VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA...AND FIVE OF US ARE LEFT

 ...AND FIVE OF US ARE LEFT

 

Writer-Robert Vincent Wright

Dir-Harry Harris

Music-Lenny Hayton-(includes often later used Flying Sub music)

 

Teaser

July 20, 1945--the US Tetra picks up a Japanese Lieutenant Nakamura out of the ocean. The Tetra is bombed by destroyers dropping depth charges and sinks. One man, Hill leaves his post as the ship is flooded and goes down, a bottle floating inside it.

 

Act One

A news report dated Nov. 16, 1973 tells of a bottle found on a beach and brought to Nelson. Nelson examines the bottle which was from the Tetra, lost at the close of the World War II, 28 years ago. The Navy lab tested it and it is authentic. The area of where the Tetra went down was combed--with no luck finding anything. All liberty parties are recalled. Nelson says, "You know, Capt. Crane, always prepared."  Crane is kissing a girl with some foreign accent named Brenda near his car and the ocean. Sharkey shows up and calls him to shove off at O.600. Brenda puts a hat him telling him that her chaperon was imaginary--his wasn't. Nelson and he address eight to nine officer in the control room. Hill, the one survivor, now dead, blamed Lt. Ryan for the loss of the Tetra. Sharkey brings down a new man named Frank Werden--he's been trained in the new sub scanner but has to align it first. The note found in the bottle gave the latitude and longitude and was written 140 days ago by Lt. Ryan--there are five men left alive. These include James Ryan, Tony Wilson (related to Mark?), Yeoman Burger Johnson, Corpsman Cliff Bates and Esaka Nakamura. In an undersea cave, they cook fish. Eight years ago Sims and York died in a cave in they tried to dig out. Ryan is thankful that the new cave they are building isn't shale-like. Riley asks Frank if he wants to play cards and tries to be nice as only he can. Frank remains cold and isolated. Nelson and Frank take off in the Flying Sub after Frank fixed the scanner trouble--a refraction circuit. Nakamura wants to take the ill Johnson's place in digging a new cave out but Johnson tells him he's already worked way beyond his share. Nakamura still believes his people will come for them. While Johnson and Bates are in the cave the volcano blasts forth several times, dirt coming down.

 

Act Two

The Flying Sub transmission to Seaview is better than ever. Nelson and Frank fly over the crater in the Flying Sub. Bates, below, is dead, The men pull Johnson out and hear a weird sound--the Flying Sub. They recall when a man named Smith ("Oh dear!") heard voices and tried to climb the walls, out of his mind. Nakamura tells them to have faith. Nelson and Frank find an underwater cave and submerge. Crane warns them about the seismograph which Riley reported to him about--the volcano could blow. A current sweeps the Flying Sub into it and their transmission to Seaview is cut off. Nakamura appear to the other three survivors in his war uniform. Ryan forgot they were enemies. They are friends now and have been through a lot together. The men see the Flying Sub surface in the cavern near the old Tetra wreck. Ryan notices that something is wrong with it. It is turned on its side.

 

Act Three

Nelson wakes Frank up and hears tapping. Ryan and Wilson carry Frank out and to the small beach as Nakamura watches from behind rocks, hiding. Wilson asks, "That's thing's a sub..and it flies?" Nelson tells them they have to check its hull. Ryan offers that the old Tetra remains have a sealing compound they can use. Seaview's nuclear reactor is running hot as the sub approaches the caves. Crane closes collision screens. They watch on the forward monitor as the cave tightens. Nakamura swims to the bottom of the Flying Sub, gets it open with a tool (how? Isn't it magnetically closed or something?). Frank recovers from his bump on the head. Flying Sub motors are okay, the leak stopped, and the excess water pumped out. Nelson tells Frank that the Flying Sub stores--chocolate and canned ham are good to men who ate fish and seaweed for 28 years. Nelson tells Ryan they have to leave as soon as the tide turns. Ryan and the others can't find Nakamura--and want to--he's saved all of them at one time or another, helped them survive. Wilson points Ryan out to Frank, who asked which one of them was Ryan. Frank goes to Ryan and punches him. Ryan is Frank's father. Frank's mother is dead...he says out of shame. Wilson points to the Flying Sub---it sinks and turns over! Nakamura is on a small hillside rock--telling Nelson and Frank they lied about Japan's defeat. He sunk the Flying Sub. Nelson gives Johnson some medicine. The volcano blows somewhat. Seaview is trying to fight the tidal current and goes into the rocky tunnel. Chip tells Crane that up ahead the tunnel narrows, "We're going to be jammed in!"

 

Act Four

Crane shoots a torpedo even though Chip thinks it is too close to do so. This opens the tunnel more. Frank was born one month after Ryan set sail, Ryan tells him. Hill deserted his post and the men who survived can verify this. None of this makes any difference to Frank. Nelson tells Ryan that when a man carries a belly full of hate--a few words won't change it right away. Hill deserted his post Ryan insists. The Navy may reopen the investigation and Nelson tells Ryan that it won't be necessary for Nakamura, Wilson, and Johnson to testify. Wilson comes out of the rocks with the caught Nakamura and begins to choke the life out of him. He chokes him against Johnson's sickly body. Johnson makes Wilson stop by telling him he is our friend. Nakamura asks Johnson for forgiveness. Johnson hears him and nods, then dies. Wilson and Nakamura reconcile. Nelson talks to Frank about the act of forgiveness they have just seen. Frank calls Ryan a coward and Nelson yells, "Do you think a coward could command a submarine? Or survive here for all these years?"  Nakamura is quietly singing over Johnson's body and blames himself. Ryan tells him it's not true...Johnson would have died anyway. Wilson says, "None of us ever really expected to get out of here alive anyway."  Crane calls to him, "Permission to come aboard!"  Seaview is out 200 yards. Riley is with Crane. The volcano blows big time now! Ryan runs back for Nakamura who won't come with them in the raft. Frank and Nelson run to help them both into the raft. They row for their lives as the cave collapses. Seaview shakes. The lava blows high and the volcano explodes. Riley checks the seismograph, "Scratch one volcano."

 

Tag

Frank comes forward with Crane's permission. He and Ryan go aft to discuss their relationship. Nakamura tells Nelson about this happy reunion but their will be none for him. He will return to his country in disgrace. Nelson tells him he once read a poem by one of Nakamura's countrymen--a poem about spring and broken apple blossoms. Nakamura recites it, "In spring the broken apple blossom it flutters down, faded and forgotten, to hide its beauty in the cold earth and yet the pathetic apple blossom has a timeless flower and on another spring, will rise into a stronger tree."

 

Nelson tells him, "And that's the philosophy of your own people. Remember, many springs have come and gone since the war."  Nakamura walks closer to the nose to see the water on the surface and the light of the sun. He looks back at Nelson and smiles. Nelson walks back into the control room, happy.

 

NOTES: One of the best, if not the best VOYAGEs. It has a happy message, action, good solid characterizations, and a well done story. Japanese soldiers had been found alive years after the war, hiding in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere. Several TV shows including THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN have picked up on this story but VOYAGE's AND FIVE OF US ARE LEFT is the best of its kind, better than both of those. Hayton's new Flying Sub music is very good and sounds very nautical and marine-like as well as a bit military. It fits the Flying Sub and VOYAGE perfectly. The shots and special effects of the Flying Sub careening over the islands and the crater are magnificent to look at. It is also very nice to see the underwater sequences and the sinking of the Flying Sub. Riley is a good character and it is too bad he wasn't kept on for seasons three and four. He made quite a contrast to the others.