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Voyage to the Bottom of
the Sea |
| Terror On Dinosaur Island Airdate: December 26, 1965 |
| Nelson and Sharkey bail out of the Flying Sub when it's struck by debris from an erupting island volcano that rises dramatically from the sea. Seaview is damaged when rocked by associated sub-surface turbulence and in the course of saving his ship, Crane must order a lower section of the sub closed, sealing in crewman Grady. The goldbricking Benson, who had conned Grady into switching shifts with him, blames Crane for Grady's death, and seems set on vengeance. Seaview is beached for emergency repairs and Crane prepares a rescue party to head inland in an effort to find Nelson and Sharkey. Benson "volunteers" to go along. |
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 Benson distraught at sealed hatch. |
 Island dino eyes Benson (dinner) |
 Benson aims pea-shooter at dino! |
| Nelson and Sharkey soon discover that living dinosaurs populate this strange place, creatures whose presence confounds rescue and makes survival unlikely. It's cat and mouse as to whether Benson or one of the giant beasts will kill first. Fortunately for Crane, when Benson makes his move, Kowalski pretends to throw in with the errant crewman, and is able to wrestle away the would-be killer's gun. Benson is eventually done in by island eruptions and a dinosaur. Crane, Patterson, Kowalski , the Admiral and Sharkey meet up, and manage to make their way back to Seaview, which is backed out to sea just before the island once again sinks back below the waves. |
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Terror On Dinosaur Island
Written: William Welch |
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Mark Says: This episode always gets unfairly rapped as lifting reels from Allen’s movie, The Lost World, but actually, stock footage is very limited from that film. There is exciting stock footage from some previous episodes but there’s also a lot of expensive new footage - the Flying Sub soaring over an island cliff, a dinosaur’s attack on Seaview and some absolutely breath-taking shots of the Seaview literally beached on the island - outstanding miniature work! All in all, a fun adventure, with lots of action. Paul Carr excels as Benson, the unhinged crewman. |
 Expensive new footage! |
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Mike Says: Forget logic. This story works on the level of "seeing is believing." And you definitely get to see . . . a) an island rise from the ocean, b) Seaview beached on said island, c) dinosaurs, d) an erupting volcano, e) the island explode--and much more. I personally like L.B. Abbott's lizard dinosaurs and have no problem with recycled Lost World footage. Why they ever changed Paul Carr's identity from Clark to Benson--who knows?! |
| He turns in a killer performance (so to speak) and bows out of Voyage in style (except for ghostly cameos in later seasons via stock footage. ) In the midst of all the carnage, there's a story with human motivation and dimension. As site visitor Keri Teach recently pointed out, the developing character interactions between Sharkey and Nelson really start to show up in this episode. I believe this is the one where the director came up short by several minutes and asked the two to improvise. If so, they did, quite handily. Bottom Line: Terror On Dinosaur Island--Mikey likes it. |  Island goes Boom! |
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