Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Episode Guide, Year One, show 22 & 23.
Production information and notes by Mark Phillips
Story synopses, Mike Bailey

Go To
The Buccaneer
The Human Computer

The Buccaneer  (Airdate: February 8, 1965)
STORYLINE:

     A man posing as a custodian, sets fire to a NIMR storage area.  In the hubub, infiltraters posing as firemen obtain entry to The Institute.   They separate from the legitimate firemen and head for Seaview's berth, where they overpower guards, and board and commandeer the sub.  The thugs immediately isolate the crew and officers.

Fire truck subterfuge.
Logan's men get the drop on Nelson & Co.
Officers & crew not pleased.
Logan's run at NIMR; fire suberterfuge.
Logan's men confront Nelson & Co.
Cool Reception from the men of Seaview.

     A dour "gentleman" named Logan introduces himself to Nelson and Crane.   Heedless of the guards on deck, Logan orders a dive.  Soon underway, he reveals his plans -- to pirate de Vinci's Mona Lisa from a heavily armed French war ship, using Seaview's missiles for persuasion if necessary.  Logan threatens to kill officers and crew if they don't cooperate; Nelson figures he'll do that anyway once he's got his hands on the painting.  Much see-saw action occurs and Logan actually pirates the artwork in question.  Logan and his beloved.

 

Wonderful shot of Pat in the ventilation system. Don't stick your tongue out at me! Kowalski about to clobber bad guy.
Patterson pulls hose through ventilation.
He's attacked by one of Logan's minions.
Kowalski to the rescue!

     Patterson tours the ventilation system in an effort to gas the bad guys.   Out of the ventilation system, Pat is attacked.  Kowalski comes to the rescue just in time.  As gas pumps into the control room, Logan and his men are disoriented so that Nelson, Crane and company are able to regain control of the sub and return the purloined painting to the French government. 

 

   

Mark Says: Some good action scenes, sandwiched between a lot of dialog.  Mr. Logan is addicted to conversation, and he always takes a circular route when talking, which prompts the Chief to say, "Can’t that guy speak English?"  There’s also a nice scene of camaraderie between Patterson and Kowalski after "Ski’ saves Pat from Logan’s henchmen. Through-out the episode two mystery crewmen are referred too, as having been dragged away by Logan’s men, but the fate of these two sailors is never resolved.

    

She's mine, Admiral, she's mine!
Basehart & Hedison with beautiful lady.
A behind-the-scenes production photo.


Mike Says: By the time this episode aired, Season One had produced so many fine shows, so many well written and produced episodes, that this one stood out as being particularly lame in comparison.  The fact that the episode had no real point, other than the action itself,  foreshadowed what was to so often come in the color years.  It's OK to do action for action's sake, but it needs to be more intelligently written and energetically directed than this grade C work piece.

Mona Lisa's Smile.
Crane, Morton & Nelson admire a lovely lady.

 

Written: William Welch, Al Gail.
Directed: Laslo Benedek

Guest Cast
Mr. Logan............Barry Atwater
Captain..................Emile Genest
Igor...................George Keymas
Radio operator.......Dennis Cross
Henchman #1.......Gene Dynarski
Henchman #2...............Dick Dial
Crewman...............Ray Didsbury
Henchmen..........George Sawaya
                                 Wally Rose
                                    John Cliff
                                   Sol Gorss
                                 John Lamb
                            Frank Graham
                                Peter Dixon

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The Human Computer  (Airdate: February 15, 1965)
STORYLINE:  
     A nifty new super-computer has been installed on Seaview, one its creator suggests might easily replace the crew as readily as Windows crashes.  The machine is to run the sub with only Captain Crane aboard.  An officer must be aboard since Seaview could be claimed as salvage if boarded with no one aboard.  After an eerie run of tests, the horse-hockey hits the fan when Crane discovers he's not alone on the sub and the computer begins to act like it's got a mind of its own. 
 
Lights lowered, Crane wanders in a machine wonderland.
Crane finds sabotaged radio gear.
Would-be assassin in a nicely framed shot.
Crane's uneasy in a sub full of machines.
He discovers the radio shack sabotaged.
And a killer on board wants him dead.

Gun-toting Crane out to get his pursuer.


             We're talking major cat-and-mouse stuff as the machine guides the sub toward an unscheduled rendezvous with a foreign power that plans to liberate the new computer system and use it to pilot submarine drones (thus anticipating season 2's episode, The Machines Strike Back.)  Crane strives to prevent this from happening and to keep from ending up dead at the hands of the agent who plans to make the Captain's death look accidental.


Written: Robert Hamner
Directed: James Goldstone
Guest Cast

Ralph Reston.............Simon Scott
Agent...........................Harry Millard
Foreign General..........Ted de Corsia
Admiral #1.................Herbert Lytton
Admiral #2..................Walter Sande
Sonarman....................Robert Payne


 
Foriegn agent down for the count.
Crane pins would-be killer under periscope.
Robert Hamner: " I was excited about having an evil woman stalk Captain Crane aboard the empty Seaview. It would be unique and fun for television but Irwin wouldn't hear of it. "It has to be a man," he said. I asked him why and he said, "It takes too long to do the makeup on a woman!" So when I wrote the character as a man, I suggested my good friend Perry Lopez to play the lead villain but that didn’t happen either."

Mark says:  An energetic teaser collapses into an agonizingly slow-moving episode, despite James Goldstone’s efforts to liven things up. Robert Hamner’s original idea of a female villain would have enhanced this lethargic episode greatly.

Mike says:   When I first viewed this episode in 1965, I was thrilled by the dark, eerie lighting and overall strangeness of the first half of the show, although it did bog down toward the end. Subsequent viewings weren't as enthralling, but man, the cinematography is great.
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