Stingray Episode 3 Tele-Snaps

64 Tele-Snaps for Episode 3 of Stingray, "Sea of Oil".


-SYNOPSIS-


"Engineer Preston supervises a drilling operation on an oil rig, but is wary as, several months previously, two rigs in the same field of operations tore themselves apart as they made contact with the ocean floor. Sure enough, just a few minutes after making contact with the sea bed, the rig begins to crumble, but Preston and his fellow riggers manage to escape in time.

Soon after, he travels to Marineville and seeks the aid of Stingray to supervise operations on a fourth rig in the same area, one that Preston is once again in charge of. Atlanta travels with Troy, Phones and Marina on the trip to act as Stingray's surface base on the rig itself while the Stingray crew supervises the drilling from below.

As the drill makes contact, Phones picks up a signal on his headset, indicating that another craft is in the area. Troy assumes it's sonar from the drill, and Phones agrees, but there is in fact another craft nearby, operated by Bitumites Nefir and Gerit, who assume the drilling operations are a deliberate attack on their underwater city. As Stingray surfaces, Gerit successfully plants a sticker bomb on the the side of Stingray, meaning it'll explode the next time they submerge.

That night, Gerit boards Stingray and kidnaps Atlanta. Marina witnesses this and follows Gerit's craft to an underwater entrance. She alerts Troy and Phones, who immediately make preparations to rescue her.

Meanwhile, Atlanta is taken before Nefir, where she explains that the rigs were seeking oil and that they didn't mean to cause any harm. Nefir realizes his attacks on the previous rigs was a mistake and proposes to give the oil to Preston, but Gerit, racked with guilt, remembers the sticker bomb, and Atlanta is devastated as one of their computers picks up the bomb's detonation.

However, Stingray successfully evaded destruction thanks to Troy and Phones being alerted of the bomb's presence by a seal cub they had encountered the previous day. Amazed that the seal evaded the explosion, Marina decides to adopt him.

Atlanta is relieved when she realizes Stingray is safe, but Nefir fears that, due to Atlanta's kidnapping, Troy will take aggressive action and attack the city. Atlanta volunteers to join Gerit in the underwater craft in the hopes of stopping them, but once they're aboard, Gerit admits the radios work on a different frequency, and there's no way of contacting them directly.

As Stingray closes in to shoot the craft, Atlanta manages to give off a distress code by tampering with the motors of Gerit's craft. Phones hears it just as the Sting Missile is fired, and warns Troy in time for the missile to be detonated by remote control.

Later, Nefir apologizes to the Stingray crew for what has happened, and proves his good will by bombarding Preston's rig with all the oil he could wish for."


-NOTES-

This is an interesting episode, as it's one of a limited number where the underwater creatures encountered by the Stingray Crew are NOT hostile. Their "villainous" actions are merely due to a misunderstanding which is wrapped up very quickly after their introduction, something that rarely happens on TV these days.

Incidentally, just before Thunderbirds and other shows started airing on TV again in 2000, there was a special Sci-Fi Weekender on TV where they showcased loads of science fiction movies, as well as a Thunderbirds documentary called "Mr. Thunderbird". Earlier in the day they screened an episode of Stingray, which just so happened to be this one. I enjoyed it when I was 10, and I enjoy it now.