The Big Gun (Stingray)

Last updated

"The Big Gun"
Stingray episode
Episode no.Episode 17
Directed byDavid Elliott
Written by Alan Fennell
Cinematography by John Read
Editing byHarry MacDonald
Production code6 [1]
Original air date24 January 1965 (1965-01-24)
Guest character voices
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Lighthouse Dwellers"		Next →
"The Cool Cave Man"
List of episodes

"The Big Gun" is the 17th episode of Stingray , a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 24 January 1965 on the Anglia, Border, Grampian, ATV London and Southern franchises of the ITV network. [1] [2] It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands on 26 January 1965. [2]

Contents

The series follows the missions of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans in the 2060s. Headquartered in the self-contained city of Marineville on the West Coast of North America, the WASP operates a fleet of vessels led by Stingray: a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute woman from under the sea. Stingray's missions bring it into contact with various undersea peoples – some friendly, others hostile – as well as strange natural phenomena. In "The Big Gun", Stingray pursues the people of the undersea city of Solarstar, which threatens the surface world with a weapon of mass destruction capable of obliterating whole continents.

"The Big Gun" forms a segment of the Stingray compilation film Invaders from the Deep, produced by ITC New York in 1981. [3] A comic strip adaptation of the episode, drawn by John Cooper, was serialised in Fleetway's Stingray: The Comic in 1993. [2]

Plot

The inhabitants of the undersea city of Solarstar have perfected a missile warhead capable of starting a chain reaction powerful enough to destroy entire landmasses – even continents. The missile is launched from a submersible armed with a giant cannon resembling a tank gun. Maritimus, one of Solarstar's citizens, tests the weapon on three unpopulated Pacific islands, each of which is obliterated. Returning to Solarstar, he is decorated by the city's leader, who vows to conquer human civilisation and orders Maritimus to destroy the West Coast of the United States.

World Security Patrol HQ orders Marineville to investigate the trail of devastation. Commander Shore dispatches Stingray and its crew survey the area. Captain Tempest and Lieutenant "Phones" detect Maritimus' vessel just as he is aiming a missile at a power station on the West Coast. They torpedo and destroy the craft before it can fire, but Maritimus survives by ejecting in an escape pod. The Solarstar leader subsequently orders the destruction of Marineville.

Taking a second submersible, Maritimus fires a missile at Marineville, but the base's defence rockets track and destroy the missile before it hits. With Marineville safe, Stingray goes after Maritimus. The crew are lured into the Solarstar Sea at the end of a deep-ocean tunnel, where Maritimus intends to ambush them. Stingray exceeds its maximum operating depth, and as the hull buckles from the water pressure, Tempest and Phones pass out and Maritimus moves in for the kill. The crew are saved at the last moment when Marina takes over the controls and shoots down Maritimus' vessel. With Marina's help, Tempest fires a salvo of torpedoes into Solarstar itself, destroying the city. Stingray returns to Marineville, where Shore orders upgrades to the WASP's defensive capabilities.

Regular voice cast

Production

The race of beings inhabiting Solarstar are unnamed in the episode itself but identified as the Trematodes in Stingray: The Comic. [2]

Due to the re-use of various model shots, Maritimus' second submersible is sometimes represented by footage of the first. This produces several continuity errors, as the two craft are shown to have different insignias on their sides. [1] [2]

Original incidental music was recorded on 11 October 1963 at Pye Studios in London with a 28-piece orchestra. Music for the episode "Treasure Down Below" was recorded at the same session. [4]

Reception

Ian Fryer unfavourably compares the episode to "Treasure Down Below" (written by Dennis Spooner) and other episodes by Fennell, criticising the "simplistic militarism" of the script. He writes that the Solarstar people's motivations are not explained and questions the Stingray crew's decision to attack the city, given that Maritimus has been eliminated and the danger has passed: "An entire civilisation has been destroyed with hardly a second's thought." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Stingray</i> (1964 TV series) British childrens science fiction television series

Stingray is a British children's science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Filmed in 1963 using a combination of electronic marionette puppetry and scale model special effects, it was APF's sixth puppet series and the third to be produced under the banner of "Supermarionation". It premiered in October 1964 and ran for 39 half-hour episodes.

