, Episode 9: Let There Be Light
Sci-Fi & Fantasy • 60 min • 1 season, 22 episodes • ★ 7.1/10
Episode synopsis
Following the death of Saratoga Browne, Jules, Rebecca, and Passepartout have their hands full with a suicidal Phileas. Packing up the Aurora, they decide to go on a tour of the United States. They meet up with a young boy, Al, who they find is mechanically inclined and partially deaf. They also discover he is an incredible mechanical genius, having recreated the design of the Cardinal's Chariot (from "The Cardinal's Design). It lacks time-travel capability, but the miniature armored model can hover and move. Phileas' current gambling partner, an arms dealer, finds out about Al and his invention, and decides to finance it with the help of the Union. The others browbeat Phileas into financing a hearing operation for Al - they go to find the boy and find out about the creation of the new tank. Concerned that it will disrupt the balance of power between the Union and the Confederacy, the group resolves to stop it. They manage to rescue Al and destroy the hover-tank. At the end, they pay for Al's operation. As they head west, they find that Al's full name is Thomas Alva Edison.
About The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne is a 22-episode science fiction television series in the steampunk genre that first aired in June 2000 on CBC Television in Canada and in syndication in the United States. The plot concept is predicated on a vast fictional conspiracy beginning with the revelation that Jules Verne did not merely write the stories behind his famous science fiction classic books Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth or Around the World in Eighty Days — but actually experienced these adventures personally. A television technological historic footnote, this work was the first hour-long series filmed entirely in HDTV format.