Beauty. Brains. Black Belt
Relic Hunter
Sydney Fox is a professor and globe-trotting "relic hunter" who looks for ancient artifacts to return to museums and/or the descendants of the original owner. She is aided by her linguistic assistant Nigel and occasionally by her somewhat air-headed secretary Claudia. She often ends up battling rival hunters seeking out artifacts for the money.
Episodes
Event: QUAN SHU FORTRESS, MANCHURIA 1359 A.D. Sydney and Nigel are hot on the trail of a Chinese ""dragon's egg"" concerning an early contact-explosive like nitroglycerine. Rival relic hunter Kane has the map, but has been captured by a local warlord, Shandar. The duo have to break Kane out, and then get the map from him and go for the egg. They manage to get hold of it, but Kane and Shandar pursue them, and Sydney uses the explosive to blow up their opponents. Meanwhile, Claudia is off on a ""fashion emergency"" and temp Karen Petrusky is forced to deal with a budget review of Sydney's Ancient Studies department.
Event: BALI, INDONESIA 1459 A.D. After recovering an artifact in Bali, Sydney meets an old friend, Gray, and decides to remain there on vacation with him while Nigel heads back to the states. Unfortunately, another old "friend", intrepid CIA agent Derek Lloyd, is in Bali seeking a relic: a bowl that will reveal the user's true love. He wants to recover it so the U.S. government can give it to the Indonesians to win political points, but the Chinese are also looking for it. Sydney is forced to step out on Gray repeatedly, unable to resist the urge to go looking for another relic. She and Derek manage to find it, but Gray has always been captured by the Chinese agent. Syd manages to beat up the agent and recover the bowel for the U.S. Gray appears to realize that hunting relics will always come first for her, but that's still no reason they can't be romantically involved.
Event: ST. BEATRICE'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS 20 YEARS AGO In flashback we find out that Sydney's mentor at boarding school was an archaeologist, and was murdered over an Egyptian necklace. Young Sydney witnessed the murder, and can identify the killer's face. In the present day, she is contacted by her roommate Darcy Lowe, who needs her help to find the necklace and bring the murderer to justice. Darcy, Sydney and Nigel travel to find the necklace, only to find out that the murderer was Darcy's father. He was unjustly accused, since Sydney didn't see the real murderer off to the side who shot her teacher. The real killer is the mysterious Deviega, who is the head of a cult devoted to recovering the two parts of the necklace. Infiltrating a ceremony, Sydney tries to capture Deviega and avenge her teacher's death, but he escapes.
Event: ARABIA 843 A.D. A man preparing to shoot one of Sydney's students is killed by a mysterious assassin...who turns out to be the bodyguard to the student, Prince Shareem. Shareem is looking for the Light of Truth, a lamp that reveals the true nature of anyone who holds it. Sydney refuses it, so Shareem ducks his bodyguard Yusef and hires Relic Hunter Frank Kafka to find it. Shareem's uncle Hosni wants Sydney to find it. Also, Sydney and Kafka have a history: Kafka blames Sydney for the loss of his left hand. Sydney and Nigel go off after Shareem, who is at a dig being run by Kafka. Kafka plans to mislead Shareem, find the lamp, and kill the Prince. He and Sydney duke it out and Kafka ends up falling into a deep pit. Sydney then finds the lamp and Shareem uses it to test the loyalty of Yusef and Hosni. Yusef passes, but Hosni is revealed as being a traitor. Satisfied, Shareem gives the lamp to Sydney for the museum. However, as the episode ends we see that Kafka is still alive...
Event: THE SPANISH MAIN 1790 A.D. The wife of a deceased criminal relic hunter, Jamie Palmerston, approaches Sydney and asks for her help recovering the real-life treasure that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about in ""Treasure Island."" Nigel meets them in the Caribbean, and they follow a circuitous series of clues that Stevenson left. Meanwhile, a local dive shop owner and his henchmen are on the trail, but both of them are mysteriously shot. Sydney and Nigel find the treasure, only to find that Jamie is in league with her not-so-dead husband to get the treasure. They leave Syd and Nigel buried in the sand and then Jamie shoots her husband and takes the treasure. Thanks to a fan of Nigel's, they manage to escape and Syd punches out Jamie and gets the treasure.
