Customer Reviews

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season 4, Vol. 1

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Finally, Fox Home Entertainment is making good it their promise to finish the run of the class seafaring SF adventure "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." No doubt we will be treated to the same high quality transfers, with sharp picture, vibrant colors and amazing sound. However, the real reason to smile is in the episodes themselves.

After what could be called a "guilty pleasure" year, Voyage returned with a surprise fourth season, a surprise to the actors as well as the audience, who all thought the show would be cancelled. However, fortune and funny accounting kept Voyage on the air another year and, to some degree, Irwin Allen improved the series somewhat from its prior year.

While the series would not hit the heights of its first two seasons again with any regularity, some true gems cropped up this year as monsters took a break for a while.

The season kicked off in grand style with "Fires of Death." This episode , which shaky in the plot department, boasted amazing sets depicting the inside of an active volcano. There is no doubt this is the reason why this episode was chosen to open the season rather than the vastly superior "Man of Many Faces", which was the first episode shot. However, the episode moves along at a brisk pace with legendary actor Victor Jory appearing as Dr. Turner, an alchemist with an obsession for unearthing "elixir stones" - the key to his immortality. Star David Hedison is absent for the last two thirds of the episodes, owing to an appearance on a variety show. The supporting cast gets to step up and take the reassigned lines and screen time. The result is a unique episode in the Voyage canon with amazing SFX for the time.

"The Deadly Dolls" follows, a classic bizarre episode starring Vincent Price as Dr. Multiple, an evil alien puppet master. The highlights of this episode include a rather cheerful atmosphere, amazing background score by composer Harry Geller and the amazing "Nelson Puppet." Voiced by Richard Basehart (obviously having fun) and looking like a Kroft Puppet, this character is a riot, popping in and out, dropping one liners and generally making a menace of himself. The result is a nonsensical but genuinely fun episode in the vein of the classic Avengers TV series.

"Cave of the Dead" stands out as an eerie tale of ghostly sea lore and evil curses, with Warren Stevens making his third and final appearance in Voyage as Van Wyck. There's a great scene that gives new meaning to the term "skeleton crew."

"Sealed Orders" is another outstanding tale of the effects of wacko Irwin Allen universe radiation. As soon as a top secret nuclear missile is opened onboard, the crew begins to vanish one by one. The atmosphere, assisted by the odd visual effects and another great score by Geller, is pleasantly weird and spooky. The climax is genuinely suspenseful and well shot. There was obviously an eye on thrift as they keep coming up with reasons to have only the main cast involved, but at least these episodes display more imagination than the latter third season shows.

The hits keep coming with the aforementioned "Man of Many Faces." A master of disguise frames Nelson for murder (on national TV no less) and infiltrates the Seaview, impersonating the main cast one by one in an effort to stop the crew from foiling an evil plan to control the tides. While the idea of one man impersonating so many people of different weights, heights and voices stretches credibility, the episode is so well mounted and paced, it's easy to forget the plot holes and just enjoy the episode. It's a temporary, but wonderful, return to the second season feel that had been missing for far too long.

"Rescue" is a tense tale involving a traitor on the Seaview and his attempts to keep the Admiral from discovering an undersea lab and rescuing Captain Crane, who is trapped in the disabled Flying Sub at the sea bottom. Again, the episode is set bound with one real guest star, but that doesn't prevent the episode from being exciting and serious. For the ladies, there's a one and only scene of Chief Sharkey without a shirt.

Rounding out the classics are "Blow Up" (Admiral Nelson is gripped by insane paranoia after breathing through an experimental oxygen device) and "A Time To Die". The latter episode introduces the time traveling Mr. Pem (Henry Jones), who also appears in the series' final episode. It is an interesting story, but sadly padded with a five minute scene from "Thing from Inner Space" from the third season. His second appearance would do the character justice.

This half of the season would prove to be the best of the year, as the series began to return to monsters and aliens for stories. However, there were still a few goodies left and one truly riotous episode played mostly for laughs. But you have to wait for the second half of the set for me to tell you about it. :-)

Bonus features will include David Hedison interviews covering all four seasons, Irwin Allen's goals and his office (?), the intense work hours and the various voiceovers. Also included will be a still gallery and, most promising, a recut version of the unaired pilot episode.

