Teleplay by Tony Barwick Directed by Ken Turner Edited by Alan Killick Original UK Airdate: October 27th, 1968 (ATV Midlands)

"I don't want to drive that stuff. It makes nitro glycerine look like bubble gum!"

Joe 90, given the brain patterns of an explosives expert and a top army driver,
makes a hazardous trip across Africa.

*   *   *

Sabotage has foiled efforts to get a new and very delicate liquid explosive across Africa to a huge new road construction which will link two African countries.

W.I.N. are called in to investigate, and Joe 90 is given the brain patterns of an explosives expert and a top army driver to enable him to transport the explosives overland from an army base in the desert.

At the base, a Lieutenant Pearse gives instructions to two specially selected men, a Sergeant and Private Johnson, telling them that a Colonel McClaine is being sent to take charge. The men are astonished when Colonel McClaine turns out to be a nine-year-old boy, and Private Johnson is reluctant to take orders from him.

Joe, however, shows how capable he is, and he wins Private Johnson's loyalty when the Sergeant is killed during an accident en route across the difficult and treacherous African countryside.

Joe and Johnson continue and are travelling in high mountainous countryside when a message is flashed to Joe that it has been found that Lieutenant Pearse was the saboteur, and that the explosives containers have been fixed so that they will detonate in a couple of minutes at a height of 5,000 ft. And they are just about at that height now.

Desperately, Joe swings the heavy truck off the road and plunges it down a steep slope. His driving is fantastic. Johnson can scarcely believe that a nine-year-old is at the wheel.... but, of course, he doesn't know Joe's secret.

Notes:
Lieutenant Pearse is misspelled "Pierce" in several episode guides. The correct spelling appears in the original script and ITC Story Information Book.