Captain Scarlet/Joe 90/The Protectors - 29th September 2022

Joe 90 at 54

29th September also marks the 54th Anniversary of another big Gerry Anderson series, Joe 90. To celebrate this, CaptainThunderWho reveals some secret information from the Joe 90 Viewing Notes book about two of the most popular episodes to the series (and his two favourites), Hi-Jacked and Attack Of The Tiger. 

Hi-Jacked was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry. Produced as the second episode of the series, and as the second episode in the Sypnosis Book, the ITC Logline for this story states that "Joe 90 tackles a dangerous gun-runner and smuggler and finds himself in peril". The untitled script was headed "Episode Two", and the script states that the reference at the start of the story with the antenna reading Johnson's brain pattern is used from "PILOT FILM", and the BIG RAT setup refers to MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE. A key element of the script was the introduction of Joe's special WIN equipment, some of which featured in The Most Special Agent. The villain of the piece was originally called Andre Colletti rather than Mario. The commercial break was originally going to be when Colletti states "I want him (the intruder). Preferably dead". The script stated that Joe was 4ft as opposed to 4ft 3 inches as in the writer's guide. The Hudson Armaments Truck for Shipment Tango 120 was a model made for Captain Scarlet's Big Ben Strikes Again, with many city miniatures being reused from that story. The Adelphi Hotel signpost from Flight 104 was also reused. The green truck seen in Colletti's hideout was featured in Treble Cross, with the Biological Research Station D from Place Of Angels appearing as Northfield Hospital. Production on the episode began on Stage 3 on Monday 27th November 1967, following the completion of work on Captain Scarlet. The music for the story ran for just over 9 minutes and was recorded by 26 musicians at Cine-Tele Sound (CTS) Studios along with cues for Operation McClaine from 2PM - 6PM on Friday 16th February 1968.

Attack Of The Tiger was also written by Tony Barwick, and directed by Peter Anderson (who wasn't related to Gerry or Sylvia). The ITC Logline for this story stated "The codename of Tiger hides the identity of Joe 90 when sent on one of his next hazardous missions". Produced as Episode 21, but is Episode 26 in the Synposis Book, the script was originally called Attack, and opened "Somewhere in Asia (China), where Fez (a reused Captain Ochre puppet) was defined as an "American WIN agent". Soldiers of the Eastern Alliance were written in a form of Catalan or Vietnamese with some phrases translatable into English such as "Amagato" = hidden, "Chung" = General. The Lieutenant and Private at the frontier were specified as also being in the "Far East-Z", and the script made reference to the International Fix System, which had been used in Thunderbirds Are Go, Thunderbird 6, and in the Captain Scarlet story Renegade Rocket. The stage directions refer to triumphant music when Joe has begun his attack. The VG 104 was designed so the expensive Angel cockpit from Captain Scarlet could be reused once again. 

The runway on which the plane landed on was that seen in Three's A Crowd, and the jet that passed the cottage had been seen in Arctic Adventure. The refuelling aircraft had been seen as an aircraft miniature in The Fortress, whilst the red car driven by Fearless Foley (driven by the Dr Fawn puppet with an added moustache) also appeared in Splashdown, International Concerto, and Double Agent. Part of the enemy base used some of the arches seen in the London Airport miniatures from the opening episode of Thunderbirds, Trapped In The Sky. Stage 3 was used for the puppet scenes on the episode from around Monday 6th May, and the Eastern Alliance soldiers sported caps which were the same worn by those of the World Army Offices in Colonel McClaine. The countdown clock was previously seen in The Most Special Agent was also featured at the Eastern European base, as well as several consoles seen along the wall from the same episode. More reused shots from Double Agent, Operation McClaine, and The Most Special Agent were reused of the Jet Air Car's flight or as the cottage's antenna. No new score was created for this story, and so tracks were reused from episodes such as King For A Day, The Fortress and Splashdown. Tracks from Supercar (The Talisman Of Saigon) and Stingray (Stingray, The Big Gun, and Emergency Marineville) were reused at the Eastern Base. The ITC synopsis carried misleading credits; "Screenplay by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson. Written by Tony Barwick".