Stingray

 

Stingray is a British children's Supermarionation television series, created byGerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment between 1964 and 1965.[1] Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ATV in the United Kingdom and in syndication in the United States. The scriptwriters included the Andersons, Alan Fennell andDennis Spooner. Barry Gray composed the music, and Derek Meddings served as special effects director.

Stingray was the first Supermarionation production to be filmed in colour, and also the first in which the marionette puppet characters had interchangeable heads featuring a variety of expressions. It was furthermore the first British TV programme to be filmed entirely in colour (the first half of the earlier series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot being black-and-white). At this time American TV networks were preparing for full-time colour broadcasting, although independent television in the UK did not commence colour transmission until November 1969.

 

Stingray, a highly sophisticated combat submarine built for speed and manoeuvrability, is the flag vessel of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), a security organisation based at Marineville in the year 2065.[2] She is capable of speeds of up to 600 knots (1,100 km/h), while advanced pressure compensators allow her to submerge to depths of over 36,000 feet (11,000 m), enabling cruising to the bottom of any part of any of Earth's oceans. Marineville is located somewhere in California, on the West Coast of the United States. In the case of it being under attack, Battle Stations is called and the entire base is lowered down on hydraulic jacks into the safety of underground bunkers. The base lies 10 miles (16 km) inland, and Stingray is launched from "Pen 3" through a tunnel leading to the Pacific Ocean. The alerts "action stations", "launch stations", and "battle stations" are sounded not by sirens but by a rapid drum-beat (composed and recorded by series composer Barry Gray) that is played over Marineville's public address system.

The pilot of Stingray is the square-jawed Captain Troy Tempest (whoseSupermarionation puppet was modelled on actor James Garner). He is paired with Dixie navigator Lieutenant George Lee "Phones" Sheridan, nicknamed "Phones" for his role as Stingray's hydrophone operator. (Phones' real name, George Sheridan, is referred to in the series' publicity material but is not mentioned on-screen.) Troy and Phones board Stingray by sitting down in twin command chairs in Marineville's stand-by lounge, which are lowered rapidly into the submarine via tubular poles. They answer to the crusty, "hoverchair"-bound Commander Samuel Shore, whose daughter, Lieutenant Atlanta Shore, is enamoured of Troy. The reason for Shore's disability is revealed in the episode "The Ghost of the Sea": as a security agent for a deep-sea mining platform, he was injured when a hostile submersible attacked the facility and damaged his patrol craft. He managed to ram the enemy in return, and then escape to the surface, but in so doing lost the use of his legs. Sub-Lieutenant John Horatio Fisher also regularly takes shifts in the Marineville control room.

During the course of the series, Stingray encounters a number of undersea races, both friendly and hostile. The Aquaphibians, an aquatic warrior race, appear regularly—usually under the command of King Titan (modelled on Laurence Olivier), who is the tyrannical ruler of the underwater city of Titanica. 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),[citation needed] a mute young woman who can breathe underwater. Troy immediately becomes infatuated with Marina, causing Atlanta to become jealous. Titan, meanwhile, swears revenge for Marina's betrayal. Marina becomes a regular member of Stingray's crew, and later acquires a pet seal pup named Oink, who appears in a number of episodes.

Many later episodes revolve around Titan's schemes to destroy Stingray and Marineville. These often fail due to the incompetence of his spy on land, Surface Agent X-Two-Zero (whose likeness is modelled on Claude Rains but whose voice is imitative of Peter Lorre).[citation needed] Most of the characters, vehicles and places featured the series have names that are connected, in some manner, with the sea. Character names of this type include Tempest (synonymous with "storm"), Shore, Atlanta (from "Atlantic"), Marina, Lieutenant Fisher and the hostile Aquaphibians. Place names inspired by the sea or its elements include Marineville and Aquatraz, Titanica's prison. Vehicle names include Stingray itself and Titan's lethal submersibles, the mechanical fish, named "Terror Fish" in merchandise and comics but never in the series itself (where they are only referred to as "mechanical fish").

According to the audio adventure Journey to Marineville, the "3" on Stingray's fins indicates that the vessel is Stingray Mark III. Marineville is stated to be 20 miles inland, as opposed to the 10 miles mentioned in the TV episode "The Big Gun".