TV Century 21 Stingray Special
Published May 1965

Story One: Barracuda 5
Writer: Unknown.
Illustrated with photos. 4 pages, b/w.
'I'm sorry, Tom - but there's no hope for your brother.'
Lieutenant Tom Sands is informed by Commander Shore of the loss of the Barracuda 4 patrol sub, of which Sands' younger brother served, with all hands. The lieutenant is certain Titan was responsible, and swears revenge, but Shore confines him to Marineville until further notice. Stingray has been investigating the wreckage for information but before it returns, Sands fights with his hydrophone operator Jack Camp, and steals his sub Barracuda 5. Stingray is launched in pursuit, and after a brief skirmish with a Terror Fish, sights the sub. Sands refuses to heave to, so Troy tells Phones to bring Stingray alongside Barracuda 5 in an attempt to cross vessels as they race under the sea at 450 knots. As Troy hauls himself into the airlock, he notices a hairline crack in the hull, and tries to persuade Sands that Barracuda 4 was destroyed the same way - the ships are old and fatigued. At the last minute, Sands realises Troy is telling the truth, and the sub is saved - but his own career is finished with a court martial.

Chapters:
Sands Hits Out
Revenge
In Pursuit
Now Or Never
The End Of An Aquanaut

Reprinted:
This story has not been reprinted.

Notes:
• A somewhat bitter tale, with no real happy ending.


Strip One: Double Trap
Writer: Alan Fennell (?). Artist: Ron Turner. 4 pages, colour & b/w.

Dr. Francis Holbien, eminent marine biologist, long ago forsook the terrain and took up residence in a house beneath the sea. In his twenty years as an inhabitant of the sea, Dr Holbien has collected every conceivable item of marine flora and fauna...
Holbien also has a full size working model of Stingray, but desires the real thing. Troy Tempest is off-duty, and has received a mascot doll in the mail, but Commander Shore decides he should investigate Dr Holbien's important discovery. Ten minutes later, Stingray is launched and, picking up Holbien from his home, follows his directions. On the sea-bed is another Stingray, but before the crew can react, Holbien uses gas to stun them. When they revive, Holbien has gone - and so has Troy's mascot! Troy believes they are no longer in the real Stingray, and finds a bomb. Defusing it, they use the replica to reach Holbien's undersea house, and wait for him to return to its pen. Manoeuvring their replica into the pen, Troy makes some alterations and switches back the craft. Unable to resist another spin in his new acquisition, Holbien takes to the controls of 'Stingray', only to have it blow up under him! Left floating with just the steering wheel, he decides he probably does not want the sub anyway, and sends an apology to Troy.

Reprinted:
The New Thunderbirds issue 72

Notes:
• Elements of the story (a scientist living on the sa-bed, and a duplicate Stingray) are similar to the episode 'Trapped In The Depths', suggesting Alan Fennell as probable author.
• The sending of the mascot doll suggests Troy Tempest is a well-known figure, and gets fan mail - from the readers of TV Century 21 perhaps?
• You can almost imagine the scene of the defeated Holbien holding the steering wheel (left) being accompnied by the comedy 'waah-waah-waah' music...
• The colour spread uses photo inserts like the first twenty parts of the regular Stingray strip.


Story Two: Ship Of The Desert
Writer: Alan Fennell (?). Illustrated with photos. 4 pages, b/w.
When Commander Shore decided to release El Hudat from Marineville's prison, he did not know what trouble the ex-ruler of Bahrainia would cause and the dangers Troy Tempest and Phones would experience.
Ali Khali has already been set free, but when El Hudat and Abu are escorted from Marineville, the fat ruler knocks out the guards and makes for the Stand-By Lounge. From there, he and Abu succeed in stealing Stingray. Troy and Phones are despatched to command a World Security Patrol sub and follow, but El Hudat decides to hide Stingray in the desert, and steals a US Army transporter to do so. The Army are quick to pursue in a jetcopter but El Hudat shoots it down. In a second jetcopter, Troy tracks the transporter to a pyramid and oasis where El Hudat had planned to hide out, and the ruler is handed over to the US Army to face charges.

Chapters:
Live In Luxury
Escape
Angry Shore
Rocket Gun
Roaring Flames
Left Or Right

Reprinted:
This story has not been reprinted.

Notes:
• This is a sequel to the Stingray television episodes 'Star of the East' and 'Eastern Eclipse'. With the special on sale from May, this would have been only two months after the initial airing of 'Eastern Eclipse' in the ATV Midlands region.
• Interestingly, El Hudat's country is referred to as 'Bahrainia' (Bahrain being a real island state off the coast of Saudi Arabia) instead of 'Hudatvia', as seen in the episode 'Eastern Eclipse' .
• Some photos illustrating the story appear specially posed, using the desert set and US Army helicopter from the Thunderbirds episode 'Pit of Peril', and the land trailer used to transport Stingray in the episode 'In Search of the Tajmanon'.


Strip Two: The Big Freeze
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ron Embleton. 4 pages, colour & b/w.

