The Ghost Ship (Stingray)

Last updated

"The Ghost Ship"
Stingray episode
Episode no.Episode 3
Directed by Desmond Saunders
Written by Alan Fennell
Cinematography by John Read
Editing byEric Pask
Production code8
Original air date18 October 1964 (1964-10-18)
Guest character voices
David Graham as Idotee & WSP Commander
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Emergency Marineville"		Next →
"Subterranean Sea"
List of episodes

"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. [1]

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 at 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 young woman from under the sea. Stingray's adventures bring it into contact with undersea civilisations – some friendly, others hostile – as well as mysterious natural phenomena. In "The Ghost Ship", the Stingray crew encounter a seemingly deserted galleon while investigating the disappearance of an ocean liner.

Plot

The ocean liner Arcadia disappears at sea. Her last radio transmission – in which the crew reported seeing an old galleon – reaches World Security Patrol (WSP) headquarters, who relay it to the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) in Marineville with orders to investigate. Captain Troy Tempest, Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina depart in Stingray, joined by Commander Shore.

Stingray arrives at Arcadia's last known position and makes visual contact with the galleon, which does not respond to Troy's hails. Shore and Phones board the ship and find its upper decks deserted. However, they fail to notice a platform built into one of the floors and are lowered into a watertight section in bowels of the ship, where they are met by an undersea pirate called Idotee. Holding them at gunpoint, Idotee explains that he converted the galleon into a submarine and used its cannons to sink Arcadia. Now he intends to kill the Stingray crew for crimes against the undersea races.

Idotee tells Shore to radio Troy and instruct him to come aboard, but Shore disobeys and instead orders Troy to attack the galleon. Troy is unwilling to do either and submerges Stingray to evade the furious Idotee's cannon fire. Submerging the galleon, Idotee threatens to kill Shore and Phones unless Troy surrenders.

Forced to comply, Troy puts on a diving suit and exits Stingray, then enters the galleon via an airlock and joins the others. Idotee, who never intended to leave anyone alive, has tied Shore and Phones to chairs in front of a double-barrelled cannon rigged to fire harpoons into them. However, he is unaware that only one of Troy's two diving cylinders contained air, and that Troy has unsealed the other, which is now releasing laughing gas into the galleon. Idotee, Shore and Phones collapse into hysterics and pass out, while Troy, who has swallowed a pill to negate the gas's effects, kicks the cannon aside just before it shoots Shore and Phones.

The Stingray crew take Idotee into custody and return to Marineville. Shore decides not to punish Troy for his insubordination, instead thanking him for his bravery.

Regular voice cast

Production

Although Idotee is named in the script, the character does not identify himself in dialogue, instead telling Shore and Phones that his name is "of no consequence". [2]

The galleon scale model was built by the APF special effects department under the supervision of effects director Derek Meddings, while the puppet-sized decks were designed by art director Bob Bell. Both the galleon model and the deck sets were re-used for the episode "Set Sail for Adventure", where they appear as Admiral Denver's ship. [2]

The incidental music was composed from 16 to 22 October 1963 [1] and recorded on 25 October at Pye Studios in London with a 30-piece orchestra. Music for "The Golden Sea" was recorded in the same session. [3]

Reception

Writing for the fanzine Andersonic, Vincent Law compares "The Ghost Ship" to the episodes "A Nut for Marineville", "Pink Ice" and "Invisible Enemy" for the way in which the characters react to the threat posed by Idotee. He notes that in the last two episodes "the bottom line [is] 'blast them before they blast us'", while the first two "riff on pretty much the same theme, the stock response to the unknown usually being to shoot first."

Law also praises the flute music that accompanies the first appearance of the galleon, describing the piece as "unforgettable" and arguing that it "perfectly encapsulates the whole series." [4] Anthony Clark of sci-fi-online.com describes the episode's incidental music as "spine-tingling stuff". [5]

Adaptations

The episode was adapted into a picture book in 1992 and a comic strip in 1993. The strip was published over three issues of Fleetway Editions 'Stingray: The Comic, which followed it up with a feature giving the backstory of Idotee, revealing him to be more than 200 "marine years" old. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Cavendish</span> English privateer

Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe. Magellan's, Loaisa's, Drake's, and Loyola's expeditions had preceded Cavendish in circumnavigating the globe. His first trip and successful circumnavigation made him rich from captured Spanish gold, silk and treasure from the Pacific and the Philippines. His richest prize was the captured 600-ton sailing ship the Manila Galleon Santa Ana. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England after his return. He later set out for a second raiding and circumnavigation trip but was not as fortunate and died at sea at the age of 31.

