My favourite Gerry Anderson episodes – A Christmas to Remember (Stingray)

I recently guested on a Gerry Anderson podcast called Keep and Destroy, where fans of his shows discuss their favourite episodes and critique (for want of a better word) some of the others.

As today is International Gerry Anderson Day, I thought I would publish some of my notes from the podcast, going into a bit more detail about some of the best episodes.

Narrowing it down to just five was, of course, really difficult, as there are possibly hundreds of entries I could have made. So, if any of your favourites don’t appear, try not to shoot the messenger!

My favourite episodes:

• Dragon’s Domain (Space: 1999)
• Sun Probe (Thunderbirds)
• A Christmas to Remember (Stingray)
• Survival (UFO)
• Avalanche (Captain Scarlet)

A Christmas to Remember

For me, this episode of Stingray is quintessential Supermarionation. It features a masterful blend of the cosy, almost twee, elements of a contemporary children’s show with the sinister, more suspenseful drama that Gerry always wanted to make.

The transitions from the warm, family-friendly scenes and the unnerving ones are executed seamlessly. We go from the action of the opening chase to an emotional string-pulling scene with Barry and Marineville enjoying a White Christmas. 

About half-way through the episode we have an almost romantic scene between Troy and Atlanta given some tension when they wonder if the missing villain has been creeping around Marineville, maybe even outside their door. We get one of Barry Gray’s excellent atmospheric pieces playing over the figure at the door, only for it to be Phones dressed as Santa Clause. But minutes later, we’re back inside the enemy ship with Phones held captive.

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The mysterious episodes of Stingray were always my favourite. This was a show that excelled in creating a sense of wonder in the viewer with the unknowns of the deep. The unique design for the interior of the alien craft adds to that and, of course, there is something so compelling to the human mind about an empty shop, a Marie Celeste. Stingray uses this trope (one of my favourites in TV, film and books) a number of times, usually successfully, and I even came close to selecting Ghost of the Sea, The Lighthouse Dwellers or The Ghost Ship as my Stingray episode for this reason.

But I went for A Christmas to Remember because it delivers the suspense in a more unique way than we see in some of those other episodes.

It starts with something we never get to see in any other Stingray instalment: narration. This adds to the sense of wonder in the viewer because there is a slight disconnect from the here and now. 

But we also get to see something else we never usually enjoy which is a Point-of-View narration from Troy, describing what it feels like to pilot Stingray in a battle and, of course, shows other areas of his shameless nature when he exaggerates the reason for hurting his arm.

The other reason why this episode deserves praise is because it pulls off not one, but two stock episodes that are usually less successful in the Gerry Anderson universe: kid episodes and Christmas specials. Security Hazard (Thunderbirds), Cry Wolf (Thunderbirds) and even Alpha Child (Space: 1999) are among the less impressive Anderson offerings but A Christmas to Remember is an effective piece of drama with a relatable child character in Barry Byrne.

I first watched this episode when I was about five or six, a little bit younger than Barry. I was introduced to all the classic Gerry Anderson shows when I was that age but Stingray was my favourite. I imagine A Christmas to Remember might have been one of the reasons why. Like Barry, I had a Marineville set and toy Stingray – and I wanted to be Troy Tempest. I used to pretend my brother and Dad were Phones and Commander Shore when we went swimming. And now, introducing the Anderson shows to my own children, they have a similar affinity for anything with kids in. Their favourite episode of Mr Bean is “the baby one”, for example, and they love things like Home Alone and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

So, throwing Barry into the action makes this episode even more accessible for its target audience but his connection with the main cast makes more sense than in Security Hazard or Cry Wolf from Thunderbirds or the episode of Fireball XL5 where Commander Zero’s son accidentally flies the ship. In this case, the kid is the orphaned son of a late WASP officer so it makes sense that Troy and Atlanta would take him under their wing and the premise of bringing him onboard Stingray feels less contrived than telling a little boy all the secrets of International Rescue!