Convoluted canons are go! Throughout all of Gerry Anderson's television creations and their accompanying array of extended media, vast tapestries of events, characterisations and worldbuilding are established for each respective series. With so much material from so many different sources, it's not surprising that they don't always align - but why should it be surprising? Why is it that so many of these events refuse to coalesce into a satisfying whole? Does it lessen the appeal of each series?

In this series of articles, we're investigating the convoluted canons of several of Gerry and Sylvia's creations, starting with Stingray!

Marina's Muteness & Dubious Reappearances

Compared to the later merchandise juggernauts of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, Stingray has less spin-off storytelling efforts produced to accompany the 39-episode TV series. Subsequently, there's less material for the series to become lost in when fulfilling its own canon.

Much like the other Supermarionation productions, there are two primary sources of media at work that provide the maximum Stingray experience: the TV series, which we may consider the main canon, and the spin-off media, best thought of as sub-canon. Where the TV series is the one fans are most familiar with, it falls to the comics, annuals, audio dramas and more to deliver such tantalising details as character backstories and vehicle specifications. This is the approach which all of the classic Supermarionation series also follow, lending authenticity to storytelling efforts outside of the TV series - and subsequent continuity errors! 

The most notable example of Stingray's disharmony between the TV series and the spin-off media is the backstory behind the super-sub's underwater heroine Marina, and her reasoning for her inability to communicate verbally with the other members of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Throughout the TV series, the rather dismissive "she doesn't know how" reason is adhered to unquestioningly. However, Stingray's extended media takes advantage to craft a far more compelling saga. 

In the pages of Marina, Girl of the Sea, Marina and her father's refusal to bow to Titan's underwater dictatorship inspires other undersea races to rise up, provoking Titan to compel Marina into silence. The warmonger declares that he has placed a curse on Marina, forbidding her from ever speaking again. Whether through genuine supernatural entrapment or unshakable fear, Marina is forced into a life of silence. If either her or anyone else from Pacifica dares to utter a word, their closest loved one will perish. A bridge between onscreen and printed media is formed with the audio drama Marina Speaks, technically counting as extended media, but performed by the TV series cast. We can possibly then look at this as less of a continuity error, but a separate backstory kept secret by Marina. 

A less easily remediable is the unique pairing of A Nut for Marineville and Trapped in the Depths. In A Nut for Marineville, Grupa and Noctus' efforts to destroy Marineville with their seemingly indestructible underwater vessel are stalled by the invention of a new and devastatingly powerful missile for Stingray. The pair are placed in the Marineville jail... only for them to inexplicably appear in the very next episode - or do they? The puppets for Grupa and Noctus are reused in Trapped in the Depths, their names never spoken and their vocal inflictions varied from their previous appearance. These details neither confirm or deny that they're intended to be the same characters, but the waters are muddied even more if we're meant to believe the pair are still behind bars!

A Nut for Marineville and Trapped in the Depths were produced towards the end of Stingray's production run, a time when pre-production on Thunderbirds was taking shape and A.P. Films presumably couldn't justify the time or expense to produce a pair of new alien characters so late in Stingray's run. 

Marineville's Complicated Genesis

A far more egregious example of Stingray's disconnected wider canon is found in the exact timeline of events involving the formation of Marineville, the construction of Stingray, and the pre-WASP life of Commander Shore. We have two distinct nods to Shore's backstory in the TV series. In The Ghost of the Sea, we learn that a younger Shore was employed in marine security operations by the World Security Patrol, which was how he came to be hoverchair-bound and lost the use of his legs. Later, in The Master Plan, it's heavily implied that Shore was once the pilot of Stingray itself.

Let's see how well these details stitch together with other biographical details from Stingray's extended canon. In the pages of TV Century 21, which itself posited the notion that most of the Supermarionation characters coexisted in a shared timeline (but perhaps that can of worms is best saved for another investigation!), the Agent 21 strip showcases Marineville beginning its construction during the 2040s. In the very first TV Century 21 annual, an Agent 21 short story features cameo appearances from a pre-WASP Shore and a pre-World Space Patrol Commander Zero. Here, Shore is designated Sub-Lieutenant Commander Shore, implying that over a 20-year period, Shore rose through the WASP ranks to eventually become its commander. 

These details would appear to happily sync up with the lengthily passage of time implied by The Master Plan with Shore's former life as Stingray's main pilot. However, in the 1966 Stingray annual, the vehicle specification on Stingray itself reveals that the WASP's flagship sub had only been in active service for three years at the time of the series' events in 2065. 

This disconnect between the prime and sub-canons of Stingray can be attributed to the most likely fact that neither the editorial staff between Century 21 Productions or Century 21 Publishing were meticulously cross-referencing each other's facts. Writers would be handed a succinct outline of the series, its premise, and characters, drafted by Gerry and Sylvia, and then given free reign to work from there. 

Modern Media

60 years on since Stingray's debut, recent publications from Anderson Entertainment have sought to rectify many of these nagging inconsistencies scattered throughout Stingray's wider canon. Chris Dale's Stingray: The Titanican Stratagem, the first major instalment in the Stingray: Deadly Uprising saga, confirms that Gruta and Noctus make two separate appearances in the pair of aforementioned TV episodes. Dale's brilliantly entertaining and satisfyingly authentic Stingray adventure cleverly fixes the lingering detail of just how these two characters are the same, despite the vagueness in their given identities onscreen. 

The W.A.S.P. Technical Operations Manual by Chris Thompson and Andrew Clements provides you with the definitive biographical story of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Building on in-universe details from the original television series, the 1960s Stingray annuals and other classic efforts, the manual details the inner workings of Marineville. Everything you've ever needed to know about Marineville's history, defences, and operations are detailed in this stunningly produced in-universe dossier!

Whether it's piecing together the oddly scattershot history of Marineville to vaguely defined characters who are definitely the same from previous appearances except for when they aren't, and the exact reasons why Marina remains verbally silent, Stingray's shared canon between its onscreen and spin-off adventures reveals an abundance of fascinatingly ill-connected threads of supposedly watertight worldbuilding and characterisations.  

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