VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA- DEADLY CREATURE BELOW!

 VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE   SEA

DEADLY CREATURE BELOW!

Writer-William Reed Woodfield, Allan Balter

Dir-Sobey Martin           

 

Teaser

Seaview fires a missile up as an officer on the map plots it. Meanwhile at the Crown Penal Colony in the Grand Bahamas two prisoners escape, climbing a tree over an electric fence while tower guards shoot machine guns. They fight a guard outside the fence and Dobbs punches him into the fence, killing the man. The two make off in a rowboat. Nelson and Sharkey will take the diving bell, which now is faster and can cut the time it used to go down in by half, down to plant a device on the bottom. Riley hands the guidance device which is one million and a half bucks. Seaview is on the surface as the bell is released to 8240 feet with 2000 feet toward bottom. If the bottom is solid enough, Nelson will plant the guidance and destruct mechanism--which can fire retaliatory rockets without a programmed target. Riley in the periscope sees two men clinging to an overturned rowboat, both almost unconscious. Chip calls the rescue detail. Nelson photographs fish but suddenly the fish leave. A red faced two headed giant seaweed like thing is on the bottom waiting for the diving bell!

 

Act One

Crane sees the men on the rowboat using the Missile Room TV monitor. Ski brings the bell up. Nelson and Sharkey didn't see the giant monster. The two men are brought down the conning tower to the control room and sickbay. Doc (Wayne Heffley) and Nelson talk to the men. The coarse one is Francis J Dobbs and his partner is Joe Hawkins. Nelson lends Dobbs cigarettes and tells them he is going to the Grand Bahamas in the Flying Sub--the two men who claim to be fishermen--will go with him. The two are left alone in sickbay to plot--why? Dobbs plans to get them to Brazil where there is no extradition treaty--they can't be sent back to the prison. Sharky and Ski in the galley talk--Ski thinks the two men are as phony as a six dollar bill. The men told the Seaviewers they rented a boat in Miami and drifted. Ski didn't see a rental number. Sharkey calls him Sherlock. Ski warns Sharkey who tells him to save his deductions for his income tax. Ski raises a fist behind Sharkey in a teasing way. The men go into the missile room despite Crane's objections that it is a restricted area. Nelson tells Crane to stop worrying about the men. The men look at the detailed Seaview plans on the wall--it has the arsenal and Flying Sub dock locations. Crane tells the men the plans are classified. Dobbs tells him they have everything on this sub but a pool room. Dobbs and Hawkins go near the bell. Hawkins distracts the men by going near one of the nuclear missile cylos and opening it. While he does, Dobbs oils the clutch control on the winch, then he and Hawkins leave the missile room. The bell drops fast and drops at the monster! To equalize the fall, Nelson opens main valves all the way. We hear the familiar shaking sound effects as the monster's face appears at the bell's window. The bell goes up as we see sunlight (this low?) coming down from the surface. Nelson and Sharkey are unconscious. Dobbs gets a gun and Hawkins a rifle. Nelson and Sharkey come out of the bell while Dobbs and Hawkins take over the control room. An officer hits an alarm so Hawkins shoots him down--most likely dead. Dobbs makes Chip open the Flying Sub hatch. Nelson and Crane run in and there is a gun fight. Dobbs closes the crash doors and he and Hawkins race up the circle ladder--Hawkin's leg hit by Nelson (in the promo material it was Crane who shot him and when shot, Hawkin's machine gun fire hit the ballast controls). The gun fight resulted in the crooks' bullets wildly hitting the ballast tanks control and they flood. Seaview heads at the bottom...and the beast!

 

Act Two

The gun battle also caused the crash doors to be stuck with only a crack opening between them. Chip calls--there is a ledge ahead. (HOLD ON: Chip, just before the gun battle was taken into the nose area by the crooks--why didn't they use him as a hostage--did they forget he was there?). Seaview tilts down and Crane crashlands it on a ledge. Dobbs and Hawkins in the hallway hear Crane's announced warning to hold on. Dobbs and Hawkins are hiding in a small storeroom where Dobbs (not of F TROOP) smokes (phewie!). Hawkins needs a Doc for his leg. Nehemiah Persoff is quite good as Dobbs and here he shines as the unsympathetic crook. A crewman comes in so Dobbs hits him down. They go into the hall and find a vent. Nelson tells Crane the auto pressure on the ballast is weakened. Crane tells him he contacted the FBI about the crooks' records: robbery, kidnapping, and murder. Nelson tells him not to take any chances with these two--shoot first. Crane sees too much pressure on the tanks so someone has to go down and free the main control valves in the vent--manually. Sharkey talks Crane into letting him. The vents, reached by a lower compartment are filled with water. Sharkey has to go in as the pressure rises from 196 to 205 while Ski waits outside talking to him on radio. Sharkey has to use a torch on the valve to free it. As pressure rises to 222, Sharkey coughs but makes it up. Music during this part comes from ESCAPE FROM VENICE (Nelson Riddle-composed). We also see a young ensign--younger than most seen before and after who is with Ski and Sharkey. Seaview blows main tanks and rises up. The monster is nearby. Dobbs and Hawkins go down the ladder and the crash doors are still partially opened a crack--from which Hawkins wants to shoot Nelson through as he stands at the computer with his back to them. Hawkins takes aim.

