''Stingray'' is a British children's
science fiction television series created by
Gerry and
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Beatrice Anderson (; 25 March 1927 – 15 March 2016) was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In a ...
and produced by
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s until the early 1970s. The company became internationally known for its imaginative children's action-adventure marionette tel ...
(APF) for
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes.
History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...
. Filmed in 1963 using a combination of electronic
marionette
A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed ...
puppetry and
scale model
A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...
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. ''Stingray''s 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 acquired new, larger studios that it would continue to occupy for the remainder of the 1960s. Filmed at a cost of approximately £1 million,
[O'Brien, p. 80.] ''Stingray'' was the first British TV series (and Anderson's first) to be made entirely in colour,
[Bentley 2008, p. 80.] 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
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passin ...
in the United Kingdom and in
syndication
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web 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
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
Premise
''Stingray'', a
nuclear-powered
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
combat submarine, is the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
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"
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
es, it can travel at up to underwater
[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
The human history of the west coast of North America is believed to stretch back to the arrival of the earliest people over the Bering Strait, or alternately along a now-submerged coastal plain, through the development of significant pre-Columbi ...
.
It is connected to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
via a tunnel leading to an "ocean door", through which ''Stingray'' is launched.
General quarters
General quarters, battle stations, or action stations is an announcement made aboard a naval warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the arme ...
alerts are 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 the square-jawed Captain Troy Tempest. He is paired with
Southern navigator Lieutenant George Lee Sheridan, nicknamed "Phones" for his secondary role as ''Stingray''s
hydrophone
A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...
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"-bound 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. A despot, Titan commands the Aquaphibians, a warrior race who possess a fleet of lethal submersibles called "Mechanical Fish".
[In ]tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...
media, they are called "Terror Fish" (Bentley 2008, p. 355). In the
first episode
A series premiere is the first aired installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. In the United States, many series premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or ...
, ''Stingray'' is attacked by Titan's forces and Troy and Phones are captured. They are rescued by Titan's slave, Marina, a
mute
Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak.
Mute or the Mute may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Mute'' (2005 film), a short film by Melissa Joan Hart
* ''Mute'' (2018 film), a scien ...
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 lives in 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
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicte ...
in which Troy is named "Aquanaut of the Year" and past missions are recounted in
flashback.
Episodes
Episodes are listed in the order of original broadcast in the
ATV London
Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and t ...
region.
In a first for a Supermarionation series, ''Stingray'' included a
Christmas episode, "A Christmas to Remember", and a
clip show
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicte ...
series finale, "Aquanaut of the Year". Before they could make "Aquanaut of the Year", APF required the approval of American TV producer
Ralph Edwards
Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 86-87. – November 16, 2005) was an American radio ...
, as the premise of the clip show borrows creative elements from Edwards' ''
This Is Your Life''. When correspondence with Edwards took longer than expected, work began on an alternative clip show in which the regular characters watch film recordings of some of ''Stingray''s past missions. The filming of that episode was halted when APF was given permission to proceed with "Aquanaut of the Year".
[Archer and Hearn, p. 99.]
Special episodes
APF subsequently used the
framing material from the abandoned clip show to create a TV film called the "Feature Presentation". Written and directed by
Alan Pattillo
Alan Huchison Pattillo (17 July 1929 – 16 January 2020) was a British writer and director who worked on ''Supercar'', '' Fireball XL5'', ''Stingray'', and '' Thunderbirds'' television series. He won an Emmy in 1979 alongside Bill Blunden for ...
, this comprises four complete episodes and was privately screened for Japanese TV executives visiting the APF studio. It has never been broadcast on TV.
[Bentley 2008, p. 94.]
The framing material was rediscovered in late 2000 or early 2001 and later included on ''Stingray'' DVD releases.
[Archer and Hearn, p. 100.] Several years later,
BBC Wales and
Granada International
ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadca ...
produced a condensed version of the Feature Presentation titled "The Reunion Party", which includes material from three episodes and was broadcast on
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 as part of a "Gerry Anderson Night" in 2008.
