World Enough and Time

Once upon a time, probably in 1988 or so, the TV show Stingray became one of my favourites. It was created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell; it starred Nick Mancuso; I've talked about it here before, and it just came out on DVD. So I bought it. And I watched the first episode today for the first time in years. This episode is, boringly, called Pilot Part 1.

I remembered it as not being as good as later episodes - maybe all later episodes - of first season. But now, almost twenty years later (really?), when I'm sitting around with a broken ankle, it's a treat to see it, I tell you.

Perhaps part of my disenchantment with the pilot was that Ray himself isn't in it as much as in some - the story is all from the point of view of the girl who hires Ray, Assistant D.A. Daphne Delgado - and doesn't that sound like a name right out of the romance novels? I was amused to see this time, after all my thinking about my own stories and how to get people into bed together, that this question doesn't bother the authors at all. One moment Ray is talking to Daphne about the case, the next they're naked in bed having a post-coital chat. Hmm. That's the easy way out, but it sort of misses the point.... What happened? Did Ray just say, "I don't want to answer questions about the case, why don't we just have sex instead?" and she said, "Okay!" - ? Or was it a little more gracious than that? I'd like to think so. And I suspect she made the first move. And if I think any more about this it will be turning into fanfic. (And don't let me even begin to consider a Stingray/Torchwood crossover.)

This episode emphasized the things I loved about the show, including the way Ray 'takes money out of the equation'; he can't be bought. In an early scene, Daphne gives Ray $3,000 to take her case, and he leaves it at a table in the bar they met in, as a tip for the waitress.