Saturday Night Showcase: Stingray

In a recent Saturday Night Showcase we watched Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, one of Gerry Anderson’s famous “Supermarionation” series. In the intro article I mentioned that I used to watch a collected movie of Stingray episodes on Saturday syndication. Well tonight we get to watch the first episode.

Stingray takes place underwater in another of those near future stories that allows the world to look like modern day but still have tech that doesn’t yet exist. The show follows Troy Tempest (there aren’t enough heroes named Troy in my opinion, but seeing as that’s my first name I’m a bit biased) and his partner “Phones” as they protect the surface world from an underwater race that seeks to destroy it. As part of the WASPs (World Aquanaut Security Patrol, a branch of the World Security Patrol…which seems otherwise odd to name your aquatic peacekeeping team after a flying insect), our heroes are joined by the silent mermaid Marina in fighting the ship subs of their underwater enemy. This was the first Supermarionation show in color and yet the underwater effects work quite well for the time. Enjoy

As you can guess the show is available for those of us in the States through ad-sponsored streaming service Shout Factory TV and on home video through Shout Factory.