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«Stingray»

Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964-65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. 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. At that 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 had 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.

The show's 39 episodes were filmed as three blocks (or series) of thirteen episodes each, as ITC boss Lew Grade (later Lord Grade) was accustomed to ordering further batches of 13 shows each as need demanded, as he had done on the earlier Anderson shows Four Feather Falls, Supercar and Fireball XL5 (all of which also ran to 39 episodes).

"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 "battle stations" drumbeat get each episode off to a rousing start.

Stingray, a highly sophisticated combat submarine built for speed and manoeuvrability, is the flagship of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), a 21st Century security organisation based at Marineville in the year 2065. She is capable of speeds of up to 600 knots and advanced pressure compensators allow her to submerge to depths of over 36,000 feet. Marineville is located somewhere near the west Californian coast of the United States. In the event of attack, the entire base can descend on hydraulic jacks into underground bunkers. Marineville is 10 miles 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 a rapid drum-beat (composed and recorded by series composer Barry Gray), played over the Marineville public address system.

The pilot of Stingray is the square-jawed Captain Troy Tempest (modelled on James Garner), accompanied by Dixie navigator Lieutenant George Lee "Phones" Sheridan, he is nick named "Phones" because of his job as Stingray's hydrophones operator. His real name, George Sheridan, is referred to in the show's publicity material, but is never mentioned on-screen. Troy and Phones board Stingray by sitting down in their side-by-side command chairs in the stand-by lounge, which are lowered rapidly into the submarine on long tubular poles (called injector tubes). An additional seat and pole is situated just behind theirs, for use by a third crew member (usually Marina) or a passenger. They take their orders from the crusty, hoverchair-bound Commander Sam Shore, whose daughter Lieutenant Atlanta Shore is also a WASP operative and is enamoured of Troy.

During the course of the series, Stingray encounters lots of underwater races, both hostile and otherwise. The "Aquaphibians", a submarine warrior race, appear frequently, often under the command of King Titan (modelled on Laurence Olivier), the 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), 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 spy, Surface Agent X-2-Zero (modelled facially on Claude Rains, but whose voice is modelled on Peter Lorre). Almost all the characters, places and vehicles in the series have names connected, in some fashion, with the sea. Character names of this type include Captain Tempest (as in storm), Commander Shore (as in seashore), Lieutenant Fisher, Atlanta (from Atlantic), Marina (from marine), and the hostile Aquaphibians. Place names associated with the sea or water include Marineville and Aquatraz; and vehicle names include of course the super-sub, Stingray, itself (named after a type of marine creature), and Titan's deadly Terror Fish submersibles.

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