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Richard Basehart, David Hedison, Del Monroe, Paul Trinka, Richard Bull, Jill Ireland, Pat Priest

The DVD market has clearly reached maturity. How else to explain the release of these boomer TV series on DVD? “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” was one of my favorite shows in syndication. Playing like an undersea version of “Star Trek” and later inspiring “Seaquest DSV”, “Voyage” had two terrific leads with the criminally underrated actor Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson a multimillionaire navy veteran who designs and builds the SSRN Seaview the most advanced submarine of its time. Commanded by Captain Lee Crane (David Hedison who appeared in the original “The Fly”) they venture into new aventures every week investigating strange phenomenon. The first season of the show (like the first season of “Lost in Space”) didn’t stray into the weirdly wonderful absurd giant monsters and outrageous aliens that dominated later seasons. The visual effects (some of which were recycled from the feature film) and sets were stunning for the time. Curiously, Fox has chosen to break up the first season on three dual sided discs much like “The Time Tunnel” and later sets of “Lost in Space”. I’m not quite sure what the advantage is either from a marketing point of view or cost savings for fans and it’s a pain to have the sets marketed this way. ---

The first season of “Voyage” was shot in black and white (although the original pilot was shot in color but never broadcast that way). Unlike “Lost in Space” Fox has done a marvelous job with the transfers for the show. The images are crisp with solid blacks and nice contrast. The color pilot is included as an extra and looks marvelous despite its age. The prints look extremely good and were clearly drawn from the original 35 mm prints. The sound is also quite good despite the original mono prints. The soundtrack of the show was remixed for stereo although separation was minimal. Both sound quite good here with dialogue and music crystal clear. ---

We get the aforementioned pilot in color. As with “The Time Tunnel” Fox has included a half hour of “Irwin Allen’s Home Movies”. Shot in color the precious behind-the-scenes is an added bonus for fans of the show. While there’s no audio (and why didn’t Fox contact David Hedison to narrate the footage?) it’s still a marvelous glimpse into the past. We also get the original ABC “Presentation Reel” which, interestingly, includes footage from Irwin Allen’s movies NOT the show. The “Still Gallery” includes lot of pictures of the toys licensed to promote the show. ***

On a side note the San Francisco Chronicle has an interview with Hedison (as may other newspapers). I’d suggest visiting the Chronicle’s website to see if it’s been added. Hedison has some interesting comments about the show. He points out that Irwin Allen wanted his shows to be deadly serious most of the time and that whenever he or Basehart tried to inject some humor or lighten up a scene Allen would insist that they reshoot the scene! Hedison has fond memories of shooting the show (and even a text interview would be a welcome extra here for the next edition Fox) but disliked shooting the series when it became the “monster of the week” show that appealed to many children. He points out that the reason it probably degenerated into this format was the 7 pm Sunday night slot it had on ABC. The network probably reasoned it would increase the appeal of the show. ---

“Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” like “Lost in Space” and “The Time Tunnel” may not have aged as well as other shows but, well, that’s the nature of a Science Fiction TV show. Even “Star Trek: The Next Generation” looks dated and that show isn’t quite 20 years old! Regardless, “Voyage” is a fun blast from the past and the writing is solid throughout most of the first season with top notch direction adding to the other all feel of the show. While episodes vary in writing quality (much like “The Time Tunnel” set) the show is addictive particularly for those who grew up watching the show during the 70’s or its original run from 1964 through 1968.