| "Hi-jacked" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Joe 90 episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
||
| Directed by | Alan Perry | ||
| Written by | Tony Barwick | ||
| Production code | 2 | ||
| Original air date | 20 October 1968 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
|
Voices of: |
|||
| Episode chronology | |||
|
|||
| List of Joe 90 episodes | |||
"Hi-jacked" is the fourth episode of the Supermarionation television series Joe 90. It was the second episode to be produced. Its original UK air date was 20 October 1968 on ATV Midlands. It was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry.
Contents |
An agent investigating a lethal arms runner is shot and left for dead in a street. Joe is equipped with his brain pattern to infiltrate the hideout of Mario Colletti, but can he stop his adversary after losing his special glasses?
At night, unconscious WIN agent Ed Johnson is discovered by his superior, Sam Loover, in a backstreet. An ambulance arrives and Johnson is rushed to Northfield Hospital for emergency treatment to his gunshot wound. Urgently telephoning the McClaine cottage, Sam asks Professor McClaine and Joe to come to the hospital with a portable transmitter, enabling them to record Johnson's brain pattern and relay it from the operating theatre to the BIG RAT. Johnson's last message on his secret audio recorder reveals that Mario Colletti, a notorious gunrunner, is in Britain and intends to hi-jack a shipment of submachine guns about one hour from now. Having concluded that Johnson must have been shot and left for dead after his investigations became too intrusive, Sam assigns Joe to infiltrate Colletti's base of operations and report the location to WIN.
With the brain pattern upload complete, Joe is driven from the cottage to the Hudson Armaments Factory and stows away inside one of the weapons crates that is to be shipped out of the compound by lorry. Colletti's associates have set up an ambush on a country lane and the police escort car loses control after being shot at with a mounted machine gun. The lorry driver crashes when he sees that vans have blocked the road ahead. With the contents of the shipment transferred to the vans, the criminals, oblivious to Joe's presence, drive to a barn that conceals the entrance to Colletti's underground complex. Leaving his hiding place, Joe inadvertently trips a motion sensor and is pursued through the corridors by two henchmen, Gregson and Davis. After a shootout, Joe is captured and, having lost his BIG RAT glasses, is brought before Colletti.
At first, the gunrunner seems to be nothing more than amused to find that a child has penetrated the base, telling Gregson to drive the boy home. Locked inside the boot of a car, Joe is unaware that Gregson in fact has orders to kill him. He switches on his transceiver to radio Mac and Sam, who are using a homing device to track his movements from the cottage. Shortly after, Gregson stops his vehicle on a ridge and puts it in drive, watching as it leaves the road and crashes and explodes at the foot of the hill. Mac and Sam arrive at Joe's last known position, only to be told by police that no bodies have been found in the car wreckage.
Unknown to them, Joe managed to open the boot from the inside and has returned to Colletti's hideout, armed with his gun, to retrieve his glasses. Colletti is alerted to the presence of his unexpected guest and goes after the WIN agent. Loose in the complex, Colletti and Joe fight to the death. Joe loses his weapon, but stumbles across a box of grenades and hurls one at Colletti. The gunrunner is killed in the blast, which starts a fire that soon leaves the whole base in flames. Joe is overcome by the smoke, but not before he activates the control for the barn door, allowing an anxious Mac and Sam to enter the underground complex and rescue him. The three of them escape in Mac's car seconds before the base is ripped apart in a series of explosions. At dawn, Sam announces that all of Colletti's henchmen have been arrested. Mac briefs Joe on his next mission: to have a bath and then go to bed.
In the ITC story information book, which provides detailed synopses for each episode of Joe 90, it is stated that Ed Johnson is "murdered while investigating a ruthless and dangerous gunrunner and smuggler named Colletti." However, Johnson cannot not have died in "Hi-jacked", because his death would have made it impossible for WIN to record his brain pattern.[1] The incidental music for the episode was recorded on 16 February 1968 at CTS Studios in London from 2 pm to 6 pm.[2]
"Hi-jacked" was broadcast as the fourth episode for the original ATV Midlands transmissions of Joe 90. However, when the main characters reflect on the events of the episode in the clip show episode "The Birthday", it is stated that the encounter with Colletti was Joe's first mission as a WIN agent.[3] Footage from "Hi-jacked" appears in the form of a flashback in this later episode.[3]
In 1968 a 45RPM album entitled “Title Theme From The A.T.V. Series Joe 90” was released featuring a re-recorded version of the incidental soundtrack to this episode.[4] The track listed ‘Hijacked’, was released on the B-side of the album by Pye Records, and record at C.T.S. Studios on 3rd Thursday October 1968.[4] The popularity of the theme has resulted in the music being re-released several times on other albums. No Strings Attached (1981), TV Classics Volume One/Two (1993), Top TV Themes (1993), The Cult Files Re-Opened (1997), Thunderbirds & Other Top Sixties Tv Themes Volume 2 (1999), Battlestar Galactica The A To Z Of Fantasy Tv Themes (1999), 100 Greatest Tv Themes (2002) and Stand By For Action The Music Of Barry Gray (2009).[4]
|
|||||||||||||||||