Stingray is a British children's science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Filmed in 1963 using a combination of electronic marionette puppetry and scale model special effects, it was APF's sixth puppet series and the third to be produced under the banner of "Supermarionation". It premiered in October 1964 and ran for 39 half-hour episodes.
Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans. The WASP's flagship is Stingray, a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, navigator Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute young woman from under the sea. Stingrays adventures bring it into contact with various underwater civilisations, some friendly and others hostile, as well as strange natural phenomena.
In preparation for the series, APF moved to larger studios that it would continue to occupy for the remainder of the 1960s. Filmed on a budget of £1 million,O'Brien, p. 80. Stingray was the first British TV series to be made entirely in colour,Bentley 2008, p. 80.La Rivière, p. 96.However, when the colour aspect was publicised in the 1960s this claim was protested by artist and puppeteer Francis Coudrill, who claimed to have made his cowboy puppet series The Stoopendus Adventures of Hank "in full colour" for Associated-Rediffusion several years previously. a move intended to increase its appeal to the lucrative American market.Rogers et al., p. 68.Peel, p. 240. The underwater sequences were filmed "dry" by shooting the sets through thin aquaria, while surface shots were filmed on water tanks incorporating lowered back walls to create artificial horizons. Stingray was the first Supermarionation series whose puppet characters had interchangeable heads showing a range of facial expressions.
Stingray was originally broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and in syndication in North America. The series has drawn a largely positive response from commentators, some of whom have compared its premise to the Cold War.
Premise Stingray, a nuclear-powered combat submarine, is the flagship of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), a branch of the World Security Patrol (WSP) responsible for policing the Earth's oceans in the mid-2060s.Sources give the year as 2064 (Archer and Hearn, p. 88; Bentley 2001, p. 12) or 2065 (Sellers, p. 88). The episode "The Lighthouse Dwellers" is set in 2065 (La Rivière, p. 103). The episode "Eastern Eclipse" is set 12 months after "Star of the East" (Bentley 2008, p. 92). Armed with "sting missile" torpedoes, it can travel at up to underwaterBentley 2008, p. 79.Sellers, p. 90. and reach depths of over .
The WASP is based in the self-contained city of Marineville, located several miles inland somewhere on the West Coast of North America. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean via a tunnel leading to an "ocean door", through which Stingray is launched. General quarters is sounded by rapid drumbeats played over the base's public address system. In emergency situations, the entire base can be lowered into underground bunkers via giant hydraulic jacks while fighter aircraft and interceptor missiles are launched to counter threats. WASP personnel acknowledge commands with the phrase "P.W.O.R." – short for "Proceeding With Orders Received".
Stingray is piloted by Captain Troy Tempest. He is paired with Southern navigator Lieutenant George Lee Sheridan, nicknamed "Phones" for his secondary role as Stingrays hydrophone operator. Troy and Phones board Stingray from the Marineville stand-by lounge by sitting on twin seats that are then lowered into the submarine via injector tubes. They answer to the "hoverchair"-using Commander Sam Shore, whose daughter, Lieutenant Atlanta Shore, works in the Marineville control tower and is enamoured of Troy.
The series begins with the WASP's discovery that the ocean floor is home to many advanced civilisations. Among these is the undersea city of Titanica, ruled by King Titan. Titan commands the Aquaphibians, a warrior race who possess a fleet of lethal submersibles called "Mechanical Fish".In tie-in media, they are called "Terror Fish" (Bentley 2008, p. 355). In the first episode, Stingray is attacked by Titan's forces and Troy and Phones are captured. They are rescued by Titan's slave, Marina, a mute young woman from the undersea city of Pacifica who can breathe underwater. Marina defects to the WASP and becomes a permanent member of the Stingray crew. Troy becomes infatuated with her, making Atlanta jealous.
Furious at Marina's betrayal, Titan swears revenge on "terraneans" (land people) in general and Troy and the WASP in particular. However, his attempts to destroy Stingray and Marineville are always thwarted, often due to the incompetence of his henchman Surface Agent X-2-Zero. Titan's spy on land, X-2-Zero operates from the Pacific island of Lemoy, where he operates from an outwardly dilapidated house whose interior conceals vast banks of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment. Some episodes revolve around encounters with other races living under the sea or within the Earth, some friendly and others hostile, or investigation of natural phenomena. The final episode is a clip show in which Troy is named "Aquanaut of the Year" and past missions are recounted in flashback.
