Joe 90 - Plot

Plot

Joe 90 is set either in 2012-3 or at another point in the early 21st century, or 1998, according to the official guide for scriptwriters. Nine-year-old British schoolboy Joe McClaine is the adopted son of Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine, a renowned computer expert. On the outside, the McClaines are an ordinary father-and-son pair who live in an antiquated Elizabethan-style cottage overlooking Culver Bay, Dorset, tended by their housekeeper, Mrs Harris. However, residing in a secret underground laboratory is Mac's latest invention, the "BIG RAT" (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer), a machine capable of recording knowledge and experience from leading experts in various fields and transferring it to another human brain. At the heart of the design is the "Rat Trap", a rotating, spherical cage in which a subject is seated during the transfer of the expert "brain pattern".

Sam Loover, a secret agent for the World Intelligence Network (WIN), persuades Mac, his friend, to dedicate the BIG RAT to WIN's pursuit of world peace by permitting Joe to assume such knowledge and experience and become an operative for the organisation. After the requisite skill is transferred, and provided that Joe is wearing special glasses containing hidden electrodes storing the expertise, he is able to execute such missions as operating fighter aircraft, blasting off into space and performing advanced neurosurgery, all the while appearing to be an innocent schoolboy to the enemies of WIN. Since no one would suspect a child of espionage, Joe quickly becomes WIN's "Most Special Agent". Reporting to the commander-in-chief of WIN's London Headquarters, Shane Weston, he is also provided with a special briefcase, which on superficial inspection appears to be a simple school case but in fact conceals an adapted handgun and transceiver. There is some inconsistency as to why Joe assumes the codename "90". Promotional information states that, in the pilot, Joe joins 89 other WIN agents based in London, becoming the 90th agent. However, in the episode "Project 90", the BIG RAT is referred to as WIN's "File 90" and (according to dialogue from Professor McClaine) Joe's designation originates from this.

In a manner similar to other Gerry Anderson series, Joe 90 features gadgets, rescue operations, secret organisations, and criminal and terrorist threats to the safety of the world. One example of advanced technology demonstrated is the "Jet Air Car", a land, sea and air vehicle invented by Professor McClaine prior to the events of the series. The pun of the "WIN" acronym for the World Intelligence Network is similar to that of WASP, the abbreviated name of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol that appears in Stingray. The Cold War, significant in 1968 due to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that August has ended in the futuristic universe of Joe 90. Although in the pilot episode Joe is depicted stealing a new Russian fighter plane to expose its revolutionary design to the West, the story is later revealed to be a scenario imagined by Shane Weston to demonstrate the types of espionage in which Joe would likely be involved if Mac agrees to his son becoming a spy.

In the fictional universe of Joe 90, the nations of the world are politically divided into Western and Eastern blocs. A recurring antagonist is the Eastern Alliance, which dominates Asia and appears in the episodes "Attack of the Tiger" and "Mission X-41". "International Concerto", "Business Holiday", "Arctic Adventure" and "The Professional" feature villains who speak with Slavic accents. "Attack of the Tiger" combines the Eastern Alliance threat with the hazards of nuclear technology; in this episode, Joe must prevent an Eastern nuclear device from being launched into Earth orbit. By contrast, an episode that demonstrates the advantages of nuclear technology is "Big Fish", in which Joe struggles to remove a crippled nuclear submarine from the ocean floor when it strays into the territorial waters of a hostile Latin American police state. The series ends with a clip show episode, "The Birthday", in which a number of Joe's missions are recalled as flashbacks on the day that the protagonist reaches the age of ten.