From Season 2, Episode 18.
Original Airdate: January 23, 1966.
When the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, Nelson’s plan to extinguish the blaze is thwarted by a misguided U.N. official.
This episode is almost an exact copy of the plot for the movie “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” on which the series was based. You might wonder if they could do that, well if you’re Irwin Allen, who was the producer and director of both the movie and the series and also co-wrote the movie, then there is no reason not to recycle a perfectly good script and special effects.
There are many episodes of Voyage that are much better than this one. Season one is outstanding, and two has a number of good eps. Three is probably the weakest, but there are a few gems, and four has several good eps. It was a good series, with good values, and IMHO, dated as it is in places, it outshines much of the drek that is on Television Today.
Linda Delaney
http://www.daffronanddelaney.com
http://thethunderchild.com/Television/1960s/VoyageBottomSea/VTTBOTS.html
http://volcanoseven.com/TheThunderChild/AmazonOnlyReady/VoyageCharacters.html
This was a good episode, re-written from the film script and story by William Welch. In the opinion of many who were involved, however, the first season is felt to be the best. The second, when they went to color, was also good, tho the trend toward the less than believable eps began to evolve. Thank ABC television for the change, not Irwin, as people do. The third season is probably the one with the fewest redeemable eps, for season four, they were trying to turn it around somewhat.
It still was a milestone series, the only science fiction series to run for four years on major network television.
Linda Delaney
http://www.daffronanddelaney.com
http://thethunderchild.com/Television/1960s/VoyageBottomSea/VTTBOTS.html
http://volcanoseven.com/TheThunderChild/AmazonOnlyReady/VoyageCharacters.html
Agreed, but that is the evolution of many TV series. They start off strong, then get stale as the writers run out of plots or the series gets “tweaked” to try to reach a broader or different audience. Then when the show is in trouble, they try returning to its roots. “Man from UNCLE” followed the same trajectory, IMO.
Voyage didn’t get ‘stale’. It underwent several major changes. The first, and in one sense the most dramatic, was the move to color. It changed the boat, went to four windows from eight, added the flying sub, changed the uniform of the ratings (from denims to colored jumpsuits), added a ‘teen interest’, and replaced the deceased CPO with a new one, who developed a great chemistry with the star of the show.
The second change, as dramatic in a sense for the fans, was the move to Sunday night. ABC decided it needed ‘punch’ in its’ Sunday night lineup, against Disney on NBC and Lassie on CBS. In one swoop, it moved the series to ‘the family hour’ on Sunday nights, and began the change in the show from the serious tone of the first season, to a more science fiction genre. At that point, many of the scripts had to go through considerable revisions, because of the content, and the mandate from Standards and Practices, to keep it in ‘the family ‘ context. No blood, no pain, no grunts or groans, any damage, do it off screen.
Protect the ‘family hour’ at all costs, story not withstanding. If it could offend in the family hour, then change the script, and make it ‘safe’ – translation – silly to ridiculous. Not the fault of the writers, they were following the mandate of the network. Make it something that kids could watch, safely.
The second season became a mix of good and bad, in terms of quality of the stories, but the third season became the one that everyone associates with all of the seasons. It was full of monsters, aliens and other sundry characters, designed to appeal to the younger viewers. What the network didn’t know was that a good portion of the viewers were older, were female and were watching the show, not as much for the stories, as wild as they were becoming, but because of the dynamic of the leads of the show, and the chemistry with the regulars. That’s not to say the kids weren’t watching, but as can be seen by the demographics of the fans, 45+ years later, the appeal was far broader than they imagined.
All in all, yes the writers wrote the stories, but the network controlled what went on the screen. The producer could complain, and he often did, but not too much, as he didn’t want his ‘cash cow’ to be taken off the air before his other projects, be it Lost in Space, Time Tunnel or Land of the Giants, had at least the opportunity to see the light of day. If it hadn’t been for the success of Voyage, Irwin most likely would not have been the first producer to have three prime time science fiction television shows on the three major networks at one time.
Personally, I’m grateful that Irwin handled things as he did. I would have loved to have seen better material for David, Robert, Richard, Terry, Del, Allan and the rest of the cast, as much as they desired it. But we have four years, 110 episodes of a great action/adventure/science fiction series to rewatch and appreciate again and again.
And I for one am very happy about that.