The Most Special Agent

"The Most Special Agent"
Joe 90 episode
Episode no. Episode 1
Directed by Desmond Saunders
Written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Cinematography by Julien Lugrin
Editing by Harry MacDonald
Production code 1
Original air date 29 September 1968
Guest appearance(s)

Voices of:
Keith Alexander as
Russian Pilot
Russian Director
Armoured Vehicle 1 Operator
Gary Files as
Russian Guard
Manston Airbase Controller
MiG-242 Pilot (Red Leader)
Reporter John Woodburn
Farmer
Radio Operator
David Healy as
Russian Commander
Russian Airbase Controller

"The Most Special Agent" is the first episode of Joe 90, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series co-created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by the Andersons and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was first broadcast on 29 September 1968 on ATV Midlands.

In the episode, Professor "Mac" McClaine demonstrates his latest invention, the Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer (BIG RAT), to his friend, World Intelligence Network (WIN) agent Sam Loover, by using it to transfer his knowledge and experience to his adopted son, Joe. Loover's superior, Shane Weston, uses a speculative scenario to persuade Mac to allow Joe, aided by the BIG RAT, to join the fight for world peace by enlisting in WIN.

Plot

Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine invites his friend Sam Loover to his Dorset cottage to view his latest invention, the Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer (BIG RAT). The device is capable of interfacing with the human brain, allowing knowledge and experience to be transferred electronically from one person to another. To demonstrate, Mac uploads his own "brain pattern" to his nine-year-old adopted son, Joe. Under questioning by Mac and Loover, Joe displays expert knowledge of the C-3400 supercomputer.

Although Mac plans sell his device, Loover — an agent of the World Intelligence Network (WIN) — persuades him to keep its existence a secret, believing that together, the BIG RAT and Joe may prove to be the ultimate weapons in the fight to maintain world peace. Later, the McClaines travel to London in Mac's flying Jet-Air Car to meet Loover and his superior, Shane Weston, at WIN Headquarters. To prove the worth of WIN's proposal, Weston tells Mac and Joe the story of a fictional mission in which Joe, aided by the BIG RAT, steals a Russian aircraft ...

At a press conference in London, a Russian pilot is answering questions on the new MiG-242, the most powerful fighter-bomber in the world. He is unaware that Mac and Loover are using a concealed antenna to record his brain pattern and transmit it to the McClaine cottage, where it is later transferred to Joe via the BIG RAT. Joe is then given a pair of special glasses that, for as long as they are worn, give him access to all the pilot's knowledge and experience. His task is to capture a MiG-242 and fly it to England for study, thus eliminating Russia's tactical advantage over the West.

Travelling to a Moscow airbase, Mac and Joe join a group of aviation experts who are being allowed to view the MiG-242 at close range. Joe slips past security and takes off in one of the parked MiG-242s. Brought before the base commander, the soldier guiding the tour insists that the aircraft was stolen by a child; furious and disbelieving, the commander has him arrested. In the air, Joe shoots down three other MiG-242s that have been scrambled to intercept him and then bombs a missile base that is targeting him from the ground. He reaches England without further hindrance and lands at Manston Airfield. Abandoning the MiG-242 before armoured vehicles close in, he is picked up by Loover in the Jet-Air Car. A local farmer's eyewitness account of the incident is met with scepticism by the airfield controller ...

Ending his story, Weston reminds the McClaines that in reality Russia and the West are at peace and that the MiG-242 does not exist. Mac is outraged by the suggestion that Joe work for WIN, insisting that the boy is too young. However, when Loover points out the extraordinary potential of the BIG RAT, the Professor reluctantly agrees. Joe enlists in WIN as its "Most Special Agent".

