Double Agent (Joe 90 episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Double Agent
Series = Joe 90
Season = 1
Episode = 16
Airdate = January 12, 1969
Production = 12
Writer = Tony Barwick
Director = Ken Turner
Episode list = List of "Joe 90" episodes
Prev = Arctic Adventure
Next = Three's a Crowd

"Double Agent" is the 16th episode of the British Supermarionation television series "Joe 90". It was first broadcast on January 12, 1969 on ATV Midlands.

ynopsis

When three of WIN's couriers are killed, Shane Weston believes that there is a double agent in the organisation. Joe is given the brain pattern of the courier chief to deliver top-secret cipher codes – but when his behaviour becomes suspicious, the worst is feared: could the traitor be closer than was first thought?

Plot

WIN courier A14 is driving along a country road at night. Carrying top-secret cipher codes, he does not realise that two criminals, Miller and Sherman, are pursuing him. The crooks try to force A14 to stop; when the agent accelerates away from them, Miller shoots out one of his tyres. Losing control of his car, A14 crashes into a tree and is killed instantly. Miller and Sherman recover the dispatch case containing the cipher codes and drive away. However, they do not know that the case is packed with plastic explosive; upon unauthorised opening, it blows up in their faces.

At WIN Headquarters London, Shane Weston holds an urgent meeting with Sam Loover and the head of the Courier Section, Harry Sloane. With three operatives dead in one month, Shane suspects an inside job and concludes that there must be a double agent in the organisation. Reminding the men that vital codes would have been stolen if A14's dispatch case had not been security-fitted, Shane announces that he is cancelling an upcoming mission to ferry ciphers for WIN's entire Eastern Network to Tehran. Despite this, an aerial above his desk has been secretly recording Sloane's brain pattern…

On their way to the Professor McClaine's cottage in Sam's car, Shane is confident that Sloane, who has led the Courier Section for the past seven years, is loyal. However, he is concerned that Sloane's cover might be broken if he were allowed to ship the Eastern codes himself, so Joe 90 must carry out the assignment – in secret.

At the cottage, Sloane's brain pattern is transferred to Joe on the BIG RAT. Sam presents the boy with his dispatch case, which is set to explode if opened without a special key. Fully equipped for his mission, Joe is driven to the airport by Mac but, upon donning his special glasses, surprises his father by saying that he will travel to Paris instead of Tehran. Mac assumes that Joe has been given additional instructions, but this idea is refuted by Sam and Shane. The men are even more alarmed when Joe boards a second plane, this one bound for Copenhagen. The boy evades WIN officers when he reaches his destination and enters the city. In London, Shane is astonished to report that WIN Supreme Command, in Washington, has imposed an order for all agents to shoot Joe on sight.

In Copenhagen, Joe walks to the clinic of a Dr Newman, claiming that his goods are of use. Newman is secretly a member of the organisation responsible for the courier attacks and contacts another man over the phone to discuss their "export business". The associate cannot believe that the WIN codes are being carried by a child but orders Newman to rendezvous with him in the English Channel.

In London, a distressed Mac is unable to convince Washington to call off their Red Alert. There is no apparent reason for Joe's devious behaviour, and Mac insists that his son's duplicity can only be attributed to the brain pattern of Harry Sloane. Shane finds that the man whom he used to consider faithful has requisitioned a helijet and is flying over the Channel – Sloane was the double agent all along. Mac, Sam and Shane take off in Mac's flying car in pursuit of the traitor.

Meanwhile, Joe and Newman wait onboard a launch as Sloane's aircraft approaches them. However, not trusting Joe, Newman suddenly lashes out and knocks off the boy's glasses. After a brief shootout, Joe's gun is blasted from his hand. Newman is winched onboard the helijet with the dispatch case while Joe, now no longer under the influence of Sloane's brain pattern, is powerless to stop the two men flying away. Mac, Sam and Shane arrive too late to apprehend the criminals, but Sam has been carrying a control to remote-detonate the case the whole time – and Sloane and Newman are killed as their craft explodes. Meanwhile, Sam assures Mac that he would never have done the same to Joe – because the boy is unquestionably WIN's Most Special Agent.

Cast

Regular voice cast

*Joe McClaine — Len Jones
*Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine — Rupert Davies
*Sam Loover — Keith Alexander
*Shane Weston — David Healy

Guest voice cast

In speaking order:

*Miller — Jeremy Wilkin
*Sherman — Keith Alexander
*Courier A14 — Keith Alexander
*Radio Control (voice) — Shane Rimmer
*Harry Sloane — Jeremy Wilkin
*Mrs Harris — Sylvia Anderson
*Flight Attendant (voice) — Sylvia Anderson
*Dr Newman — Keith Alexander

External links

* [http://www.fanderson.org.uk/epguides/joeeg2.html#Episode%20Twelve Fanderson.org.uk: "Joe 90" Episode Guide: "Double Agent"]
* [http://www.bigrat.co.uk/episodes/episode_12.html Bigrat.co.uk: "Joe 90" Episode Guide: "Double Agent"]
* [http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Joe%2090%20Timeline.htm# Clivebanks.co.uk: "Joe 90" Episode Guide]