Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea often felt like a series of creature features every week including a SPECTRE like foreign organizational threat often trying to uncover information onboard Seaview for their own nefarious purposes. On an Ice Station, plankton is undergoing experimentation
there's hope that an unlimited supply of plankton can cure food problems for starving nations. Behind this research and development is German scientist, Dr. Reisner (David Opatoshu), stigmatized (and probably ostracized) for working in his native country during Hitler's rule. He so desires to complete his research and hopes for success because Reisner is dying from an accidental dose of mass radiation when an experiment went wrong exposing him. Wesley (John Milford) is the money behind the project and is always willing to use this when confronting Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart), Captain Crane (David Hedison), and Reisner when they get annoyed by him. Julie (Mrs. Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland) is another scientist working on the plankton research team. We learn from a scene inside the terrorist organization that they have a saboteur on the Seaview, with plans to get plankton research information so they can use the need for food to control the world, and use a bomb to sink the ship. When heat causes the plankton to grow at an alarming rate, destruction and death lies in its path if there isn't a discovered method to stop it. For some reason the plankton makes a squeaking sound and looks like a growing blob with rubber needles! The saboteur plot is always fun to me, although I thought it was a bit too easy in this episode. Clearly pointing a finger at Reisner was too much of a red herring which only meant it could be a small number of selected characters left. Still, all in all, any creature that causes members of the Seaview to scramble down tight corridors and have to use their quick intellect to combat it before the whole crew is in trouble of certain death is rather exciting. You add tension between Americans and a German scientist who just wants to be beneficial to his fellow man instead of destructive, coupled with the knowledge that a foreign spy/agent is on the Seaview, all of this does keep the episode humming along with plenty going on; the plot is quite busy. Like Lost in Space, I think early Voyage is the best to watch, because the quality of the scripts and storytelling deteriorates as seasons go by.
Despite my feelings about how silly the creature looks and sounds, the way it "eats" people who try to get away and can't, and the aftermath of the ice station disaster are really memorable moments during the episode to me.
Despite my feelings about how silly the creature looks and sounds, the way it "eats" people who try to get away and can't, and the aftermath of the ice station disaster are really memorable moments during the episode to me.
