Stingray (TV series)

Stingray
UK DVD release
Format	Supermarionation Science Fiction Adventure
Created by	Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Starring	Don Mason Lois Maxwell Robert Easton Ray Barrett
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	October 4, 1964 – June 27, 1965

Stingray (1964 – 1965) is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and syndication in the US. The scriptwriters included Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Alan Fennell (who went on to write for Thunderbirds), and Dennis Spooner. Barry Gray composed the music, and Derek Meddings was the special effects director. Stingray was the first Supermarionation show to be filmed in colour, and also the first in which marionettes had interchangeable heads with different facial expressions. It was also the first British television programme to be filmed entirely in colour (the earlier The Adventures of Sir Lancelot having only been made in colour from halfway through its run). At the time the US stations were gearing up for full-time colour broadcasting, although Independent Television in Britain did not begin colour transmission until November 1969. Supercar had featured a vehicle that could travel on land, sea and air, and Fireball XL5 featured a spaceship. The next logical step was a series about a submarine, which presented a number of technical challenges. Scenes featuring model submarines or marionettes underwater were actually filmed on a dry set, with the camera looking through a narrow water tank containing air bubblers and fish of different sizes to simulate perspective, thereby creating a convincing illusion that the models or puppets were underwater. This was enhanced with lighting effects that gave the impression of shafts of light refracted through the surface of the sea. Scenes on the ocean's surface were filmed using a large tank filled with water and blue dye. To prevent the edges of the tank from showing it was deliberately overfilled so that the water would constantly spill over the edges and conceal them. These techniques proved so successful that they were also used for underwater scenes in Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.

Story and characters

"Stand by for action! We are about to launch Stingray! Anything can happen in the next half-hour!" These words, accompanied by a montage of action scenes and a rapid, heavy 'battlestations' drumbeat get each episode off to a rousing start. Stingray, a highly sophisticated submarine built for speed and manouvrability, is the flagship of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), a 21st century security organisation based at Marineville in the year 2065, located somewhere near the west coast of the United States. In case of an attack the entire city can be lowered into the ground on hydraulic jacks. Marineville is 20 miles (32 km) inland, and Stingray is launched from the base's "Pen 3" through a tunnel leading to the Pacific Ocean. "Action Stations", "Launch Stations" and "Battle Stations" are sounded not by sirens but by recordings of Native American-style drumming (composed and recorded by series composer Barry Gray). The pilot of Stingray is the square-jawed Captain Troy Tempest (modelled on James Garner), accompanied by Dixie navigator "Phones", so called because of his skill at interpreting hydrophone bleeps. (His real name, George Sheridan, is referred to in the show's publicity but never spoken on-screen). Troy and Phones board Stingray by sitting in their side by side command chairs which are lowered into the submarine on long poles. An additional seat and pole is situated just behind theirs. They take their orders from the crusty, hoverchair-bound Commander Sam Shore whose daughter Atlanta Shore is also a WASP operative and enamoured of Troy. During the course of the series Stingray encounters lots of underwater races, hostile and otherwise. The "Aquaphibians", a submarine warrior race, appear frequently, often under the command of King Titan of Titanica (modelled on Laurence Olivier). In the pilot episode, Stingray is attacked by Titan's forces and Troy and Phones are captured. They are rescued by Titan's slave girl Marina (modelled on Brigitte Bardot), a beautiful mute young woman who can breathe underwater. Troy is immediately smitten with Marina, and Atlanta becomes jealous. Meanwhile Titan swears revenge for Marina's betrayal. Marina becomes a regular member of Stingray's crew, and later acquires a seal pup called Oink, who features in a number of episodes. Many subsequent episodes involve Titan's schemes to destroy Stingray and Marineville. These often fail due to the incompetence of Titan's surface spy, Agent X-2-Zero (modelled on Claude Rains, but sounding like Peter Lorre).

Voice actors

• Troy Tempest .... Don Mason (speaking), Gary Miller (singing)
• Phones .... Robert Easton
• Commander Shore .... Ray Barrett
• Atlanta Shore .... Lois Maxwell
• King Titan .... Ray Barrett
• Agent X-2-Zero .... Robert Easton
• Oink .... David Graham

The character of Marina is unique among Supermarionation characters in that she never speaks, with the exception of the episode "Raptures of the Deep", when she telepathically speaks to Troy in a dream. However, the character's lips do not move, probably because the puppet had no speech mechanism. In addition to the 39 television episodes, three original "audio adventures" featuring the original voice cast were released on EPs during the show's British run. These were later reissued on cassette, and are included on the British DVD box set of the series. One of these audio episodes reveals that Marina is not actually mute at all. She and her people have been cursed by Titan; if any of them speaks another will die. They are not certain if this is true, but none of them dares find out, and so for years they have lived in complicit silence. Stingray represented a major breakthrough from Fireball XL5 both in terms of special effects techniques and storytelling. This was the first Supermarionation series in which the puppets had interchangeable heads, allowing each character to express a number of emotions. The love triangle between Atlanta, Troy and Marina is a surprisingly mature development for a children's show, and is even reflected in the closing credits where Troy sings "Aqua Marina" while Atlanta gazes wistfully at Troy's photograph.

Episode list

Main article: List of Stingray episodes

Reappearances

In 1981, four episodes of Stingray ("Hostages of the Deep", "The Big Gun", "Emergency Marineville", and "Deep Heat") were edited together to form a feature-length film version of the series titled Invaders from the Deep. On Thanksgiving Day (November 24) in 1988, this film version was featured as the first broadcast episode of movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The SciFi network in the United States broadcast some episodes of Stingray in the early 1990s. On 2nd January 2008, a brand new episode, called The Reunion Party, was broadcast on BBC4 as part of Thunderbirds Night. This episode was assembled from recently discovered linking material shot in 1965, and takes the form of a new compilation episode.

The unassembled version of the reunion part also appeared as an extra on the stingray dvd boxset.

Translations

• (French) : Escadrille sous-marine

External links

• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Stingray at the Internet Movie Database
• Invaders from the Deep at the Internet Movie Database
• FANDERSON The official Gerry Anderson appreciation society site.
• BBC Cult Television - Stingray