My first crush was Aqua Marina from Stingray. Voted TV’s hottest marionette in a 1964 viewers’ poll, her beauty and inability to speak, somehow captured my infant heart and by the end of series one, I was in love.
Yes, I knew that she was a puppet and the feelings I had for her were taboo back then; and of course, I realised that I never realistically stood a chance while that handsome bastard, Captain Troy Tempest of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) was sniffing around her, but I didn’t care.
You lucky, lucky man, Troy Tempest!
The painful experience of unrequited love at such a tender age not only taught me to be resilient where matters of the heart are concerned, but also to be open-minded as to who and what you can love, even if society frowns on it.
I confess that I have not always been true and there have been others: a tryst with Tin-Tin, the resident hottie in Thunderbirds and a brief liaison with the saucy French Interceptor fighter pilot, Destiny Angel when Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons first aired, but these were just dalliances. Marina, you were always my number one.
Sadly, my most recent squeeze, Chloe, burst before we could take our relationship to the next level. I miss her very much.
Who is Marina?
According to her biography on Stingray’s Wikifans page, Marina was the daughter of Aphony, the ruler of the undersea city of Pacifica. She was kidnapped and enslaved by the baddy, King Titan. Rescued and brought to the UK by Troy Tempest and his oppo, Phones, after she helped them to escape from Titanica, she had been living a quiet life in coastal Kent for the last fifty-something years.
Following a tip-off, UK authorities discovered that she did not have the right paperwork . Her subsequent application for citizenship has been declined and Marina is currently awaiting deportation to Rwanda. Her legal team has since launched an appeal against the ruling.