I am about to write for – Stingray! It’s the 60th anniversary of Gerry Anderson’s super-submarine this year and I’ll be contributing to the new stories celebrating that event in the coming months…
When I was a kid, the shows created by producer Gerry Anderson were a big part of my TV landscape – in theory, they sound like a wild idea, sci-fi adventure tales with casts of puppets, over-the-top explosive action and a plethora of amazing hardware, but there’s a timeless quality to them that never really goes out of style, because it exists in a 1960s-inspired jet age retro future. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, Anderson’s live-action shows UFO and Space: 1999 were my era, but the earlier stuff like the iconic Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and of course Stingray were still a regular fixture on telly. To hear more of me talking about my experiences growing up watching the Anderson-verse, check out this 2-part podcast here and here, hosted by Gerry’s son Jamie.
As noted above, Stingray is 60 years old in 2024; in the show, the crew of the titular atomic submarine (Captain Troy Tempest and sonar operator “Phones” Sheridan) guard the oceans as part of W.A.S.P. – the World Aquanaut Security Patrol – defending the surface world from a rogue’s gallery of undersea troublemakers intent on wreaking havoc.
For Stingray‘s diamond anniversary event, Gerry Anderson Productions are launching a multi-media crossover project called Stingray: Deadly Uprising, which will begin with a live audio drama performance and then spread out over a series of all-new Stingray novellas and comic anthologies. My first contribution to the project is “The Undefeated“, a comic story for Stingray: Tales from the Depths, which will be out in August. One of a pair of comic anthologies, Tales from the Depths will continue the Deadly Uprising narrative with five new stories alongside reprints of the original TV Century 21 Stingray strips (compiled for the first time), to be followed by the Battle Lines collection in November.
For all the details about the Deadly Uprising project, visit the official Anderson website at this link.
