Take a Voyage...

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ran on ABC from 1964 - 1968 for a total of 110 episodes. Aside from Star Trek, Voyage is my all time favorite television series. From time to time, I will discuss the show, the actors, and episodes. Whether you like it or not. I'll kick it off today with an in depth look at the pilot episode.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Created and Produced by Irwin Allen
For 20th Century Fox Productions

Starring:
Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson
David Hedison as Captain Lee Crane
Bob Dowdell as Lt. Commander Chip Morton
Henry Kulky as Chief Curley Jones
Del Monroe as Seaman Kowalski

Eleven Days to Zero

Written and Directed by Irwin Allen

Episode Summary:

Admiral Nelson has eleven days to avert global disaster. Two massive seismic disturbances in the North Pole will cause gigantic tidal waves and devastate half the world. Nelson's plan is to set off a nuclear explosion exactly when the second quake begins, "breaking the backs of the tide waves before they form." However, an organization bent on world domination works to prevent Seaview from accomplishing her mission. It's a race against time to prevent the largest disaster in the history of the world.

Guest Cast:
Eddie Albert: Fred Wilson
Malone: Mark Slade
Dr. Gamma: Theodore Marcuse (additional footage: Werner Klemperer - uncredited)
The Chairman: Booth Colman
Air Force General: Hal Torey
Army General: Barney Biro
Sonar: Christopher Connelly (uncredited)

Observations:

A strong, if not particularly deep, pilot for the series. It is exactly what Irwin Allen wanted; fast paced, and action-packed, with drama, conflict, and no wasted time. Character conflicts are introduced and resolved with little soul searching. The story is much like the 1961 film; a world wide catastrophe threatens to kill millions. Nelson races to get to a specific area in order to detonate a nuclear explosion and stop the calamity. Along the way, they are pursued by an enemy sub, and a diving party is attacked by a giant octopus. Both of these sequences were taken from the film. The characters are defined by the roles they play in the plot, leaving the actors little to work with, however Richard Basehart gives Nelson the right amount of authority and gravitas to carry the hour, as well as the four years the series was on the air.

David Hedison has a tendency to shout his lines, a trait he would abandon with the coming of the series proper. His natural warmth radiates, and the easy chemistry between Basehart and Hedison is immediately apparent. Eddie Albert is grating as Fred Wilson, but warms up toward the end. This would be his only voyage on the Seaview.

Richard Basehart as Admiral Nelson

While filmed in color, a black and white print was made airing and the opening credits were edited to conform to the format of the series. There are a number of differences between the aired and unaired versions of the pilot. The opening and closing theme music is completely different, but still composed by Paul Sawtell (Sid Cutner is credited with orchestrations). The unaired episode is three minutes shorter, omitting the scenes of Captain Crane testing security and all related conversation. These scenes were in the original shooting script and their omission removes some of Kowalski's motivation for distrusting Crane. Also, by taking them out, there is no answer to Fred Wilson's comment regarding Crane's lack of imagination. Finally, the conversation in the observation nose provides Nelson and Crane with a longer introductory scene, which adds dimension and warmth to the characters.

Other scenes were reshot, mainly involving Dr. Gamma and his melodramatic gestures, including a moment where he sweeps a large model of the Seaview off his conference table. When it came time to refilm these sequences, Theodore Marcuse was not called back or was unavailable and Werner Klemperer stepped in. Their physical builds and vocal qualities are quite different, with the only real similarity being their lack of hair. Ironically, the one shot of Dr. Gamma's face, partially obscured by shadow, is of Klemperer. His work was left uncredited.

The remaining alterations consist of minor music changes, tighter editing, one line of dialog from Chip and the removal of the word "evil" from the descriptions of Gamma's organization.

Other Observations:

• Irwin Allen would direct and have a hand in writing all of his pilot episodes. The only regular episode directed by him, on any series, was "The Village of Guilt," which was filmed next but aired later.