Event: PALACE OF THE TALIBS, ENDOSTAN 1423 A.D. Sydney and Nigel travel to the Middle East to meet an old friend of Sydney's, who is now a queen, only to discover that she has died in a mysterious accident. Assassins are still after the sultan, who Sydney rescues. The queen was looking for the Star of Nadir, which is a token of true rulership. If the Sultan has it, he can put down the various conservative Arabic factions united against him. Until then, he has commited his daughter Alia to marriage with Jamal, the son of Hakim Mustafa, one of the leading conservatives. Alia has other plans, much to Hakim's distaste for a non-traditionally acting woman. Alia, Sydney, and Nigel go looking for the Star, and discover that the castle head of security was the one responsible for the death of the queen, and has been working in cahoots with Hakim. They find the Star and get taken prisoner by the head of security, but Sydney gets the upper hand. Jamal turns against his father, who is forced to g
Event: CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1720 A.D. In the past, a vampiric count disappears with a chalice, just ahead of an angry mob. In the present day, sexy vampire writer and lecturer Lucas Blackmer asks Sydney for help in finding the chalice, which is purported to help keep a vampire alive. Count Stanislov disappeared with it three hundreds year ago. Karen and Nigel investigate Blackmer's apartment and find evidence that suggest he may be a vampire (contact lens, sunblock, a coffin). They are attacked by Kantor, a vampire hunter, who lets them go. Meanwhile, Sydney and Lucas are investigating Stanislov's castle. They find a nearby crypt, which guides them to a hidden tomb beneath a fountain in Prague. Kantor, who believes in vampires, tries to kill them rather then let them get the chalice. Lucas bleeds like any normal man, and Sydney punches out Kantor. At the end they find out that Lucas likes to ""get in character"" as a vampire and has used the adventure as the inspiration for his next book...wit
Event: CENTRAL AMERICA 1488 A.D. Sydney and Nigel are in Central America with a guide, Carlos, tyring to get into an Aztec pyramid. They succeed and recover a ruby-eyed statue. Carlos betrays them, tying them up and taking the statue. They manage to get free and go after him, only to find him dead, and the opened box nearby. They take the box and try to escape by train, but Carlos was working with mercenaries who also want the statue. A thief on the train tries to steal the statue and also ends up dead. Sydney belives the statue has a curse and vows to take it back to the pyramid. With the aid of the NSA man who gave her the coordinates, she and Nigel get back. The head of the mercenaries tries to take the devil doll but ends up dead as well, as a ghostly image of an Aztec priest rears up. Sydney seals the doll within the pyramid once more.
Event: NEW GUINEA 1522 A.D. Sydney and Nigel are on the run from headhunters after recovering a lancet, which Nigel cuts himself with. They are confronted by a rival Relic Hunter who is a dead ringer for Nigel. The man gets himself killed in a trap and the duo escape. While Sydney is at a conference, Nigel is contacted by Cate Hemphill of Interpol. Nigel's lookalike was a relic plunderer named Ian Worthingham, who was planning on selling the lancet. She wants Nigel to pretend to be Ian and find out who they buyer was. Nigel goes along with the plan, and starts displaying incredible strength. With it, he is soon able to dispel any doubts that he might be ""Nigel Bailey."" Nigel soon makes contact with Anjou, a member of the Grel N'toz, a secret society (from ""Sydney at Ten""). Anjou sees through the deception, and grabs Nigel upon whom the effects of the lancet have worn off. Anjou uses the lancet to give himself super-strength, and even a newly-arrived Sydney proves helpless. Nigel cuts h
Event: GREECE 800 B.C. Sydney is grabbed by mysterious men, who lock a necklace on her. The next morning, under the influence of Carson Inez, she declares an indefinite leave of absence and departs for Greece with Inez. Karen and Nigel are shocked, and Nigel soon ascertains that the amulet has mind-control powers. He travels to Greece, where he finds that Sydney is willingly helping Carson to locate the tomb of Athena. Despite his best efforts, Sydney remains under Carson's thrall. Nigel is captured and reluctantly helps the two women. He later escapes, and Carson and Sydney make a try for the statue. Sydney realizes something is amiss and during moments of clarity manage to inscribe the incantation that binds the necklace wearer. Sent to kill Nigel, she manages to get it to him and he frees her. They capture Carson and avoid her men by putting her under the necklace's control.
