Stingray
Entry updated 4 May 2026. Tagged: Film, TV.
UK tv series with animated puppets (1964-1965). AP Films with ATV/ITC. Created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson. Produced by Gerry Anderson. The writers were the Andersons (3 episodes), Alan Fennell, Dennis Spooner. 39 25-minute episodes. Colour.
The third of the SuperMarionation puppet sf series for children and the first in colour, Stingray was also one of the better examples. Handsome but irascible Troy Tempest pilots the atomic submersible Stingray Under the Sea for WASP (World Aquanaut Security Patrol) and is involved in a love triangle with Marina, lovely but mute daughter of an undersea emperor, and Atlanta, wistful daughter of WASP's crusty commander. Most weeks saw somewhat repetitive undersea menaces defeated, primarily those associated with the evil but incompetent Titans, an "aquaphibian" race. The miniature sets were good (special effects by Derek Meddings). Some episodes were later cobbled together as "films" which probably never saw theatrical release but were shown abroad as television features. One was Invaders from the Deep (1981), made up from the episodes Hostages of the Deep (1965), Emergency Marineville (1964), The Big Gun (1965) and Deep Heat (1965), all written by Fennell.
One feature of the 1965 London Worldcon was a Stingray diorama of series models and puppets, provided by the Andersons. Three novelizations by John Jennison writing as John Theydon appeared in 1965-1966, the first being Stingray (1965; vt Operation Icecap 2022 ebook); four more by Dave Morris were published somewhat belatedly in 1992, beginning with Trapped in the Depths (1992). [PN/DRL]
further reading
- John Peel. Thunderbirds: Stingray: Captain Scarlet: The Authorised Programme Guide (London: Virgin Books, 1993) [nonfiction: tie to Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: pb/]
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