On October 4th, 1964, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s latest production in their growing catalogue of cutting-edge puppet-based television series took to the waves – both terrestrial and aquatic. Stingray chartered the underwater exploits of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, who defend the Earth’s oceans in the futuristic world of 2065. The organisation’s flagship vessel, Stingray, is piloted by Captain Troy Tempest and Lieutenant George Lee ‘Phones’ Sheridan, accompanied by the beautiful mute underwater girl Marina. Across 39 episodes, the trio’s adventures take them into the deepest depths of the world’s oceans and into battle against a variety of freakishly imaginative underwater alien creatures, most menacing of all is the warlord Titan.
Fresh off of the global success of 1962’s Fireball XL5, AP Films had quickly set to work producing their next television series in what was proving to be a flourishing catalogue of commercially successful science fiction adventure TV series that all made heavy use of elaborate special effects, intricate puppetry and convincing model work. Both the preceding Fireball XL5 and Supercar had been financed by media mogul Lew Grade, and evidently impressed with the results that Gerry and Sylvia’s company was delivering, Grade eventually welcomed AP Films into his ATV broadcasting family, which included a large enough financial investment into AP Films for their latest puppet epic to achieve a level of ambition they hadn’t been able to pull off before.
Having traversed the furthest reaches of the galaxy in Fireball XL5, Stingray would propel audiences not only back to Earth, but would dive them under the sea, into the world below. A guiding philosophy of Gerry’s when conjuring the premise of Stingray was the idea that the vast hidden depths of the Earth’s oceans presented as much mystery and adventure as outer space. Having convinced Grade that their explosive puppet productions would now be best served in colour and with all the advantages of the improved filming equipment in their newfound studios on the Slough Trading Estate, Stingray presented an intoxicating world of vibrant underwater Cold War adventure. Spectacular model-work and set-pieces were matched by an ingenious thrust of imaginative storytelling, characterisation and worldbuilding.
Compared to the admittedly archaic narrative style of Fireball XL5, Stingray finds a pitch-perfect balance between humour, adventure, drama, romance, and comedy. The series can be split roughly in half between the earlier, decidedly Cold War-flavoured episodes, in which the Stingray crew battles against a thrillingly unpredictable line-up of aquatic enemies intent on overtaking the terranean world. Emergency Marineville, Hostages of the Deep, The Big Gun, and The Ghost of the Sea are early gems that exemplify this approach. Later episodes are more light-hearted and experimental, with storylines stretching into more outlandish territory, including subterranean oceans, pop idols, jazz bands and movie moguls. Episodes as quietly unnerving as Invisible Enemy rub shoulders with devastating celebrity send-ups like Titan Goes Pop.
Stingray gave AP Films’ renowned special effects and puppet department plenty of new challenges, yet each preceding series educated everyone involved in how to navigate these marionette-laden worlds. There’s a refinement to the crafting of the puppets in Stingray surely learnt from Fireball XL5. Stingray‘s human characters are less caricatured than some of their more visually esoteric human counterparts in Fireball XL5, and with their growing experiences and increased budget and facilities at their disposal, Stingray‘s vast array of oceanic aliens are all wonderfully creative and gorgeously refined in detail. The mute Marina and hoverchair-confined WASP leader Commander Shore may well have been thought of as helpful ways of manoeuvring around the strict mobility and high production costs of these puppets. Yet they also endow Stingray with an unintended feather in its cap for representation of disabled characters.
Stingray would also prove to be the first Anderson puppet series to utilise a variety of differently sculpted heads for main characters – smilers, frowners, and blinkers. This was to elicit a physicality of emotion from these limited puppet actors, yet the talented voice cast of Stingray also proved useful in bringing these heroes and villains to life. With a versatile cast that included Don Mason, Ray Barret, Robert Easton, Lois Maxwell and David Graham, Stingray‘s characterisation remains one of the series’ great strengths. The amusing love triangle between Troy, Marina, and Lieutenant Atlanta Shore, daughter of Commander Shore, gives the series a constant will-they-won’t-they soap opera momentum that’s at odds with the series’ underwater effects-driven blitzkriegs. The winning comradery between Troy and Phones is a neat evolutionary dynamic from the likes of Supercar‘s Mike Mercury and Doctor Beaker, and Fireball XL5‘s Steve Zodiac and Professor Matic. Troy and Phones feel more equally matched than those earlier protagonist duos and make the series feel more in common with The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which coincidentally, debuted on American television just a few short weeks before Stingray‘s UK debut.
Stingray‘s special effects set fresh standards for AP Films. Through impeccably crafted model sets and dynamic visual direction, there’s a vastness to the physical dimensions of Stingray‘s underwater landscapes. It’s not exactly Fireball XL5‘s fault that its monochromatic depiction of outer space fails to compete with Stingray‘s kaleidoscopic seascapes, but one is certainly lightyears ahead of the other. The likes of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 arguably fail to progress further with their own underwater sequences in terms of ambition. Whether it’s the otherworldly allure of the below-Earth terrain discovered in The Subterranean Sea, the swirling mix of dominating rockface and sickly sea fauna in Raptures of the Deep, or the encroaching, vividly coloured ice sheets in Pink Ice, Stingray showcases the benefits the increased budget and advanced equipment had on AP Films. The simple technique of placing a colossal rectangular fish tank between the model set and cameras and filling the tank with coloured water to give the impression of filming underwater has the added bonus effect of disguising the ever-present strings on the series’ various models, something that proved to be a continuous battle with Thunderbirds when filming the International Rescue craft against clear-sky backdrops.
The substantial advancements enjoyed by AP Films in producing Stingray would go on to inform the later and even larger successes enjoyed by Thunderbirds, the enduring status of which has rather come to overshadow Stingray. Rather than serve exclusively as a stop-off point on the road towards Thunderbirds, Stingray stands as its own fantastic destination. The series would prove to be Gerry Anderson’s most substantial dive into underwater adventure, making the series all the more an achievement within his eclectic filmography. 60 years since its debut launch, Stingray remains a TV series in which anything really can happen in the next half hour.
Celebrate Stingray‘s 60th anniversary by diving into our multimedia narrative, Stingray: Deadly Uprising! This ongoing event tells a brand new Stingray saga, set within the continuity of the classic series. The Titanican Stratagem tells the first thrilling chapter, which is followed up by several brand new comic strip adventures as part of the Stingray Comic Anthology Vol.1: Tales from the Depths. Both of these can be ordered now from the Official Gerry Anderson store!
The saga spreads further with the full-cast audio prequel Deadly Concerto, which is available as part of our recent Gerry Anderson concert Stand By for Action! 2: Tunes of Danger. You can also enjoyed the Marineville Minutes, a series of mini episodes set within the larger chapters of Deadly Uprising.
You can also mark Stingray‘s 60th anniversary with the launch of the Anderson Audio Adventures, our brand new podcast featuring our catalogue of exciting Gerry Anderson audiobooks. The podcast kicks off with the full-cast adventure Stingray: Monster from the Deep!
Discover more about Stingray through our continuing coverage of the super-sub on its most special anniversary, including countdowns of the best TV Century 21 comic strips and more obscure spin-off adventures and our ongoing Stingray Deep Dives looking at classic episodes of the series, as voted for by you. Learn the secrets of the making of Stingray in our documentary We Are About to Launch… Stingray, originally produced as part of Networks’ 2022 Blu-ray release of Stingray, and now available to watch on ITVX.
However you may celebrate Stingray‘s 60th anniversary, stand by for action!
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