Search - Voyage to the Bottom of Sea - Season 2, Volume 2 on DVD

Best Collection

Kenneth Sohl | Tennessee | 03/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first season and this one has re-introduced me to a side to the show I had forgotten was there, mainly the top-quality cast and guest stars. Though I love original Trek, I think that Voyage's cast was actually more talented. They just weren't given the material they deserved. Richard Basehart has always been a favorite of mine, and his Admiral Nelson is the kind of dedicated, dynamic warrior-scientist we wish actually patrolled the seas keeping us safe from everything from enemy super-weapons to natural disasters and even alien invasions through his yankee ingenuity. David Hedison in contrast plays well off of Basehart with a tasteful restraint and Bob Dowdell is absolutely convincing (and excellently cast) as the ever-reliable XO, Chip Morton. 'Ski, Sharkey, Reilly and the low-key Patterson all interact smoothly and I think the outlandish scripts of this season actually served to bring out their best. In the episode "the Shape of Doom", the heartfelt plea of the whale hunter to Nelson in his quarters may be the single most stand-out moment of this collection (a scene which is sadly wasted on an episode that merely rehashes "Jonah and the Whale" from season one). The FX, as usual, is a mixture of awesome even by today's standards (the "master" shots of the Seaview, etc.) and the cheesy FX which were limited by the budgets of the individual episodes for which they were shot. And I'm sorry to all those who hang their hats on the "serious" episodes, but '60s sci-fi is very dated today, and Irwin Allen's spastic thought processes accidentally led to this show still being watcheable now as a kind of grade B adventure with great production values. The monsters are a hoot and are some of the best in the series. But yes, towards the end of this set, the drastic drop in quality is impossible to ignore when one compares the rather thoughtful "Graveyard of Fear" to the 2-dimensional, ludicrous "the Men-Fish". In later seasons, Basehart would appear to be constantly frustrated while Hedison would seem just plain bored. Notice, too, how in the monster episodes the monsters themselves are relegated to being the sub-plot (no pun intended)! But the majority of the episodes hold up and this set is perhaps the highpoint of the show. Although there would be some good episodes in the last 2 seasons, the show would never again be as consistently good (the aforementioned "Shape of Doom" hints at the graveyard of stock-footage to come). Awful scripts that wouldn't even make a pretense of good writing would be so numerous as to drown the few good ones in their midst."

It looks perfect

J. A. Mayer | Honolulu, HI USA | 02/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I just watched the first episode, Terror on Dinosaur Island. The image impressed me to no end. The quality is pristine! It looks like a crystal clear high-definition transfer. There were lush green plants, sharply defined fog, saturated colors, and the contrast was spot on. In fact, the image is so superior that you can tell that David Hedison has hazel eyes! That is how much detail you can see in this image. The sound quality is equally impressive. It is distortion free, and free of hiss. And of course the episode is uncut. Even the end credits looked brand new. The image quality of this episode is far superior to the faded and and cut version we saw on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s.

I checked around the rest of the DVD for quality control and found the other episodes to be of similar quality to Terror on Dinosaur Island. The job Fox did on the DVDs is amazing! (Thank you Fox!!)

As a reviewer my job is to tell you about the quality of the image and sound; however I am compelled to tell you that the episodes on this volume are some of the finest of the series. In particular you'll enjoy:

Terror on Dinosaur Island
Deadly Creature Below (this is the View-Master episode by the way)
The Phantom Strikes
The Sky's On Fire
The Return of the Phantom

Keep up the good work Fox. This is your best work yet! Bring on Season Three!

"

Some of the best episodes in the history of the series

Reginald D. Garrard | Camilla, GA USA | 06/06/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Season two of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" saw the beginning of the "monster of the week" storytelling that would mar much of the show's last two seasons. Though installments like "The Sky's on Fire" and "The Shape of Doom" have plots similar to the theatrical film and a first season show, respectively, there is enough originality in the remaining ten to satisfy fan and non-fan alike.

"Terror on Dinosaur Island," replete with footage taken from creator Irwin Allen's feature film "The Lost World," benefits from guest star Paul Carr's performance as a crewman obsessed with seeking revenge against Captain Crane who Carr feels is responsible for the death of a fellow sailor. Michael Ansara and John Wayne's son Patrick are both featured in the tense cat-and-mouse episode "Killers of the Deep" while perennial heavy Nehemiah Persoff gets to chew the scenery as an escaped convict in "Deadly Creature Below!" Robert Loggia plays a scientist determined to retrieve a submerged youth serum at all costs in "Graveyard of Fear" and Albert Salmi, who would appear in Allen's "Lost in Space" the same year in a similar role, dons a pirate's garb in the enjoyable "Dead Man's Doubloons."

"Voyage" borrows from Agatha Christie in the "Ten Little Indians"-like "The Death Ship." Interesting camerawork and impressive special effects are the highlights of "The Monster's Web" and "The Menfish."

"The Mechanical Man" features James Darren as an evil android intent on world domination. Darren would later star in Allen's short-lived series "The Time Tunnel." This particular episode is one of the few with a "special guest star" in the form of veteran Arthur O'Connell. There is also an eye-popping view of the Seaview as it is hooked to an underwater laboratory.

The major highlights of the disc are "The Phantom Strikes" and its sequel "The Phantom Strikes Again." Both episodes allow stars Richard Basehart and David Hedison the opportunity to stretch their acting mettle. Alfred Ryder is outstanding as a malevolent spirit determined to possess Captain Crane's body. Even featured player Del Monroe ("Kowalski") has a "moment" in "The Phantom Strikes."

As in the other compilations, the special features are at a minimum but the superb sound and color make up for the weaknesses in the "extras" department."

Classic Irwin Allen

G. Stuart | Atlanta, GA USA | 04/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you grew up watching Richard Basehart and David Hedison in their adventures each week the way I did, you have to love this series and this is one of the best seasons of the entire series to me. Irwin Allen's classic series complete with that ill-fated flying sub that seemed to crash everytime Admiral Nelson went out in it and the constant worry of the Cold War exploding is such fun to watch today."