science

Tom Thumb Tempest

Tom Thumb Tempest is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tom Thumb Tempest rather than just read about it. In short: "Tom Thumb Tempest" is the 22nd episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was first broadcast on 28 February 1965 on the Anglia, ATV London, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network.

Key takeaways

Tom Thumb Tempest belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tom Thumb Tempest to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tom Thumb Tempest from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Tom Thumb Tempest" is the 22nd episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Alan Pattillo, it was first broadcast on 28 February 1965 on the Anglia, ATV London, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands on 3 March 1965. The series follows the missions of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans in the 2060s. Headquartered at the self-contained city of Marineville on the West Coast of North America, the WASP operates a fleet of vessels led by Stingray: a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute young woman from under the sea. Stingray's adventures bring it into contact with undersea civilisations – some friendly, others hostile – as well as mysterious natural phenomena. The WASP's most powerful enemy is King Titan, ruler of the ocean floor city of Titanica. In "Tom Thumb Tempest", Troy has a nightmare in which Stingray and its crew are miniaturised. The use of life-sized sets to convey the shrinking of the puppet characters has drawn a mixed response from commentators. Fennell later authored a picture book based on the episode titled Stingray: Terror of the Giants (1993, Boxtree Ltd).

Plot The Stingray crew are relaxing in the Marineville standby lounge when Commander Shore orders them to prepare for launch, warning them of a dangerous mission. Captain Troy Tempest is eager to leave immediately but Shore tells him to await further instructions. Troy's attention turns to the fish in the lounge aquarium. He then falls asleep in his chair. Troy wakes to the sound of Shore on the intercom, ordering the crew to launch. He leaves Marineville in Stingray with Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina. Shore radios in, instructing Troy to pilot Stingray through an undersea tunnel. Troy asks for details of the mission but Shore gruffly denies his request. Stingray exits the tunnel and collides with a sheet of glass. The crew are astonished to find that they and the submarine have shrunk and have ended up inside a fish tank within a giant dining room. Leaving Stingray on their personal hovercraft, they switch on a television set and watch a news bulletin announcing that Stingray and its crew are missing. Turning off the TV, they then investigate the dining table, which has been set for various undersea villains. At the head of the table – laid for Titan – is a schematic of Marineville's defence systems. The crew realise that they have stumbled across a gathering of the undersea races to plot the destruction of Marineville. They are unable to return to Stingray because they have partially un-shrunk, being too large to enter the submarine but still only a fraction of human size. The crew take cover when an Aquaphibian dressed as a butler briefly steps into the room to check the table. They then use a nearby telephone to call Marineville. Shore answers and Troy attempts to explain the situation, but Shore thinks that Troy is prank-calling and hangs up. The crew are again forced to hide when the Aquaphibian returns with Titan's agent X-2-Zero – the dining room is in X-2-Zero's house on the island of Lemoy. Noticing the mess the crew have made, X-2-Zero reprimands the Aquaphibian for what he assumes to be poor table setting, then leaves the room. The Aquaphibian tidies up and follows him. The crew destroy the schematic by soaking it in alcohol and setting it alight. The fire soon engulfs the room. The crew flee to the fish tank, re-shrinking as they go, and re-enter Stingray. As the aquarium boils, Troy realises that Stingray is trapped. He orders Phones to fire a torpedo to shatter the glass, hoping that the escaping water will put out the fire. As the torpedo is fired, Troy wakes to find himself back in the Marineville lounge – the mission he experienced was just a nightmare. Shore tells the crew to stand down and Troy apologises to Shore for his impatience.

Regular voice cast Ray Barrett as Commander Shore Robert Easton as Lieutenant "Phones" and Surface Agent X-2-Zero Don Mason as Captain Troy Tempest

Production The title of the episode was based on the folklore character Tom Thumb. In the script, the Aquaphibian butler was called "Jeevesea" – a pun on the fictional valet Jeeves. "Tom Thumb Tempest" was significant for presenting Stingray's 1⁄3-scale puppets on a life-sized set. (At one point, Troy remarks that the contents of the room appear to be "three times" larger than normal.) It was not the first episode of an APF series to deal with miniaturised characters: the idea had previously been explored in Supercar's "Calling Charlie Queen" and Fireball XL5's "The Triads". However, while those episodes had used back projection to achieve a miniaturisation effect, "Tom Thumb Tempest" placed the "shrunken" characters on a physical set. Stephen La Rivière cites "Tom Thumb Tempest" as another example of the "Land-of-Giants-type" episode that APF had attempted on its previous two series.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tom Thumb Tempest

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tom Thumb Tempest claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tom Thumb Tempest before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tom Thumb Tempest ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tom Thumb Tempest

In research: Tom Thumb Tempest appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tom Thumb Tempest in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tom Thumb Tempest is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1965 British television episodes, Fiction about size change, Science fiction television episodes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tom Thumb Tempest outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tom Thumb Tempest in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tom Thumb Tempest means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tom Thumb Tempest out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tom Thumb Tempest in simple terms?

Why does Tom Thumb Tempest matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tom Thumb Tempest?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tom Thumb Tempest.