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Stingray Deep Dives #5: The Ghost Ship

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 surreal emergence of a ghostly galleon that’s targeting terranean vessels. Even stranger is that Commander Shore decides to join the Stingray crew on its investigations into the galleon’s attacks! What mysteries does this phantom craft hold for our heroes?

“It’s a galleon! An old fashioned sailing ship!”

The Ghost Ship offers quietly surreal visuals.

From real-world mysteries to nautical folklore, the oceans are awash in stories of the strange, uncanny and downright unexplainable. The Subterranean Sea strengthens Stingray’s underwater sci-fi credentials with its Journey to the Centre of the Earth vibes, but The Ghost Ship looks towards more real-world oceanic mysteries for inspiration. In what is essentially Stingray‘s take on the mystery of the Mary Celeste, Stingray intercepts a seemingly haunted galleon that’s responsible for destroying a passenger liner. The mysteries held within the brigantine soon turn violent when Commander Shore and Lieutenant Phones are captured by the vessel’s subterranean pilot and held at ransom in exchange for the capture of Troy Tempest.

Stingray would dabble in ghostly apparitions and old sea legends only once more in the series with the comedic and light-hearted The Loch Ness Monster. With its eerily surreal imagery and power play clash between Troy Tempest and Commander Shore, The Ghost Ship is the more commanding of the two episodes, playing its aquatic wraith-like vibes with a straight face. The episode’s opening gambit of the titular ghost galleon silently rising to the surface from the ocean bed is unsettling to witness, and the off-screen destruction of the jetliner Arcadia, sunk with all hands, is a remarkably high body count for the series. It’s one of Stingray’s boldest statements to open an episode with, helped by the fact that ghost-themed stories weren’t overexposed during the series’ run, and these much earlier episodes firmly embraced an stern, underwater Cold War thematic anchoring.

Alien Paranoias & Human Powerplays

Commander Shore’s involvement is a welcome change of pace.

The ghostly galleon itself is very much the visual centrepiece of the episode. The Stingray crew’s discovery and subsequent exploration of the fog-shrouded craft bristle with slow-burn confidence, drawing the viewer into this haunted place. The flash and sparkle of Anderson-flavoured retrofuture technology is entirely stripped back, placing our heroes in the confines of something from a much earlier time. Commander Shore (whose involvement in the episode is an enjoyable oddity, seemingly joining the mission for no other reason than he simply wanted to!) and Phones’ exploration of the seemingly abandoned vessel gives the episode a resoundingly creepy atmosphere, but the twist that the craft is in fact a technologically advanced submersible vehicle and armed with tremendous firepower is thrilling to see unfold.

There’s a sense that the craft is a deceptive play on human paranoia and superstition in order to gain the upper hand in this underwater arms race. It’s also a similar case of subterranean civilisations commandeering manmade ocean technology for their own gains, something seen elsewhere in The Disappearing Ships and any number of passing mentions of Titan’s underwater prison of Aquatraz. The galleon itself is revealed to be controlled by an alien warmonger who curiously isn’t named in the episode, but later reference material dubs him as Idotee.

Stingray tensely waits as the ghost galleon reveals its secrets to Shore and Phones!
Idotee is one of Stingray’s most menacing villains.

Idotee is one of Stingray‘s most menacing villains, certainly not within the bracket of underwater creatures who begin as enemies but depart as friends for the WASPs. It’s rare to see a single villain in Stingray. Usually for underwater creatures, we see a minimum of two to at least paint the illusion of them being a society. Idotee operates as a lone wolf, snaking his vessel through the waters, striking fear before delivering the final deadly blow, a role enhanced by his otherwise nameless status. His motive for Troy Tempest being his real captive and for charging him with undisclosed crimes against the underwater peoples is an intriguing slice of world-building that hints towards Idotee’s wider connections to underwater villains. In whose interests is Idotee operating? Is he avenging fallen comrades who were previously targeted by the WASPs? What kind of reputation does Stingray endure amongst hostile underwater communities? It’s a throwaway line that conjures plenty of possibilities and colours in Stingray’s already kaleidoscopic aquatic world still further.

His manner of execution for the commander and lieutenant is certainly the most violent and sadistic, but it’s oddly countered by Troy’s deceptive means of rescuing his friend and leader. Quite amusingly, for an episode dabbling in scary ghosts and violent imagery, the manner in which Troy saves the day is, deliberately, side-splitting. Even with facing the unfiltered wrath of his commanding officer, Troy disregards the orders given to him to evacuate the area to instead use an experimental air tank procedure, the contents of which can knock an enemy unconscious – through laughing gas! It’s by far the least conventional means of defeating the enemy and lends a surreal, gallows humour to the episode’s climax as Troy manages to kick the time-activated harpoon gun that’s aimed at Shore and Phones out of its line of fire just in time.

“It’s men like you that make me proud to command the World Aquanaut Security Patrol”

“That sure was close!”

Even with its comically odd finale, The Ghost Ship is an exceptionally well-crafted fusion of character drama and atmospheric set pieces. It’s an episode that’s weighted down by drawn-out tensions and stand-offs between not only heroes and villains, but heroes and other heroes, too. Commander Shore’s ultimate solution to Troy’s deliberate neglect of his orders may be a little deflating, but it at least allows the episode to end on a note of triumph. It’s a welcome mood to end on for an episode that features one of Stingray‘s most effectively murderous and deceitful villains.

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Written by
Fred McNamara

Atomic-powered writer/editor. Website editor at Official Gerry Anderson. Author of Flaming Thunderbolts: The Definitive Story of Terrahawks. Also runs Gerry Anderson comic book blog Sequential 21.

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