David (Al) Hedison... Captain Crane in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

[Danny McG]

Sadly passed away on 18th July

David Hedison - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[BAYLOR]

He was a wonderful actor in such films as The Enemy Below with Robert Mitchum and Felix Leiter in several bond films , the doomed scientist in the The Fly , Ed Malone in the 1960 film The Lost World and as Captain Lee Crane in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea .
Very sad news

 

[J Riff]

Well, we are watching thru Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episodes here...and, if you haven't seen it... it's something. Something kinda like Trek was - it's own look, all color-co-ordinated, very professional Irwin Allen prod. - great continuity of shots, soundtrack.. and a bunch of things to look for.
In practically every episode - the Seaview is gonna crash on the bottom, or be buffeted, and we get 'spaceship acting' from the crew, flinging themselves back and forth, as fireworks explode from the many electrical panels all over the ship. Often , electrical fires start, and out come the fire extinguishers, sometimes 2-3 times per episode. About every 5th episode we get a huge sea creature, like an amoeba or seaweed monster, whereas the rubber-suit monsters are gonna show up every 2nd or 3rd episode - sometimes aliens plotting total Earth takeover.. .
but then, at the last minute, the crew figure it all out and wrap it up, no matter how dire, then the Admiral says something like 'maybe we aren't meant to know..' or somesuch, and the theme music plays.
It's really camp, but sneakier about it than, say, Batman. There's always shelves, with gear on them, that are gonna go over during a fight, even tho' on a sub you wouldn't... ... well nevermind, just give it a try. After a few episodes you'll start to notice things. The one we watched today featured a giant egg that they dredged up - we were quite sure it was gonna be a dinosaur but no - it was a red-suited devilish amphibian alien, with two prongs on his head, rubber suit, from Skorpius... and the Skorpius guys had telepathy, teleportation, and other powers, and they killed a couple crew members, which happens, but they and their island of millions of eggs were destroyed, and gosh you just never know what is gonna happen next, except that the crew are gonna fling themselves about and whip out the fire extinguishers.. * there's no women on the ship... although we had a Mermaid recently, she got no lines... so... I can't wait for tomorrow's episode, cos I missed it back in the 60s, so yeah, kinda fun. )

 

[BAYLOR]

Well, we are watching thru Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episodes here...and, if you haven't seen it... it's something. Something kinda like Trek was - it's own look, all color-co-ordinated, very professional Irwin Allen prod. - great continuity of shots, soundtrack.. and a bunch of things to look for.
In practically every episode - the Seaview is gonna crash on the bottom, or be buffeted, and we get 'spaceship acting' from the crew, flinging themselves back and forth, as fireworks explode from the many electrical panels all over the ship. Often , electrical fires start, and out come the fire extinguishers, sometimes 2-3 times per episode. About every 5th episode we get a huge sea creature, like an amoeba or seaweed monster, whereas the rubber-suit monsters are gonna show up every 2nd or 3rd episode - sometimes aliens plotting total Earth takeover.. .
but then, at the last minute, the crew figure it all out and wrap it up, no matter how dire, then the Admiral says something like 'maybe we aren't meant to know..' or somesuch, and the theme music plays.
It's really camp, but sneakier about it than, say, Batman. There's always shelves, with gear on them, that are gonna go over during a fight, even tho' on a sub you wouldn't... ... well nevermind, just give it a try. After a few episodes you'll start to notice things. The one we watched today featured a giant egg that they dredged up - we were quite sure it was gonna be a dinosaur but no - it was a red-suited devilish amphibian alien, with two prongs on his head, rubber suit, from Skorpius... and the Skorpius guys had telepathy, teleportation, and other powers, and they killed a couple crew members, which happens, but they and their island of millions of eggs were destroyed, and gosh you just never know what is gonna happen next, except that the crew are gonna fling themselves about and whip out the fire extinguishers.. * there's no women on the ship... although we had a Mermaid recently, she got no lines... so... I can't wait for tomorrow's episode, cos I missed it back in the 60s, so yeah, kinda fun. )

Lots of reuse props from various Voyage episodes and from other shows which includes the masters. The most frequent goes staring monsters was Manfish and Doublheader. They were practically series regulars.

 

[J Riff]

Todays episode - 'The Masters of the Universe' - silver aliens who live in a huge cloud, and who can teleport and start fires with their minds... they mind-control Lee, but the Admiral manages to finally shoot some missiles off.. and it all goes away in the last two minutes. 3 electrical fires, two appearances of fire extinguishers, plenty spaceship acting. Curiously, Lee is unaffected by gravity while he's possessed by aliens. Both Kowalsi and Patterson injured, but should be ready for active duty by tomorrow. That is all.

 

[BAYLOR]

Todays episode - 'The Masters of the Universe' - silver aliens who live in a huge cloud, and who can teleport and start fires with their minds... they mind-control Lee, but the Admiral manages to finally shoot some missiles off.. and it all goes away in the last two minutes. 3 electrical fires, two appearances of fire extinguishers, plenty spaceship acting. Curiously, Lee is unaffected by gravity while he's possessed by aliens. Both Kowalsi and Patterson injured, but should be ready for active duty by tomorrow. That is all.

Voyage got very silly towards the end of its run.

 

[J Riff]

No! They saved the world , many times! Those electrical fires are dangerous, the extinguisher work by the crew was exemplary.
How are 250,000 year-old Rock creatures that live in lava under the ocean 'silly'?

 

[Danny McG]

I always thought the flying sub was awesome. I wish they'd given it a cool name.

Then again the main submarine name The Sea View sounds like a Blackpool bed and breakfast

 

[J Riff]

... lissen ... when Vinny Price brings those deadly talking dolls aboard... And Nelson has to use the Flying Sub to wipe out the 'Master of the Future' - a giant entity that screams like a cat... I don't see where the word 'silly' comes into it...

 

[BAYLOR]

I always thought the flying sub was awesome. I wish they'd given it a cool name.

Then again the main submarine name The Sea View sounds like a Blackpool bed and breakfast

Yes, the Flying sub was definitely cool. Irwin Allen reused it his 1971 film City Beneath the Sea,

 

[BAYLOR]

No! They saved the world , many times! Those electrical fires are dangerous, the extinguisher work by the crew was exemplary.
How are 250,000 year-old Rock creatures that live in lava under the ocean 'silly'?

Irwin Allen never let scientific plausibility or logic stand in the way of what he deemed to be a good story.