David Hedison as Commander Lee Crane

• Dick Tufeld's narration at the start of the episode is the only use of this device in the series. Tufeld is best known for providing the voice of the Lost in Space robot, as well as narration for that series and The Time Tunnel. Del Monroe is credited as Delbert for the only time in the series. John Zaremba would go on to play Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time Tunnel, and would appear again on Voyage in the second season episode "Time Bomb." Booth Colman reappears as The Chairman in "The Mist of Silence," while Hal Torey played another General in the Lost in Space series pilot "The Reluctant Stowaway." The man controlling Dr. Gamma's drone plane is Paul Zastupnevich, Irwin Allen's assistant and costume designer. He would play enemy technicians or provide background voices, primarily in the first season. Ray Didsbury can be seen as one of the officers in the observation nose when Crane reports to Nelson. He was Basehart's stand-in who was also used as a background crewman for a number of episodes, and occasionally had lines of dialog.

This can't be good...

• The opening scene is notable for the level of violence portrayed. Two motorcycle riders are killed, Captain Phillips is shot in the head, and two men are burned alive in the car crash. However, the sequence is more graphic in the shooting script; bullets smashed through the roof, Phillip's head wound streamed blood, and Nelson's face was itself blood-smeared. While the series never shied away from a high body count, it was rarely portrayed this realistically. The motorcade sequence would be used in its entirety in the second season episode "The X-Factor."

• Nelson wore four stars on his collar in the 1961 film, while in the series he has three. He would gain a fourth star in "The Last Battle." No explanation for these changes was given.

• The envelope containing the top secret orders reads "Commander Lee B. Crane U.S.S. Seaview." While he would occasionally be addressed by his rank, he is most often referred to as "captain" or "skipper," befitting his position as master of the boat. We never learn what Crane's middle initial stands for. Additionally, in the film, the sub's prefix was USOS, while the series, for the most part, used SSRN (later mistakenly called SSNR by Sparks).

• Crane served with Nelson on the Nautilus, and was the Intercollegiate Middleweight Boxing Champion. Fred Wilson had some "prior dealings" with Crane which soured him on Crane's command ability, However these incidents were never explained.

• Nelson's cabin bears no resemblance to those seen in future episodes. The walls are white with a built in a bookcase and the desk is in the center of the small room. Afterward, the cabins would have wood grain paneling and become more spacious overall, while the position of the desk would change arbitrarily. Nelson also has a fire extinguisher and a large model of the Seaview. The same model sits on Dr. Gamma's conference table.

Emergency blow!

• Most of the footage of the Seaview is from the 1961 film, as well as scenes of the crew wearing colored badges (such as the man writing on the glass map, and the men in the mess). Shots of the sub on the frozen surface, however, were newly created, along with the drone plane used in the latter half of the episode.

• Nelson calls Crane "lad" several times in this episode. The intended father/son relationship gave way to one of close friendship.



Discrepancies:

• The narration tells us the Seaview's top secret submarine base is located "five hundred feet beneath the famed Nelson Institute of Marine Research." However, when Nelson's car leaves the dock, they exit directly onto street level. At no point did they ascend from hundreds of feet below.

• The painter applying the X on roof of Nelson's car should have been easily noticed by the rear guard in the motorcade. Further, the X changes size during the sequence, starting smaller and growing until reaching each corner of the roof.

Theo Marcuse in one of his remaining scenes.

• The sequence with the giant octopus is taken from the film. Close up shots of Crane reveal the face of "movie Crane" Robert Sterling.

• In the aired pilot, Klemperer as Dr. Gamma gives the order to have their sub fire on Seaview. He is wearing a blue suit. Seconds later, the next shot in the same scene is of Theo Marcuse wearing in a red smoking jacket.

• During the submarine battle, the actors can been seeing "falling up" in a few shots.

• The bomb attached to the snow cat is covered with frost after only being outside for a short time.

• When the snow cat returns, something resembling an open stage door can be seen the background. The painting is supposed to represent a flat snowy plain, and if this was to show an outcropping or snow mound, it is only one within view of the Seaview.

Whichever version you prefer, "Eleven Days To Zero" is a good pilot, and sold the series in grand style. However the best of the series was yet to come.

"I'll drink to that!"