Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV Series) The Lost Bomb (1966) User Reviews

It Could Destroy Half The World

[profh-1 · 8/10 · 26 July 2022]

Some INSANE FOOL creates a bomb powerful enough to destroy half the world, as a "deterent". YEAH, RIGHT. Naturally, some UNKNOWN foreign power shoots the cargo plane carrying it out of the sky, then plays a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse trying to get their hands on it. Some days, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Smack in the middle of season 3, comes an international terrorist and intrigue story that seems to have escaped from season 1. HOW did that happen? Gerald Mohr plays "Vadim", the commander of a sub seemingly the equal of The Seaview, who refuses to admit which country he's from. Given his international crew, maybe he's really working for some independant crime syndicate, like SPECTRE, or the never-seen-since the pilot "Dr. Gamma"? (What ever DID happen to that guy? He was all set up to be the show's main recurring villain, then, never showed up again.) Vadim goes thru the whole story with an air of smug superiority, apparently enjoying his ability to out-guess and out-manouever Nelson.

Then there's John Lupton as Dr. Bradley, a bomb expert who grew up together in Brooklyn with Chief Sharkey. Midway thru we find out he's a traitor working for the baddies-- but, being this is an Irwin Allen show, there's NEVER any explanation for how or why this happened, and NO character development at all. Other than jokes about Sharkey's middle name is "Ethelbert".

Crazy enough, Lupton appeared in 2 Allen shows in the same week-- he was also in "The Alamo" episode of "THE TIME TUNNEL" only days earlier!

Writer Oliver Crawford did one of my least-favorite 1st season STAR TREK's, plus 2 seriously-flawed 3rd-season episodes. But here, he does what is easily the BEST episode of VOYAGE's 3rd season. And yet, this was his only contribution to Irwin Allen's shows in the whole of the 60s. The only other thing he ever did for him was 2 episodes SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON in the 70s. I keep saying, if only Allen had hired MORE and BETTER writers.

It amazes me that Gerald Mohr (one of my favorites) was in not only the best episode of the season, but, the same year, my favorite 2nd-season LOST IN SPACE, "A Visit To Hades". Of course, he's a LOT more fun in there.

Now, apart from the episode itself, I saw the weirdest thing today. On the "VOYAGE" Season 3, Part 1, Disc 3 DVD, they included a complete "VOYAGE" comic-book. The story involved "Dr. Gamma", the bald villain whose face you never saw, who was in the pilot, but never returned on the show. His sidekick, "Agent X", was a dead ringer for actor David Opatashu. At the climax, the Seaview is pulled into an underwater sub dock, which looked like it could have been the inspiration for the interior of The Liparus. It contained round elevators, just like the ones seen in Stromberg's "Atlantis", and on the upper level, there were windows thru which you could see sharks swimming.

The only conclusion I can come to is that some of the design work on "THE SPY WHO LOVED ME" was inspired by this comic-book from the mid-60s! There's a connection I never would have imagined.

No monsters this week.

[joegarbled-79482 · 8/10 · 30 November 2023]

"The Lost Bomb" could've been a tedious episode of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" but for a guest character bomb expert turning out to be a childhood pal of Chief Sharkey and a rat-fink traitor into the bargain. His supposedly vital expertise seems to become less vital as Sharkey and Admiral Nelson seem to do as much as he does, to disarm the bomb, once it has gone rogue.

The episode begins with the SSRN Seaview (oops, Sparks uses the call sign "SSNR Seaview" repeatedly, I'm amazed that Arch Whiting didn't pick himself up on that mistake, maybe he did, but Irwin Allen decided to save a few bucks on redoing the scene?) has a new bomb to install in an underwater base, it's a new Doomsday weapon supposedly going to prevent any future wars. Dr Bradley will see to its installation. It's here that he meets up with his old pal Francis Ethelbert Sharkey. They're buddying up when the plane carrying the bomb is downed with a Polaris missile (the usual stock footage), the bomb falls into the ocean at a depth of 800ft. Bradley is secretly carrying a homing device and a submarine called "Vulcan" attacks Seaview with a salvo of torpedoes, which miss. A laser burst cripples Seaview's ability to fire torpedoes back.

Luckily, the good guys find the bomb first, but its clock is running. Bradley and Sharkey swim out to de-fuse the thing. Meanwhile, Lee Crane and Kowalski take the Flying Sub out to keep the Vulcan "busy". They pretend to be searching for the bomb. Kowalski is pretty hilarious when Crane makes it clear that "Keeping the Vulcan busy at all costs." is a possible suicide mission....he obviously wasn't told this before donning his leather flying jacket!!

Capt Vadim of the Vulcan has changed his plan. Getting his mitts on the bomb and destroying Seaview is now altered, he wants to take both back to his anonymous country. When he realises the Flying Sub is a decoy, he blasts it with a laser and Crane and Kowalski are taken prisoner. This is of less importance to Nelson than neutralising the bomb which will destroy that part of the world in 15 minutes! Vadim says he will give Nelson his 15mins but he believes that Nelson is lying about the bomb and that he's really getting ready to fire his torpedoes, even with Crane and Kowalski on the Vulcan.

Bradley makes his first mistake when Sharkey discovers a hollow spanner full of electronics. Bradley gives Sharkey some plausible hogwash, but Sparks tells Nelson that there's a homing signal and that it's coming from the missile room where the bomb is. Nelson orders a search for the device and finds it himself. Sharkey gives the traitor a right cross and then helps Nelson with the bomb. The Vulcan hits Seaview with the laser beam, prior to a planned boarding party. In the brief "Seaview Rock And Roll" the bomb rolls and crushes Bradley to death.

Crane and Kowalski have escaped the Vulcan's brig and they use gas grenades, incapacitating Vadim and the control room staff. The Seaview launches its torpedoes even though Crane and Kowalski would be killed. The Vulcan is destroyed. Nelson and Sharkey have stopped the bomb just in time. Then Crane radios Seaview to say "mission accomplished....permission to come aboard."

There's far less "Seaview Rock And Roll"/fireworks/fire extinguishers in this episode, but it's probably better for it, it was certainly better off without monsters. The Vadim character was the usual Luger toting villain from a non-existant villainous country, tick that box. Bradley was the interesting one. He reminds Sharkey of diving into the East River to gather scrap metal....it was quite easy to think of Sharkey as the poor kid made good.

Solid 8/10.

Seven Out Of Ten Small Screen Disaster Show

[StuOz · 3 August 2010]

Nelson must disarm a bomb on Seaview, a bomb that could destroy a large part of the world.

The Lost Bomb has a lot going for it: A great story, Gerald Mohr from Lost In Space's A Visit To Hades, good Flying Sub action, a lot of Kowalski and a knockout explosive final moment in the Seaview missile room that ranks as one of season three's finest moments.

This situation of Crane and Kowalski going out in the Flying Sub to face the enemy, while Nelson remained on the Seaview to deal with another problem, would repeat itself in year three's Doomsday Island.

This episode sees the return of composer Alexander Courage, the guy who did two scores for Voyage season two (including The Cyborg) that rank as some of Voyage's best music ever. However, while The Lost Bomb score is okay, it does not compare to his season two music. Courage would return to Voyage season four but, once again, not do music that matched season two.