Event: NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 1692 A.D. Hundreds of years in the past a Wiccan ceremony is interrupted by the locals. In the present, the amulet used in the ceremony is given to Sydney's student Meg, who recites the incantation and goes into a coma. Sydney and Nigel look into the matter and discover the amulet has mystical powers, and will grant the person who invokes it correctly great magical powers. Someone else, a friend of Meg's boyfriend named Blake, is also looking for the amulet and manages to procure it from Karen using hypnotic/magical powers. A seerest, Zanda, warns that they need the amulet to restore Meg. Blake is indeed a warlock, the son of the man who interrupted the opening ceremony, and he has used his magical powers to augment his fraternity house, Nu Theta Phi. Sydney and Nigel manage to interrupt the ceremony in the secret catacombs of the frat house, defeat, Blake, and restore Meg to normal.
Event: SOUTHEAST ASIA 1075 A.D. Sydney is out in the field looking for a relic while accompanied by a women's talk show hostess and her cameraman. Nigel and Karen are back at the office. Sydney is entering a temple when rebels in the local Gamora Heights district stage a rebellion. The men are after foreigners. Sydney and the others take refuge in the temple, while Nigel and Karen collaborate with the show's producer back home to try and get aid to Sydney. Sydney manages to get into the temple, but the rebels trap her and the others there. They make a makeshift flare, send up a signal, and the government troops arrive to rescue them. They find out that the soldiers never saw the flare, and it was due to Nigel's intervention back in the States that they were rescued.
Event: PACIFIC NORTHWEST 1398 A.D. Sydney is approached by a businessman, Bobby Green, who wants Sydney to investigate the finding of a strange piece of a metal in a dig in Washington State. Sydney and Nigel head there, only to find the local sheriff, Dark Feather, hostile. Government agents are also on their trail. Fleeing the Feds, Sydney eventually finds that Dark Feather is sympathetic to her cause, and they track down a site holding ancient relics of his tribe. One of them is a series of marking that match the piece of metal, which Sydney and Green believe to be from an alien spacecraft that met with the tribe's shamans centuries ago. Green claims to have been an alien abductee, and believes this evidence will substantiate his claim. The Federal agents, headed by a Major Hillhurst, confront Sydney, Nigel, and Dark Feather at the cave site. Things look bad until Dark Feather's deputies come to the rescue. However, in the ending Sydney's office is ripped apart and the metal relic an
Event: CAMBODIA 1952 While waiting to meet with Professor Cho in Cambodia, Sydney and Nigel are hijacked by Masters, a demolition expert who takes them to meet with Sydney's nemesis Fabrice De Viega (from "Sydney at Ten"). De Viega wants them to help him recover an urn containing the ashes of Confucius, located in an underground chamber beneath a mine field that is about ready to be bombed in four hours. To assure their cooperation, De Viega has had Karen kidnapped. Masters helps Nigel escape a mine but is then killed by another booby-trap. With their expert gone, the three take to a stream to bypass the mine field and get to the underground tunnels. They get hold of the urn but when De Viega ends up on the wrong side of a pitfall with time running out, Sydney forces him to send the signal to free Karen in return for helping him escape. Karen is freed, and Sydney and Nigel manage to escape long enough to take refuge in an abandoned tank as the mine field is detonated by the bombing.
Event: ASIA MINOR 1200 B.C. A professor/mentor of Sydney's is killed and a staff piece stolen from him. Sydney and Nigel head off to Istanbul to investigate where they run up against Natasha Tripova, the head of a militant group of Goddess worshippers looking for the Belt of Hippolyte. Nigel is grabbed by Natasha and her women gang, and forced to lead them to the belt. Sydney frees him and the two pursue Natasha to her ship. In a final fight Sydney defeats Natasha and proves herself worthy to the other women, who give up.
Event: ARCTIC CIRCLE 1355 A.D. Sydney and Nigel are called to an Antarctic research base. Traveling there with a mechanic and an accountant (actually a secret NIA agent), they find the corpses of the research team scattered everywhere. It turns out the researchers had found a frozen Anasazi Indian, who became extinct for unknown reasons. They find one survivor, Eleanor. They discover that the Anasazi mummy is infected with a virus that causes outbreaks of violent insanity (and which wiped out the Anasazi), but Eleanor has a natural immunity. While Nigel and Eleanor try to contain the virus using cold, they discover another survivor, Rollin Harley, who thawed out the Anasazi to profit from the virus and is willing to kill. He murders the two men and traps Sydney on the surface, but she manages to get back into the base. Syd and Nigel manage to take out Harley.
