Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Deadly Invasion

Season 3, Episode 10, Aired 11/20/66

Episode Summary

An alien race wants Admiral Nelson's help in taking over an undersea atomic base so they can replenish their fuel supply.

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Cast & Crew

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Richard Basehart

Admiral Nelson
David Hedison

Captain Crane
Terry Becker

Chief Sharkey

Fan Episode Reviews (1)

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This is an fair enough episode--not great, but not bad. The idea of a miniature invasion force was interesting.

8.7

"Great"

By dkhenderson1, Apr 17, 2008 Report Abuse

They start out thinking that the situation is merely an unusual meteor shower. This impression changes abruptly when a cluster of "meteors" suddenly changes course and heads directly for the Seaview. They try to duck, of course, but several of them hit, penetrating the titaneum hull. Sharkey fetches one of them to the Control Room in a plastic bucket. (Not very aesthetic, but practical.) The object simply looks like a bright red, 75 mm shell, with a smooth, unmarked surface. (The light blips showing on radar showed the same general shape, but comparatively large. Considering that the objects are only a foot long or so, they should have looked almost invisible on radar.)

Suddenly the smooth object is showing a line around the rounded point, and it abruptly pops open and releases a cloud of gas, knocking out everyone in the Control Room. Despite taking the brunt of the gas emission, Crane is the first one to recover somewhat. Ignoring the object (which has closed up again) he lunges for the controls, trying to get the Seaview back on trim. There's been a certain amount of damage on board, including a serious steam leak in the Engine Room. Crane and Nelson take the object down to the lab, sensibly locking the doors while keeping the microphone locked open in case anything happens while they're poking around at the thing. Down in the Engine Room, a second object has rolled into the middle of the floor. Patterson and his repair team, struggling with the leak, fail to notice it. It opens up and lets out more gas, knocking out the team. (When another team comes to the rescue, the steam leak appears to have repaired itself, unless Sharkey attended to that first.)

The object proves impervious to both a drill and to acid, so they try X-rays to see what's inside. This doesn't work, but afterwards the object suddenly pops open, apparently letting out a burst of electricity (the one in the Engine Room does the same). We have to take their word for it on this; the special effect, in this case, wasn't very effective, the light being too diffuse. This time, however, the object remains open, allowing Nelson to have a look-see. The miniature instrumentation inside convinces Nelson that the object is, in fact, a spaceship. Nelson informs General Haines, who is involved with the space program. Haines speculates that the ships might be part of a probe, but Nelson is certain that it's an invasion force--the ships had landed near SATO 6, a recently decommissioned underwater atomic base. SATO 6 has only been turned off, not dismantled; it can be started back up again anytime. Nelson arranges for the Flying Sub to take the tiny ship (there's no mention of what happened to the other ones) to General Haines for further study.

Nelson goes to his cabin--and he had, presumably, made arrangements for a tray to be sent there for him. He arrives to find a man at his desk, calmly munching on his sandwich. The man looks like an old friend, Sam Garrity, and the man claims to be him, addressing the Admiral familiarly. Nelson, however, easily trips the man up, with a mention of a non-existant wife. He points out that the real Sam Garrity had vanished twenty-seven years before, while this Sam hasn't aged a day, and is dressed in a WWII uniform. Oddly, Garrity makes an attempt to keep up the pretence, but when Nelson refuses to go along, knocks him out and disappears in a sizeable explosion.

After FS1 had launched, the ship's computer goes haywire. Finding that Nelson is not answering his hails, Crane sends Chip to see what's wrong. After finding him and bringing him around, the Seaview lists considerably. The controls have locked up, and the Seaview is headed for the bottom--and a lot of rocks. (They had a splendid underwater camera team, the underwater shots are always great.) Crane cuts all power. Seaview scrapes against an outcropping of rock and rams into the sand at 3,060 feet--crush depth. Cautiously bringing the power back on, they find that they have control again, and start heading topside.

More certain than ever that the aliens have plans for SATO 6, Nelson arranges to go there when the Flying Sub returns. If he finds the aliens there, he will attempt to activate the self-destruct mechanism; if this fails, Crane is to launch nuclear missiles at it. Nelson collects a team consisting of Sharkey and two sacrificial lambs (er, crewmen). He's wearing a gadget on his wrist which will signal if they need to launch the nukes. Sharkey, very laboriously, makes it clear to the audience that if the nukes are fired, they will all be killed. SATO 6 looks remarkably like the habitats in "Leviathan" and "The Machines Strike Back", but we will learn that it is much bigger than it looks. They find that the aliens are there; the light and heating systems have been turned on. There are three corridors, each of which leads to the main room. Peters (in blue) and Nelson each take a corridor alone, while Sharkey and Kelly (in red) share one. Peters being alone, it's a pretty safe bet that he's going to be the first to go, and he is--confronting two lava-headed bipeds. (Why these energy beings would choose to take on such a bizarre form is anyone's guess.) Exit Peters, although his attempts to defend himself bring the others on the run. Finding Peters dead, they move on to the main room, where Garrity is waiting for them. Garrity explains why they're there--they are wayfarers, and this is by way of a pit stop for them. Just a little energy snack to tide them over until the next solar system. Garrity has been able to read enough of Nelson's mind to know that he is one of 6 men on Earth (is that where they get the 6 in SATO?) capable of restarting the atomic generator. However, the trick of actually turning it on is buried too deep in Nelson's mind for Garrity to reach. Nelson refuses to do so, although Garrity claims that they are friendly. (For some reason, Nelson never points to the death of his crewman as a decidedly unfriendly action.) Nelson wants them to demonstrate their friendly intentions--which will take more time that Garrity has (or wants to take). Meanwhile, Kelly has been courageously edging closer to the self-destruct lever, but Garrity spots him and kills him with an explosion. (More proof of their hostility--he could have just knocked him out.) Nelson manages to signal for the nuclear launch before Garrity knocks him out.

