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 continuing our countdown of Stingray’s top 10 episodes with the fantastic discovery of a subterranean ocean beneath the Earth’s crust, never before experienced by mankind! The Stingray crew is dragged from their holiday to explore this hidden world and to discover the secrets it holds.
“An ocean? So where do we come in?”
We’ve dived into some pretty thorough explorations at this point at the kind of varying tones, themes and genres that Stingray plays with at this stage in our Stingray Deep Dives. The WASP super-sub could adopt many different disguises and mostly pull them off to convincing and entertaining effect. We’ve examined how witty, how self-referential, how resourceful, and how apocalyptic the series could be. But have you ever wondered just how… *strange* Stingray could be? How eerily otherworldly Subterranean Sea matches this question with the series’ most extreme example of what happens when Stingray fully embraces its core identity of essentially serving as an underwater equivalent of Fireball XL5.
Subterranean Sea opens with some deceptively playful scene-setting. Troy, Phones, Atlanta and Marina are gearing up for a joint holiday. Unfortunately, their plans are scuppered when the Undersea Mantle Boring Base succeeds in penetrating beneath the Earth’s crust, subsequently discovering an entire ocean. Stingray is called upon to investigate this incredible phenomenon. The puncturing of these playful scenes gives way to one of Stingray‘s most bizarre yet engrossing sequences of events.
Into the Unknown
Right off the bat, the fact that Stingray is tasked with this expedition gives rise to one of the series’ most pressing questions – is Stingray really the only submarine the World Aquanaut Security Patrol has in active service? Atlanta attempts to get out of the mission handed to them by Commander Shore by reminding him that he has other vessels he could use. It’s one of the series’ most direct implications that WASP *does* have other submarines at its command, but without ever using the word ‘submarine’ itself. An odd occurrence that the series quite deliberately skirts around and never quite resolves.
Casting aide these nagging details, Subterranean Sea draws out its sense of mystery in masterfully momentum-building style. Stingray’s journey into the subterranean sea begins gradually before the volatile, unpredictable environment ensnares the craft. Troy, Phones and Marina’s startling initial discovery of gorgeously glowing, multi-coloured mountain terrain plunges into chaos when the sea’s naturally-occurring tide flings the submarine into a violent underwater crash-dive. Once Stingray finds itself beached on the dried-up ocean floor, Subterranean Sea mostly does away with fast-paced storytelling. Instead, we embrace the otherworldly atmosphere that the trio find themselves in, and are forced to explore a world untouched by humans.
If Stingray was envisioned as an underwater equivalent of Fireball XL5, then Troy, Phones and Marina’s tense exploration of the ocean-less subterranean sea is the closest the series ever comes to the crew venturing onto some alien world. Indeed, these spectacular sets, made to look utterly alien and inhospitable to human or marine life as we know it, are one of AP Films’ standout set designs. You can sense the artistic touch of series cinematographer John Read and the artistically inclined Reg Hill (two of AP Film’s founding alumni) in this prolonged sequence of the trio venturing close to the centre of the Earth. It’s a plotless yet utterly immersive sequence, full of inviting mystery that feels dangerous yet alluring. The exotic foliage and rocky terrain, baked by the blistering red-pink backdrop, make for a visually enrapturing landscape for our characters to explore.
The eventual ravenous return of the subterranean sea cuts the trio’s exploration short, and the tense situation that follows as Stingray struggles to retrace its steps before the craft’s oxygen supplies run low highlights what a minute presence the submarine has in this vast, hidden world. We come away from the subterranean sea with its mysteries fully intact, not knowing anything tangible. Subterranean Sea highlights how even some depths of the world are left unknown by terranean and alien alike.
An Atmospheric Journey
Some welcome moments of levity ensure the episode ends its surreal, intense drama on a humorous note. Stingray eventually succeeds in escaping the subterranean ocean, but not through the boring shaft from which they came. Instead, the sub pierces the ocean’s surface and into some form of Hawaiian-esque paradise, confirming that the boring efforts may have all been for naut! The lack of resolution in the Stingray crew reporting their findings to either Marineville or the boring company buckles the narrative somewhat, but at least Troy, Phones and Marina secure the holiday they deserved in the first place.
We may have criticised Pink Ice for also lacking a memorable villain, but Subterranean Sea fills the void with a heavy emphasis on cryptic atmosphere and spellbinding visuals, particularly in place of event-driven storytelling. Subterranean Sea remains a definite highpoint of Stingray as one of the series’ most alluring and beguiling episodes.
To be the first to hear about the latest news, exclusive releases and show announcements, sign up to the Anderson Entertainment newsletter!
Leave a comment