Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea preview - S02E20 The Shape of Doom

Preview of episode 20 from season 2 of Voyage with guest star Kevin Hagen

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• irwin
• allen
• TV
• television
• 1960's
• scifi
• science
• fiction
• Basehart
• Hedison
• special
• effects
• sfx
• seaview
• flying
• sub
• ABC
• Kevin
• Hagen

[TooleMan87]

It's a good episode, but unfortunately it comes too close on the heels of the memorable "Jonah and the Whale" with recycled stock footage from "The Ghost of Moby Dick" and "Jonah." There are even lines of dialog recycled from "Jonah" - listen to Crane give orders about shooting the whale with tranquilizer.

PS: there's one "mass hallucination" episode where Crane calls a whale "the biggest fish he's ever seen." I guess we'll let him 'off the hook' for that one (heh heh).

[joshweiss01]

@Hendo56 Couldn't have put it better myself.

[65kowalski]

@joshweiss01 I just viewed "I am the night, color me black" on another youtube channel. It was a great Twilight Zone episode. I must confess, it really jingled my neurotic side, a side that loves Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea almost to the point of obsession: I get excited everytime I see an actor who was on Voyage in another show or movie. Imagine the kick I got when the first four actors - Michael Constantine, George Lindsay, Paul Fix and Terry Becker - appeared. All four were Voyage vets!

[lst1195]

@Hendo56 Agreed. I'm a Godzilla Fan & Tsyburya's work still holds up too.

[Hendo56]

@lst1195 L.B. Abbott did a book on how he did special effects, which is sadly out of print. It's really fascinating what they did with what they had. I think the special effects for the most part still hold up today.

[Hendo56]

@joshweiss01 At least it was entertaining. Not all of that "Reality Show" crap they have on now.

[lst1195]

@Hendo56 Wow! that's even MORE amazing!

[joshweiss01]

@Hendo56 Just thought I'd point out that in the mid sixties radio controlled devices were virtually non-extant. Large scale integration (LSI) had not come unto it's own. Multi-channel digital proportional systems didn't exist. A table sized controller might allow control of forward and backward motions and acceleration. All of these components used large transistors that took up space and were power hungry. As for mini-servos, forget it!

[Hendo56]

@65kowalski Crane and Morton also referred to giant whales in the various episodes as "fish". As submariners, they should have known better- whales are mammals. Whales have flukes that go up and down (see also dolphins, porpoises and killer whales, which are also mammals) and fish have fins that go side to side.

[Hendo56]

@lst1195 Foam rubber, I think. It wasn't RC, though. L.B. Abbott, who was in charge of special effects, used fine wires to guide it, as well as the Seaview and the Flying Sub. The tail I believe had a mechanism in it that worked the tail up and down. I always wondered if it was the Great White Whale from the movie "Moby Dick", repainted.

[Hendo56]

@joshweiss01 I've seen it! It was a great performance by Becker. Those Twilight Zones may be 60 years old, but they're still applicable today.

[joshweiss01]

@Hendo56 If you want to see a really fine performance by Terri Becker I would suggest the Twilight Zone episode: "I am the night, color me black".

[joshweiss01]

@Zeemis I'd rather watch the '60s garbage than todays creme de la creme. Nostalga kick if you like.

[lst1195]

How did they make the whale? was he a big mechanical rubber puppet with a R/C tail? I remember these episodes :)

[Zeemis]

lol, 1960's garbage

[65kowalski]

Did Kevin Hagen play the furry-faced alien on Lost in Space who tried to make Dr. Smith his planet's sacrificial "king?"

[65kowalski]

Designated surferdude Riley responded when the whale approached the viewport. ."Wow! Dig that fish!"..PRICELESS

[serberious]

Shit, I remember this, I was up for the whale.

[Hendo56]

Not only lines, that entire scene was lifted from there and inserted into this episode, with a few cut in shots of Hagen! At the time, Terri Becker (Sharkey) had walked off due to a contract dispute, yet he shows up here because they inserted the prior 'whale' footage! They did this quite a bit.

[X4RAR]

Guest star and IA favourite Kevin Hagen is terrific in this...a perfectly pitched performance as mad/spooky....first rate...top idea to save construction time by using Nuclear charges too, good old Nuclear solved all in the 1960's :)