How NOT to make a 1960s British sci-fi puppet show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXSlmZt4qlM

If you ’ve hear people jabber about fifty - year - honest-to-goodness kiddie show like Thunderbirds and could n’t see what all the fuss was about … well , determine this clip from Paul Starr , made by a rival production ship’s company . It ’ll make you appreciate Stingray like never before !

To see what I ’m blab about , watch the first 1:45 of the video up top , taken from the pilot of Paul Starr , which at long last did n’t get an order for a full serial . OK , now take a look at the Stingray introduction :

Even if you ’re not a fan of Stingray or the other Gerry Anderson shows , you ’ve got to allow the difference between these two is absolutely massive . Stingray does n’t look like a plaything in ending - up , it ’s not being obviously overstretch along on drawstring , the sea actually looks like the ocean instead of somebody ’s bathtub , the ocean door really looks like built into the rock font ( and it does n’t have “ UNDER - SEA BASE ” written on it , which has to be considered a plus ) , you may sympathise ( and get to see ) how the characters get in and out of the submarine , and even the hangar itself is full of background details that give the conjuring trick that this is actually a real set and not just a tiny manikin .

Stingray manages to deplume off two hero jumping out of the water one after the other more convincingly than Paul Starr does with … well , with just about anything . And that ’s not even getting into the editing , music , or the puppet themselves , all of which I would contend are well honest on Stingray , though I ’ll include that ’s a bit more subjective .

Now , I do n’t desire to be too harsh on what is , in the final stage , just an unaired fender . And it ’s not like Paul Starr ’s God Almighty , Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis ( both former clientele married person of Gerry Anderson back in the 1950s ) , were n’t capable of creating quality television system . Their previous attack at puppet scientific discipline fiction , the black - and - blanched Space Patrol , ran 39 episodes and is generally considered a dead decent short show .

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But still , there ’s a reason why Paul Starr never went to series , and there ’s a reason why the model team on Stingray ( and all the other Supermarionation show ) ended up run on ocular effects for 2001 : A Space Odyssey , The Empire Strikes Back , and the Alien movies .

I ’ll let in that the works of Gerry Anderson are a bit of a sci - fi obsession of mine , perhaps behind onlyIsaac Asimovand Doctor Who . I ’ll go away a discussion of the relative merits of Supermarionation ( not to mention its absolutely incredible live - action fall out - up UFO ) for another daytime , but I will say this : even if you want to argue that shows like Thunderbirds , Stingray , and Captain Scarlet do n’t abide up today as anything other than model porn , then it ’s the best damn mannikin porn ever made .

I ’ll leave you with the intro to Thunderbirds , which still remains one of my favourite things ever .

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