Following “Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons” Gerry Anderson and company took their talents and went in a new direction. While there are still elements of science fiction in this new series, “Joe 90” is primarily an espionage series.
The premise goes like this: Professor McClaine develops a machine that can transfer brain waves from one person to another. He has a son who is his test subject and each episode has him transferring brain wave patterns onto his son, Joe, who then infiltrates criminal organizations, pilots aircraft, and other things normally impossible to a nine-year old boy.
Why is Joe the recipient of these brain waves? Professor McClaine’s best friend is Sam an agent of the World Intelligence Network who sees the possibilities of the device. His boss, Shane Weston agrees to have the device used on the condition that Joe is the person benefiting from the additional knowledge as nobody would suspect a nine-year old boy of espionage.
Interestingly this series is very “male-centered” – more so than other Gerry Anderson series. Almost all of the characters are male. Not one leading character is female, and the first time a woman is features she is a villain. After that only occasionally throughout the rest of the 30 episode do women show up in supporting roles.
Besides this sort of …. disconnect with reality the show works as a boy’s fantasy. Most boys dream of being secret agents at one point or another dauring their childhood and this fulfils that fantasy to a degree.
Interestingly there are a couple of things that make this more than just another series for kids. First up is the violence. There are some deaths on screen that might be tough for the youngest of viewers. Nothing graphic, but definitely not for preschoolers. The second is the location shooting. It doesn’t happen often, but there are a couple of instances where real world locations were used in conjunction with the marionettes to tell the story because building sets on the scare necessary would have been const-prohibitive. That technique would be employed more on the next Gerry Anderson series “The Secret Service”.
This might be the Gerry Anderson series I enjoyed the least – but that is a very relative term. To imply I didn’t enjoy watching through “Joe 90” would be a mistake. Viewed as a 60s espionage series, and there were a number of them, albeit with a heck of a twist, “Joe 90” is certainly fun to watch.
It is interesting watching this series right after “Fireball XL5” and the changes the production team made. The sets are much larger, more intricate and detaile, and there are more of them. You don’t see the characters walking much, if at all. Despite the changes/evolution in filming, all the hallmarks are here. The practical effects are fantastic – when something explodes it really makes a great show of it.
Special features are decent, starting off with two audio commentaries on two different episodes looking back at the production. There there is an interview snippet with Gerry Anderson. It seems Shout Factory has a solid interview with the man and is chopping it up and putting it on their various DVD releases.
“Joe 90” may not be tthe best Gerry Anderson series, and maybe not the first choice to introduce new viewers to SuperMarionation, but it is still well worth picking up.