| "Plant of Doom" | |||
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| Stingray episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 34 |
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| Directed by | David Elliott | ||
| Written by | Alan Fennell | ||
| Production code | 2 | ||
| Original air date | 23 May 1965 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Stingray episodes | |||
"Plant of Doom" is the 34th episode of Supermarionation television series Stingray. It was originally aired on 23 May 1965. It was written by Alan Fennell and was directed by David Elliott.
Contents |
Still outraged that his slave Marina assisted Troy and Phones in their escape from Titanica, Titan plots his revenge by ordering surface agent X-2-Zero to deliver a plant that consumes the atmosphere to her father Aphony, at Pacifica.
Titan is still enraged by the fact that Marina helped Troy and Phones to escape from Titanica, so he consults the fish god Teufel for advice on how to get revenge on his enemies.
Teufel opens his mouth and a beautiful plant appears. Titan notes that the perfume is one he has never experienced before. Howeverhe soon begins to choke as the plant consumes the atmosphere around it.
At Marineville, after witnessing her crying, Troy realises that Marina is feeling homesick. So with Commander Shore's permission, he Phones and Marina set sail for Pacifica to see her father Aphony.
Titan has surface agent X-2-Zero take the plant in a jar to Pacifica, ahead of Stingray. When the crew arrive they are treated to a lush meal and Marina has a look at the plant. Though she puts the cover back on before the plant takes effect.
After the meal, Marina decides to remain with her father, and Troy and Phones return to Marineville. However, on the return journey, they hear a noise at the hull, which is Marina carrying the plant.
On her return to Marineville, Marina gives the plant to Atlanta as a present. Later, in her quarters, whilst playing the piano, Atlanta becomes affected by the plant, but Troy rescues her just in time.
To test Marina's loyalty, she is called to Atlanta's quarters with the plant still present. However she does not know that the plant will hurt her as she stays in the room, thus confirming she is still on the side of the WASPs.
Alan Fennell’s original script was written before principle photography begun, because of this the script features a heavy amount of detail, which did not make it into the final format.[1] Examples of this can be seen by the fact that Stingray it’s self is written as “Sting Ray”."[1] The script is actually longer than the standard 25 minute length and good well easily been recorded as a 50 minute episode."[1] Notably the script originally features a lot of scenes to help keep the romantic triangle between the three main characters."[1] The script also hinted at the possibility that Phones also fancied Marina."[1] It also shows the way in which Surface Agent X-2-0 get’s from the Island of Lemoy to Titanica."[1]
During filming director David Elliot did not always follow certain shots that Fennell had written into the script. Where many scenes had complicated tracking shots, Elliot simplifies them with establishing shots."[1]
Plant Of Doom is notorious for it’s place in the original ITC Broadcast order and it’s continuity place in the series. The episodes marks the first appearance of Aphony, Marina’s father, and shows that the other characters know little about Marina. Aphony himself reappears in the episode Tune Of Danger, which was broadcasted before this episode. For continuity purposes this story should have been left as the second episode to be broadcast, but was unfortunately moved to being 34th (7th to last episode) to be aired.[2] ITV commonly changes the broadcast order to many of its series, because ratings for shows drop during the middle. So they like to have the strongest episodes at the beginning and end, with the weaker episodes in the middle. This must have meant they thought Plant Of Doom was a good episode, and thus should have been left a number 2.[3]
Vincent Law, in Andersonic issue 8, states that Plant of Doom breaks the typical module of a Stingray episode, “The episodes are written as straightforward adventures, the heroes’ journey taking precedence over their needs (Plant of Doom is a possible exception to this.)" [4]