Compilation films
In the early 1980s, two ''Stingray''
compilation film
A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a docum ...
s were produced by ITC New York. These were made for American TV and later released on home video. They were televised as part of an ITC package branded "Super Space Theater", which also included compilations from other Supermarionation series. Each of the ''Stingray'' films consists of re-edited versions of four of the original episodes. The second film, ''Invaders from the Deep'', was broadcast as the first episode of movie-mocking TV comedy series ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
'' in 1988.
Characters
WASP personnel 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, ''Stingray''s 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
A series premiere is the first aired installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. In the United States, many series premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or ...
and quickly becomes Troy's love interest. She can breathe in or out of water and is mute like the rest of her race.
* Commander Samuel Shore (voiced by
Ray Barrett
Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in ''The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...
): 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
Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...
): 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 "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.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
They appear in various episodes to brief Commander Shore and other WASP personnel.
* Admiral Jack Denver (David Graham): president of the WASP underwater research division. He went to college with Commander Shore and enjoys debating with him.
* "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 underwater city of Pacifica. 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
Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in ''The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...
): 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 Robert Easton) : 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".
Production
In late 1962, as production on ''
Fireball XL5
''Fireball XL5'' is a 1960s British children's science-fiction puppet television series about the missions of ''Fireball XL5'', a vessel of the World Space Patrol that polices the cosmos in the year 2062. Commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac, ''XL5' ...
'' drew to a close,
Gerry Anderson
Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s produ ...
decided that an underwater series was the next logical step for production company
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s until the early 1970s. The company became internationally known for its imaginative children's action-adventure marionette tel ...
(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-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
s in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, 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
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 ...
, who had bought the company after the success of ''Fireball XL5'', approved the concept and commissioned 26 episodes.
[La Rivière, p. 102.] Anderson named the new series "Stingray" partly from a belief that
stingray
Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...
s 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
The Slough Trading Estate founded in Slough in Buckinghamshire in 1920, was an early business park in the United Kingdom. According to the estate's owners and operators, Segro, Slough Trading Estate consists of of commercial property in Slough ...
'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
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
.
This arrangement allowed two episodes to be filmed simultaneously by separate crews.
Production began in spring or June 1963 and the series was completed in ten months.
Each episode required an average of 11 days of puppet filming and five-and-a-half days of effects filming.
The total cost of the production was approximately £1 million
(£ million in ). The budget per episode was £20,000, which enabled APF, whose earlier productions had been in
black and white, to film in
Eastmancolor
Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak.
Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...
.
[The opening credits refer to the colour process as "Videcolor".] Though ''Stingray'' would debut in black and white in its country of origin, the switch to colour filming was intended to increase the series' chances of being bought by a network in the US, where colour TV broadcasts were already common.
Sets were re-painted after
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
supplied APF with a list of colours believed to cause problems such as flaring or bleeding; according to Anderson, this was unnecessary because when filmed in Eastmancolor, a set "would appear on screen exactly as you had painted it."
[Archer and Hearn, p. 91.] Some colours were avoided as they did not come out well in black and white, and models and sets were painted differently to ensure that they did not blend into each other.
During the production of ''Stingray'', APF became the UK's largest colour film consumer.
As filming progressed, Grade extended his commission to 39 episodes.
Around the time shooting on the final 13 episodes began, voice actors
Don Mason and
Robert Easton, who had understood that all members of the cast were on the same pay, learnt that they were in fact earning less than their co-star
David Graham.
They did not commit to the remaining episodes until their fees had been re-negotiated.
Characters and puppets
In her 2007 autobiography, Sylvia Anderson, who had voiced the regular characters of Jimmy Gibson in ''
Supercar
A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...
'' and Dr Venus in ''Fireball XL5'', wrote that she devised Marina as a mute so that she could take a break from voice acting and "concentrate on the scripts and characters". Her voice parts in ''Stingray'' were limited to uncredited guest roles in the episodes "Raptures of the Deep" (as Marina)
and "A Christmas to Remember". Gerry Anderson said that Phones was inspired by memories of a sound engineer with whom he had once worked: "He spent so long with his headphones plugged in to various bits of equipment that he used to leave them on all the time, earning himself the nickname 'Phones'."
