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''Joe 90'' is a 1960s British science-fiction television series that follows the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine, who starts a double life as a schoolchild-turned-superspy after his scientist father invents a device capable of duplicating expert knowledge and experience and transferring it to a different human brain. Equipped with the skills of the foremost academic and military minds, Joe is recruited by the World Intelligence Network (WIN) and, as its "Most Special Agent",〔 pursues the objective of world peace and saving human life. Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by Century 21 Productions, the 30-episode series followed ''Thunderbirds'' and ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons''. First broadcast in the UK between September 1968〔 and April 1969〔 on the ATV network, ''Joe 90'' was the sixth and final of the Andersons' productions to be made exclusively using the form of marionette puppetry termed "Supermarionation". Their final puppet series, ''The Secret Service'', used this process only in combination with extensive live-action filming. As in the case of its antecedent, ''Captain Scarlet'', the puppets of ''Joe 90'' are of natural proportions as opposed to the more caricatured design of the characters of ''Thunderbirds''. Although not as successful as Century 21's previous efforts,〔〔〔〔 since its inception, ''Joe 90'' has been praised, among other aspects, for the level of characterisation of its smaller puppet cast〔 and the quality of its model sets and special effects.〔〔〔 Critics have interpreted ''Joe 90'' As for its earlier productions, Century 21 launched a number of merchandising campaigns based on ''Joe 90'', which included toy cars〔 and comic strips featuring the continuing adventures of Joe McClaine.〔 Syndicated in the United States in 1969,〔 re-broadcast in the UK during the 1990s〔 and released on DVD in most regions in the 2000s,〔 the idea of a live-action film adaptation of ''Joe 90'' has been considered more than once since the 1960s,〔〔 but without further development. ==Plot== (詳細はThe Unorthodox Shepherd" occur in 2013.〔 Episode 13.〕〔 Nine-year-old British schoolboy Joe McClaine is the adopted son of Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine, a computer expert. Outwardly, the McClaines are a simple father-and-son pair, who live in an antiquated Elizabethan-style cottage overlooking Culver Bay in Dorset, and are waited on by their housekeeper, Mrs Harris. Yet 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 spherical, rotating cage in which a subject is seated during the transfer of "brain patterns". Sam Loover, a family friend and an agent of World Intelligence Network (WIN), persuades Mac to dedicate the services of Joe and the BIG RAT to the organisation: Joe will become a WIN operative with a difference, the unlimited possibilities offered by the BIG RAT serving as an invaluable tool for completing missions.〔 Episode 1.〕 After requisite knowledge and experience has been transferred, and provided that Joe is wearing customised glasses containing hidden electrodes (a portable storage device for brain impulses), he is able to carry out missions requiring proficiency in – among other disciplines – flying fighter aircraft,〔〔 Episode 20.〕〔 Episode 25.〕〔 Episode 27.〕 spaceflight,〔 Episode 2.〕 performing advanced neurosurgery〔 Episode 12.〕 and piano.〔 Episode 8.〕 Since a boy would never be suspected of espionage, Joe's innocence is as useful an asset as the BIG RAT, and he comes to be regarded as WIN's "Most Special Agent".〔 Reporting to Shane Weston, the commander-in-chief of WIN's London Headquarters, Joe is also equipped with a special briefcase, which externally appears to be nothing more than a school case but which secretly contains an adapted handgun and transceiver.〔〔 Episode 4.〕 There is some inconsistency as to why Joe is assigned the codename "90". Contemporary series publicity stated that, in the pilot episode, Joe enlists in WIN as its 90th London-based agent.〔 However, in the episode "Project 90", reference is made to the BIG RAT being documented in WIN's "File Number 90", from which Joe's designation is explicitly stated to originate.〔〔 Episode 3.〕 The series ends with a clip show episode, "The Birthday", in which a selection of Joe's missions are presented as flashbacks at a surprise party on the day that the character turns ten.〔 Episode 30.〕 Like antecedent series, plot elements of ''Joe 90'' include hi-tech gadgetry,〔 Episode 18.〕 rescue operations,〔 Episode 11.〕 secret organisations〔 and criminal or terrorist threats to world security.〔〔Cull, p. 197.〕 An example of the advanced technology demonstrated is Professor McClaine's "Jet Air Car": a multiple-configuration land-, sea- and air-based vehicle built prior to the events of the series. The in-joke of "WIN", the abbreviated form of "World Intelligence Network", is similar to that of "WASP", the acronym for the World Aquanaut Security Patrol that appears in ''Stingray''.〔Cull, p. 199.〕 In the fictional universe of ''Joe 90'', the Cold War – significant at the time of the series' TV debut due to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 – has ended, and a world government has been established.〔〔〔〔Cull, p. 205.〕 WIN is the successor organisation to MI6, the CIA and the KGB, all of which have been merged in the formation of the global network.〔 Although the pilot sees Joe hi-jacking a Russian jet fighter to expose the secrets of its construction to the West, the storyline is ultimately revealed to be a speculative fiction posited by Weston as an example of the espionage that Joe would have to perform if he were to join WIN.〔〔 The plot twist, in particular the revelation that Russia and the West are allies in the future, is praised by academic Nicholas J. Cull for its "progressiveness of spirit", and for exemplifying Anderson's "() an end to the Cold War as a given in his work."〔 Anderson was motivated by what he perceived as a "duty to the rising generation to avoid perpetuating Cold War stereotypes",〔 once stating that he "tried very hard not to put () ten cents into creating World War Three."〔 Despite the existence of a global government and intelligence organisation, the nations of Earth are still politically divided into Western and Eastern blocs; here, Cull argues, ''Joe 90'' is similar to other Anderson series in that it "unashamedly capitalized on the Cold War cult of the secret agent whose skills defend the home from enemies unknown."〔〔Cull, p. 200.〕 The recurring antagonist of WIN and Joe is the non-aligned "Eastern Alliance", which dominates Asia and appears in the episodes "Attack of the Tiger"〔 and "Mission X-41".〔 Meanwhile, villains in "International Concerto",〔 "Business Holiday",〔 Episode 14.〕〔Cull, p. 198.〕 "Arctic Adventure"〔 Episode 15.〕 and "The Professional"〔 speak with Slavic accents. "Arctic Adventure" and "Attack of the Tiger" combine the threat from the East with the hazards of nuclear technology: in the former, Joe must recover a stray atomic warhead from the ocean floor while avoiding enemy submarines, while in the latter, he is tasked with destroying an Eastern nuclear device that is about to be launched into Earth orbit.〔〔〔 By contrast, an episode that presents the benign aspects of such technology is "Big Fish", in which Joe labours to remove a defective nuclear submarine from the territorial waters of a Latin American police state.〔 Episode 10.〕〔Cull, p. 206.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joe 90」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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