<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>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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SEALAB</span> Experimental underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy

SEALAB I, II, and III were experimental underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy in the 1960s to prove the viability of saturation diving and humans living in isolation for extended periods of time. The knowledge gained from the SEALAB expeditions helped advance the science of deep sea diving and rescue, and contributed to the understanding of the psychological and physiological strains humans can endure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underwater habitat</span> Human habitable underwater enclosure filled with breathable gas

Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In this context, 'habitat' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, some underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquanaut</span> Diver who remains at depth underwater for longer than 24 hours

An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as saturation. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface. The term is often restricted to scientists and academics, though there were a group of military aquanauts during the SEALAB program. Commercial divers in similar circumstances are referred to as saturation divers. An aquanaut is distinct from a submariner, in that a submariner is confined to a moving underwater vehicle such as a submarine that holds the water pressure out. Aquanaut derives from the Latin word aqua ("water") plus the Greek nautes ("sailor"), by analogy to the similar construction "astronaut".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabien Cousteau</span> Aquanaut, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker

Fabien Cousteau is an aquanaut, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker. As the first grandson of Jacques Cousteau, Fabien spent his early years aboard his grandfather's ships Calypso and Alcyone, and learned how to scuba dive on his fourth birthday. From 2000 to 2002, he was Explorer-at-Large for National Geographic and collaborated on a television special aimed at changing public attitudes about sharks called "Attack of the Mystery Shark". From 2003 to 2006, he produced the documentary "Mind of a Demon" that aired on CBS. With the help of a large crew, he created a 14-foot, 1,200-pound, lifelike shark submarine called "Troy" that enabled him to immerse himself inside the shark world.

<i>The Buccaneers</i> (1956 TV series) British television series

The Buccaneers was a 1956 Sapphire Films television drama series for ITC Entertainment, broadcast by CBS in the US and shown on ATV and regional ITV companies as they came on air during the infancy of ITV in the UK.

TV Century 21, later renamed TV21, TV21 and Tornado, TV21 and Joe 90, and TV21 again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during the latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions, it promoted the company's many science-fiction television series. The comic was published in the style of a newspaper of the future, with the front page usually dedicated to fictional news stories set in the worlds of Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and other stories. The front covers were also in colour, with photographs from one or more of the Anderson series or occasionally of the stars of the back-page feature.

"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.

<i>Below</i> (film) 2002 historical horror film directed by David Twohy

Below is a 2002 submarine supernatural thriller film directed by David Twohy, written by Darren Aronofsky, Lucas Sussman and Twohy, and stars Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Matthew Davis, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher. The film tells the story of a United States Navy submarine that experiences a series of supernatural events while on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943.

<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.

"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. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands on 26 January 1965.

The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo is a Canadian animated television series of five-minute cartoons produced in 1975 by Rainbow Animation in Toronto, Ontario. The series follows the underwater adventures of Captain Mark Nemo and his two young assistants, Christine and Robbie, in their nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.

"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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet</span> First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War

The Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet was an important, early naval victory for the Continental Navy and the future "Father of the American Navy", Captain John Barry. It was the first privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War. The battle resulted in the first American casualty of the war in New Jersey, Lieutenant Richard Wickes, brother of Captain Lambert Wickes. It was the only Revolutionary War battle fought in Cape May County.

"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 Pixley, Andrew (2022). Stingray: Adventures in Videcolor. Network Distributing. p. 255. 7958280.
  2. 1 2 Bentley, Chris (2003). The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide. London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 121. ISBN   978-0-9566534-0-6.
  3. ↑ de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  4. ↑ Law, Vincent (2009). Farrell, Richard (ed.). "Bizarre Love Triangle". Andersonic. No. 8. pp. 4–10.
  5. ↑ Clark, Anthony (2022). "Stingray: Original Television Soundtrack – Soundtrack Review". sci-fi-online.com. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
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.