Customer Reviews

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season One, Vol. 1

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This was my favorite TV series in the 1960s. While sometimes derided by serious Sci-Fi fans, Voyage was very successful in its day, and actually lasted a season longer than Star Trek. The casting of Richard Basehart was a real coup, and David Hedison, who turned down the Captain Crane role in the VTTBOTS movie, came aboard in the TV show. Featuring special effects that still hold up today, VTTBOTS originally started out as serious sci-fi, whose first season episodes still stand tall with the best of TV sci-fi. The second season brought color episodes, a re-designed Seaview, and a new invention, the Flying Sub, to help expand the action. As often happened with Irwin Allen's shows, writing became spotty as time went on. Solid sci-fi stories were often sandwiched between "monster of the week" shows. Even the cast was surprised when the show was picked up for a fourth season. From what I've read, Basehart was anxious to get out of the grind of a TV series, and frankly back into what he considered serious acting. So one will notice an episode or two where he's absent, or obviously being doubled (the episode with the giant sea spider and the hyper fast submarine was one where he was doubled, and he literally duped his lines). There's also another episode where Basehart's son John had a guest part (playing a crewman named "Johnson". Get it? John? Basehart's son?).

I had the pleasure of meeting David Hedison at a convention a few years back. He recounted many fine stories about Voyage, including his relationship with Basehart, working with Irwin Allen, and his years as Captain of the Seaview.

I have waited a long time for this to come out on DVD. I am glad to see it is finally going to hit the DVD shelves!

Is it all companies or just Irwin Allen TV shows???? This seems to be the newest plot in rapidly separating the consumers from their money. Manufacturers take years releasing the public's favorite shows on DVD and, when they do, they only release half seasons. They're releasing only 15 of the 32 episodes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's First Season. I'm sure Vol.2 will be out in 3 to 6 months, but it will probably mean 8 box sets to cover the entire 4 season run of this show. They released Lost in Space in 5 box sets for the 3 seasons it was on and they're even splitting up the Time Tunnel episodes in 2 sets and it was only on for one season! You know we're waiting for these shows and, as a result, you bleed as much money out of us as you can. GIVE THE PUBLIC A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A number of previous reviewers have reported skipping and freezing problems with this set of DVDs, some reporting mailing back their DVDs repeatedly in the hope of obtaining a set which wasn't defective. A previous reviewer recommended that potential buyers contact Fox home entertainment and plead with them to fix the DVDs to correct this problem, so I did. Their phone number is 1 877 369-7867, by the way. So much for pleading; after some discussion, I finally convinced the telephone attendant to inquire about problems with these DVDs. After less than a minute on hold, she came back on and reported that they have no record of any problems existing with these disks and no record of any returns. All that she could assure me of is that if I purchased a defective set, I could return them. Conclusion: Not only does the skipping problem remain unaddressed but no one is even paying attention. Sometimes the only power that the consumer has is to NOT purchase a shoddy product. I'll wait a few years - maybe they'll get it right on whatever format will follow DVD. You can always try calling them also. If the response I got is any indication, you're probably wasting your time, however.

Most of my experience with Voyage consists of the color episodes shown in syndication. As I child, I dug the whole "monster of the week" thing, BUT, as an adult watching the same color episodes on the SciFi channel, I couldn't get over how cheesy they were.

That said, I ordered Season 1, Vol 1 of Voyage after reading reviews of the stellar B/W eps. Nice to see that this first half of the inaugural season lives up to the hype.

There is something about B/W that adds to the suspense of tv shows or movies. Voyage (as well as season 1 of Lost in Space)makes excellent use of the lack of color, resulting in taut and suspenseful installments. I especially enjoyed "The Fear Makers," "The Ghost of Moby Dick," and "Submarine Sunk Here."

Great video and audio transfers. The extras are nice too. Highly Recommended.

Looking forward to Vol. 2.

Season One, although not in color, was probably the best. The story lines stayed away from the later underwater monsters that always seemed to attack the Seaview. This show was always overshadowed by Star Trek, even though the special effects were far superior-just watch the original movie to compare. Probably the BEST sci fi show on television at that time (aside from Star Trek). So finally, Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane live again-now I can't wait for Season Two!

I've been hooked on Voyage since age 9, when the show debuted in 1964. Thankfully, I've lived to see Voyage issued on DVD in the best quality ever. The stories from the first season were undoubtedly the best of the series - often gripping and tense, and resolved only by the Admiral's genious. Richard Basehart, as Admiral Nelson, was obviously enthused by the series during the first year, and some of his performances are among the best of his career. Basehart's lined face is perfect for the crisp black and white photography of these early episodes. Scripts for the first season were written by many great writers, including Harlan Ellison (under a pseudonym) and William Read Woodfield, who also wrote episodes for Mission: Impossible.

I've put up with poor quality rerun films of Voyage for years, and hunted down the best versions available from private collectors in the UK. Fox is certainly overdue to put out a high-quality home video treatment of this series. And if the disks are two-sided, that's good news for quality: video compression will be kept to a minimum by not cramming four hours of video into one side of a DVD!

Ping... ping...

OK, 20th is now 2 for 3.

They botched the Lost In Space DVD set but did a super job mastering and transferring the recent "The Time Tunnel" Volume 1 DVDs and have done an equally good job on Voyage.

The mastering and transfer is crisp, clear, and beautiful. They obviously used either the original negatives or newly struck 35mm prints to master this set.
As noted by another reviewer, the sound track has some hiss in it, but nothing signficant.

The only gripe is that they tampered with the "unaired" color pilot by substituting the early season 2 color introduction in place of the original pilot intro, which is very different from the intros the series show aired with. They also tampered with the closing credits of the original which credited Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink of "Hogans Heros") as "Dr. Gamma". The credits on this version list Theodore Marcuse which is the way they aired during the series run. Otherwise, the pilot appears to be primarily intact.

