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Relic Hunter

Canadian television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Relic Hunter
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This article is about the TV show. For the type of person and activity, see tomb raiding, treasure hunting, antiquarian, antiquing, and archaeology.

Relic Hunter is a Canadian adventure television series, starring Tia Carrere and Christien Anholt.[1]

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Professor Sydney Fox (Carrere) is a globe-trotting "relic hunter" seeking ancient artifacts to return to museums or the original owner's descendants. She is aided by her linguistic assistant Nigel and occasionally by her secretary Claudia (Seasons 1 and 2) or Karen (Season 3). She often battles rival hunters seeking artifacts for monetary gain. The series includes fantasy and science fiction elements, with relics featuring supernatural powers or unusually advanced technology.

It ran for three seasons in the United States between 1999 and 2002, fulfilling its initial three-season, 66-episode contract, which was not renewed. In aired on Sky1 and subsidiary channels in Ireland and the United Kingdom, while in Canada, it aired on CityTV and Space, CTV's sister network A-Channel and Showcase. The series was shot in the Toronto area and includes local landmarks. As of July 2023, the series airs on the Heroes and Icons cable network.

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Overview

Relic Hunter follows the globe-trotting adventures of unorthodox American archaeologist Sydney Fox (Tia Carrere), and her reserved British assistant Nigel Bailey (Christien Anholt). They are assisted at their home base (an American university identified as Trinity College) by student secretary Claudia (Lindy Booth), the spoiled and fashion-conscious daughter of a major donor to the college. The character of Claudia was replaced in the third season by Karen Petrusky (Tanja Reichert), who is more capable in dealing with bureaucracy.

Each episode begins with a flashback of an artifact in its original time before being lost, stolen or hidden. Then in the present day Sydney and Nigel are asked by some person or agency to find the relic. Most episodes feature the duo traveling the globe hunting for clues to find the artifact. Complications abound, with rival relic hunters giving Sydney a chance to use her martial arts.[2] Each episode ends with a scene at Trinity College explaining what has happened to the relic.

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Nigel shows an artifact to Sydney.
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Cast and characters

Main

  • Tia Carrere as Sydney Fox: a Professor of Ancient Studies at Trinity College, skilled in martial arts and self-defense.[2]
  • Christien Anholt as Nigel Bailey: Sydney's reserved British teaching assistant who accompanies Sydney on her travels. The producers describe Nigel as a "younger Hugh Grant". Anholt says Sydney is the female Indiana Jones and his character the English sidekick.[2]
  • Lindy Booth as Claudia: Sydney's office assistant who helps Sydney and Nigel from the campus whilst they are abroad. She is daughter of a major donor to the school.[3] She sometimes organizes creative solutions to Sydney's and Nigel's travel difficulties, and occasionally joins them in the field.
  • Tanja Reichert as Karen Petrusky (Season 3): Claudia's replacement; more serious but also willing to use her attractiveness to get the job done.[4]

Recurring

  • Tony Rosato as Stewie Harper (Episodes 1, 8, 21): Relic hunter who has a love-hate relationship with Sydney
  • Thomas Kretschmann as Kurt Reiner (Episodes 6, 12): A rival relic hunter and former flame of Sydney Fox. Sarcastic, arrogant and charming.
  • Louis Mandylor as Derek Lloyd (Episodes 7, 26, 46): A CIA agent who requires Sydney's help on occasion.
  • Lori Gordon as Lynette (Episodes 8, 10), a temp who twice filled in for Claudia
  • Elias Zarou as Edward Patel (Episodes 24, 34): Leader of the Cult of Kali
  • Nancy Anne Sakovich as Cate Hemphill (Episodes 25, 34, 53; mentioned in 47, 54, 59, 66): An Interpol agent and occasional romantic interest of Nigel
  • Crispin Bonham-Carter as Preston Bailey (Episodes 42, 65): Nigel's older brother
  • Ravi Steve Khajuriah as Sanjay (Episodes 45, 48): A helpful colleague of Karen's
  • Simon MacCorkindale as Fabrice De Viega (Episodes 47, 58, 66): Sydney's enemy who killed her mentor Alistair Newell when she was ten. MacCorkindale was co-executive producer for the third season.[5][6]
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List of episodes, relics, and locations

Main article: List of Relic Hunter episodes
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Production

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The show and character was designed around Carrere, her skills and interests. It was intended to be a light-hearted adventure series. The episodes were filmed mainly in and around the Toronto area where there were lots of places that could stand in for locations around the world.[2] The final six episodes of the first season was filmed at various locations in France.[7]

Many of the relics were related to some tidbit of historical fact, and a story developed around how it was used, abused, and lost, and how Sydney and Nigel are able to recover it after going through adventures where they have to solve puzzles, evade traps and confront rival hunters and enemies. Carrere would often do her own martial arts stunts.[2]

The "Trinity College" campus scenes were filmed at the St. George campus at the University of Toronto in Canada. Campus landmarks prominently featured throughout the series include Victoria College and the Soldiers' Tower (directly adjacent to Hart House). The "Antianeirai" episode ship scenes were filmed aboard HMCS Haida, the last Tribal Class destroyer in the world, when she was berthed at Ontario Place, in Toronto, Canada. For instance, the scene where Sydney finds the belt was filmed in the forward mess deck. All onboard signage was covered with Russian words. Haida has a red maple leaf on one of her funnels and this was covered with a "bird" design. Anything that would show the ship to be of Canadian, or "western" origin, was removed for the film shoot.

All seasons were filmed in widescreen 16:9 but mainly shown in pan and scan 4/3 as are most of Fireworks Entertainment productions from 2000. The widescreen versions of all seasons are available for viewing at Netflix in Nordics as of 2012.

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International distribution

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Relic Hunter was broadcast in many countries around the world including:

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Home media

Alliance Home Entertainment has released all three seasons of Relic Hunter on DVD in Region 1 (Canada only).

In Region 4, Warner Home Video released season 1 on DVD in Australia in two volume sets in 2005. Madman Entertainment subsequently acquired the rights and released the second season on DVD in 2006 and the third season in 2010. A complete Season 1 box set was released by Madman on February 2, 2011.

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See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    In the episode "Sydney at Ten", the flashback is listed as "20 years ago"
  2. [b]
    In "Pandora's Box", there is a will reading for Mac Hollingsworth but the location is not disclosed.

References

External links

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