As fans saw, the initial first season set included the color version of the pilot episode. This print incorrectly included the second season opening titles instead of the correct "titles over churning water and different music" sequence seen in the syndicated runs and back on the old Columbia House VHS release. And aside from the color, the episode itself was no different from the aired black & white version.

However, there exists a 47 minute unaired version. I have no idea at this time (12/8/08) if a color or b&w print will be used, since both seem to exist, but the b&w 16mm print is more easily found. However, no matter, this edit has many differently shot and scored scenes. In the aired version, both Theo Marcuse and Werner Keplerer portray Dr. Gamma. I assume this was because Marcuse was not available for reshoots and they are both bald and in the shadows. They had totally different voices though. The unaired version has only Marcuse as Gamma, but the reshot scenes were necessary. The originals are over the top melodramatic and very corny. The background score also has liberal sprinklings of the music from the 1961 Voyage movie. Nelson and Crane had some dialog redubbed (replacing the phrases "evil forces" and "evil powers" with more realistic words) and, strangely, the entire scenes of Crane sneaking aboard, being caught and all references to the incident, are not here. Finally, the opening and closing theme music is completely different from the famous Seaview Theme.

All in all, this should prove to be well worth the wait for fans. While the usual Fox nonsense is in evidence (double sided DVDs, half seasons, limited extras), this is still a release fans have been clamoring for since October of 2007. It will be nice to have the Seaview back.

This first set covers the first thirteen episodes of the fourth and final season (1967-1968) of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", which is still supervised by associate producer Bruce Fowler, story editor Sidney Marshall and cinematographer Robert J. Bronner. Among other things, a brand new artisan popup: composer Harry Geller, known for his input on "The Wild Wild West", and the graphic design of the opening titles is renewed from "Rescue".

Some of the best offerings can be found in the following episodes: "The Deadly Dolls" (an alien mad puppeteer fantasy, guest starring horror film actor Vincent Price), "Sealed Orders" (a psychedelic fail-safe thriller), "Man with Many Faces" (an espionage plot featuring an assassin/master of disguises), "Rescue" and "Blow Up".

The infamous and picturesque time traveler character, by the name of Mr. Pem (played by Henry Jones), makes his entrance in "A Time to Die".

There are some extras that will please many aficionados: the re-cut unaired pilot "Eleven Days to Zero" and David Hedison Interviews about: Years 1-4, Irwin's Goal, Irwin's Office, Work Hours, Voice-overs.

Find the list of episodes from this volume 1:
"Fires of Death"
"The Deadly Dolls"
"Cave of the Dead"
"Journey with Fear"
"Sealed Orders"
"Man of Many Faces"
"Fatal Cargo"
"Time Lock"
"Rescue"
"Terror"
"A Time to Die"
"Blow Up"
"Deadly Amphibians"


*April 2009 Updates concerning the extra and options:
1. The re-cut unaired pilot "Eleven Days to Zero" is "not" a re-cut but the same color pilot without the original opening credits that is already included in the season 1, volume 1 DVD set.
2. David Hedison Interviews only last 4 minutes 4 seconds.
3. The DVD set only offers the following audio options:
English and French languages
English subtitles

We are 13 episodes away from having the complete series out on DVD, so you can't stop now! C'mon Fox, make us Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea fans happy and release season 4 volume 2 soon!

Whats with the packaging change in volume 4 ? Couldn't fox keep it the same for the whole series. If this is some kind of ploy to get me to buy another set when they undoubtedly release the full set as a package then Fox are sadly mistaken. I'm currently repackaging this set myself for my own benefit, making my own covers and splitting these god awful double sided discs into single sided full printable discs with artwork on each disc. This is the last double sided disc set I will ever buy. In my opinion it's very poor and not at all user friendly. Too many corners have been cut and despite the extremely long wait for Volume 4 it doesn't appear that our beloved Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea has been in the hands of anyone at Fox that cares ! Just waiting now for the final episodes of volume 4 to be released to complete the collection which I'll have to buy. Then thats it Mr Fox. No More Sub standard Half Hearted Rubbish for me. Why couldn't the same amount of attention that was paid to Lost In Space have been paid to these releases? It's poor really !!!