Characters WASP and allies Captain Troy Tempest (voiced by Don Mason): pilot of the WASP's flagship submarine, Stingray. "Phones" (voiced by Robert Easton): a WASP lieutenant, Stingrays navigator and hydrophone operator, and Troy's best friend. His real name, George Lee Sheridan, is mentioned in the series' publicity material but never spoken on-screen. Marina: a young woman from under the sea who joins the Stingray crew. She was enslaved by King Titan of Titanica but defects to the WASP in the first episode and quickly becomes Troy's love interest. She can breathe in or out of water and is mute like the rest of her race.Marina is voiced by Sylvia Anderson on two occasions: the TV episode "Raptures of the Deep" and the audio play "Marina Speaks" (Bentley 2008, p. 86). In "Raptures of the Deep", Troy experiences a hallucination in which Marina communicates with him telepathically. "Marina Speaks", in which the character narrates her origins, reveals that Marina is perfectly capable of speech, but forced to remain silent because of a curse that Titan placed on her people – should any one of them utter a word, another will die (Sangster and Condon, p. 722). Commander Samuel Shore (voiced by Ray Barrett): head of Marineville. Paralysed from the waist down, he uses a hoverchair to move about. The cause of his disability is revealed in the episode "The Ghost of the Sea": as a security agent for an ocean mining platform, he was injured when the facility was attacked by a hostile submersible. Lieutenant Atlanta Shore (voiced by Lois Maxwell): Commander Shore's daughter, the assistant controller in Marineville Tower and Marina's rival for Troy's affections. Sub-Lieutenant John Horatio Fisher (voiced by Ray Barrett): the junior assistant controller in Marineville Tower. In the episode "Rescue from the Skies" he is seen training to be an aquanaut. WSP Commanders (voiced by Don Mason, Ray Barrett, Robert Easton and David Graham): three commanders based at WSP Headquarters in Washington, D.C. They appear in various episodes to brief Commander Shore and other WASP personnel. Admiral Jack Denver (voiced by David Graham): the president of the WASP's underwater research division. He went to college with Commander Shore and enjoys debating with him. He appears in the episodes "Loch Ness Monster" and "Set Sail for Adventure". "Doc" (voiced by David Graham): Marineville's doctor. He appears in the episodes "The Master Plan" and "Invisible Enemy". Aphony: Marina's father, ruler of the peaceful undersea city of Pacifica and its mute inhabitants. He appears in the episodes "Plant of Doom" and "Tune of Danger". Oink (voiced by David Graham): a seal pup that becomes Marina's pet after he saves the Stingray crew from a bomb in the episode "Sea of Oil".
Recurring villains King Titan (voiced by Ray Barrett): the tyrannical ruler of the underwater city of Titanica who wages war on the WASP. Surface Agent X-2-Zero (voiced by Robert Easton): Titan's inept agent on land, based in a dilapidated house on the Pacific island of Lemoy. The Aquaphibians (voiced by Robert Easton and David Graham): a race of undersea warriors who serve Titan. Their language resembles a series of gurgles. Teufel: Titan's pet, a large fish with supernatural powers that Titan keeps in a tank in his throne room and worships as a god. El Hudat and Abu (voiced by David Graham and Ray Barrett) : the dictator of the island state of Hudatvia, and his aide. They appear in the episodes "Star of the East" and "Eastern Eclipse". Grupa and Noctus (voiced by Ray Barrett and David Graham): a pair of undersea beings who appear in the episodes "A Nut for Marineville" and "Trapped in the Depths".
Episodes Episodes are listed in the order of original broadcast in the ATV London region.
Production In late 1962, as production on Fireball XL5 drew to a close, Gerry Anderson decided that an underwater series was the next logical step for APF: "We had been on land and in space, so where could we go next? One possibility was underwater."Archer and Hearn, p. 88. He was inspired by childhood memories of U-boats in the Second World War, as well as by the mysteries of the ocean: "I was ... fascinated by trenches in the ocean that are as deep as mountains are high. There are features that man has never seen and pressures that are almost impossible to withstand. I began to wonder if there were areas of the Earth which had been little explored and felt justified in writing some wacky stuff."Archer and Hearn, p. 89.
APF's financial backer Lew Grade, who had bought the company after the success of Fireball XL5,Bentley 2001, pp. 11–12. approved the concept and commissioned 26 episodes.La Rivière, p. 102. Anderson named the new series "Stingray" partly from a belief that stingrays are dangerous animals (in reality, they are docile), but also because it "seemed an exciting title." In preparation for the new series, APF, then based on the Slough Trading Estate's Ipswich Road, moved to a larger site on the nearby Stirling Road at a cost of £75,000.Archer and Hearn, p. 90. The new studios, built inside a converted factory unit, contained three shooting stages: two for puppet filming and one for creating special effects. This arrangement allowed two episodes to be filmed simultaneously by separate crews.