The robot controlled cargo liner, Northern Star, heads for New York...
But from an innocent looking iceberg, aliens Walric and Sealain use their Icemascope to encase the vessel in a heavy frozen tomb that sends it to the bottom of the ocean. Now they can join their underwater allies and conquer the terrain. Three months later, and ice in June has everyone baffled. Troy believes this is no trick of nature, and is sent by Commander Shore to investigate his hunch. The centre of the freeze-up is Iceland, but as Stingray patrols the area, they are detected by the iceberg men. They warn the Atlanises, who launch two vessels to intercept. One is destroyed by sting missiles, abd the other leads Stingray to the iceberg base. Believing the base must contain the freezer, Troy fires sting missiles into the cavern, destroying the second ship and hitting the fuel store. The entire base explodes, and a week later, the weather has returned to a normal heatwave.

Reprinted:
Stingray Monthly issue 6

Notes:
• It has to be speculated that the Atlantises had already been encountered by the WASPs, and were known to be hostile, otherwise Troy's pre-emptive attack on their ships seems a little bloodthirsty.
• The concept of undersea aliens causing a worldwide freezing is similar to the episode 'Pink Ice', again suggesting Alan Fennell as probable author.

TV Century 21 Summer Extra
Published July 1965

Stingray
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ron Embleton. 4 pages, colour & b/w.
In his palace at the underwater city of Titanica, Titan is brought a new device...

The aquaphibian scientist explains it will render all radio waves and instruments useless, and so when Surface Agent X20 reports Stingray on patrol, Titan sends out a Terror Fish. This is a decoy to distract attention away from two Aquaphibians hiding nearby, who fire the instrument jamming device onto Stingray's hull. Unable to detect the two creatures as they cling to the hull, Troy and Phones are forced to return to base to check the electronics failure. The aquaphibians are given passage right into Marineville, where a second device puts the control and detector systems out of action. Discovering this, Troy and Phones realise Stingray must have something to do with it, and find the first device on the sub's hull. After seeing the other jammer on the pen roof, they see the aquaphibians swimming towards the ocean tunnel. A brief fight settles the matter, and Troy spots the mine. With seconds to spare, Stingray is launched to eject the mine out at sea.

Reprinted:
Stingray Monthly issue 7 as Aquaphibian Attack

Notes:
• TBC

TV Century 21 International Extra
Published October 1965

Stingray
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Roland Davies (?). 5 pages, b/w.
Marineville's tracking stations report tremendous activity around Titanica. Stingray speeds on her way to investigate. From a safe distance Troy, Phones and Marina watch as a vast armada of mechanical fish leave the city.

The armada is led by Titan's own Terror Fish, and after reporting to Marineville, Stingray follows them as they dive into a deep, vast cave. Troy and Marina take aquasprites to follow, leaving Phones on Stingray, and emerge in a vast cavern lake. There are no guards, but when Marina sees some strange symbols on the wall, she reacts with fear. Before they can leave, Troy is shot by Aquaphibians and both are captured. Phones is concerned when Troy's message is cut short, and dons diving gear to investigate. Marina and the unconscious Troy are brought before Titan in the Temple of Teufel, where he decrees she is to be a sacrifice. As a terrainean, the recovering Troy cannot be sacrificed in the festival but will be forced to watch and fed to 'the soldiers of Teufel' - sharks - afterwards. Hung in a huge net in the tunnel below, Troy is found by Phones as Titan prepares, and the two plan to rescue Marina. As she is thrown down the tunnel, the aquanauts use the net to catch her. Titan spots them, and the Stingray crew flee into the tunnels pursued by Aquaphibians. A hydromic grenade brings the cave roofs down on top of them, and the Troy, Phones and Marina escape.

Reprinted:
The New Thunderbirds issue 70

Notes:
• Either the writer or artist confuses the sea-bugs with the aquasprites. The script refers to aquasprites but sea-bugs are illustrated.
• According to Troy, he is shot with a paralysing ray - a weapon we never the Aquaphibians use in the television series.


Story: Door Of Danger
Writer: Unknown.
Artist: Ron Embleton.
3 pages, colour & b/w.
Two men in underwater gear slip beneath the ocean waves and attach devices to an egg-shaped opening in the submerged cliff face, but upon surfacing, they are challenged and shot. Lieutenant Knowles reports the incident to Commander Shore, who is concerned nothing is known about the intruders - they could have been saboteurs, or just innocent swimmers. Stingray returns from patrol and requests permission to enter the ocean door but Shore makes him wait. When nothing happens after thirty minutes, the sub is allowed to proceed - then the tip of the prow glows red, and the front is sliced off! Troy and Phones only survive due to the quick actions of Marina...
A bedraggled crew of Stingray report to Shore, and Troy offers the opinion this was not the work of Titan, but possibly other countries who would like to see the World President dead - the sub was due to give protection to him tomorrow when he reviews the fleet. The next day, as Stingray is lifted from the sea-bed, the WASP 1st Fleet anchors off shore for inspection by the World President, from his luxury hovercruiser Unity One. Troy is monitoring signals from the patrolling aquanauts at a portable console on board Unity One, including Lt. Knowles, who spots a Bereznik B29 submarine nosing into the area from the cover of rocks on the sea-bed. Armed with a slender weapon, Knowles aims it at the sub, and Troy activates it from his console. A meter increases from 12,000 decibels, to 17,000, then 24,000. Suddenly, rivets pop on the sub's hull, and it blows apart, completely destroyed. Later, Troy, Phones, Commander Shore and Knowles are waiting for Atlanta and Marina. Knowles wants to know why a warhead was not used, but if they had, the B29's own atomic torpedoes would have exploded, wiping out half the fleet, six hundred divers and possibly the President too. The weapon increased a tone ten thousand times, shattering the sub like a singer breaking a glass. Atlanta and Marina are ready, and the six head off to dinner with the World President.