The shows are very much as I remember them with good story lines and tight drama. A true blast from the past.

I can recommend this set if you're a fan of this series. Now, let's hope that the quality mastering and transfer work continues with the remainder of the releases of the series!

[edit]

I've watch all three discs and didn't encountered any problems with skipping, locking, jumping or picture problems on this set.
But the double sided format is likely the cause of the problems people are having.

The number of reviews already written for the 'Voyage' box set prior to it's release, speaks volumes about it's continuing popularity with it's fan base! As a nine-year-old, I watched the series during it's original run and dared to dream of a future beyond the ordinary for a girl growing up in the sixties. Women on the show were portrayed as intellectuals-doctors, scientists, artists etc. The adventures of the Seaview and it's crew sparked my imagination! It was a show I never missed. I also plan on ordering two copies-one to watch again and again, and the other to keep for posterity! :-D

The first season of "Voyage" was shot in black and white (although the original pilot was shot in color but never broadcast that way). Unlike "Lost in Space" Fox has done a marvelous job with the transfers for the show. The images are crisp with solid blacks and nice contrast. The color pilot is included as an extra and looks marvelous despite its age. The prints look extremely good and were clearly drawn from the original 35 mm prints. The sound is also quite good despite the original mono prints. The theme music (which has always been a wonderful bit of music) sounds terrific here.

We get the aforementioned pilot in color. As with "The Time Tunnel" Fox has included a half hour of "Irwin Allen's Home Movies". Shot in color the precious behind-the-scenes is an added bonus for fans of the show. While there's no audio (and why didn't Fox contact David Hedison to narrate the footage?) it's still a marvelous glimpse into the past. We also get the original ABC "Presentation Reel" which, interestingly, includes footage from Irwin Allen's movies NOT the show. The "Still Gallery" includes lot of pictures of the toys licensed to promote the show.

On a side note the San Francisco Chronicle has an interview with Hedison (as may other newspapers the week of 2/10/06). I'd suggest visiting the Chronicle's website to see if it's been added. Hedison has some interesting comments about the show. He points out that Irwin Allen wanted his shows to be deadly serious most of the time and that whenever he or Basehart tried to inject some humor or lighten up a scene Allen would insist that they reshoot the scene! Hedison has fond memories of shooting the show (and even a text interview would be a welcome extra here for the next edition Fox) but disliked shooting the series when it became the "monster of the week" show that appealed to many children. He points out that the reason it probably degenerated into this format was the 7 pm Sunday night slot it had on ABC. The network probably reasoned it would increase the appeal of the show. Sadly there aren't any commentary tracks and I'm hoping that David Hedison and any surviving cast members will be contacted by Fox to do one or two for the second half of the first season. I can't think of what else Fox can dredge up from their archives as extras for the next set so commentary tracks would be a nice addition.

A bit of trivia about the writing is that noted fantasy writer Harlan Ellison penned one episode here but wasn't happy with the way that it was rewritten and used his pen name Cordwainer Bird on the episode. Ellison has published numerous short story collections won a closet full of Hugos, Nebulas and other awards. He also penned the original script for "City on the Edge of Forever" for "Star Trek", was a writer-consultant on "Babylon 5" and writer-producer on the 1980's version of "The Twilight Zone".
Adapted by Irwin Allen from his popular film of the same name (and using the same miniatures during the first season) "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" was one of my favorite shows in syndication. Playing like an undersea version of "Star Trek" and later inspiring "Seaquest DSV", "Voyage" had two terrific leads with the criminally underrated actor Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson a multimillionaire navy veteran who designs and builds the SSRN Seaview the most advanced submarine of its time. Commanded by Captain Lee Crane (David Hedison who appeared in the original "The Fly") they venture into new adventures every week investigating strange phenomenon. The first season of the show (like the first season of "Lost in Space") didn't stray into the weirdly wonderful absurd giant monster stories and outrageous aliens that dominated later seasons. Those episodes are, much like "Lost in Space", a lot of fun even if they weren't the best written or directed. The visual effects (some of which were recycled from the feature film) and sets were stunning for the time. Curiously, Fox has chosen to break up the first season on three dual sided discs much like "The Time Tunnel" and later sets of "Lost in Space". I'm not quite sure what the advantage is either from a marketing point of view or cost savings for fans and it's a pain to have the sets marketed this way.

"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" may look dated to some(that's the nature of Science Fiction TV shows and films)but it's still a blast from the past. Even "Star Trek: The Next Generation" looks dated and that show isn't quite 20 years old! Regardless, "Voyage" is a fun blast from the past and the writing is solid throughout most of the first season with top notch direction adding to the other all feel of the show. While episodes vary in writing quality (much like "The Time Tunnel" set) the show is addictive particularly for those who grew up watching the show during the 70's or its original run from 1964 through 1968. It may be cheese (at times) but it's our cheese and it's fun, guilt free entertainment, googey and delicious!

I never missed this as a young teenager in the 60's. Sci-Fi Channel a few years ago showed "Voyage" weekday mornings at 7
and I taped as many as I could. I was pleasantly surprised by the picture and sound quality of the dvds. I've only watched two
and them so far and have not encountered any technical problems
as several others have.
Kids today may think of this as hokey and not up to today's special effects standards, but that's the beauty of it. I was like a kid when I received the dvds in the mail and couldn't wait to see them. One question, though, on disk three is
the "never been seen before" pilot, and the same episode is on disk one. I knew I had seen this, remembering the infamous "X"
painted on the Admiral's car when they were leaving the base.
Kudos to Fox for a fine job in creating the set, and I will definitely be purchasing the rest of the episodes.