Establishing shot of alien island.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

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

 


Doomsday Island  Original Airdate: February 26, 1967
  
Omlette anyone?
Morton, Kowalski & crewman Ray, The Egg & We.
      As Nelson and Sharkey scout for a suspected uncharted island, Seaview picks up a giant egg which is temporarily stored in the missile room.  A big, red amphibian creature soon pops out and kills a crewman.  Returning to Seaview, Nelson asks Crane to head back to where the egg was discovered, wanting to know if there are more of them.  At the behest of Nelson, Crane and Kowalski continue the island hunt in FS-1, since the admiral thinks there may be a connection between possible land and a breeding ground for big alien eggs. 

Nifty new Flying Sub footage. Never seen FS-1 hit the water at this steep an angle before. Lars says, check out my new big-screen TV.
FS-1 going down....
....down.
Lars lords it over the captured Kowalski & Crane.

     The Flying Sub is downed by an alien force field, and the two are taken captive by more bright red aliens, one of whom, named Lars, tells Crane that the sunburned troop is from Scorpius, they're here to take over the world, and (you'd never guess) they want Seaview's reactor to hasten the hatching of all the eggs now maturing on the beach.  Which of course means Seaview must be destroyed first.  Meanwhile, the alien aboard the sub has been running further amuck and causing trouble, apparently just being cantankerous in nature.  Nelson finally tires of the carnage and takes a laser gun to his rowdy foe, blowing him to kingdom-come.      
This is a very convincing matte shot of alien eggs.  Check out the shadows even.
Alien eggs on beach.

Animated Laser blasts!    More animated laser blasts.    And there he goes in a puff of smoke. Goodbye.
Proof positive -- Nelson blows cantankerous goofy-looking red alien to kingdom come

     Lars, meanwhile, confines Crane and Kowalski in the Flying Sub and transposes the image of FS-1 over a missile he's fired at Seaview.  Not fooled, Nelson blows it out of the sea.  Crane and Kowalski, meanwhile find laser guns in the real Flying Sub.  Escaping from the force field that holds them captive, and being of like mind as Nelson,  they blast Lars and his pals to kingdom-come.  Aboard Seaview, Sharkey manages to improvise a connection around controls previously wrecked by the now-dead alien.     

Cool effects animation as Crane & Kowalski blast away at invisible force field.
Crane and Kowalski blast their way out of
alien Flying Sub mock-up


Island goes boom!   Under Nelson's orders, he fires a missile which destroys the island and all those future mega-omelettes.  Crane and Kowalski turn up back on Seaview, having escaped the island and swum back to Seaview in the nick of time.  Cut to stock shot of Seaview sailing into sunset.

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Yes, a great shot of David Hedison as Captain Crane.
Nifty shot of David Hedison as Crane.

 

Written: Peter Germano
Directed: Jerry Hopper
Guest Cast
Lars the Amphibian.......Jock Gaynor
Amphibian...Darryl Scott McFadden
Ray.............................Ray Didsbury
Crewman..........................Phil Barry

 

Jock Gaynor: "It was by no means a serious show. Some of the dialog was definitely high camp. Anyone could have played Lars but I happened to fit best inside the costume."


Mark Says: A ridiculous episode propped up by some really great special effects.  The close-ups of the flying sub skimming over the ocean are awesome and I’m still not sure how they did the photo-effect where millions of giant eggs are seen on a beach.  I’ve never understood what that black thing is, seen bobbing in front of the Seaview during the surface shots.

(The black thing was part of the model's bubble/wave generator assembly used for moving surface shots with the 17 foot model--it road lower in the water, usually out of site.  In this static shot, the model road higher and the device showed.  This footage should not have been used in the show.  A lapse in effects editing--Mike.)   The giant prop egg is cartoony but cool looking.  In fact, this whole episode is the closest Voyage came to being a live-action cartoon, with its grunting red amphibians and mind-numbing action.  Lars, the alien leader, was definitely spoiled as a baby amphibian because his malevolent monologues are interrupted by his childish, silly temper tantrums.  Fun in a silly sense but if you begin to reflect on how far the series has fallen since the early days, this will bring a bitter tear to the eye.


Mike Says: Oh God, Heaven help us!  Episodes like this were the reason I had to get a television set of my own at the tender age of sixteen -- so I could hole up in my bedroom and watch this kind of tripe without having to be seen in public and explain myself.   My family was then under the impression that, although not their cup of tea, Voyage was still a pretty good show.  And indeed it still was a pretty good show on a hit and miss basis.  But Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea had become a series which, while when it was good, could still be very, very good (year three's Day the World Ended and year four's Man of Many Faces, for example), but when bad, could stink to high-heaven (as with Doomsday Island.) This being said, the budget was back in this episode, with new Flying Sub footage, tons of animated ray-gun blasts and that nifty matte-shot of all those eggs on the beach.  Damn thing views nicely with the sound down, except for the idiotic looking aliens.



Nifty new shots of Flying Sub premiere in this episode.


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