Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV Series) The Cyborg (1965) User Reviews

A great episode for Star Trek fans to see.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 20 September 2017]

The episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" from the original "Star Trek" was exciting and one of the better shows in the series. In it, an old love of Nurse Chapel is discovered alive on a seemingly barren planet. She and Captain Kirk beam down...only to discover that the man was mad and envisioned replacing key Federation figures with androids under his control.

Why do I mention this show? Because the plot from the "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" episode "The Cyborg" is essentially the same plot in many, many ways. A crazy doctor (Victor Buono) has learned to create perfect androids and is planning on using them to start Armageddon...and his ultimate goal is for his robots to arise from the rubble and then rule the Earth...or what's left of it. To do this, he holds Admiral Nelson prisoner and substitutes an evil identical to go to the Seaview and launch its nuclear arsenal!!

All in all, this seems to be an example of 'imitation is the most sincere form of flattery'. A very good episode of the show was remade just a year later! Well worth seeing...and one devoted Trek fans might just want to see themselves.

Improbable, but good fun

[qatmom · 7/10 · 10 June 2012]

Victor Buono is a predictably Mad Scientist (I've worked with dozens of them and none were mad, although more than a few were decidedly cranky) who sends a cyborg replica of Nelson back to the Seaview as part of his Grand Scheme to take over the world and do all the heavy thinking for humanity.

Amusingly, NO ONE detects anything un-Admiral-like about the Cyborg Nelson; he's just as moody, quirky, and irritating as ever. Crane has no idea until the wiring spills out onto the floor! There is a wild castle lair for Buono, Irwin Allenesque sets, and a computer just a few feet wide (!!!) that sounds like it is punching cards but it spews out no punchcards. (Computers in 1965 took up entire floors of buildings.) It's 1976 as seen from the mid-1960s.

There is lots of hokey fun, fireworks, a last minute save of humanity-- everything that I love about this series.

Robotic in more ways than one...

[s7777 · 7/10 · 25 September 2007]

This episode is a pedestrian affair which operates on the level of a Lost in Space episode but without the added attraction of a Dr Smith. Sure it's fun to watch Victor Buono, I mean it's always fun to watch Victor Buono, and Brooke Bundy is the most beautiful robot you'll ever lay your eyes on but the episode shuffles down the path of A to B to C without any interesting drama really happening. The cyborg 'Nelson' having his face blown off at the end is fun and Crane relating to the same cyborg is interesting but overall there is a real sense of ordinariness about the show even though millions of lives are at stake. The cyborg machine is interesting for the fact that it appeared in 'Time Tunnel' and 'Lost in Space' but overall a disappointing episode.

2nd Best Episode of the Series

[StuOz · 24 July 2010]

An evil cyborg of Nelson is made.

This hour is about story, direction, acting and Alexander Courage music. It is perfect in all four areas.

The direction: This is the only episode in which Leo Penn directed and I wish he directed more as he gets Basehart's every reaction on film.

The acting: Two Baseharts is better than one Basehart and who could not like a Voyage episode that features King Tut from Fox's Batman (1966) series... he behaves a bit like King Tut here on Voyage!

The Alexander Courage music: This is a really big part of The Cyborg, this composer is known mostly for his Star Trek music but his Cyborg score is even better than his Trek music!

"I intend to bleed your mind!"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 30 October 2013]

Season 2 of Irwin Allen's sci-fi show 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' comprises two halves; the first distinguished by a run of entertaining spy stories clearly inspired by 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' and James Bond, the second focuses on 'monster of the week' adventures. I tend to favour the first half more. 'The Cyborg' is from the first half and, while not a spy story as such, is still a strong episode. It opens with 'Admiral Harriman Nelson' ( the late Richard Basehart ) visiting the headquarters of International Bionics in Switzerland. Its founder is 'Tabor Ulrich', a larger than life character and a brilliant scientist. He initially comes across as warm and friendly, giving Nelson a guided tour of the place where his robots are manufactured. But when he asks Nelson to donate scientific knowledge to his computer and gets a firm refusal, Ulrich turns nasty and takes the knowledge anyway, putting it into a robot. The fake Nelson returns to the submarine Seaview, taking along a new computer given to him by Ulrich. It gives the submarine fake reports about an impending nuclear war. As the countdown to Armageddon begins, the real Nelson must find a way to stop Seaview's missiles from being fired...

