Stingray (1964 TV series)
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. "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, "Stingray" was the first British TV series to be made entirely in colour, a move intended to increase its appeal to the  lucrative American market. 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. Armed with "sting missile" torpedoes, it can travel at up to underwater 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 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 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 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 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 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 region. In a first for a Supermarionation series, "Stingray" included a Christmas episode, "A Christmas to Remember", and a clip show finale, "Aquanaut of the Year". The latter incorporates  elements from "This Is Your Life", for which APF was required to obtain approval from the programme's creator, Ralph Edwards. Negotiations with Edwards were slow to progress, so work began on an alternative clip show in which the main characters watch film recordings of some of "Stingray"s past missions. Production on this episode was halted when APF received permission to proceed with "Aquanaut of the Year". Special episodes. APF used the framing scenes from the abandoned clip show to create a "Stingray" feature presentation. Written and directed by Alan Pattillo, this comprised four complete episodes and was privately screened  for visiting Japanese TV executives. It has never had a TV broadcast. The linking material from the feature presentation was re-discovered in late 2000 or early 2001 and subsequently included on "Stingray" DVD releases. Several years later, BBC Wales and Granada International condensed the feature presentation to create a new "Stingray" clip show episode. Titled "The Reunion Party", this included material from three episodes and was broadcast on BBC Four as part of a "Gerry Anderson Night" in 2008. ITC compilation films. In the early 1980s, two "Stingray" compilation films 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" in 1988. 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 production company AP  Films (APF): "We had been on land and in space, so where could we go next? One possibility was underwater." 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." APF 's financial backer Lew Grade, who had bought the company after the success of "Fireball XL5", approved the concept and commissioned 26 episodes. 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. 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. 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. 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 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." 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" 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", in which he played a Southern radio operator. His voice for Surface Agent X-2-Zero was his impression of Peter Lorre, 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. 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, and Surface Agent X-2-Zero on either Claude Rains or Peter Lorre. Atlanta Shore has been likened to Lois Maxwell (who voiced the character), while Marina has drawn comparisons to both Ursula Andress and Brigitte Bardot. The Aquaphibians were modelled on an alien creature from the "Fireball XL5" episode "XL5 to HO". "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 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. The female puppets' wigs were made of human hair; for the male puppets, mohair was used as it was softer and easier to style. Design and effects. The "Stingray" submarine was designed by Reg Hill and built by Feltham-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. It was lowered and raised  by hydraulics. Most of the series' special effects were filmed on high-speed cameras with the footage slowed down in post-production to convey a sense of greater weight and scale. 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. These scenes were ultimately filmed using a variation of a technique first used on "Supercar": mounting a model ocean floor against a cyclorama and "flying" the puppets and miniature models across the set on wires from an overhead gantry, while shooting  the action through a thin aquarium to distort the lighting. Vegetable dye 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. 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 of various sizes to create  forced perspective. 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 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 that produced the accompanying rush of bubbles. 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. 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, the series' special effects director, described the process as "designing the shot carefully [...] then shoot[ing] it 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. Various powders were used to create foam and whitewater. 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. The effect was sustained by collecting the escaping water in troughs and pumping it back into the tank. 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. 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. 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 calls the sequence "a mini-adventure in itself ... Children's TV had never before been this exciting." According to John Peel, the "Stingray" titles contrasted greatly with those of "Fireball XL5" and "Supercar", which were more "straight narrative openings". 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 with  soprano backing vocals – while Atlanta gazes wistfully at his photograph. Broadcast and reception. In the UK, "Stingray" was first broadcast on 4 October 1964 in the Anglia, Border, Grampian, London and Southern regions. It premiered on Channel Television, ATV Midlands and Westward Television 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 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 in 1994. Critical response. Writing in 2006, Robert Sellers 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". Ranking the Anderson productions, Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy places  Stingray fourth, calling it "a kids' adventure serial of the highest order". Andrew Blair of Den of Geek believes that when grouped with "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons", "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 "[transfers] the 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 and Thor Heyerdahl. Kim Newman 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" style of humour is most prominent. Mike Fillis of "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, Martin Day and Keith Topping, 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 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 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 and sex. 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 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 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, 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 suggests that compared to villains of earlier Anderson series, Titan and the Aquaphibians serve as a "more classically Cold War-style villainous Other". 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." Tie-ins. "Stingray" was featured in the Supermarionation tie-in comic "TV Century 21" (later known as "TV21") from its first issue, published by City Magazines/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; later contributors included Dennis Hooper, Gerry Embleton, and Michael Strand. The "Stingray" comics were reprinted in Polystyle Publications' "Countdown" in the years 1971–1972. The  1960s also saw the publication of two original novels by Armada Books: "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 plays in the form of 7-inch vinyl EP records. Originally marketed as "mini-albums", these feature the voice cast from the TV series and are each about 21 minutes long. They are included as special features on the UK "Stingray" DVD box set. Audio drama production company Big Finish, in association with  Anderson Entertainment, produced adaptations of the original novels, "Stingray" as "Operation Icecap" and "Stingray and the Monster" as "Monster from the Deep". Footnotes and references. Footnotes References Works cited