Back on Seaview, a rather ostentatious device lights up, indicating Nelson's signal. (Couldn't they have just had something light up on a control panel?) Crane grimly sets about preparing for the launch--knowing what it will lead to. Down in the Missile Room, Kowalski finds that the automatic missile loader has been shorted out. 'Ski dons protective gear and shorts the panel even more, allowing the missiles to be loaded manually. The missiles are launched, but Garrity manages to intercept them. Seaview goes out of control again, only this time they cannot cut the power. (The aliens have apparently learned from experience.)

Sharkey had apparently tried to fight after Nelson was knocked out--he's unconcious, too. Nelson revives and finds himself incased in cellophane strips--strips that will burn him if touched. Sharkey is similarly encased when he wakes up. If Nelson won't change his mind about the generator, Garrity plans to use Seaview instead (just how, we'll never know, unless he was planning to set off the atomic power by blowing the ship up). Crane finds that his ship has been parked inside of SATO 6's docking bay (as I said, it's a lot bigger than it looks). Crane collects a team--himself, Kowalski, Ron and Marco. (Ron and Marco being familiar faces, you know they're safe.) Getting inside SATO 6, they're confronted by Garrity, who demands that they disarm. (Considering that bullets don't affect them, this seems a pretty pointless demand.) Crane and Co. naturally refuse, so Garrity waves his hand and freezes them. (Poor Crane is left with his mouth hanging open--most undignified.)

Nelson manages to dive through the heat shield, only scorching himself a little. (Rather like diving through flames.) One of the lava-heads (there's three) shows up just as Nelson is about to pull the self-destruct. Sharkey jumps through his own shield and leaps into the fray. He and Nelson both find that the creature not only looks like lava, he feels like it, too--punching him is like punching a rock. Nelson's wrist gadget gets broken. Coming in contact with it, the lava-head suddenly disappears. Presumably he's been killed, although the explosive effect is exactly the same as when they're transporting somewhere.
Garrity shows up moments later, with the other two lava-heads carrying the frozen Crane. David Hedison did very well in this scene--he didn't even drop his toes as they carried him! (On the other hand, his open mouth has somehow closed, but I can't say that I blame him.)

Garrity shows Nelson a large device that is a homing signal for the rest of his "wayfarers". If Nelson cooperates, they'll show up as friends, but they are going to show up regardless in very short order. Nelson gives in, but says he needs gear from the Seaview. Not trusting him, Garrity releases Crane. Nelson tells him to bring a suit and gloves from Locker B. A bit slow on the uptake, Crane starts to protest (well, he's been frozen) and Nelson sharply orders him to get going.

Locker B, as it turns out, carries radiation guns. (Crane's reaction made it seem as though he didn't know what was kept in there; he just knew it wasn't hazard suits.) Crane recalls how the first little ship opened and stayed open after being exposed to X-Rays. Chip Morton adds that General Haines had reported (off camera) that the ship reacted to radiation. Radiation seems to be the weak spot. Crane pulls reactor rods out of two sockets, replacing them with cartridge cylinders from two of the guns. Chip powers up the reactor until they're full. Crane wipes his gloves all over each of the cylinders before handing them to Chip, which might possibly wipe some of the radiation off, but there's also the little matter of the two of them standing next to the generator with two open sockets--Crane never replaced the rods!

Crane and Morton pass by Crane's team, still frozen. One of the lava-heads confronts them and they shoot it; it vanishes in an explosion. Unless Garrity had more than three lava-heads with him, the shot did not actually kill it; it only transported, because when they reach the main room, they shoot at another lava-head and it vanishes and reappears next to Crane, while a second one comes up alongside Chip Morton. There's quite a fight. Garrity, who had threatened them with another wave of his hand, gets too busy to carry through. Nelson tosses him against the homing device; Garrity freezes, then disappears in an explosion. The two lava-heads inexplicably vanish also.

The remainder of the invading force seem to take the loss of the homing device as an indication that they're not welcome (fancy that). Nelson and Crane are left sighing in relief.

Not bad for an alien story, but the ending got rather confusing. Better effects would have helped a lot, especially if they had made a difference between the types of disappearances.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- Uncredited roles: Michael Fox (Gen. Haines), Ashley Gilbert (Kelly), Marco Lopez (Marco), Ray Didsbury (Ray), Ron Stein (Ron) Edit
- When one of the miniature ships is opened, there is an "electrical" sound and a flash of light. Nelson mentions an electical arc, but there is no animation to support that. Edit
- Coming into act two, the flying sub is seen launching from the bay, the hatch wide open. Since there are never any huge bubbles leaving the bay as it opens, it's reasonable to assume the bay is flooded before the hatches open. Yet, while the sub is open to the sea, Chip Morton is seen coming out of the berthing area as if the sub were still there. He is not wet, nor is there any sign of flooding. Odd. Edit
Notes
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- General Haines is played by veteran actor Michael Fox (not Michael J. Fox). Fox lent his voice to the Lost In Space episode "The Ghost Planet." Edit
Quotes
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- Garrity: For a race that dies easily, you people have little regard for life. Edit
- Morton: When we fire at those electrical things, what do you think'll happen? Crane: If we're still alive after we fire, I'll let you know. Edit
Allusions
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