More Stingray today. Disc 3 has 8 episodes and they were originally broadcast at various times in 1964 and 1965.
Stand by for Action Agent X-2-Zero disguises himself as Mr Goggleheimer, a film director, so he can get into Marineville and kill Troy Tempest. They cast everyone in the WASP crew to play themselves except for Troy whom they replace with Johnny Swoonara. The movie star has so much charisma that the women pass out when they just say his name. Troy's kind of pissed off about the whole thing. Johnny turns out to be a big baby when Agent X-2-Zero attacks the Stingray. Troy comes to the rescue.
There's a nice commentary with Gerry Anderson on this episode. Like so many of the people that made the Supermarionation programs and did commentaries on the episodes he hadn't seen the episode in years. He watched it before the commentary was recorded and liked it. He thought that there was a lot of funny material. The producer of the movie is based on a New York producer that carried Anderson's programs in the US. The Johnny Swoonara puppet is a redressed Steve Zodiac puppet. Steve was from Fireball XL5. He tells a story about a set dresser who got arrested gathering branches for trees from a protected area. He almost went to jail but the lawyers got him off.
The Disappearing Ships Troy and Phones are part of a plan to sink some obsolete ships in the ocean to get rid of them. Instead of being there when the ships go down they send them to their location with an auto pilot where they are supposed to blow up and sink. They sink ahead of time and Troy and Phones go investigate. If only they had thought to keep a real eye out for them. Turns out that the ships have been taken by yet another undersea community who have taken the ships to rehabbed as additional living space. Now they've got ticking time bombs in their town. Will Troy save them? Just barely.
The Man from the Navy The Stingray crew are testing a new undersea missile for the Navy. It's so good that the Stingray can't outrun it in the test. Agent X-2-Zero finds out about the missile and his boss, Titan of Titanica, wants to steal it. Troy acts like a big baby at a party for the handsome World Navy man who brags about the Navy. On the last test Troy wants to put the World Navy man in his place. In the World Navy ship men from Titanica have taken over and substituted a live missile for the test. Oh, oh, huh! Lucky for Stingray Troy is a good pilot.
Marineville Traitor Someone steals the new hydraprobe from WASP. The commander thinks they have a traitor on the base and it turns out to be him. He passes a recorded message of him talking to someone else as a joke. Then the Commander is knocked out and some plans are stolen. Troy investigates, catches the Commander in the act of radioing his contact, and locks him up. It was all part of a plan to catch the read traitor.
Tom Thumb Tempest Troy has a dream in which the Stingray and crew are on a mission. They somehow get reduced in size and placed in an aquarium in a room. The table is set for dinner and the place cards have names of their past villains. They find defense plans for Marineville. They light them on fire and it starts the room on fire. Troy wakes up before the Stingray gets boiled in the aquarium.
Pink Ice The Atlantic gets covered over with a sheet of pink ice. The Stingray goes to investigate.
The Master Plan Titan poisons Troy Tempest and he'll give him the antidote if Marina comes back as his slave. She runs off and
Star of the East Big fat potentate El Hudat looses his country to his brother. He baselessly accuses WASP for being behind the coup. He kidnaps Marina and Troy has to go after her. El Hudat has a powerful gunboat which proves to be no match for Stingray.
Another bunch of episodes of about the same quality as the last batch. Maybe the stories are a bit better but there are still some goofy things that make me wonder what they were thinking. Perhaps they dumbed them down for kids a bit more than needed. I'm still thinking that Supercar still has my favorite characters of the three series I've seen so far. There are still 2 more discs to go, then it's onto Thunderbirds.