Voice actor Robert Easton based the character's
Southern American tones on his performance in the 1961 film ''
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' is a 1961 American science fiction disaster film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, and starring Walter Pidgeon and Robert Sterling. The supporting cast includes Peter Lorre, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, M ...
'', in which he played a Southern radio operator.
His voice for Surface Agent X-2-Zero was his impression of
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
, who had appeared in the same film.
The Aquaphibians were voiced by Easton and Graham, their dialogue overlaid with a looped tape recording of bubbling water to create a gurgling effect.
The process of designing and making the puppets took four months and each of the main characters was sculpted in duplicate to allow episodes to be filmed in pairs.
Some of the main characters were modelled on real-life actors; for example, Troy Tempest drew heavily on the looks of
James Garner
James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including '' The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Ameri ...
.
[Peel, p. 19.] Gerry Anderson said that he did not explicitly instruct the sculptors to base Troy on this actor; instead, he named Garner simply to help them visualise the character, as he could see that they were struggling with his original brief (which merely called for Troy to be square-jawed and heroic-looking). Titan was based on a young
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...
,
and Surface Agent X-2-Zero on either
Claude Rains[La Rivière, p. 98.][Rogers et al., p. 75.] or Peter Lorre.
Atlanta Shore has been likened to
Lois Maxwell
Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...
(who voiced the character),
while Marina has drawn comparisons to both
Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss-German actress, former model and sex symbol who has appeared in American, British and Italian films. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, '' Dr. No'' (1962 ...
and
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...
.
[Rogers et al., p. 53.] The Aquaphibians were modelled on an alien creature from the ''Fireball XL5'' episode "XL5 to H
2O".
''Stingray'' was the first Supermarionation series to feature puppets with glass eyes and poseable hands for increased realism.
To make the puppets' eyes sparkle in a lifelike way, they were polished with
silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...
and illuminated by a small lamp. Another innovation was the creation of alternative heads to allow characters to display emotions: besides their "normal" heads, which had neutral expressions, the main characters could also be fitted with "smiling" and "frowning" heads.
[Archer and Hearn, p. 94.] The female puppets' wigs were made of human hair; for the male puppets,
mohair
Mohair (pronounced ) is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. (This should not be confused with Angora wool, which is made from the fur of the Angora rabbit.) Both durable and resilient, mohair is notable for its high luster ...
was used as it was softer and easier to style.
Design and effects
The ''Stingray'' submarine was designed by
Reg Hill
Reginald Eric Hill (16 May 1914 – 1999) was an English model-maker, art director, producer, and freelance storyboard artist. He is most prominently associated with the work of Gerry Anderson.
Early life
Born on 16 May 1914, Hill started his ...
and built by
Feltham
Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party ...
-based company Mastermodels.
The Marineville model was built in-house from wood and cardboard supplemented with pieces of model kits bought from a toy shop.
[Archer and Hearn, p. 93.] It was lowered and raised by
hydraulics
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...
.
Most of the series' special effects were filmed on
high-speed camera
A high-speed camera is a device capable of capturing moving images with exposures of less than 1/1,000 second or frame rates in excess of 250 frames per second, fps. It is used for recording fast-moving objects as photographic images onto a storag ...
s with the footage slowed down in post-production to convey a sense of greater weight and scale.
[La Rivière, p. 101.]
For the underwater sequences, Anderson had originally envisaged filming inside a water tank,
but the cost of the specialist cameras and equipment required would have made this impractical.
[Peel, p. 23.] These scenes were ultimately filmed using a variation of a technique first used on ''Supercar'': mounting a model ocean floor against a
cyclorama
A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make view ...
and "flying" the puppets and miniature models across the set on wires from an overhead gantry, while shooting the action through a thin
aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
to distort the lighting.
Vegetable dye
Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood—and other biological sources such as fungi.
Archaeolo ...
was added to the aquarium to make the water more noticeable.
Several aquaria were used; constructed by a company that supplied fish tanks to
London Zoo, they were re-built with thicker glass after one of them burst from the water pressure.
