The Human Computer, to me, is the gold standard of episodes in Voyage of the Bottom of the Sea. It operates on a threadbare plot (Captain Crane is accompanying the Seaview in more of a limited capacity as the sub is being operated by a computerized system absent human control; Crane boards the sub based on maritime law, requiring an officer when said sub is in operation), but this episode doesn't need much when you can bilk the suspense of isolation on board the Seaview where one officer knows he's not alone and must find the criminal on board. Firing off all the bullets in his gun without hitting the foreign invader (sent into the sub with a tape that would instruct the computer with directions to his country, so that the secrets of the technology can be seized), Crane later finds no more weapons in the weapons locker, eventually led into a Ballast Tank room, locked in, air cut off, and facing suffocation. Convenience is the name of the game as a tank of oxygen, mask, and a hatch are inside this little room, allowing Crane to escape, diving to another part of the sub with the hopes of catching the foreign invader (Harry Millard, gnarly as the stone cold assassin, using the intercom to mockingly detail his country's plans for the computer and how Crane is to look as if he died all accidental-like) by surprise. I can't imagine this shot in color; the shadows and silence, that disquiet in the quiet, with little clanging sounds from the fire extinguisher even sounding off menace, this episode belongs in B&W, under such lensing. You get the round trip through the entire Seaview as Crane looks for the invader, cautious and careful. When the invader drops the pipes on Crane, it is quite a grabber
how will Crane make it out of this situation in one piece? Good stuff. The lights and sounds of the computer on the Seaview with no humans besides Crane on board is kind of interesting, especially in how quiet the rest of the sub is. Major flaw: how did the invader get on board the Seaview unnoticed?
Review of The Human Computer