Event: ENGLAND 455 A.D. Nigel and Sydney are called in to investigate a man bludgeoned to death with what turns out to be a relic: the Cross of Arthur. Winston Hubbard has been seeking the Cross, and the dead man's wife, Sarah Glover, believes he killed her husband. Sydney and Nigel eventually track the Cross through a cryptic series of clues, only to find out that Hubbard's nurse and Sarah herself arranged Sarah's husband's death, shared an affair with Hubbard's handyman, and framed Hubbard. Sarah kills the handyman and forces an alliance with the nurse, Emma. Nigel and Sydney put a stop to them both and recover the Cross.
Event: ROYAL PALACE, MADRID 1808 Nigel is making time with a beautiful young student, Lorraine, with an interest in relic hunting in the office when Sydney is hit over the head by a thief, who steals her wallet and crossbow. The duo heads to Madrid to track down the crown jewels of Charles IV, only to find that the professor they were going to meet with is dead...killed with Sydney's crossbow. Framed as criminals, they quickly discover they were impersonated by Lorraine (actually Rayna) and Raoul. The latter killed the professor without Rayna's knowledge, and are now on the track of the crown jewels. After ducking the police, Sydney and Nigel catch up with Rayna and Raoul. Raoul takes Nigel hostage to lead him to the jewels and leaves Rayna and Sydney behind, handcuffed together. They manage to free themselves and stop Raoul as he grabs the jewels. Rayna is apparently tempted to join back up with him, but knocks him over the head and turns herself in.
Event: AN-NAJAF, PERSIA 422 A.D. Mac Hollingsworth, an old-school relic hunter, leaves a key to Pandora's Box to Sydney in his will. She and Nigel travel to Baraq, where they are befriended by a local conman and petty crook, Ahmid. With Ahmid's help, they get into the palace where Pandora's Box is secreted...disguised as harem dancers. The palace is controlled by Colonel Montoya and his henchman Hauer. Sydney finds the hidden door the key opens, but she and Nigel are captured. Montoya opens the Box and is incinerated. As eclipses and earthquakes plague the land, Hauer forces Sydney and Nigel to decipher a clue to re-seal the Box. They do so, then manage to stop Hauer from selling the Box.
Event: BEKKASTAN, 1401 A.D. A horse rider asserts her right and ability to lead the clan seated upon a remarkable saddle. Back in the present, Sydney and Nigel uncover a wall-painting of the female rider. Just as they are about to study it, a sound comes from outside and Syd dashes out to find someone stealing their horses. She grabs one horse and pursues the theif leaving Nigel with his camera, laptop and little water in the middle of nowhere. Syd catches up with the theif but is knocked out fighting with him. After an anxious wait for Syds return, Nigel phones Karen and sets off on foot. Syd befriends the theif who turns out to be the twin brother of the leader of a tribe of horse people. Nigel passes out in the desert and is rescued by the aforementioned sister who enlists his help to find the saddle so she can prove her right to lead her people. Syd and the horse theif chap (with whom she has formed a bond) set off in search of the saddle, pausing briefly to sneak into the c
Event: PASCUS FLORIDA, WEST INDIES 1521 Sydney and Nigel are in Seville when a mysterious woman wants a letter from the Duke from Nigel. She escapes, and it turns out Nigel's brother Preston was the one she was after. He lures them to a Lord Andrew's manor with the story of a vial of water brought from the Fountain of Youth. Rival relic hunter Sean James is also there working for the Lord. Andrew has gambling debts, which the woman Mavis was trying to procure. After finding a clue, Sydney sends Sean off on a wild goose chase while she, Nigel, and Bailey go for the vial. Lord Andrew locks them in at gunpoint and Mavis takes the vial from him, and Sydney beats her up and takes the vial. It is empty, however, but Nigel decides to let his desperate brother Preston take the credit.
Event: STONEHENGE, ENGLAND 121 A.D. Sydney is plagued by dreams of De Viega as they meet with a druidic expert in England to get hold of a map leading to Druid astronomicon - the ""keys to Stonehenge"". But it's a fake Watson, as Karen discovers. He wants them to steal the map to the astronomicon from the secret society De Viega worked for, the Gar'al Na'tash (sic). ""Watson"" is actually Fabrice's son Andres, who reveals his father is alive but facially scarred. They find a coded blade but need the scabbard to solve the code. Andres leads them to his father, who offers to help them against the Gar'al Na'Tash to save his son. Andres is captured, and Fabrice bargains with the scabbard for his son's life after they use it to solve the code. While Sydney and Nigel go for the hidden site, Fabrice is captured by his society and tries to reconcile with his son. He then trades his life for his son's. Sydney and Nigel avoid the goons and recover the keys to the astronomicon. At the end someone lea