[Archer and Hearn, p. 92.] The move away from black and white sometimes caused problems as build-ups of algae in the aquaria caused the water to change colour.
The illusion of scenes being set underwater was further enhanced by populating the aquaria with
tropical fish
Tropical fish are generally those fish found in aquatic tropical environments around the world. Fishkeepers often keep tropical fish in freshwater and saltwater aquariums. The term "tropical fish" is not a taxonomic group, but rather is a ge ...
of various sizes to create
forced perspective
Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation ...
.
[Rogers et al., p. 83.] Food was dropped at various points around the tanks to keep the animals in shot.
A disc with various portions cut out was placed in front of an overhead lamp and rotated to give the impression of light being
refracted
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomeno ...
through the ocean, while the water in the aquaria was disturbed to create "rippling" effects.
Wires were painted over to make them non-reflective and fans were used to simulate currents passing over puppets' hair and clothing. For the climax of the ''Stingray'' launch sequence, in which the vessel shoots out of an underwater tunnel, part of the set was painted onto the aquarium to conceal the
air line
An air line is a tube, or hose, that contains and carries a compressed air supply. In industrial usage, this may be used to inflate car or bicycle tyres or power tools worked by compressed air, for breathing apparatus in hazardous environments ...
that produced the accompanying rush of bubbles.
[Meddings, p. 33.]
Ocean surface shots in ''Supercar'' and ''Fireball XL5'' had been filmed in an outdoor tank, but for ''Stingray'' several tanks were built inside the studio.
[Meddings, p. 32.] Among the challenges presented by these shots was the need to make the scale models appear realistic while filming on water, which cannot be miniaturised.
In a 1980 interview,
Derek Meddings
Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the " Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the ...
, the series' special effects director, described the process as "designing the shot carefully
..then shoot
ngit at very high speed (to make movement slower and therefore seemingly vaster) and hope you didn't get huge globules of water that would give the game away."
Models were controlled using wires, poles and underwater tracks and rigs.
To make the water look blue, the crew first tried experimenting with various lighting effects; these proved inadequate, so the water was dyed blue instead.
[Meddings, p. 34.] Various powders were used to create foam and
whitewater
Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...
.
Each tank incorporated an artificial horizon system whereby the back wall was built low and the tank was deliberately overfilled to create a waterfall, blurring the divide between the rim of the tank and the painted-sky backdrop.
[Hearn, p. 38.] The effect was sustained by collecting the escaping water in troughs and pumping it back into the tank.
[Rogers et al., p. 84.] To conserve studio space, some scenes were filmed in a wedge-shaped tank that was tailor-built to align with the camera's
field of view
The field of view (FoV) is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation.
Human ...
. One of the effects shots in the series' opening titles shows ''Stingray'' and a pursuing Mechanical Fish leaping out of the ocean and then plunging back under water; although this required complex manoeuvring of the wired scale models that made the shot extremely difficult to film, in the end the effects crew succeeded on the first take.
Shots of aircraft in flight were filmed using a technique known as the "rolling sky", whereby the miniature models were positioned in front of a painted-sky canvas and remained static while an illusion of movement was created by running the background in a continuous loop around a pair of electrically-driven rollers. This system, devised by Meddings, made aerial shots easier to film as it took up very little studio space.
Opening and closing titles
The title sequence consists of a series of action shots featuring undersea explosions, Marineville going to red alert and ''Stingray'' doing battle with a Mechanical Fish. This is accompanied by dramatic narration from Commander Shore, who warns the audience to "Stand by for action!" before declaring that "Anything can happen in the next half-hour!" In the first 26 episodes, the title sequence opens in black and white before switching to colour; for the final 13 episodes, these first few seconds were replaced with all-colour footage.
[La Rivière, p. 103.]
Jim Sangster and Paul Condon, authors of ''Collins Telly Guide'', praise the introduction, writing that "Of all the programmes we've looked at for this book, there is none with a title sequence as thrilling as ''Stingray''."
Anthony Clark of the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
calls the sequence "a mini-adventure in itself ... Children's TV had never before been this exciting."
