VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA-THE MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE

 

THE MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE

Writer-William Reed Woodfield

Dir-James Clark

 

Teaser

A space probe is returning from Saturn with something on it. This is picked up as being alive. Forced penetration reentry, Space Command figures, will kill it. The man in command calls someone named Wilson (Mark? or relative?). Seaview will recover the rocketship but the capsule comes down and sinks since its floatation device won't work. It sinks to the floor of the ocean--the life form still alive! (NOTE: Sparks in not in the radio shack--there is some older man with white hair.)

 

Act One

New interior angles in the Control Room give us never before seen views of the ceiling. Crane and two divers in gear, swim out to the capsule and moving in, see the growth moving...alive. A crewman attacks it with a speargun and it wraps him up. Crane frees him with his speargun. Nelson sends down torches on the cable hook (NOTE: the surface appears to be only a few feet above the capsule). The growth roars but then vanishes. Crane thinks it melted. They attach the cable and bring it up into Seaview's lower hatch and in. Nelson orders the capsule covered in acid foam and ultraviolet light and calls Sparks to notify Space Center. Crane is wearing his puke green sweater for some reason. Men in protective suits decontaminate the capsule and get the instrument package out. Sharkey lets the self admitted butterfingers Riley hold it, then takes it and gives it to a crewman he calls "Mack" but this is probably more of nickname or phrase Sharkey uses to call others also (such as Frank in AND FIVE OF US ARE LEFT). Nelson and Sharkey take the instrument pack in the Flying Sub toward the carrier. After the Flying Sub leaves, Chip, interestingly enough, calls Mr. O'Brien (who was a semi regular in the first season) to take Seaview to the surface and secure the missile room. Ski does this but the growth rises out of the capsule like a blob.

 

Act Two

Sparks calls the Huron carrier as the Flying Sub must use the new fog cutter to see their route to landing on the scanner screen on the console. The others on Seaview see the Flying Sub view on the Seaview scanner. Nelson lands nicely in the fogged in Carrier with a mere bump. He looks at a slide of the form of life--it is not a nitrogen cycle organism. It shows signs of self regeneration, an ability to shrink and grow and it has some kind of central nervous system. In Seaview's Missile Room, the thing blobs out, shocks Riley into inactivity, engulfs him, then lets him go a shivering wreck on the deck. He recovers, with two red marks on his neck, then leads Kowalski and two others (who didn't hear all that noise during Riley's attack!) to it. Riley watches unnerved as it engulfs all three. Later, Ski feels okay, then has to get Mr. Morton to go through it. He lures Chip to it. An older man is in the radio shack again. Crane calls Nelson who tells him to rendezvous with the carrier. Crane gives Riley orders but the boy ignores him and merely stares at him. He will wait for Morton; Chip scolds Riley in front of Crane and privately. He wants Doc (the Wayne Hefley Doc) to be part of them. But Chip finds Doc is already taken over. Seaview is on the surface--effective shot of a big and darker Seaview model. Crane gets ready for sleep. Doc tells him Riley is fine, just stressed. Crane takes out a gun after Doc leaves, Doc being a bit strange himself this night. Crane sleeps but the giant blob knocks down his door and comes at him. He fires a gun into it but it engulfs him and he fights against it but is taken in!

 

Act Three

Seaview is underwater. Crane almost died from struggling so violently. Doc tells Chip this. The crash doors open to the nose and they see the blob in its full form there. It shrinks to invisibility. Seaview heads at Santa Barbara. Nelson and Sharkey are flying back. The organism can split into segments under a main central nervous system's control. Sharkey smiles, "At least it's not on Seaview."  Crane wants to make it easier for Nelson and Sharkey to be taken over. If they don't know what hits them, it will be less painful. Chip objects to this but Crane tells him he is still in command. The thing moves onto conning table. Nelson returns and wonders why Seaview is only going 12 knots since the carrier is going at 27. Crane lies about why. Sharkey and Nelson go to the missile room to check out the instruments. Condensers and heat exchangers are fine. The thing grows quietly out of hiding and then is seen. Nelson hits an alarm and in an alarming scene, no one responds to his alarm--the men just stand around. Eerie. The old man is in the radio room. Nelson uses a torch on the thing; Sharkey opens a hatch and goes; Nelson shoves the torch at it and follows. Crane hopes they didn't fight it like he did. The two rush down the circle ladder to the control room and get rifles. Nelson gives one to Crane and leads them all to the missile room. No one listens to Sharkey's commands until Crane tells them to. The search for the beast is futile. When they rendezvous, Nelson intends to take the ship apart. The Seaview pilot doesn't answer Nelson who finds out they are moving away from the carrier. Nelson yells, "How dare you disobey my orders!"  Crane tells him he tried to make it easy for him and then acknowledges the monster, which is in full form in the control room nose! Nelson tells Sharkey what Crane is babbling about, "He means that thing has taken them over. That's what's wrong with everyone on this ship!"  Duh. Crane goes on, "We're all one Admiral. Eventually everyone in the world will be part of one great organism."   Nelson says, "You mean slaves to that?"  Crane says, "Yes,"  then orders the others to, "Take them!"

 

Act Four

The two get away, Crane ordering them to be killed. Nelson fires a fire hose at two crewmen who gave chase; then on two others. The thing blocks the twosome. They go to the galley and climb out through the air vent, Nelson firing off his rifle through the vent in the exit door first. Crane orders men at all vent exits. Sharkey and Nelson exit into Nelson's lab, locking them out. They must stop the thing before it reaches Santa Barbara...and the world. Sharkey asks how...nothing seems to stop it. Nelson figures it must have a brain and when Sharkey asks, "Like us?"  he tells the Chief probably not but it must be something like us and electrical. Sharkey wouldn't want to be caught in with it but Nelson says, "Maybe I would."   Chip sends teams to ducts. Nelson rigs up 10,000 volts and insulation under his shirt. Sharkey will keep the current going until the monster is dead. Before they start out, Sharkey has to shoot a crewman out of the ducts using another fire hose. The monster crashes right through the lab wall!

 

Tag

Crane and Chip come in to the lab. Nelson tells them he is tired of fighting and walks into it, yelling to Sharkey, "Now!"  Sharkey, despite Chip's trying to hold him back from it, presses the control button on the rigged wiring. Everyone falls and the thing dies. Crane comes to in Nelson's cabin. Nelson tells him it had a different chemistry from people on Earth. It planted electrical impulses into the victims' brains to control them. HEY, WAIT---DIDN'T THE CARRIER HURON HAVE A SAMPLE OF THE MONSTER...IT STILL WAITS....

 

NOTES: As bad as this sounds and as bad as its reputation is, this is not all that bad. There are some pretty chilling sequences and the landing on the carrier was an added bonus used with stock footage of landing on a carrier and some interesting shots of the Flying Sub from within and without. The monster is kind of goofy looking but there is something disturbing about it...never liked blobs...too frightening especially the original BLOB. This one set a trend of monsters from outer space taking over one or almost all of the crewmen or even making everyone on the sub vanish. A trend which produced some awful episodes such as DOOMSDAY ISLAND and DEADLY CLOUD, two of the worst. Certainly more would have been expected from William Reed Woodfield. Several episodes, mostly revolving (literally) around monsters, set the stage for sequels to appear. While this mostly happened in the third season, MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, left one sample of the monster on the carrier...didn't Nelson realize this.