|
Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea
Episode Guide, Year
One, shows
25 & 26.
Production information and notes by Mark Phillips
Story synopses, Mike
Bailey |
|
Cradle of the
Deep (Airdate: March 1, 1965)
STORYLINE: |
|
Clark - back behind bars again!
|
|
Dr. Janus is aboard Seaview
to conduct research into the origins of life which he claims may lead
to a cure for birth defects. The only catch is that Seaview must
navigate to the Venus Sea mount and an area that has the reputation
of being the
"Graveyard of Submarines." Crane is reluctant, but
newly commissioned officer Clark, whose brother died in a submarine that
entered the area, gets downright belligerent. Unable to convince
Crane or Nelson to turn back, Clark sets Seaview's controls for a different
destination; when Nelson finds out, Clark is thrown in the brig and the
mission resumed. Seaview arrives at her geologically unstable
destination and Nelson and Janus retrieve a microscopic piece of primal
matter from the sea floor |
Janus & Nelson watch bombardment of cells. |
Nelson eagerly
examines treated sample. |
A new form of life. |
| Janus soon submits the sample
to his evolution accelerating apparatus. As Nelson and Janus
catch up on their sleep, a seaquake sends boulders cascading down
on Seaview and the sub takes on water. |
| Awaking to
the shaking, Nelson and Janus soon discover that coincidentally, their
microscopic bit of matter is growing at an alarmingly accelerated rate,
doubling in size every three hours. It soon becomes a sizable
blob that pulls the oxygen from Seaview's recycled air and sends much
of the crew into nitrogen narcosis. The problem is corrected
and Crane announces he wants the experiment jettisoned. Before
anything can be done, Seaview goes out of control and strikes bottom. |
|
Nelson, Crane, Janus & new life form.
|
|
|
With the sub incapacitated,
Clark, again on the loose, goes to Janus' lab to destroy the doctor's
experiment, but Kowalski manages to stop him. Nelson has decided
the life form must go and convinces Janus as well. They attempt
to destroy the organism before it outgrows the sub, by subjecting it
to carbon dioxide. Janus is
crushed in the attempt, but the protoplasmic blob is destroyed in the
resulting explosion. Crane is left to wonder if the experiment was
worth it all.
 Crane
pulls Nelson from Janus' lab after climatic explosion. |
| Sven Wickman, set
decorator: "The actors on Voyage showed a keen interest in what we had created for every
episode. It was an exciting,
challenging show to work on as we created throbbing brains,
futuristic alien gardens and ghostly
square riggers. I liked Voyage, it was prime family entertainment. I was also very fond of
Irwin Allen. Years later, I dropped
in to say hi to him when he was with Warner Brothers in the late 1970s.
He looked up and smiled. "Sven! Have
you come back to work for me?" He was a very loyal man and always appreciative of our
work." |
|
Cradle of the
Deep
Written: Robert Hamner
Directed: Sobey Martin
Guest
Cast
Dr. Wesley Janus......... John Anderson
Bill
Clark...............................Paul Carr
Dr. Andrew
Benton....Howard Wendell
O’Brien............................Derrik Lewis
Helmsman........................Robert
Payne
Corpsman........................Ray
Didsbury | . |
|
Mark Says: The giant
protoplasm is kind of creepy but imagine how better it would have looked
if they had used one of those giant weather balloons The Prisoner TV
series used for Rover. Some interesting moments include the desperate
calculations to reach shore before the amoeba splits the submarine in two,
and Chip’s nitrogen stupor. The goofy factor is Bill Clark - how did such
an unstable guy ever get promoted? Mike Says: This episode is resonant
of Ivan Tors' Magnetic Monster, in which a minuscule bit of
matter, the result of an experiment which gets out of hand, doubles
in size every 12 hours. It's an interesting concept which plays on
Voyage in fair "B" movie style. And don't forget--there are some
things that mankind just isn't meant to know!
|
|
The
Amphibians (Airdate:
March 8, 1965)
STORYLINE: |
| Back at NIMR, Morton
alerts Nelson and Crane to the fact that the group has consumed 20%
less oxygen than would be expected, making both Admiral and Captain
suspicious. Nelson
sends Crane back to the undersea research center with orders to investigate,
which he does, and soon observes a beautiful woman free swimming at
impossible depths. |
An astonished Morton and Crane stare at Seaview's
monitor, not sure they believe what they see. |
Nice mechanical gills there,
ace.
|
|
Seaview divers go
missing, then two well-placed explosive charges go off, damaging
the submarine. Crane
has orders to take Winslow and his prisoners alive; Winslow
informs Crane he's coming aboard to try to explain about how grand
his experiment is and how the sub's crew better join up or they'll
be changed into amphibians by force. It is apparent that
he's lost perspective on his power position, and when he almost
keels over when an electrical panel short-circuits, Crane guesses
the amphibians may have a weakness-ozone. Crane eventually
uses this knowledge to capture the outlaws, but not before Dr.
Jenkins is killed trying to finish off Seaview with explosives. |
|
Zale
Parry says: "One of the major universities had concluded
that under proper conditions, humans could breathe underwater
without breathing apparatus. So this episode was not only
intriguing but very up-to-date in its science. The director
was always checking to make sure the gills on our throats were
still there after underwater scenes. Can you imagine an actor
surfacing and saying, "I lost one of my gills!" The
gills were actually circular screens used in washing machines. Everyone
on the show was very friendly and courteous and it was a lot
of fun to do." |
|
 |
Experienced diver Zale Parry as the
amphibious Angie Maxxon in Voyage's The Amphibions. |
|
Mark says: Another
good cast, another low-energy story. Zale Parry adds to the show,
as does a lot of underwater photography. An unusually ambiguous ending
for Voyage.
Mike says: Yes,
yes, I agree with Mark. This was a potentially interesting,
honest-to-gosh science fiction premise, that unfortunately, was
not fleshed out by the writer. |
|
| |
|
|
The Amphibians
Written: Rik Vollaerts
Directed: Felix Feist
Guest Cast
Dr. Jenkins.............Skip Homeier
Dr. Winslow...........Curt Conway
Angie Maxxon.............Zale Parry
Danny...................Frank Graham
Joe.............................Len Felber
Divers........................Paul Stader
George Robotham |
|
|
| "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" ® is a registered
trademark of Irwin Allen Properties, LLC. © Irwin Allen
Properties, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights
reserved. |
|