After seeing the second half of season three, I was a little skeptical about getting season four. I was wrong. Of the 13 episodes, fully eight of them are very watchable, and one is tolerable. Only four episodes of this set are unwatchable.

Which are the eight really good episodes? Here is the list in order of appearance on the DVDs:
1. Fires of Death
2. The Deadly Dolls - surprisingly good
3. Cave of the Dead - one of my all time favorites
4. Sealed Orders - very exciting and one of my all time favorites
5. Man of Many Faces - very exciting
6. Rescue - very good with a spy aboard
7. A Time to Die
8. Blow Up - excellent drama, all the actors did really well on this one, especially Basehart

I might add that several of these eight are actually some of the best episodes of the entire series. Cave of the Dead, Sealed Orders, Man of Many Faces, Rescue, and Blow Up are top notch episodes. Fires of Death and The Deadly Dolls also rank pretty high up there.

The tolerable episode is:
1. Terror

This one was a borderline episode. The alien inhabited a plant. I was satisfied with how they showed the entity on this one. This kind of alien entity is far better than men in rubber suits.

The unwatchable episodes are:
1. Journey with Fear
2. Fatal Cargo
3. Time Lock
4. Deadly Amphibians

If I offended anyone with the list of unwatchable episodes I apologize. I just find it hard to watch the shows with monsters and aliens, which are nothing more than men in rubber suits, or some other kind of suit. They look fake and they act silly. I just can't get into those stupid plotlines. Maybe if they had digital technology back then they might have really given us something great, but all they had to give was men in rubber suits. Bad, very bad.

When Voyage got it right, the show was absolutely top notch. When they didn't get it right it was often terrible. It was not the fault of the actors; they didn't want to do episodes with men in rubber monster suits. It was Irwin's fault. Since it was his show the actors had to go along with it.

That being said, this set is absolutely worth buying. There are plenty of episodes to enjoy and love. There are plenty of good plots and very good to excellent acting. This is a worthwhile addition for the Voyage fan, and it is actually much better than season three, volume two.

The picture and sound quality will not disappoint most people. Owing to the technology of the time there is some grain present, but it does not detract from the enjoyment of the shows. The sound is clean, and the picture is sharp and quite detailed.

One more thing: the packaging on this set is different. This time they used a keep case instead of the previous slim cases. Generally I like the keep case. They can fit quite a few discs in a small space.

Cheers!

This is worth getting alone for the second episode "The Deadly Dolls" guest-starring the great Vincent Price. While the plot is similar to so many other Voyage episodes with the crew being taken over by aliens desiring the Seaview's nuclear reactor, the combination of Vincent and the hysterical Nelson and Crane puppets make this one an absolute pleasure.
It is interesting to ponder how great Voyage would have been had it continued the combination of sci-fi and James Bond-type episodes seen during its second, and best, season.

This was very entertaining, although I preferred the grittier Cold War type of story lines in the earlier shows, particularly Season 1.

What I would like to know, is when Season 4 Volume 2 is going to be released? Hopefully before my lifetime is over, are you listening to us 20th Century Fox???

Some of the best color episodes of Voyage are found in season four. I'm talking about "Man of Many Faces," "Terror," "Man-Beast," the psychedelic "Death Clock," and the two episodes involving the pesky Mr. Pem, the last of which brings the series to a fitting close. And there's "Secret of the Deep," which contains a "greatest hits" of monsters from previous episodes. Unfortunately, many of those episodes are not included in Season Four Volume 1. Hopefully Fox will release the last episodes in volume 2 before all of us are too old to remember how to operate a DVD player.

The color films that comprise this set are beautifully restored. I've never seen such quality in DVD's of a TV series that is over 40 years old.

The extras are a little light, but fine. I don't think we needed yet another cut of the pilot. Hedison's comments are fun and interesting. And we're treated to not one but TWO of the custom "In Color" openings (find them before "Sealed Orders" and "A Time to Die"). I wonder if their inclusion are accidents, but I'm not complaining.