A suspenseful episode from the pens of the reliable William Read Woodfield and Allen Balter, and directed by Leo Penn ( father of Sean ). The use of a crippled man as a villain is considered unacceptable now, but Buono manages to be terrific as 'Ulrich'. Rather like 'Karl Stromberg' in 'The Spy Who Loved Me', he wants to destroy the world in order to create a new one - run by robots but guided by him. Basehart is on good form too, as two Nelsons. The fake even has his sense of humour! Some good sets in this episode, particularly the place where the robots are made. Nelson having his mind bled is an unsettling moment. Brooke Bundy is gorgeous as 'Gundi', ditto the late Nancy Hsueh as 'Tish Sweetley'.

Another notable aspect of this episode is that it features the first use on television of the word 'bionic' - nine years before it became more commonly associated with 'The Six Million Dollar Man'.

Ulrich another mad scientist wants rule the world !!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 6 November 2019]

Following the Irwin Allen's concept, one more mad scientist tries to rule the world, Nelson has a meeting in the Switzerland with a creative genius Tabor Ulrich (the fat and amusing Victor Buono) who shows to him yours advanced stuff, as a Cyborg and the ultimate computer, Admiral Nelson stays astonishing over so sophisticated and progressive things, however Tabor Ulrich wants the Nelson's brain for free will or not, he makes a perfect replica of Nelson and delivers to USA the phony Nelson and the advanced computer to introduce in the Seaview, an inventive plot really, unless too much improbable for security reasons, Victor Buono has a fabulous skills to make this kind of characters as in the "Man from Atlantis" he was born do that !!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

Pathetic episode.

[joegarbled-79482 · 1/10 · 9 August 2023]

I don't think I could bring myself to watch this dreadful episode ever again. I know Vic Buono had an absolute gift for camp characterisations (He steals every scene he appeared in, in the cult classic "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?") but I don't think a Season Two episode of VTTBOTS needed King Tut villainy with a smile...didn't he once utter the line "Bat music for these.... Bats."??

He murdered this episode, it was fine in "Batman" which was always tongue firmly in cheek but fans of VTTBOTS must've wondered WHERE their beloved series was heading, after a decent opening season. The faceless cyborg men and Buono's laboratory screamed "Lost In Space", and again, warned the fans that espionage and underwater intrigue was going to give way to Monster Of The Week

Did Bob Dowdell see the script and asked to be excised from it? (He'd find things got little better as the years rolled on!) The epilogue has SOMEONE sat in the observation deck, but it was obviously not Bob, but someone supposedly there as Chip. (When was the last time you saw Chief Sharkey at the map table and acting as the Exec?) Ditto Kowalski, hardly any work for him here, outside of translating a Russian radio broadcast. It all came across as a very uneven codge-modge job of an episode. I wouldn't even give this episode 1 star if the choice were mine.

A preview of things to come in seasons three and four

[garrard · 8 September 2009]

While "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's" first black and white season racked up a series of serious, Cold War-themed stories mixed with a few excursions into science fiction, the second season's jump to full color also saw the show leaning more toward escapist science fiction mixed with a little absurdity.

"The Cyborg" is probably the first indication that the show was about to "jump the shark" for it tells the tale of a mad scientist (the wonderful Victor Buono) who plans to take over the world with the aid of the Seaview and his army of cyborgs. Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart) becomes an unwilling pawn in the scientist's machinations as a cyborg is crafted in his likeness with the intent on launching missiles, destroying key world cities.

Buono hams it up to the max, especially with his heavy accent, almost matching his actual girth. Many of the sound effects and set pieces are stock, from the Fox library as well as producer Irwin Allen's other shows.

Though not one of the best in the show's history, "The Cyborg" is still a lot of fun, made more so by Buono.