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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three Volume One
01/07/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
region 1. pub: 20th Century Fox B000O77SOU. 3 double-sided DVDs 507 minutes 13 * 50 minute colour episodes plus extras. Price: $29.98 (US). Stars: Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Buy Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three in the USA - or Buy Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three in the UK  check out www.foxtvdvd.com
Season three of 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' lost crewman Reilly and brought in the Seaview's reactor room and a modification to the divers' hatch with a tube to show the water being drained. There is also a singular absence of the video phone in Nelson's cabin. These thirteen episodes include stories where the Seaview is sunk once more and the lost of another Flying Sub although I suspect one other instance had an off-screen retrieval. I doubt if even the Nelson Institute could afford to replace them all.
In many respects, this first section of the third season is a mixed bag. 'The Lost Bomb' is easily the worst scripted mostly cos the cast are constantly explaining what they are doing. It also has some superb episodes which under different circumstances would have worked equally well in 'The Twilight Zone'. 'The Day The Earth Ended' guest-starring Skip Homier (his second appearance but in a different part) has the Earth's population disappear and Nelson and Crane having to figure it out.
How much of it is in the mind is never fully explained but its an errie unforgettable episode. The same could be said for 'The Death Watch' where Crane and Nelson are pitted against each other in a deserted Seaview with only Chief Sharkey acting as referee in a game to test subliminal control goes more than a little wrong. The ending glosses over a little but does reveal that equipment left over from earlier demonstrations means the Seasview can go on automatic and explains why there are fewer officers present now. If nothing else, it can reduce costs for bottle shows. 'Night Of Terror' shows the effects of breathing in hallucengenic volcanic gases when stranded on an island to good effect.
The crew has a couple more alien encounters with 'The Terrible Toys' being another favourite and a reminder that you should never pick up castaways without keeping a guard on them or their belongings. The 'Monster From The Inferno' has an alien bubble-like creature taking control of the crew and inflating all over the place. Even the Exec, Chip Morton, loses his cool in that one. 'Day Of Evil' has an alien impersonating Nelson in an attempt to launch the Seaview's nuclear missiles.
A different set of aliens in 'Deadly Invasion' take an alternative route and impersonate one of Nelson's dead WW2 buddies (played by Warren Stevens before he did a similar thing on 'Star Trek') who want to steal the nuclear power off an undersea base for their own ends.
This season also showed its dig into monsters with 'Werewolf' (which gets a second appearance in another episode), 'Thing From Inner Space' (which has a creature Sharkey only hallucinated in 'Night Of Terror' show up) and 'The Plant Man' (which brings a seaweed man-thing to life). 'The Haunted Submarine' brings back an ancestor of Nelson and despite some interesting step-outs is also the first time they smoke and weird effects are used to denote disappearances.
As you should be able to tell by the way I'm telling these things, all these episodes have something memorable about them. L.B. Abbott is doing the special effects alone now. Granted there is still a lot of stock footage being used but its combined with new material which even after forty-two years is still impressive. The background music is something worth noting and includes some by the late Alexander Courage. I'm surprised no company has thought of releasing it on CD because a lot of it is better than mood music.
As I've commented in the past couple months, its cheaper to buy the first three seasons as a boxset than individually. If you've never seen the series before I think you'll have something of a surprise. It holds up remarkably well today from story content and effects. About the only thing missing this time around is female guest-stars. Still, you can't have everything.
GF Willmetts
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