Production

"The Most Special Agent" was filmed at the Century 21 studios in Slough over fifteen days beginning on 13 November 1967.[1][2] This coincided with the filming of "The Inquisition", the final episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.[3] Director Desmond Saunders, who also served as the series production controller for Joe 90, had directed the first episode of Captain Scarlet.[2] The incidental music for "The Most Special Agent" was recorded on 18 January 1968 in a four-hour studio session at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London.[4]

In the first version of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's script, written in the autumn of 1967, Joe was to have joined the CIA.[5][6] As such, the character of Shane Weston was originally written as the CIA's Deputy Director, and his meeting with the McClaines was to have taken place at the American embassy in London.[6] A brief scene, set after the McClaines' arrival at the embassy, was to have featured a police officer stopping in amazement at the sight of Mac's futuristic Jet-Air Car.[6] The name of the organisation was changed to WIN, and Weston's position to that of WIN Supreme Controller in London, when Tony Barwick and Shane Rimmer composed a writers' guide for the series.[7]

The MiG-242 is a re-dressed version of the Angel Interceptor that appears in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.[2] Designer Mike Trim comments: "As the [Century 21] art department had gone through the expense of having a good-quality cockpit for the Angel Interceptor made, they wanted to get their money's worth by using it in as many ways as possible."[8] Trim also produced the concepts for the Russian "hovertank" and "hoverbus", which he says resemble one another because "it made sense from a design standpoint to make them similar."[9]

The passenger plane on which Mac and Joe fly to Moscow is a re-use of a filming model created for the Captain Scarlet "Flight 104".[5] In a deleted scene set during the flight, Mac tells Joe that the Russians are allowing foreigners to view the MiG-242 because they want to show the West that the aircraft is intended as a defence rather than a weapon.[10][5] All that remains of the scene in the finished episode are shots of Mac and Joe boarding the plane.[5]

The special effects shots depicting the bombing of the missile base were originally filmed for Thunderbird 6 (1968) as the scene in which Skyship One is destroyed.[5][2]

The argument between the four main characters at the end of the episode was unscripted. It is presented using a series of still photographs of the characters overlaid with the voice actors' improvised dialogue.[10]

Although the episode features no on-screen title, it is referred to in all production documentation as "The Most Special Agent".[11] The scene in which Mac transfers his knowledge and experience to Joe serves as the title sequence for all subsequent episodes of Joe 90; in some episodes (as in the case of "The Most Special Agent"), the sequence is integrated into the plot, where it follows a cold open.[10]

Broadcast

Prior to the episode's first broadcast on London Weekend Television on 5 October 1968 – directly opposite "Episode 4" of the Doctor Who serial The Mind Robber on BBC1 – Len Jones, the voice of Joe, claimed that the character would "slaughter that soppy Doctor Who. He may only be a puppet, but he is more realistic."[10]

Edited scenes from "The Most Special Agent" are featured as a flashback in the series finale, the clip show episode "The Birthday".[10][5]

In 1969, condensed, silent, black-and-white versions (titled "Joe the Pilot" and "Secret Mission") were released on 8 mm film by Arrow Films;[12] the same year, the episode served as the basis for a Joe 90-themed TV advertisement for the Kellogg's breakfast cereal Sugar Smacks.[10]

In 1981, "The Most Special Agent" was re-edited for inclusion in the compilation film The Amazing Adventures of Joe 90, produced by the New York offices of ITC Entertainment for US television.[10]

"The Most Special Agent" was broadcast on Channel 5 on 27 August 2000 as part of a Gerry Anderson-themed day of programming.[10]

Reception

Writing for the Anderson-centric fanzine Andersonic, author Sam Denham gives the episode a negative review, describing "The Most Special Agent" as "visually and technically a triumph" but otherwise "a disaster". According to Denham, the episode "makes no attempt to present [Joe] as interesting or appealing", while the "cop-out" plot and "photo-montage" argument between the characters merely "[add] to the air of disappointment ... The best that can be said about 'Most Special Agent' [sic] is that it has some explosions in it (and even some of these are knocked off from Thunderbird 6)."[13] Jim Sangster and Paul Condon, authors of Collins Telly Guide, describe the "photomontage" as "more emotionally fraught than anything that had gone before", considering it to be representative of the series' superior direction as compared to earlier Supermarionation productions.[14]

Marcus Hearn, author of Thunderbirds: The Vault, considers aspects of the plot to be inspired by Gerry Anderson's youth. He suggests that the character of the Russian pilot was inspired by Gerry's elder brother, Lionel, a Royal Air Force pilot who was killed in action during the Second World War. Hearn also believes "Manston Airfield" to be RAF Manston, where Gerry and Keith B. Shackleton, the head of Century 21 Merchandising, completed their National Service during the 1940s.[15]