According to
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
, the ''Stingray'' titles contrasted greatly with those of ''Fireball XL5'' and ''Supercar'', which were more "straight narrative openings".
[Peel, p. 241.] Peel also argues that ''Stingray'' influenced the "rapid cutting, pounding rhythms and extreme stylising" of later TV title sequences.
The series' closing titles focus on the
love triangle between Troy, Marina and Atlanta. They feature Troy singing "Aqua Marina" – a song about his feelings for Marina, performed by
Gary Miller Gary Miller may refer to:
*Gary Miller (politician) (born 1948), American politician
* Michael Dunn (actor) (Gary Neil Miller, 1934–1973), American actor
* Gary L. Miller (1947–1969), American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
* Gary Miller ...
with
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
backing vocals – while Atlanta gazes wistfully at his photograph.
[Archer and Hearn, p. 98.]
Broadcast and reception
In the UK, ''Stingray'' was first broadcast on 4 October 1964 in the
Anglia,
Border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
,
Grampian
Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Southern regions.
It premiered on
Channel Television
ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...
,
ATV Midlands
Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...
and
Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regar ...
on 6 October and
Granada Television on 30 December.
First shown in black and white, it was broadcast in colour for the first time in December 1969.
The series received little publicity but replicated the success of earlier Supermarionation productions.
It was repeated on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
in 1981 and on
BBC2 in the early 1990s, with further repeats in the early 00s.
In the US, the series was first shown in 1965. Premiering in colour, it was
syndicated across more than 100 markets with sales exceeding £3 million.
It ran on the
Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. ...
in 1994 as part of the
Cartoon Quest
Cartoon Quest was the name of a block of mostly animated television shows that aired on the Sci Fi Channel starting in 1992. Similar to USA's '' Cartoon Express'', it featured reruns of various older cartoons interspersed with interstitial segm ...
block.
In New Zealand,
TVNZ
, type = Crown entity
, industry = Broadcast television
, num_locations = New Zealand
, location = Auckland, New Zealand
, area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...
screened the show during the mid-1980s in its weekend early morning kids block, along with a number of other Gerry Anderson shows from the 60s and 70s.
Critical response
Writing in 2006,
Robert Sellers
Robert Sellers (born 3 February 1965 in Leeds) is an English writer and author, known for his show-business biographies and works on popular culture including ''Cult TV'' and ''The Battle for Bond'', an analysis of the Fleming plagiarism trial ...
described ''Stingray'' as the "first truly classic Anderson show", whose special effects "have stood the test of time remarkably well." Daniel O'Brien, author of ''SF:UK: How British Science Fiction Changed the World'', considers it to be "perhaps the archetypal Gerry Anderson series".
[O'Brien, p. 81.] Ranking the Anderson productions, Morgan Jeffery of
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...
places ''Stingray'' fourth, calling it "a kids' adventure serial of the highest order". Andrew Blair of
Den of Geek
''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gan ...
believes that when grouped with ''
Thunderbirds'' and ''
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', often shortened to ''Captain Scarlet'', is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor I ...
'', ''Stingray'' is "the lesser of the Holy Triumvirate of Supermarionation
..It's shorter than the former, and lighter than the latter, giving it a comparatively breezy feel." He also describes it as "inherently a matinee adventure, an inspiring rush of mild peril and jaunty escapades".
Comparing ''Stingray'' to the Andersons' earlier productions, media historian Marcus Hearn writes that the series essentially "
ransfersthe format of ''Fireball XL5'' to an underwater setting."
Peel suggests that the decision to locate the action under the sea was influenced by the 1960s vogue for ocean exploration inspired by adventurers such as
Jacques Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...
and
Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...
.
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula (1931 ...
describes ''Stingray'' as a "patrol show" in the same vein as ''Fireball XL5'' and ''Supercar''.
Clark notes that ''Stingray'', like its space-bound precursor, uses "some very simple elements – a four-square hero, a fantastic craft which lends its name to the show and a mix of fast-paced action and innocent humour."
Despite praising ''Stingray'', Peel considers ''Fireball XL5'' and ''Thunderbirds'' to be more appealing.