Fox has not seen fit to include the previews of next week's show in any of the Voyage sets, including this one. While that's a minor quibble, what they've done to the updated opening theme of the last 17 episodes is a crime. Someone with very elementary audio editing skills spliced out the announcer saying "Brought to you by..." It could have been done a lot more skillfully, to say the least. There is also a noticeable change in audio quality during the opening theme of the first few episodes which shouldn't have been allowed. Audio seems to take short shrift in the quality control process at Fox. Thankfully, the rest of the audio during the episodes is brilliant.

Write to Fox and let them know you want to own the entire set, and inquire about when season four volume 2 will be released. Hey - I'd buy it all over again for Christmas if it came in a Seaview or Flying Sub carrying case that contained the entire 110 episodes! Wouldn't you???

The content of the DVDs is fine, but what I do NOT like is the change in packaging! All the other volumes had cardboard sleeves, with thin DVD boxes. THIS time, and probably Season 4, Volume 2, we have a standard plastic 3-DVD holding case-so much for a complete, consistant collection.

One of the great things about DVD is that classic television shows can be not only recalled but watched again. Some of them upon second viewing make you think "Did I really think this show was good?". But then again others make you realize that the shows you enjoyed from your youth were not just memories but were actually good shows. VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA is one of those series.

As with the previous releases of the series, SEASON 4 VOLUME 1, holds up as well as the rest. The improvement of color over black and white is an obvious one when comparing to season one. But the characters have now had a chance to develop on screen and become familiar to us all. Too bad the series left the air not long after.

The sixties gave us some of the greatest science fiction television ever seen. As early as THE TWILIGHT ZONE and moving forward to THE OUTER LIMITS we had anthologies that held our attention. And as for serialized tales, we had the original STAR TREK and more. No person helped this era out more so than Irwin Allen.

Allen was the creator of some of the most remembered sci fi series from the time including THE TIME TUNNEL, LOST IN SPACE, LAND OF THE GIANTS and of course VOYAGE. Each of these series has had a release to DVD and have had the opportunity to give those of us children of the sixties the chance to relive those moments that held our attention each week, an hour at a time, as we watched incredible worlds unfold before our eyes.

As for VOYAGE, the story mixed a combination of military and peacenik in one. It told the tales of the submarine Seaview, a high tech sub designed and operated by Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart), a man who sees great things for the future and who uses his sub not as an offensive weapon but as a means to an end to help people around the globe.

Along with Nelson are several main characters. The main one of these was Capt. Lee Crane (David Hedison), his second in command. While Nelson offered an elder statesman, Crane was the young eye candy to draw in girls, a man of action who took control when needed. Robert Dowdell as Lt. Comdr. Chip Morton, Del Monroe as Kowalski and Arch Whiting as Sparks helped round out the all male cast as they tackled world crises around the globe, saving the world over and over again.

This particular season gave us a number of items to be concerned about opening with an episode that showed the Seaview tossed about was a volcano was about to blow cracking the world in two. Vincent Price paid a visit to the Seaview as a puppeteer who took control of various crewmen. A well loved plot device of the sixties, the ability of a bad guy to transform his appearance to do harm to whoever he chose was used. And time travel was brought into the picture again as well.

VOYAGE played out like STAR TREK taken to inner space instead of outer and with an all male crew instead of one more integrated. But then TREK was in the future and VOYAGE in the present. Scenes of both ships being tossed about due to either underwater explosions or photon torpedoes gave us the cast tossing themselves about from side to side of the set. One could expect anyone from either cast feeling comfortable changing sets.

For me it was glorious to watch as the flying sub once again lifted off out of the bottom of the Seaview and broke surface to fly across the sky. Like many I was lucky enough to have purchased the Aurora model kit and make my own flying sub to take a place of honor on the top of my desk. To find one today means a prolonged ebay search and paying an arm and a leg. Better it remains a fond memory.

Not so this series. It no longer has to be a memory. Instead it is something that can be enjoyed again and again. And it can be shared with my son and later perhaps my grandchildren.

One of the best things that we can take with us, those of us who watched these shows when they were fresh and new, is the sense of hope that they offered. Rather than a post apocalyptic world of bombed out buildings and survivors clad in furs and remnants of clothing, we were shown a world where we could use science to help build a better world. We were offered a world where not just races and genders got along but aliens as well. Wouldn't it be great if the world had that same sense of hope once more? Perhaps sharing these old television shows might just be the first step in that direction.