VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA -THE DEADLIEST GAME

 VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA 

THE DEADLIEST GAME

Writer-Rik Vollaerts

Dir-Sobey Martin

 

Teaser

General Hobson, owner of Grosvenor Dynamics Firm is on Seaview with Nelson when they get a call from Crane and the President in the diving bell. Crane and the President, with the Chiefs of Staff, arrive via bell to Deep Center--a giant boulder opening up to allow them inside. En route, the President asks about a poker game. No attack can touch the President in Deep Center. To a party of officials from the Pentagon, Crane mentions it is July 14th, 1978. When he demonstrates Deep Center's controls, a panel sparks and a fire starts!

 

Act One

Nelson uses Seaview on the bottom while divers search and find a cable which can help them contact Deep Center and the Pentagon if need be. Nelson doesn't want to alarm the Pentagon just yet. Hobson wants to contact them. They manage to get Deep Center on the screen. Hobson's company installed the nuclear reactor in Deep Center and Nelson designed it. The manual reactor controls are locked, the electronic functions are jammed by some high intensity radio beam. General (how'd HE get to be a general?) Reed Micheals is concerned--who is the attack coming from? Hobson tells Nelson and the others they know very well from whom. "Our nation will be wiped out by we know who."  Seaview tracks the beam. Nelson tells Crane to go into the reactor and move the dampening rods by hand. Crane in a protective suit goes into the Nuclear Reactor--the outside of which looks just like the set from the movie VOYAGE; the latter interior room is a lot like the later reactor room used in season three and four (notably in DAY OF EVIL). Crane and two men in radiation suits try but the lock is frozen. In the smaller room, someone blows up the Reactor Fusing Circuitry--we see smoke and sparks but no explosive sound accompanies this. Sparks gets the radio beam--32-108-24-16 and the beam is constantly changing frequencies using 6 different wavelengths--the same amount used for Deep Center. Crane and the men get out; Crane spots the sabotage and reports this to the President who says, "Do we ever know a man really well?" when asked about those with him. Crane takes precautions and puts a guard on the President and declares the main room out of bounds. Crane suggests dumping the fuel; Nelson doubts that will work. The President reappoints General Hobson as his Chief of Staff to the Vice President, admitting Hobson is good in times of war, even if he doesn't agree with everything Hobson does. General Micheals doesn't think that is a good idea. The President retired Hobson--who was a five star general at one time and there wasn't such a furor since the MacArthur incident in the 1950s. Hobson smokes (uh-oh, he must be evil). Nelson is told by Hobson that we are at war. Hobson says an all out nuclear attack is what he would begin right now as he, Chip, and Nelson talk in Nelson's cabin. Nelson answers, "Thank Heaven you don't have that power."  Hobson says, "When the President and the Chief of Staffs are dead...you'll see."  

 

Act Two

Waymouth, Virginia is where the beam is coming from. Chip knows of it--he used to play football against the college there. It is a small college town. Nelson knows of it also. Chip suggests that since it is a small town and everyone knows everyone, perhaps this plot was masterminded and implemented a long time ago. Hobson wants to get his staff together. Nelson doesn't tell him they found out where the beam came from--he tells Chip there is no need for Hobson to know yet. He does tell the President and Crane. The President accepts Nelson's judgement not to tell Hobson yet. The beam strikes Seaview. A man with a sailor hat on and carrying a food tray falls (this is from the movie version of VOYAGE or the first episode or both!). Seaview is out of control. We see four windows, two windows, eight windows! Hobson, flown via Flying Sub, to the Pentagon, calls Nelson on the screen after a scramble. Nelson won't tell Hobson the coordinates of the target, avoiding it in their conversation but Hobson's already picked it up. He will meet Nelson at Dolan Air Force Base. Nelson tells Chip they must change their plans. They go up to his cabin. Chip will wait one mile off shore. Nelson suspects Hobson and tells Chip if he has to--use the red dog code to tell the President or Vice President. In civilian clothes, Sharkey, Nelson, and Kowalski fly in the Flying Sub, soon they meet Hobson in a hotel. Hobson doesn't want to contact the President. Nelson uses the code Badger to Sea Dog (Chip being Sea Dog). Chip uses the code White Horse Complex. Chip calls the President warning him about Hobson using the code Man on Horseback. Crane finds it hard to believe--he admired Hobson. President has to decide which it is: an enemy attack from outside or Hobson and his internal treason---if it is an attack from outside--he looks at the red phone to the Pentagon. 