Peel also argues that of all Gerry Anderson's series, it is ''Stingray'' in which his preferred "
tongue-in-cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...
" style of humour is most prominent.
Mike Fillis of ''
TV Zone
''TV Zone'' is a British magazine that was published every four weeks by Visual Imagination that covered cult television. Initially, it mostly covered science fiction, but branched out to cover other drama and comedy series.
History
''TV Zone'' ...
'' magazine regards ''Stingray'' as less "ambitious" than ''Thunderbirds'' but compares its "self-awareness" favourably to the "po-faced rigidity" of ''Captain Scarlet''. He also praises its "well-drawn" characters and describes the water-based special effects as "surprisingly elegant".
Paul Cornell
Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as ''Doctor Who'' fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield.
As well as ''Docto ...
,
Martin Day and
Keith Topping
Keith Andrew Topping (born 26 October 1963 in Walker, Tyneside) is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He is most well known for his work relating to the BBC Television series ''Doctor Who'' and for writing numerous official and unofficial g ...
, authors of ''The Guinness Book of Classic British TV'', view the effects as more "realistic" than those of earlier Anderson series. Though judging many of the episodes to be "predictable and corny", they add that the series' "knowingness" and "love of character
..made the whole thing charming." Sangster and Condon describe the episodes as "mercifully shorter" than those of ''Thunderbirds'', creating "tighter plotting and an engaging simplicity".
The music has also been praised:
Glenn Erickson
Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...
describes it as "corny retro" appropriate to the series' tone,
while Clark calls it the "best underwater adventure music ever written".
Some commentators have been critical of the puppetry and effects. Paul Mavis of
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
writes that the use of aquaria makes the underwater scenes look "a tad creaky" but believes that they compare well to contemporary feature film effects.
Erickson writes that as in other Supermarionation series, the puppets' lack of mobility makes scenes feel "rather static". He notes that this limitation forces a large amount of movement to be kept off-screen: "Almost every capture by Aquaphibians ellipses difficult-to-film interaction, skipping straight to static talking scenes instead."
Sangster and Condon argue that, while ''Stingray'' is mainly for children, it was also the first Anderson series to have adult appeal.
According to Jon E. Lewis and Penny Stempel, authors of ''Cult TV: The Essential Critical Guide'', the series combines "kiddie-time exciting narrative action" with imaginative spoofs for the "more sophisticated". ''Stingray'' has also attracted a variety of comment on its presentation of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
and
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...
. Newman argues that through its use of "silver- and green-skinned" undersea villains and the "odd caricatured Arab baddie", ''Stingray'', like ''Thunderbirds'', conveys "square, almost 1950s" attitudes towards race.
Mavis rejects claims of racism, noting that not all of the series' underwater beings are malevolent and that this is acknowledged in character dialogue.
Nicholas J. Cull
Nicholas J. Cull (born 1964) is a historian and professor in the Master's in Public Diplomacy program at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He was the founding director of this pro ...
views the mute Marina as an example of a female Anderson character who is "subordinate" to men, while Erickson argues that Atlanta's role as an assistant makes her a gender stereotype. Erickson also writes that the love triangle between Atlanta, Troy and Marina (which Blair describes as an "unusual development" for a children's series) creates a "mild sexist tension".
Mavis disagrees that the series is sexist, noting that while Atlanta "doesn't do much here except answer the phone", Marina saves Troy's life on several occasions.
Cold War analysis
Cull observes that in its depiction of the WASP, ''Stingray'' is one of several Gerry Anderson series that "assume the development of
world government
World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors.
A world gove ...
and world security institutions" and "reflect the 1960s vogue for stories set in secret organisations with extravagant acronyms." He compares the premise of the series to the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, noting the conflict between the WASP and the undersea races and the latter's use of spies to infiltrate human society. He believes that the episode "Marineville Traitor", which focuses on a hunt for an "enemy within", has an "especially strong Cold War flavour". Cull also notes that while the Anderson productions often present nuclear technology as a threat, ''Stingray'' also shows it in a positive light: for example, the series' eponymous submarine is nuclear-powered.
