| "The Unorthodox Shepherd" | |||
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| Joe 90 episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 01 Episode 13 |
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| Directed by | Ken Turner | ||
| Written by | Tony Barwick | ||
| Cinematography by | Paddy Seale | ||
| Editing by | Harry MacDonald | ||
| Production code | 08 | ||
| Original air date | 22 December 1968 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Joe 90 episodes | |||
"The Unorthodox Shepherd" is the 13th episode of the British Supermarionation television series Joe 90. It was the eighth episode to be produced. Its original UK air date was 22 December 1968 on ATV Midlands. It was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Ken Turner.
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Forged United States dollar bills have been paid into a bank by an unlikely counterfeiter - the Reverend Joseph Shepherd, who leads the congregation of St David's, a village church. WIN's suspicions are raised, and Professor McClaine, Sam and Joe are dispatched to investigate in the days leading up to Christmas. Equipped with the brain pattern of a World Bank vice president, Joe confirms that the Reverend's bills have been printed within the last two weeks, although the last authorised printing in Washington, D.C. was 17 years ago and the plates were later reported to have been destroyed in a fire. The group decide to confront the slightly eccentric Reverend, who is apparently half-deaf, at his vicarage. However, the Reverend amazes the WIN agents by not only having guessed that Sam is carrying a concealed weapon, but also having determined the model of the gun just from the click of the safety catch.
The Reverend's supposed deafness is an act: the plates were not destroyed, and have been smuggled into Britain to enable two criminals, Kline and Mason, to print $6 million in forged bills. The plates arrived in the coffin of Mason's uncle, Clem Mason - known on the West Coast of the United States as an infamous racketeer, Carlo Masoni - who wished to be buried in the village of his birth. Kline and Mason's hideout is the crypt beneath Clem Mason's tomb. To divert attention from their illegal activities, Mason has fitted the church with electronic devices, causing the bells to ring at irregular hours and leading the superstitious villagers to believe that the church and its grounds are haunted. The virger, Thomas, has been kidnapped; if the Reverend betrays Kline and Mason to the authorities, the hostage will be killed. Requiring £10,000 to rescue his church from dry rot, the Reverend had no choice other than to agree to their demands.
Sam has a plan to expose the counterfeiting operation by Mason's fears against him. That night, with Kline and Mason approaching their $6 million target and the church empty of gadgets, the criminals are puzzled to hear the bells suddenly ring out across the graveyard. Searching the building for intruders, Mason flees in terror when Sam, hiding in the darkness with a megaphone, declares that he is the spirit of Carlo Masoni and that the Angel of Death will avenge his dishonoured memory. Holding Thomas at gunpoint, Kline and Mason emerge from the crypt to face Mason's "ghost". Under Mac's instruction, Joe, wearing a jet pack underneath an angel's white robes, lifts off and rushes towards them. While Mason tries to run, Kline fires wildly at Joe until he is knocked down. At the Reverend's request, Police Constable Lewis has stationed himself at the entrance to the church grounds and is immediately on hand to arrest the counterfeiters.
On Christmas Day, the combination of two rewards for assisting in the recovery of the plates - £8,000 from WIN and £2,000 from Interpol – means that the Reverend now has the funds necessary to restore his church. Later, the St David's carol service is heard singing the end of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", the final lines resounding across the snow-blanketed fields surrounding the village.
"The Unorthodox Shepherd" incorporates location filming of the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Harefield, Buckinghamshire, which appears in the episode as St David's, the Reverend Shepherd's parish church. Following the production of Thunderbird 6, which had involved the filming of special effects shots on location, director Ken Turner and production designer Keith Wilson conducted a recce on Church Hill at the start of 1968. Later, during pre-production of "The Unorthodox Shepherd", Wilson used photographs of the church interior to construct a scale model for puppet scenes, to be recorded at the Century 21 Studios in Slough.
Returning to Harefield, the production staff filmed on a path leading into St Mary the Virgin with a puppet of the villain Mason, and also entered the church to record a series of insert shots. After a snowfall, the crew re-visited the location to pan about the blanketed church grounds for the closing shots, set on the snowbound Christmas Day. Turner and Wilson decided that Clem Mason's grave, which conceals the counterfeiters' hideout, would be modelled on a block tombstone in the churchyard.[1][2] In September 1969, Century 21 Productions returned to the Church of St Mary the Virgin to film the concluding scenes of the UFO episode, "The Square Triangle".[1][2]
In a scene deleted from the finished episode, Constable Lewis arrests Mason and Kline after the confrontation with the disguised Joe.[1] Music for this episode was recorded on two separate dates. The Organ Music was recorded on 26th March, 1968 at Barry Gray Studio between 8:30 to 10:30pm.[3] While other music was recorded on the 10th April 1968 at CTS Studio between 2:00 to 6:00pm along with music for the episode Big Fish.[3]
Reviewing a The Secret Service episode for FAB magazine, Ian Fryer compares "The Unorthodox Shepherd" to the episode "More Haste Less Speed". He notes that "both stories centre on the production of counterfeit dollar bills in old basements, and feature a vicar who isn't what he seems to be."[4] He also likens the episode to "See You Down There" as "an early flowering of the whimsy which was to be the defining feature of The Secret Service".[4] Similar comparisons can be made to the Supercar episode "A Little Art", which depicts the attempts of two criminals to obtain counterfeit dollar bill plates.
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