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Stingray: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] [2022]

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For decades Stingray has been that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Supermarionation series usually mentioned after Thunderbirds (the gold standard by which all such series were judged). But Team Anderson couldn’t have got to one without the other, and watching it again after all these years, it’s amazing to see how much of a beta test Stingray was for Thunderbirds. On the Set of Set Sail for Adventure: From the estate of Stingray contributor Alan Fennell, we present some previously unseen home movie footage taken by Alan whilst filming Set Sail For Adventure Aquacade Emergency/Marineville Must Go...!: Nicholas Briggs reads an audiobook adaptation of two stories originally featured in the 1966 Stingray Annual Stingray is also noteworthy for the refinements made to the Supermarionation process between shows, with the puppet sculpts having more detail, and being more proportionate in comparison to those featured in earlier productions, making the characters seem more defined and realistic. Model work also feels more polished, the design of Stingray itself being a genuine stroke of pop culture iconography. The ‘underwater’ sequences stand up remarkably well, even now. I've recently read some criticisms of Stingray online, ranging from the puerile (in the vein of, "you'll enjoy it better if you're high") to the patronizingly dismissive, due to more "enlightened" times and one assumes, at least one enlightened reviewer (for some apparently, Stingray is a racist, misogynist relic of the past). I can't speak to the sounds-promising substance abuse angle, but God knows I've gone down the path of over-analyzing a movie or TV show on political/sociological lines. I suppose you can find serious issues in Stingray if you strain hard enough to connect the dots, and maybe they're valid (I try, though, to keep in mind what a psych professor once told me: the human mind will always "draw" connecting lines on any collection of five dots or more on a piece of paper...no matter how randomly placed). Yes, it could seem suspicious to those forever on the lookout for colonial/imperial tendencies in old pop culture, that those underwater aliens in Sea of Oil are so nice about giving up their oil for friendship with WASP. However, I'm inclined to think the overall conscious scheme of things in Stingray is an entirely more prosaic "heroes and villains" dynamic, hung on a well-worn melodramatic comic book framework (and gussied-up with sci-fi, Bondian trappings). After all, the show's primal intentions are pretty well stated by James Garner's head Captain Troy Tempest in the series opener: "At least we know what we're up against. Whole races of people living under the sea. Some bad and I guess some good. Some to help...and some to fight." So much for deep geo-political messages, possibly based on race. And if the all-white WASP team offends you today, try and remember that in 1964, producer Anderson was giving boss Sir Lew Grade exactly what was asked for: a kids show specifically aimed at primary audiences in England and America, with America over 87 percent white in 1964...and England well over 90 percent. Was Stingray diverse and forward-thinking like the similarly-structured Star Trek on American television two years later? Certainly not...but it was hardly "evil" by omission, either.

s "making of" featurette, The Thing About Stingray is included here, running 20:21, with thoughts from some of the original crew on how the series was brought about, and its legacy (this was included in A&E's series set). There's also a Gerry Anderson interview, running 12:10, from...I don't know, because there's no date given, no context for the interview, and it obviously just begins and ends in the middle of a taped conversation with Anderson. Interesting...but not particularly helpful. Troy is a member of WASP, a sort of oceanic police force, and he pilots a submarine called Stingray. What are the chances? When you have an iconic show like Stingray, rejigging the episodes to form something allegedly more epic is understandable. Watching Stingray now, I can more fully appreciate the extensive effort that went into synching up all the details of the impressive production--not just the marionettes' mouth movements, but all of the effects, including moving the dolls around, the impressive, consistently imaginative production design, and the almost big-screen-worthy direction and editing of these little half-hour sci-fi adventures. With that said, I'm not sure what else I can add to a discussion or evaluation of the show...without sounding like some creepy old weirdo who's taking this all too seriously. Thunderbirds is my childhood touchstone with Gerry Anderson's world, and I have found memories of occasionally catching it when I was quite young. I've seen it a few times since then, and it never fails to entertain me. Briefly. Stingray, which came out the year before Thunderbirds, is less ambitious technically (not only in its half-hour run time, but in the scope of its special effects), but it still satisfies that nostalgia-driven rush of childlike pleasure when an adult viewer sees some cool models and funny-looking puppets moving around in herky-jerky fashion on the TV screen. However, there are remnants of your pop culture history that were perfectly acceptable to watch as a child (my two littlest kids watched Stingray for a couple of episodes--my little girl in particular took to the Barbie doll-like aspects of mute Marina), or cool and cute to watch in your twenties (girlfriends and wives love that "little boy" enthusiasm at that age when you're revisiting something in your past)...but which now feel a tad, um... juvenile when you're pushing 50--no matter how much you loved it when you were a kid (everyone knows that even Gerry Anderson, who always hoped for a big-screen live-action career, was slightly embarrassed having to do what amounted to kiddie shows with dolls).In their initial forays into the world of puppets, Gerry handled the production, writing, direction, and occasional voice work—wife Sylvia handled most of those chores along with designing costumes for the characters (the marionettes were formidable in their own right; between two and three feet high, and rigged with complex mechanisms, they were great for detail but hell on production costs—bigger manikins meant bigger studios). As work began on Stingray, Gerry stepped away from directing and Sylvia took a break from voice work so they both could concentrate on the nuts and bolts of the production and the rigorous art of storytelling—and the effort shows. Into Action With Troy Tempest/A Trip to Marineville/Marina Speaks: Three 21-minute Mini-Albums, released in 1965, and featuring the original voice artists Truth be told, all the characters sport relatively vacant stares, an obstacle that was leavened by cycling through an expressive variety of puppet heads from shot to shot. The greatest hurdle remained the profusion of strings enveloping the marionettes—that those wires are rarely intrusive is a tribute to the diligent folks at the other end of those strings and the craftspeople behind the scenes. The show’s head shop aesthetic was fully-formed right from the start thanks to future Bond special effects artist Derek Meddings, the art direction of Bob Bell, and model-maker Reg Parks, whose stylish creations include the Stingray sub itself, a sleek piece of machinery that borrows its futuristic curves from a toy space gun.

There are three audio-only mini albums included, one of which is ‘Marina Speaks’, featuring the mute heroine. Naturally she’s about as vocal as Harpo Marx or Gromit.

Side guide

In the meantime, to whet your appetite A Christmas To Remember is available to stream, free of charge, until 18:00 on Sunday 26th December. The fullscreen, 1.37:1 color transfers for Stingray: The Complete Series -- 50th Anniversary Edition look pretty good, with solid-enough color (maybe some fading here and there), a sharpish image, and some occasional screen imperfections, like dirt and scratches.

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