 

Act Three

Nelson has a signal device which registers his heart beat to Sharkey. If it squeals, he is dead. Hobson returns and changes. He wants a man of action leading against the attackers. Nelson tells him this is no time for politics but gets Hobson to agree to stay at the hotel. Hobson says there will be a call for active duty soon, Seaview will be commissioned, and he acts as if the President is already dead. Nelson says, "Don't act on your plans until you know for sure that I'm dead."  When the three leave, Hobson calls using code--Number One to Dagger. The three Seaviewers drive a car to the college; Nelson overhears Hobson calling for their demise, "What men won't do for power."  They find the beam may be at the College Administration Building--the loft at the top most likely (this long shot stock shot looks like a house from PANIC in LAND OF THE GIANTS). Sharkey stays back while Nelson and Ski go past an old cannon monument. Nelson uses a bomb on a man who points a rifle at them, Ski shoots another. Another man uses gas on Ski. Nelson helps him back to Sharkey. Nelson orders Sharkey to detain Hobson. Sharkey asks if he can get tough and when Nelson tells him to, he says, "I always wanted to push around a five star general."  Hobson destroys the radio in the hotel room as Sharkey returns. He pulls a gun on Hobson who whips him down nevertheless. At dark fall, Ski uses the radiation leakage fix to find the beam again. The sets of the college are wonderful and look outdoor-like. Nelson tells him to go ahead, "I'll be right on your tail."  Going into the college bookshop or library, a woman there mistakes him for a college summer student. Nelson comes in and introduces Ski to her--Dr. Lydia Parrish, who as a physicist has done marvelous work. She helped in the construction of Deep Center. She looks at Nelson, "You always were kind."  Nelson and Ski pulls guns; Lydia pulls a ray gun device. "You always were a flatterer--you turned my head you know."  She tells them one man in Deep Center deserves to die. Since an electrical discharge is infinitely faster than a bullet, her ray gun fires and knocks both men to the floor!

 

Act Four

Deep Center's reactor is beyond the safety level into the danger point. In the Ward Room, Crane assembles all the men: Micheals, two Admirals, and two officers. Micheals reveals himself as the saboteur with a gun. Crane shows him how much time they have--claiming Micheals is expendable to his co-horts. Crane uses the geiger counter to show him---then tosses at the traitor and punches him down. He is taken out. An agent opens a bookcase in the college bookstore and we hear FANTASTIC VOYAGE sound effects--which after that movie were used as the Jupiter II sound effects. Lydia tells Nelson and Ski that the effects of the electric gun will soon wear off and the pain will subside. Hobson comes in and asks Nelson, "Did you enjoy playing spy?"  Lydia stops Nelson's device, making Chip think he is dead. Chip tells two Seaview officers that he will go after the beam source. Chip takes the mini sub ashore (mini sub not seen) and he is immediately attacked after removing his wet suit. He avoids the shooter but leaving the beach side forest, he runs to a gas station where he sees a sailor in a jeep getting gas. The killer shoots and Chip ducks---and the sailor is shot and killed. The gas attendant runs but Chip jumps into the jeep and rides off. When Hobson says he will be remembered as a hero, Nelson finishes Hobson's sentence, "...right up there with Benedict Arnold."  Odd that since Nelson and crew will actually meet the real Benedict Arnold in about a year and a half! Hobson leaves to return to Washington. Lydia has found another transmitter on Nelson. She opens it. Nelson waits a few seconds, then pushes Ski out of the way. A blast--a booby trap from the other device--knocks the agents and Lydia down and away. Sharkey pulls up in a jeep and sees Chip who asks about his black eye. Sharkey says, "I got a medal from a five star general."  Chip tells Sharkey the Admiral is dead and the men who killed him are in there--the book store. Sharkey rushes into the store with Chip right behind him...to find...Nelson stopping the transmitter beam. When Crane berates himself because he feels his efforts weren't good enough, the President tells him he knows he did all he could do. Nelson and the three men from Seaview find Hobson in the hotel room trying to reach the Vice President. I wonder why Hobson returned there? He ignores them when they first barge in, telling them to go away! The President is alive and Hobson is put under arrest.

 

Tag

The President sends Seaview a commendation. He told Crane that a man learns a great deal sitting on top of an armed nuclear bomb for 24 hours. Nelson says, "I can think of a number of important people in this world of ours that would profit enormously from the same experience."

 

NOTE: VOYAGE, it seemed, could go no wrong. THE LEFT HANDED MAN, ESCAPE FROM VENICE, THE PEACEMAKER, LEVIATHAN, and THE DEADLIEST GAME all one after the other made for great action and entertainment. The second season was shaping up to be a real pleaser and the Flying Sub didn't hurt! It almost made the Mini Sub useless. This story seemed almost to make me wonder if the bad guys weren't originally supposed to be a Southern plot to take over the Union, based on a Civil War vendetta. Character interplay was fairly strong in this story and most of the tales surrounding it. One need not know all the backstory to Lydia's near fling with Nelson--if it was that--some mystery is a good thing--but it was pretty apparent that she was a well developed character (no pun intended). We also didn't need to know all about her background and history to feel her as a good character...a real person. The same can be said for almost all the guest stars in the second season.