Catching a few repeats of this on cable got me to wondering:
Just what authority does Admiral Nelson and Seaview operate under? I would presume Nelson and his crew belonged to the US Navy, except that in a vague way I get the impression that Nelson has a special command that is outside the normal Navy channels. It’s like he personally owns Seaview or something. Also, why is a submarine of unorthodox design that primarily is engaged in scientific research carrying SLBMs??
Nevermind that…
Explain why the thing could launch ½ way out of the water and do a colossal belly flop when surfacing, and nobody inside so much as spilt their drink, yet the slightest scrape against the sea bottom or an iceberg sent everyone onboard crashing about, with explosions and sparks flying and water pouring in?!
I’m still waiting for an explanation of what each of those little blinking lights on that huge computer billboard display meant.
What I want to know is why none of the Star Trek fleet has safety belts, yet they get tossed around the cabin every erpisode.
Retired Admiral Harriman Nelson was the director of the civilian “Nelson Institute of Marine Research.”
In the 1961 movie, Admiral Nelson (played by Walter Pidgeon) was the inventor and builder of the SeaView. The flick also featured Peter Lorre and Barbara (Va Va Voom) Eden.
Apropos of nothing, the teevee show also inspired one of my favorite MAD magazine parody titles:
*Voyage To See What’s On The Bottom
… and my personal favorite from the movie, one of the definitive “unclear on the concept” items:
NUCLEAR HAND GRENADES!!! With pineapple scoring on them, so they’d fragment!!!
This is where Shodan points out that that dang Flying Sub got wrecked in every single freaking episode.
Not to mention the last season, in which Admiral Nelson was squirted with a water pistol by a midget, which turned him into a walking time bomb. My personal favorite for most realistic plot to assasinate a TV character.
Regards,
Shodan
Oh, hell, the last season was simply FILLED with Irwin Allen Classic Moments!
Lessee…they had a MUMMY one week…and a ROBOT…a SPACE ALIEN…and then there was the GORILLA…all sorts of folks you wouldn’t expect to encounter on an experimental nuclear submarine.
A portal in the desert where you can jump thru time: Kinda reminds you of “City on the Edge of Forever,” huh? Maybe even “Quantum Leap?” “Time Tunnel” predated both of them.
The end of “Voyage” episode “The Peacemaker:” Watch that and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the end of “Wrath of Khan.”
An ongoing battle of wills between an omniscient, infallible “machine” and a bumbling “doctor.” Sounds like Spock and McCoy, but Robot and “Dr.” Smith predated them.
I will admit that the fourth season of “Voyage” that they had basically run out of ideas, and they were just recycling the costumes from the “Lost in Space” monsters. The first season, with the ongoing Cold War theme was the best. But Allen was a dedicated recycler with costumes and footage, a TV Roger Corman.
I consider him a *visionary, and praise the vision that caused him to spot Vitina Marcus and cast her at least once in practically every production. Oh, the thought of her in her in her “native girl” outfits in “Voyage. . . .”
*With the exception of “Land of the Giants,” which was really just a successor series to “Lost in Space,” which had been canceled.
BTW, David Hedison’s daughter is currently the SO of Ellen Degeneres.
Oh, yes!!! One of my alkl time favorites!
“A giant purple jellyfish is eating the SeaPew!”
“Purple? Evidently a GRAPE jellyfish!”
“That’s the most horrible thing I ever saw!”
“Evidently you missed Kim Novak in ‘Moll Flanders’.”
The only satire that was better was the one they did of “2001”.
Continuing my Irwin Allen appreciation (and poke at the ST folks). . .
In Season 1 of “Lost in Space,” the Space Family Robinson come across a strange person with a “menagerie” of animals who calles himself “The Keeper” (portrayed by Michael Rennie), which was also the title. This was the only two-parter of the series.
Two years later, Star Trek airs a two-parter reusing footage from the unaired “The Cage” pilot, retitling it “The Menagerie,” and renaming the “magistrate” to “The Keeper.” This was the only two-parter of the series.
And watch the Season 1 LiS episode called “There Were Giants in the Earth,” and tell me if that bears more than a passing resemblance to “The Galileo Seven,” again postdating LiS by at least two years.