Stingray

I did enjoy Stingray when I was younger, and still do, but not as much as some of the other Supermarionation shows. The show was simply about a submarine, and the stories weren't as varied. However, it did have its good points.

The stories were entertaining, and divided into three sections; an investigation into a situation, a plan to kill Troy Tempest or to destroy Marineville. The best episodes were in the category of the latter two, the investigation episodes weren't as exciting. There were a few 'it was all a dream' episodes which did nothing for me.

The series ended with a flashback episode based on 'This is Your Life' which worked really well, and had the best ending of all the Stingray episodes; after being called out on a mission near the end of the episode Commander Shore remarks to the presenter, 'Thanks for a great show, but I'm afraid, whether you like it or not, this has got to be the end'. You couldn't have asked for a better closure.

Not my favourite of the Supermarionation puppet shows, but the entertaining scripts made up for it.

I've never been able to get into Thunderbirds or the rest of these marionette shows but I enjoy this one. Even though they are the protectors of the sea, they know almost nothing about it. They are constantly encountering new races of under water people they have never heard of and those people know everything about Stingray and WASP and want to destroy them. They have a woman who never speaks and never has anything to do with the story but the song over the end credits is about her. None of it makes any sense but I like it.

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.

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.

Stingray ran in syndication about the time that I was in the first grade and I never missed an episode. Troy and Phones were my heroes, and I would identify with Marina as she accompanied them on their adventures. Looking back a little over thirty years later I am pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up today. I was very lucky to be able to acquire several of the (out of print) Channel 5 Video releases. I showed them to a younger friend of mine and she was literally blown away by how lifelike the marionettes were.

The voice acting, while always good in Supermarionation, was best in Stingray IMO, from Ray Barrett's gruff Commander Shore to Robert Easton's perfect South Carolina accent for Phones. Lois Maxwell (James Bond's Miss Moneypenney) was absolutely wonderful as Lt. Atlanta Shore. Don Mason as the authoritative voice Captain Troy Tempest rounded out the crew.

As with all of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's productions, super-cool hardware was everywhere. Troy, Phones, and Marina would enter Stingray via "injector tubes", special seats that would drop through the floor and lower them into Stingray via the roof hatch. In an emergency, the entire city would descend below ground into a vast fortified bunker. The villian, Titan, had a fleet of "terrorfish" submarines, and one would often see Stingray "dolphin hopping" with the terrorfish in pursuit (but not for long, as Stingray always got the last laugh). All of this, of course, was underscored by the incomparable music of Barry Gray.

There's plenty more that I could say about this show, but there's just not enough space here for it all. If you get a chance to see it, be sure that you do. You're in for a treat!