Great model/process shot of Seaview surfaced through the arctic ice.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Production information and notes
by Mark Phillips
Story synopses, Mike Bailey



    The Heat Monster  
     Original Airdate: January 8, 1967
Cool stock shot of research base.
  

    Professor Olaf Bergstrom beams an extraterrestrial life form into his arctic lab; fiery havoc and the death of his assistant are the immediate result.  Before he is killed, the assistant radios for help and the men of Seaview answer the call. 


Heat Monster at the door. Note Lars' wide-eyed terror. It's here! Goodbye Lars....
Monster at the door.
Larson's eyes widen: It's here!
The Creature enters. ..
...and the heat is on.

Crane and Sharkey discover the wrecked research hut.   Traipsing out to the research site, Crane and Sharkey find a wrecked base, an unconscious Bergstrom and a block of ice which gives off an ominous glow.  Bergstrom and the block are taken aboard Seaview.  
Believable mechanical effect of flame caught in ice block.

Alfred Ryder as Professor Bergstrom.   After coming-to, Bergstrom lobbies Nelson to free the alien, but all too soon, this proves unnecessary, as the hull temperature suddenly shoots up in various parts of the sub.  The alien has survived, escaped and is moving about on board.  Sparks, in the meantime, is getting a ghostlike windy signal in the radio shack. 

    A voice demands Seaview direct a heat beam under the ice below the arctic lab.  Nelson refuses and is set afire.    Crane douses the flames, but Nelson remains firm in his decision unless provided with an explanation.  None is forthcoming and the heat in the sub rises.

Nelson set afire for his troubles
.    
  A rather hot chip on the Admiral's shoulder.

Excellently dressed set and believable bomb device.
Crane and Sharkey plant bomb at hut.
 
Bergstrom interferes with Cranes attempt to douse the monster with seawater.  By now, Nelson figures the creature wants the heat beam directed under the lab to somehow free more creatures.   He orders Crane and Sharkey to plant a bomb in the hut, hopefully to destroy the creatures.   After much see-saw action, Bergstrom finally sees that the creature is merely manipulating him, and tells Nelson to use liquid oxygen on the thing.  Bergstrom is killed by a heat bolt and Nelson and Crane likewise attacked.            

The two finally attack the creature with LOX guns and the thing withers to a tiny flame and dies, croaking out the last words "cold . . . sooo cooold."
Just a guess on my part, but doesn't it look like Hedison and Basehart couldn't restrain smiles as they shot the above scenes?

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Written: Charles Bennett
Directed: Gerald Mayer
Guest Cast:
Dr. Olaf Bergstrom.....Alfred Ryder
Dr. Sven Larsen...........Don Knight
Flame voice......................Jim Mills
Anderson..................Ray Didsbury

 

Gerald Mayer: "There was a lot of concern over whether the flame creature looked convincing on camera. At the time, I didn’t think it did but we did the best we could.  The series certainly has its fans. Voyage aficionados have sent me video copies of my episodes!"


Mark Says: This has an exciting teaser, as the heat monster broils the ice station but despite the able presence of Alfred Ryder, this heads straight for the deep freeze. There are some good comic bits of dialogue from the monster, especially its chilling last gasp of, "Cold...soooo cooold."


Mike Says:  OK, here it comes . . . at least the monster wasn't another man-in-a-rubber-suit.  Alfred Ryder was much better as Gerhardt Krueger because his dialogue in the Phantom episodes was better written, and the character's motivation was so much more believable.  Terrible writing in this one, which is a pity, because the staging, sets, stock shots and effects were right on the money.



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Hedison and Basehart gettin cold, man.
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