Welcome to our Stingray Deep Dives! As we surge towards the super-sub’s 60th anniversary, we asked you to pick your favourite episodes of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s classic 1964 sci-fi underwater series that should receive in-depth, analytical retrospectives. Based on your picks, we’ve collated a top 10 selection of Stingray’s greatest episodes to receive a review – as voted for by you!
We’re continuing our countdown of Stingray’s top 10 episodes with the mighty Titan unleashing his most diabolical scheme ever. Enraged at the loss of his slave girl, Marina, Titan reveals a masterplan to recapture her, have Troy Tempest as his prisoner and obtain Stingray as his royal yacht!
“My plan cannot fail!”
As we’ve previously explored in Titan Goes Pop, underwater despot Titan is a villain capable of delivering some of Stingray‘s most wonderfully comedic moments. His Laurel & Hardy-esque relationship with surface agent X-20 gives him a level of absurdity that’s not immediately found in other Supermarionation villains. He arguably lacks the sustained terror of the Hood or the Mysterons, and is more in tune with Supercar‘s Masterspy.
However, The Master Plan is a stimulating reminder that Titan can still be a villain of cunning and menace. When untethered by X-20’s haplessness, the mighty Titan proves to be a force to be reckoned with, but will his cunning enough to outsmart the WASPs?
Intelligent storytelling
The Master Plan is one of Stingray‘s sharply written storylines. There’s no quietly prolonged tension (The Ghost Ship) or outrageous celebrity hijinks here (Titan Goes Pop). The Master Plan is a classic example of Alan Fennell’s invigorating, action-driven storytelling, pulsating from scene to scene with all the narrative fat trimmed around the edges. In production order and viewing order, the episode comes from later in Stingray‘s run, adding to the sense of well-earned momentum in its placement.
The passage of time implied by the episode’s strategic placement later on in Stingray‘s run adds to the justified out-of-the-box thinking when Titan devises his plan to recapture Marina from the WASPs. The episode’s opening scenes of Titan confounded as to why the underwater civilisations that he’s conquered are refusing to renew their treaties is a welcome slice of worldbuilding, a seen-but-not-heard hint at Titan’s underwater empire. Fennell embraced this further in the pages of both Stingray‘s TV Century 21 comic strip and the Marina, Girl of the Sea prequel in Lady Penelope, which gave greater insight into Titan’s iron rule. From this dwindling of his influence, he realises that the only way to regain the terrified respect of his conquered states is to recapture his former slave girl.
The episode balances intelligent, action-propelled adventure and delicate melodrama. Titan’s plan involves poisoning Troy Tempest so that he may exchange the antidote, which is in his possession, for Marina to return to his kingdom. Smartly, the episode keeps you guessing with just how far the repercussions of Titan’s actions ripple – and just how far in advance Titan has planned for all the possible moves the WASPs are likely to make. It’s a welcome acknowledgement that Stingray clearly has the sophisticated storytelling chops to pull off a story that never loses its thrilling pace and keeps the dramatic stakes high.
Unexpected character growth
The meat of Titan’s plan is to acquire Marina, who he banks on evading the WASPs and willingly returning to Titanica. When she does, Titan keeps his end of the bargain by supplying the WASPs with the antidote to save Troy, much to everyone’s surprise! It’s a welcome nudge of a deeper personality shining through that Titan isn’t as utterly cruel as he may appear. However, even at this late stage, with Marina back in his grasp and Troy fully recovered, his master plan continues to unfold.
Titan maintains his forward-thinking right until the climactic battle that ensues in Titanica when a recovered Troy inevitably attempts to break into Titan’s palace to rescue Marina. Titan has prepared for this eventuality, but not in the way Troy and Phones infiltrate Titanica. The pair have set their own master plan into operation, lending a satisfying twist in the tale that punctures Titan’s confidence. In classic Titan style, his ego overpowers his cleverness. The launch of the Mechanical Fish from Stingray’s pen, piloted by Troy and Phones, is a sublime visual gag. Even in this most straight-faced of stories, Stingray knew how to maintain its sense of humour.
The gun battle and ensuing escape within the halls of Titanica is a riotous near-finish. Oddly enough, the gun props used by Troy and Phones aren’t the standard issue WASP sidearms. These larger, bulkier looking guns were likely used as a deliberate variant to allow for some convincing puppet-sized pyrotechnics, which the regular WASP sidearms were rarely used for. The Master Plan saves its final and greatest twist until the very end. Troy and Phones are unable to outrun Titan’s forces in their slowly lumbering Mechanical Fish, but rather than face a violent defeat, Stingray bursts to the rescue with Commander Shore at the controls. The episode cleverly bookends itself with more subtle nudges of worldbuilding by greatly hinting that Shore at one time piloted Stingray. From beginning to end, The Master Plan pulls all the right punches.
Meticulously edited
With compelling character dynamics and full-throttle action packaged within an economic script that never overbalances between the two, The Master Plan is one of Stingray‘s most captivatingly assured episodes. Titan is in terrific form throughout – from the conjuring of his masterful scheme against the WASPs to the satisfying fallout of his best-laid plans, every aspect of his villainy is locked in tight with this episode. Lois Maxwell is an underrated star of the episode, adding a dash of melodrama when all appears lost for the infected Troy, while Marina’s choice to abandon the WASPs if it means saving Troy highlights that for all her muteness, she still carries agency and independence. It’s Titan, of all people, who reminds us that she “has a mind of her own.”
Fennell’s script deftly dovetails from scene to scene with a rapid-fire pace that translates effortlessly to the screen in the hands of director John Kelly and editor Eric Pask, a relatively unsung hero of AP Films/Century 21 Productions, but whose editorial contributions to Stingray and Fireball XL5 were vital. He and so many other editors who worked on these series can be considered their secret weapons. The pitch-perfect pacing of these series highlight their spectacular filmmaking quality (and the fact that this was where Gerry Anderson himself started out in the filmmaking world). Episodes like The Master Plan, with its well-tuned balance of adventure, mystery, tragedy, tension, romance and revenge, captures what a thrillingly multi-faceted series Stingray is capable of being.
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