Jonathan Bignell describes the mission posited by Shane Weston, which effectively concerns an arms race, as an "unusually precise reference to the 1960s context" in which Joe 90 was made.[16] Tat Wood of TV Zone magazine questions the logic of this "'what if?'" scenario, criticising the casting of Russia as the enemy given that Weston is subsequently forced to "explain ... that nobody spies on anyone any more. This rather limits the possibilities of the World Intelligence Network's 'Very Special Agent' [sic]."[17] Stephen La Rivière, author of Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future, finds this admission from Weston amusing.[18]

According to media historian Nicholas J. Cull, the fact that episode stresses that there is no hostility between Russia and the West shows how Gerry Anderson "took an end to the Cold War as a given in his work."[19] In an interview with Cull, Anderson discussed how he had been "inspired by some aspects of Cold War technology [but] believed that he had a duty to the rising generation to avoid perpetuating Cold War stereotypes";[19] in another interview, he commented: "I'd always tried very hard not to put my ten cents into creating World War III."[18]

Home media

The 2003 Joe 90 Region 1 DVD box set by A&E Home Video features an audio commentary for "The Most Special Agent" with Mike Trim.[20]

References

  1. ↑ Bentley 2017, p. 183.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Pixley, p. 55.
  3. ↑ Bentley 2017, p. 203.
  4. ↑ Joe 90 Original Television Soundtrack (Media notes). Gray, Barry. Silva Screen Records. 2006. p. 13.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bentley, Chris (2003). The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide. London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-9566534-0-6.
  6. 1 2 3 Pixley, p. 53.
  7. ↑ Pixley, p. 54.
  8. ↑ Taylor and Trim, p. 52.
  9. ↑ Taylor and Trim, p. 59.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pixley, p. 56.
  11. ↑ Frampton, Andrew (9 April 2009). "'The Most Special Agent'". bigrat.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  12. ↑ Frampton, Andrew (9 April 2009). "The 1960s/1970s – Arrow Films". bigrat.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Denham, Sam (2014). "Joe 90: Most Special Agent". Andersonic. No. 18. Farrell, Richard. pp. 38–49.
  14. ↑ Sangster, Jim; Condon, Paul (2005). Collins Telly Guide. London, UK: HarperCollins. pp. 408–409. ISBN 978-0-007190-99-7.
  15. ↑ Hearn, Marcus (2015). Thunderbirds: The Vault. London, UK: Virgin Books. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-753-55635-1.
  16. ↑ Bignell, Jonathan (2011). "'Anything Can Happen in the Next Half-Hour': Gerry Anderson's Transnational Science Fiction". In Hochscherf, Tobias; Leggott, James. British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays. Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy. 29. McFarland & Company. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7864-8483-6.
  17. ↑ Wood, Tat (June 2004). "The 5 Essential Anderson Archetypes". TV Zone. No. Special 57. London, UK: Visual Imagination. p. 30. ISSN 0960-8230.
  18. 1 2 La Rivière, Stephen (2009). Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-932563-23-8.
  19. 1 2 Cull, Nicholas J. (August 2006). "Was Captain Black Really Red? The TV Science Fiction of Gerry Anderson in its Cold War Context". Media History. Routledge. 12 (2): 200. doi:10.1080/13688800600808005. ISSN 1368-8804. OCLC 364457089.
  20. ↑ Frampton, Andrew (9 April 2009). "2000 and Beyond – DVDs". bigrat.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2018.

Bibliography

  • Bentley, Chris (2017). Hearn, Marcus, ed. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Vault. Cambridge, UK: Signum Books/Flashpoint Media. ISBN 978-0-995519-12-1.
  • Pixley, Andrew (October 2002). "Flashback: Joe 90 – 'The Most Special Agent'". TV Zone. No. 155. London, UK: Visual Imagination. pp. 52–56. ISSN 0957-3844.
  • Taylor, Anthony; Trim, Mike (2006). The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. ISBN 978-1-932563-82-5.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.