Sarah Kurchak of
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
suggests that compared to villains of earlier Anderson series, Titan and the Aquaphibians serve as a "more classically Cold War-style villainous
Other
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
". She adds that in the world of ''Stingray'', "the battle lines between land and sea are clearly defined, the enemy is always watching, and the target of their aggression is always close to home." Kurchak also suggests that through his "multiple nightmares" about threats to Marineville, Troy embodies Cold War anxieties. O'Brien writes that ''Stingray'' contains "more than a touch of the Cold War ethos", arguing that Titan "could have easily belonged to an underwater branch of the
Soviet Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
."
Tie-ins
''Stingray'' was featured in the Supermarionation
tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...
comic ''
TV Century 21
''TV Century 21'', later renamed ''TV21'', ''TV21 and Tornado'', ''TV21 and Joe 90'', and ''TV21'' again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during the latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership ...
'' (later known as ''TV21'') from its first issue, published by
City Magazines
City Magazines was a British publisher of weekly comics and men's magazines that operated from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The company's most notable publications were comics magazines based on licensed television properties, including '' TV ...
/
AP Films (Merchandising) in January 1965.
The ''Stingray'' strip ran from ''TV Century 21'' #1 (23 Jan. 1965) to ''TV21'' #189 (30 Aug. 1968); it was originally by
Alan Fennell &
Ron Embleton
Ronald Sydney Embleton (6 October 1930 – 13 February 1988) was a British illustrator who gained fame as a comics artist. In the 1950s and 1960s, Embleton also pursued a career as an oil painter, and he exhibited his works widely in Britain, Ger ...
; later contributors included Dennis Hooper,
Gerry Embleton
Gerry Embleton is a British artist, born in London. He is best known as an illustrator of military and historic subjects. He has illustrated more than 40 titles for the military publisher Osprey. He is the younger brother of illustrator Ron Embl ...
, and Michael Strand. The ''Stingray'' comics were reprinted in
Polystyle Publications
Polystyle Publications Ltd was a British publisher of children's comics and books that operated from 1960 to 1997, publishing such titles as ''TV Comic'', '' I-Spy'', ''Pippin'', '' Countdown/TV Action'', and ''BEEB''.
The company's registered o ...
' ''
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'' in the years 1971–1972.
The 1960s also saw the publication of two original novels by
Armada Books
Armada Books was a British publishing imprint that used to publish paperback titles from 1962 until 1995. Created by Gordon Landsborough as the paperback imprint of May Fair Books
May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregoria ...
: ''Stingray'' and ''Stingray and the Monster'', written by John William Jennison under the pseudonym "John Theydon".
Audio plays
To supplement the TV episodes, in 1965 APF's sister company Century 21 Records released three
audio play
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...
s in the form of
7-inch
In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...
vinyl
EP record
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. s. Originally marketed as "mini-albums", these feature the voice cast from the TV series and are each about 21 minutes long.
[Bentley 2008, pp. 348-349; 367.] They are included as special features on the UK ''Stingray'' DVD box set.
Anderson Entertainment, in association with audio drama production company
Big Finish, produced adaptations of the original novels, ''Stingray'' as ''Operation Icecap''
"Stingray audio drama based on classic TV series confirmed for August release from Big Finish"
''Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' and ''Stingray and the Monster'' as ''Monster from the Deep''.
Footnotes and references
Footnotes
References
Works cited
*
** Originally published as:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
** ''Stingray'' volume originally published separately as:
*
External links
*
*
{{ITC Distributions
1960s British children's television series
British children's science fiction television series
1960s British science fiction television series
1964 British television series debuts
1965 British television series endings
British children's action television series
British children's adventure television series
British television shows featuring puppetry
English-language television shows
Fictional works set in the Pacific Ocean
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
ITV children's television shows
Marionette films
Nautical television series
Submarines in fiction
Television series by ITC Entertainment
Television series set in the 2060s
Television series set on fictional islands
Television shows adapted into comics
Television shows adapted into novels
Television shows set in Washington, D.C.
Subterranean fiction
Underwater action films
Underwater civilizations in fiction