Welcome to our Stingray Deep Dives! As we surge towards the super-sub’s 60th anniversary, we asked you to pick your favourite episodes of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s classic 1964 sci-fi underwater series that should receive in-depth, analytical retrospectives. Based on your picks, we’ve collated a top 10 selection of Stingray’s greatest episodes to receive a review – as voted for by you!
We’re beginning our countdown of Stingray’s top 10 episodes with a tumultuous visit from the World Navy…
Set Sail for Rivalry
Any number of Anderfans can point to any given Gerry Anderson series and highlight numerous exciting elements, from the special effects to brilliant model work, intelligent storytelling. But how often do we acknowledge how funny these series can be? How often do we highlight that these productions often carried a witty sense of humour to cushion their sci-fi blitzkriegs? That’s something Stingray champions in spades, and its sense of character-driven humour is the main focus of The Man From The Navy.
In The Man From The Navy, the World Aquanaut Security Patrols receive a visit from the World Navy, who are testing their newly developed missile with a series of underwater war games. The presence of World Navy captain Jacques Jordan is less than welcome for the Marineville men. His suave attitude proves a hit with Atlanta and Marina, but his overconfident boastfulness instantly butts heads with Troy and Phones. Sure enough, Troy and Jacques’ hostilities come into play when Titan intercepts the World Navy sub for his own devious ends…
Character-led Humour
The Man From the Navy comes from the pen of Alan Fennell, a writer who made extensive contributions to the worlds of Gerry Anderson. However, of all the things Fennell did contribute, humour isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. Fennell’s scripts generally prioritised fact-paced, smartly composed action. He doesn’t remain known for his scripts having a tangible focus on comedy, yet Stingray quite apparently pulls itself in comedic directions as the series progresses. Stingray can roughly be split into two halves – its first half consists of underwater Cold War, while the second half sees Stingray venture into quirkier, lighter territory. Later episodes such as Set Sail for Adventure and A Nut For Marineville showcase a renewed inclusion of humour into the series’ tonal identity.
Close inspection of Fennell’s episodes shows that this focus on comedic, character-led interactions wasn’t a one-off, and that his episodes showcase a welcome applicability across several tones. The centrepiece of any Anderson episode could perhaps be a spectacular special effects sequence, but in The Man From the Navy, its peak moment is one of a group of characters sat around a table, a conversation naturally ballooning into a full-blown argument as Troy and Jacques’ rivalry spoils Marina’s dinner party that she’s organised for the group.
If the whole idea of having the puppets sat at the controls of some fantastic, futuristic machine to aide in the illusion of fast-moving adventure, then surely having your puppet characters sat around a dinner table should have the opposite effect. However, this oddly humorous scene is tastefully directed from John Kelly, full of convincing puppetry movements and welcome use of various frowner heads that display a confident knack for allowing its characters to lead the episode’s more tense moments. Some especially effective use is made of the mute Marina, with her blinker face used to express her own emotions during the fallout of the party.
In an added layer of amusement to an episode that already prioritises humour, it’s weird to think that Titan and X-20 don’t seize on the hostile rivalry between WASP and the World Navy. Instead, they target the submarine from a technological point of view, oblivious to the terranean soap opera occurring between the two parties. Titan commands that the World Navy sub be hijacked to destroy Stingray once and for all. In a masterful move, the episode finds room to twist Troy and Jacques’ rivalry around when it falls to Troy to clear the captain’s name after Stingray evades destruction from the sabotaged war games.
Despite Titan’s attempt to cause destruction, it’s not quite a happy ending for all. Adding insult to injury, Jacques fails to learn from his big rampant egotism. It rather feels like this is the arc the episode was setting itself up for originally. Instead, WASP and the World Navy enter and leave the story as frosty allies, whilst the character arc falls to Troy and Atlanta, a brief scuffle in their will-they-won’t-they romance when she’s able to witness Jacques’ continued pig-headedness in the aftermath of Troy and Phones’ heroic actions.
With Friends Like You…
The Man from the Navy may not be the most visually spellbinding or conceptually heavy episode from Stingray, but its confidently melodramatic mixture of comedy and drama displays a pleasing widening for the scope of the series. Stingray is a series that effortlessly pulls off everything from underwater mystery to science fiction disaster, but as The Man from the Navy showcases, the series is just at home with an episode dominated by low-key yet engaging character interplay.
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