Stingray 60th anniversary "epic" looking to 'reinvigorate interest' in classic series
Deadly Uprising could be the first in a series of multi-platform stories exploring the worlds of classic Gerry Anderson shows.
This year marks an incredible six decades since the aquatic adventures of Stingray were first broadcast – and an epic new story billed as a "multi-platform saga" is aiming to lure in fans both old and new.
Stingray: Deadly Uprising – inspired by the ITV TV series that originally aired between 1964 and 1965 – will unfold across audiobooks, novellas, comic strips and even a live, full-cast performance.
Though each release is designed to be enjoyed individually, they will also form part of a larger narrative, as Jamie Anderson – head of Anderson Entertainment and son of Stingray co-creator Gerry Anderson – explains: "It is epic in scale, but purposefully small in terms of the number of volumes in the saga – there's enough story in each one that they work standalone.
"The hope is they reinvigorate people's interest in Stingray, so you get old fans who come back to it who have watched the same set of episodes repeatedly for the last few decades."
Deadly Uprising forms part of a new licence agreement with ITV Studios which allows Anderson Entertainment to tell new stories set within original timeline of classic Gerry Anderson shows. The kick-off event, Deadly Concerto, will form part of the Stand by for Action 2! concert, to be held at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on Saturday 13th July.
This will be followed by a series of novellas/audiobooks and comic anthologies – released between July and November – in which cunning villain Titan will launch his most daring plot yet against Troy Tempest and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), forging alliances with sinister undersea races.
Read on for more details about the individual stories making up Stingray: Deadly Uprising:
Our adventure kicks off on stage with Deadly Concerto, a live performance to be held at Anderson Entertainment’s Stand by for Action 2! concert, where Titan discovers a new alliance and the secrets of a lost race.
Using their musical abilities to control creatures and people, they pose a new threat. Marina's unique connection might just be the key to thwarting this dangerous power play.
2. The Titanican Strategem – Novella & Audiobook #1
In Chris Dale’s novel, a daring raid on Marineville is merely the first stage in an audacious scheme by Titan to achieve final victory over the terraneans! The undersea despot is hunting for new allies – but has he made a fatal mistake with the first recruits to his cause?
As the Stingray crew deals with the fallout of Titan’s latest scheme, the team at Marineville – including new arrival Lieutenant Sara Coral – embarks on a rescue mission to save them, but some old enemies are planning to end the war between Marineville and Titanica – with the obliteration of both sides!
3. Tales From The Depths – Comic Anthology Volume One
This anthology combines TV Century 21 classics with five brand-new stories, introducing different undersea races and escalating tensions.
From jailbreaks to new alliances, each tale pushes Stingray's crew closer to Titan's trap, culminating in a cliffhanger that sets the stage for an all-out conflict.
4. Project Orca – Novella & Audiobook #2
In the aftermath, with Stingray damaged, Bob Ayres's novella unveils the theft of a new piece of technology – part of X20's desperate bid to regain favour with Titan. The theft sets off a chain of events that pit the repaired Stingray against an overwhelming alliance.
5. Battle Lines – Comic Anthology Volume Two
The saga concludes in this anthology, combining additional classic comic strip adventures with five more brand-new stories where desperate measures lead to alliances both made and broken.
As Titan's forces launch a decisive assault on Marineville turning the terraneans' might against them, it's up to Stingray and newfound allies to defend their home.
The hope is to follow up this ambitious storytelling venture with similar outings for other beloved Anderson series, including the likes of the iconic Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, UFO and Space: 1999.
"Everything that we do with ITV now in terms of creating new stories, it all lives within what we're calling the 'walled garden' of the classic series," says Jamie Anderson. "We're not here to do sequels or prequels, or rewrite history – every story lives within the original series, so it's canon.
"Deadly Uprising is a template potentially for future anniversary years for the [other] shows. There's definitely more to come."
The desire is that by telling new stories within the worlds of these classic series, they'll find a new and younger audience as well as provide entertainment for lifelong fans.
"I was at a wedding last weekend and my other half's cousin was telling me that he had introduced his four and six-year-old boys to classic Thunderbirds," Jamie says. "So the fact that these things are accessible on various platforms all over the place all over the world is great, because people are finding them.
"But there's something about it which feels slightly uncoordinated. We're not getting the opportunity to say to the country, let alone to the world, that 'Thunderbirds in HD is appearing globally from this date' – it's harder to get that momentum.
"That's a bit of a legacy hangover from licensing and distribution deals that have been done in the last five to 10 years – and the landscape has changed so quickly that those deals haven't really kept up.
"So I'm hoping maybe for next year with Thunderbirds' 60th anniversary and Space: 1999's 50th that there's an opportunity to do something a bit more globally coordinated – there's still potential, it just has to be tapped into and coordinated."
Jamie believes that "if they had enough exposure and were out there in a coordinated enough way", then there's a good chance that the "timeless, retro-futuristic coolness" of his father's works would be embraced by Gen Z.
"There's just nothing quite like them – the positivity and the aspiration and the utopian futures... even with the retro '60s quirks, there's something appealing and escapist about them. So we'll continue working to make sure that the the next generations find them somehow."
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Stand by for Action! 2: Tunes of Danger is at Birmingham Symphony Hall on 13th July. Tickets available from bmusic - for more information about the Stingray novellas and comics anthologies, visit gerryanderson.com/stingray.
Authors
Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.
