Joe 90

For me personally, Joe 90 is one of the best SUPERMARIONATION shows from the creative talents of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.

It was one of the first television programmes, I remember watching when I was a boy.

This 1968 tv production, actually looked like it had money spent on it, unlike some 1960's children programmes that looked cheap and awful to watch.

Both the special effects and the model work are excellent for its time. This was in the days before CGI.

The dialogue is well written, and it is spoken well by the actors doing the voices for the puppets.

I have two favourite SUPERMARIONATION tv series, this one and Stingray.

When you compare Joe 90 to other Gerry Anderson series such as Thunderbirds, Stingray or Captain Scarlet it just seems totally inferior. To be honest, it was rather average despite it's interesting premise.

The hero was Joe 90, a nine year old boy who could take on the brain patterns of some of the greatest minds. He then went on many missions to save the day. It was a good idea-a nine year old boy on missions to save the world. The series wasn't totally bad but it just wasn't exciting enough for me. I even liked 80's Gerry Anderson series Terrahawks better which is saying a lot.

Young children may appreciate the show more but I don't think it will appeal to adults.

I watched a "SuperMarionation" themed day yesterday on the SF TV Channel, comprising episodes of Stingray, Thunderbirds and Joe 90 and it struck me how much Anderson's puppets had evolved from Stingray, through Thunderbirds to Joe 90. Before Joe 90 the puppets looked toy-like with large heads and stunted limbs. However the puppets in Joe 90 have bodies that are correct in all proportions and faces that look human (in fact they look so human the visual effect can be a bit weird). I especially noticed it in scene in a church where the congregation puppets had such lifelike facial features that, for a second, I thought I was watching inserted library stock of human extras but they were all puppets, all with unique human facial features. Gerry Anderson had reached his goal with Joe 90 of having miniature people but it's a pity the scripts were a bit top-heavy with their wish-fulfilment fantasies of many of Britain's oppressed 10 year-old boys.

Actually there's two versions around of the first episode.

The original one where the mission was just a scenario, then there was a later compilation of episodes were the 'scenario' elements were taken out and he actually did blow up everything.

Of course the idea of a Westerner sneaking into a Russian base, jumping into a fully armed fighter, and taking off, and battling back to the West - was obviously a great idea...

... years later, the whole episode was ripped off to become a Clint Eastwood movie called Firefox...

The similarities are rather extreme, then there's that episode of Space: 1999 where a crew come across an abandoned derelict spacecraft, and find a lone creature that attacks the crew and eats them, with one lone survivor escaping in a life pod, whose story is not believed. I think that became a movie or two as well...

Joe 90 is the next series that sticks in my mind as a favourite next to Thunderbirds and Stingray. Great story lines to this series, more so than Thunderbirds. I prefer this to Captain Scarlet. Definitely an essential to add to your Gerry Anderson collection.