 

Act Three

Dobbs stops him and the pair go to the Flying Sub ladder and down. It don't look like any plane--Hawkins tells Dobbs who says all planes are the same. They find the checklist to launch. They open the keel hatch under it. Power is put on. Sparks gives Riley a message from Washington DC--they want the guidance control device report. Flying Sub launches as Nelson and Crane watch it sail off. Nelson is worried about the guidance device which Riley and Crane has put on it for him to take to Washington DC. Dobbs tries to fly the Flying Sub like a plane. Nelson calls him and tries to help--open left rudder. Hawkins tells Dobbs to do as Nelson says--ease up on the planes and back your engines. The Seaview commanders watch as the Flying Sub hits the bottom. Seaview seems to have smaller fins in the First Season as we see stock from Season one as it drops past a ledge. The crooks see the monster (the Flying Sub windows look too large in a few scenes but the effects are okay). It gets the Flying Sub. Dobbs calls Nelson, yelling for him. Soon, Seaview will go below crush depth. Nelson tells him they need that prototype device. Seaview goes down and we hear loud shaking sound effects. Dobbs stops Hawkins from trying to get out the top of the Flying Sub, "Not fast enough pal."  Crane and Nelson see the creature from the window of Seaview. Crane says, "It's playing with the Flying Sub as if it were a toy."  Nelson suggests a laser beam without hitting the Flying Sub. Crane fires twice and it lets it go. Flying Sub hits bottom again. Nelson asks if they are all right. Dobbs sees the thing...it is still alive. Seaview moves over Flying Sub and Chip activates the magnetic recovery. It is picked up. Seaview clears the thing but an explosion occurs and everyone shakes. The main tanks blew and Seaview drops again---to 4900 feet. The engine room cannot reverse the diving planes--the pressure might make them snap off. They will bleed the line and tie it down. Dropping to 5900 feet the beast moves in. They empty the port ballast and plan to jettison torpedoes and missiles to make the sub lighter. Nelson demands a guard on the Flying Sub hatch when Crane asks about Dobbs and Hawkins. Sharkey closes the crash doors manually. Hawkins shoots his rifle up the hatch at Kowalski and Ski falls, holding his head!

 

Act Four

Hawkins and Dobbs go up the ladder again. A man fixes a leak of gas and water. Dobbs knocks him out. Dobbs and Hawkins go to the missile room. Nelson tells them they can't go outside but Dobbs slaps him. The pressure will kill them in 30 seconds. Nelson grabs a frightened Hawkins and holds him. Dobbs shoots and kills Hawkins, then goes out the hatch. The beast attacks Seaview fully now as it sinks more and more. Nelson falls with the mike--which looked unplanned. Almost a blooper or very good acting of being annoyed by the fall and almost losing or being hit in the face by the mike! He tells Crane to move them into firing position and he will fire a missile from there. Gee, aren't they too close? We hear music from LEVIATHAN. Crane tells Nelson on the next roll they go. Nelson fires it and Crane orders Seaview ahead full...there is only a ten second delay fuse on the missile. The beast blows up. Seaview is hit from behind by bubbles.

 

Tag

Seaview is on the surface, Ski's head was only grazed. Nelson tells Crane to make a 360 degree sweep of the area in the remote possibility Dobbs might be alive. Crane asks him if Dobbs would have done the same for us, to which Nelson says, "No, human life meant no more to him than to that creature out there."  Crane says, "At least the creature never had a chance to be something else."

Nelson says, "Who knows...perhaps Dobbs never did either."

 

NOTE: The galley was seen quite a lot in this season. This season almost had reoccurring set pieces set up in the script: the lab of Nelson's, the galley and the talk scene among the lower crew--setting up the plot in a more down to earth talk, the nose which usually served to end the story in the epilogue tag, and others. It gave the show some consistency. The special effects in DEADLY CREATURE BELOW are magnificent and well worth the episode; however the script as presented in the aired version leaves some things unclear---what is this prototype, why is the missile shot up and is it in the Bahamas--if so where--at the bottom and what does it have to do with the device being planted on the bottom by Sharkey and Nelson? Also--did the missile go down and is that what they are looking for in the bell? Why are two strangers not looked into until they cause so much trouble and why are they let free to roam around Seaview? Why did they just let Chip go during the gun battle? This episode was supposed to be called ESCAPE and the viewmaster reels used this story. The monster appeared in LOST IN SPACE in THE RAFT and PRISONERS OF SPACE and in VOYAGE'S first seasoner THE CONDEMNED. It would feature again in VOYAGE via stock in SECRET OF THE DEEP (which used quite a bit from DEADLY CREATURE BELOW!).