Chapters:
The Sinking Of Stingray
World President In Peril
The B29
Dinner For Six

Reprinted:
The New Thunderbirds issue 75 (see Notes)

Notes:
• There are three hundred ships in the WASP 1st Fleet, ranging from the giant three hundred thousand ton submarine aircraft carrier Kennedy, to the tiny sixty thousand ton battleship United Kingdom. This puts modern battleships (the largest to date were the seventy thousand ton Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi) in astonishing perspective to their 21st century counterparts. Submarine aircraft carriers had also been seen in the weekly strip, notably the first story.
• The reprint in The New Thunderbirds is revised, discarding the opening section where two men place the laser box on the ocean door, and replacing it with the destruction of Stingray as an opening hook.
• For the reprint, colour photos from the series replaced the two b/w illustrations (left).
• In the original, Commander Shore is assisted by, and berates, a Lieutenant Knowles, but for the reprint he is replaced by regular character Sub-Lieutenant Fisher, possibly because of the inclusion of a photo showing the characters together.

• In the reprinted version, Troy and Phones are hospitalised for a day by the incident.
• Stingray is referred to as costing eleven million dollars in the original, but this is updated to fifty million.
• While the name of the World President is given as the familiar Nikita Bandranaik for the original, it is omitted for the reprint, as are the references to the Kennedy and United Kingdom.


Stingray
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ron Turner. 7 pages, b/w.
Deep in the Pacific, on the island of Mosoto, three scientists man the experimental survey station GZK420.

Suddenly the great volcanic peak of Mount Moso erupts, and the computer readout indicates the whole island is going to explode. As the scientists are forced to hastily evacuate by helijet, they see the whole area has become a nest of volcanoes like nothing they know. At Marineville, Commander Shore is visited by a group of top geologists led by Professor Gillies. The area around Mosoto is turning into the biggest natural upheaval ever known, and in four hours a hydromic missile attack will hit there - the only way to stop a tidal wave which could devastate the whole Pacific coastline. Stingray's mission is to retrieve the Delta computer the scientists had to leave behind, before the strike. The sub encounters a tremendous underwater shock-wave before surfacing near Mosoto with only an hour to spare. Static electricity is swamping radio signals, and contact with Marineville is lost. Using a hydrocopter, Troy and Phones travel to the base and find the computer, but a tremor rocks the station and a girder falls on Phones' legs. The hydrocopter manages to lift it enough for Phones to get clear before cutting out, and the two men run for their lives as lava starts to flood the area. They are saved by Marina on another hydrocopter. Commander Shore is forced to launch the hydromic missiles even though there is no contact with Stingray... until the sub has cleard the island. Shore orders Troy to dive as deep as possible, as the missiles strike the volcanoes. But Stingray survives, and returns to Marineville by evening with the Delta computer.

Reprinted:
Stingray Monthly issue 8 as The Volcano!

Notes:
• TBC

TV Century 21 Summer Extra
Published July 1966

Tentacles Of Terror
Writer: Unknown.
Artist: Michael Strand. 4 pages, b/w.
Two miles south of the 38th Parallel in the Pacific, World Naval Research engineers prepare to make the final test on their deep ocean drilling device.
But after last minute adjustments are made, and Joe and Marcel descend in the 'Scoop' diving bell, a massive tentacle attacks it. With the radio dead, and too much wight for the cables to retract the 'Scoop', the vessel is forced to release it. Marineville is contacted to launch a rescue mission, and a faint emergency beacon signal leads Stingray to the drill crater on the sea bed. An erratic course of marks in the mud lead to a fantastic cave in the undersea cliff face. But as Troy and Phones find the 'Scoop', Stingray too is attacked by tentacles - belonging to a gigantic octopus! Sting missiles aimed at the eyes make the creature release the sub, and grabbing the diving bell it heads past another huge octopus. Once clear on the surface, and with the bell returned to the vessel, Stingray uses more missiles to close the cave mouth forever.

Reprinted:
Stingray Monthly issue 8

Notes:
• TBC

OveOverall I feel the first year of Stingray was a great success. Although many of the strips have very simplistic stories that always seem to end with Stingray simply blowing everything up, they remained faithful to the series. The stories really do feel like an extension of the events seen on television and are all the more enjoyable for that.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like to thank:
Ronald Kroon
amd Graeme Walker
- for his help with this feature.

Version 1.1 - 01.01.06


Any comments or notes about any of the strips, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.

All text © The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History, and its respective writers, and may not be reproduced without permission.
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