<i>Supercar</i> (TV series) British television series, 1961–1962

Supercar is a British children's science fiction television series produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis' AP Films (APF) for Associated Television and ITC Entertainment. Two series totalling 39 episodes were filmed between September 1960 and January 1962. Budgeted at £2,000 per episode, it was Anderson's first half-hour series as well as his first science fiction production.

<i>Fireball XL5</i> British childrens TV series

Fireball XL5 is a 1960s British children's science-fiction puppet television series about the missions of Fireball XL5, a vessel of the World Space Patrol that polices the cosmos in the year 2062. Commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac, XL5 defends Earth from interstellar threats while encountering a wide variety of alien civilisations.

"Operation Crash-Dive" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Martin Crump and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was first broadcast on 16 December 1965 on ATV Midlands as the 12th episode of Series One. It is the eighth episode in the official running order.

"City of Fire" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 6 January 1966 on ATV Midlands as the 15th episode of Series One. It is the third episode in the official running order.

"Atlantic Inferno" is the 27th episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was first broadcast on 2 October 1966 on ATV London and Anglia Television as the first episode of Series Two. It had its first UK-wide network broadcast on 17 April 1992 on BBC2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terror in New York City</span> 13th episode of the 1st series of Thunderbirds

"Terror in New York City" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott and David Lane, it was first broadcast on 21 October 1965 on ATV Midlands as the fourth episode of Series One. In the official running order, it is the 13th episode. It had its first UK-wide network broadcast on 22 November 1991 on BBC2.

"Brink of Disaster" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on 24 February 1966 on ATV Midlands as the 22nd episode of Series One. It is the 11th episode in the official running order.

"Martian Invasion" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 17 March 1966 on ATV Midlands as the 24th episode of Series One. It is the tenth episode in the official running order.

"Ricochet" is the 31st episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Brian Burgess, it was first broadcast on 6 November 1966 on ATV London and Anglia Television as the fifth episode of Series Two. It had its first UK-wide network transmission on 15 May 1992 on BBC2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant of Doom</span> Episode of Stingray

"Plant of Doom" is an episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott, it was the second episode to be filmed but was first broadcast as the 34th episode, late in the series' original run, on 23 May 1965 on ATV London.

"Path of Destruction" is the 28th episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Donald Robertson and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 9 October 1966 on ATV London and Anglia Television as the second episode of Series Two. It had its first UK-wide network broadcast on 24 April 1992 on BBC2.

"The Ghost Ship" is the third episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was the eighth episode filmed and was first broadcast on 18 October 1964 on the Anglia, ATV London, Border, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands, Channel and Westward on 20 October.

"Titan Goes Pop" is an episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was the 29th episode to be filmed and was first broadcast on 6 December 1964 by the on the Anglia, ATV London, Border, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands, Channel and Westward on 8 December.

"The Uninvited" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 2 December 1965 as the tenth episode of Series One. It is the fifth episode in the official running order.

"Sub-Smash" is the eighth episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. The screenplay was written Alan Fennell and the director was David Lane. The episode was filmed between 18 November and 28 November 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands on 11 November 1970. Though shown as the seventh episode, it was actually the seventeenth to have been filmed.

"Tom Thumb Tempest" is the 22nd episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was first broadcast on 28 February 1965 on the Anglia, ATV London, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands on 3 March 1965.

"Stingray", alternatively titled The Pilot, is the first episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by the Andersons and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was first broadcast in Japan on 7 September 1964 and in the UK in October.

"Stand By for Action" is the 25th episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was first broadcast on 21 March 1965 on the Anglia, ATV London, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands on 24 March 1965.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). Reynolds & Hearn. p. 82. ISBN   978-1-905287-74-1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Pixley, Andrew (2022). Stingray: Adventures in Videcolor. Network Distributing. pp. 252–253. 7958280.
  3. ↑ Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). Reynolds & Hearn. p. 362. ISBN   978-1-905287-74-1.
  4. ↑ de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  5. ↑ Fryer, Ian (2016). The Worlds of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson: The Story Behind International Rescue. Fonthill Media. p. 83. ISBN   978-1-78155-504-0.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.