Stingray

Well, it was set 100 years in the future, to those of us who were kids growing up in the sixties. We had no internet, no digital technology, no VCR's or DVD's. Man hadn't even been to the moon. We had something much better. We had imaginations! Instead of playing games where the intention is to destroy the opposition, we watched shows about heroes and rescues. This was one such show, as were Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Joe 90. Watch them with the innocence of 60's youth and you will understand why they are so timeless. Ignore (and enjoy) the mistakes made obvious by passage of time into the real 21st Century. For this step you will need to tap the imagination I mentioned before. As a kid living in Slough, Bucks. (as it was then) I would go to APF studios with my friends. We would watch through door cracks, when we could, and we would hunt through their dumpsters. This was NOT garbage. It was a treasure trove, and we were on a treasure hunt! How I could kick myself in the ass for giving away a script, that I had once found, for the Thunderbirds episode "Give Or Take A Million" when I grew up! Besides anything else, these shows had the best explosions and the bad guys never won, even if they went on to fight another day! Damn you X2-0, the War Lord Titan, The Hood and, of course, the dreaded Mysterons! Thank you Gerry Anderson et al, your imagination fuelled my childhood dreams, and continues to entertain me today.

With its emphasis on fast-paced, underwater action/adventure, Stingray is an entertaining, half-hour TV program featuring puppet-people, or marionettes, acting out the stories on miniature, elaborately-built sets.

Created by Gerry Anderson, British, producer, writer and director, Stingray is the name given to a fantastically sleek and highly-sophisticated combat sub that has the awesome power to travel at 600 knots per hour and submerge to depths of 36,000 feet.

Set at the fictitious base in Marineville, California (in the year 2065), this mid-1960s TV show is really quite enjoyable to watch and it is often unintentionally hilarious, especially when the puppet people (with their over-sized heads and blank stares) stiffly move around the mini-sets, carrying on as if they were real, human actors, or whatever.

The Stingray sub is commanded by the dashing and brave Captain Troy Tempest who takes his orders from the head of the "World Aquanaut Security Patrol" (WASP), Commander Samuel Shore, who operates from WASP's land-based headquarters in Marineville.

On a regular basis Troy Tempest and his loyal Stingray partner, George "Phones" Sheridan, are having to deal with the destructively diabolical doings initiated by the wicked warlord, Titan, king of the ruthless Aquaphibians from the undersea city of Titanica.

You can be sure that (when it comes to saving the day) Troy Tempest is right on the job, seeing that justice will be served.

Filmed in living color, Stingray was a weekly show that ran for only one season.

The four Supermarionation shows, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds, were strange but cool. And often they showed some real creativity. One of my favorite bits was the alarm system in Stingray. As their base went on alert, they didn't use horns or sirens, but drum beats over the PA. As they went to higher stages of alert different rhythms would superimpose themselves over the previous rhythms. It sounded neat and was a really effective way to build up the tension. Someday I'm going to find an excuse to steal the idea.

Having already investigated toys, westerns and space, the time came for the Anderson's to plumb the seven seas with 'Stingray'. Garish and simplistic, it epitomises the in-full-swing 60's in all it's tie-and-dye, maisonette-dwelling, lava lamp, pop-art, Quant and Nutter glory.

'Stingray' has the most thrilling title sequence ever filmed for a TV series - sea defence installations disappear underground, oil rigs crumple, mechanical fish leap from the fume, missiles pitilessly detonate, noisy warplanes raze the sky - with the always first-rate Barry Gray's smashing theme rattling away for it's life, solid excitement is underway.

Hero Troy Tempest of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol - WASPS for short - takes on giant clams, ghost-ships, unruly oil despots and slippery subterraneans, making short work of the lot.

If, like me, you absolutely believe hostile races inhabit the ocean depths, waiting for their chance to attack us and take over, 'Stingray' is right up your stream.

Fun is had identifying which real life folk the 'Stingray' puppets are based on .. Tempest is James Garner; Commander Shaw - Spencer Tracy; Marina - Ursula Andress; evil King Titan - Laurence Olivier, and dastardly Agent Ex-Two-Zero obviously Peter Lorre .. Of course, both Marina and Shaw's daughter, Atlanta - voiced dreamily by Lois Maxwell - are both enamoured of Tempest, but instead of filling his boots, he's so coy and gallant, he gets neither.

And on the un-pc front, it's a hoot. As peace-keepers of the oceans, the WASPs have an admirable shoot-on-sight policy : "I'm picking up a craft on the sonar, Troy" "Prepare sting missiles!" The Loch Ness episode is BRILLIANTLY offensive, and there's a prison called Aquatraz which makes Guantanamo Bay look like the Holiday Inn.

Our heroes are realistically presented: they smoke, drink and wear trendy clothes while listening to jazz music. Those Andersons were subversive and way ahead of their time.

Inadvertently, probably, but it still counts.

I liked Stingray a lot. It was a great Gerry Anderson show right up there with Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.

It was quite a depressing show in a way. I don't know what it is but I find anything set underwater depressing. The bottom of the ocean doesn't look like a nice place even in real life. It was quite a gloomy show. I suppose the evil villain called Titan added to the gloom.

However, just when things were getting too gloomy Troy Tempest and Phones (and the beautiful Marina) went into action in Stingray to combat Titan and his evil plans. This show was a 25 minute show which was just the right length to set up a story and action.

I may be crazy saying this but as a child I found Atlanta and Marina extremely beautiful which probably added to my enjoyment of the show.