VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA--SEASON 4 VOL.2 (1 Viewer)

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoll48021 /forum/thread/298869/voyage-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea-season-4-vol-2/270#post_3777241

 

[Mark Collins]

I am so glad to see this conversation is going on today as we all should be. I remember last year how we all felt at this time. I know I do not have to remind people of where we were at that point in time.

3 THINGS FROM ME!! I am being blasted with snow 20 inchs for Chicago. We needed a turn since the East Coast had their fun with the snow.


1 Lost in Space had previews because they were in the episode itself like the Time Tunnel. Voyage had the Star's announce here is next week as I recall.


2 The show had appeal I think for everyone hence the talk that has been happening.


3 Gary the book on the Seaview was it what you wanted??

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Collins

Gary the book on the Seaview was it what you wanted??

It was a very nice set of blueprints, but it still didn't give me a layout of the first season Seaview unfortunately. I don't believe I'll ever see that. I own a couple of nice books on the show and those nice blueprints, but as far as I can tell there are no nice detailed blueprints of the first Seaview.


Gary "thanks for asking though, Mark" O.

 

[Mark Collins]

Thanks Gary. I am sorry thought it would be the one.
There is a book out on Time Tunnel " Project Tic Tock" fall 2011. Checkout Monsters Incorprated.com.

 

[DVD S.]

I think that these comments about 'previews' on LIS and not Voyage

are somewhat untrue...the 3rd season DVD sets of Lost In Space did

not include the original 'previews' for the next weeks episodes.

Only the first and second season DVD's(..along with the Time Tunnel),

included 'previews', because they were 'built-in' as part of the original

episode's structure(the 52 min. running time).

That is why they were included, it would have been a real travesty to

have those segments 'lopped off' on the DVD's...they would have felt

woefully incomplete.3rd season previews were more of a separate entity.

As for the monsters issue, starting with "The Outer Limits", it was discovered

that monsters meant 'big ratings', so when VTBOTS did the giant plankton episode

("The Price Of Doom"), the ratings went through the roof, thus the show was

pressured to make more monster episodes, which led the subjects from being

natural,(..though immense) undersea creatures, to aliens, giant men and men-fish

and other bizarre sea beasts!

I think one of the best things about Voyage, is that it could and did go in many

different directions:

cold war/espionage-spy/exploration/science/suspense/sci-fi/monster/fantasy,

I love them all...IMHO, it gives the show a sort of multi-dimensional quality.

I thought that the first and second seasons were both fantastic..the most solid

of the series!

The 3rd and 4th also had many enjoyable episodes among a number of not as

good episodes(..particularly, the latter half of the 3rd and middle of the 4th seasons).

I appreciate it very much for what it was, rather than what it may have been,

which I might add is somewhat more difficult for me in regards to Lost In Space(..

what if Dr. Smith hadn't 'run away with the show'?) and The Time Tunnel(particularly

with it having been canceled far too soon....and leading to no 2nd season)!

 

[Joe Tor1]

Originally Posted by DVD S.

I think that these comments about 'previews' on LIS and not Voyage

are somewhat untrue...the 3rd season DVD sets of Lost In Space did

not include the original 'previews' for the next weeks episodes.

Actually, the LIS 3rd Season previews WERE included -- but as a separate play option, and not embedded in the episode itself.

This is what I (and presumably others) would have liked to have had for Voyage as well.

Agree with your other thoughts.

 

[FrancisP]

Originally Posted by DVD S.

The point is that Outer Limits was a monster of the week show and it was a quality show. Just being a monster of the week show is not bad in and of itself. In the 4th season, there were some well written monster of the week type shows that worked. The scripts were what actually deteriorated in the 3rd season.

 

[Nebiroth]

Originally Posted by FrancisP




The point is that Outer Limits was a monster of the week show and it was a quality show.

Except that the best episodes didn't have monsters in them! And many of the "monster" episodes, the "monstrousness" was just a sideshow.


Very few of The Outer Limits episodes were of the "creature feature" B-Movie type that had a tendancy to turn up to menace the Seaview!


It's a bit of a stereotype but on the whole monsters do tend to feature in US TV science fiction.


British sci-fi tends to be a lot more understated, and if there are monsters they remain for the most part unseen.


You only have to look at Space:1999. The second season saw a complete revamp to aim the show squarely at the US market - and it;s filled with rubber suits. Sadly!


Irwin Allen is often derided by critics for the formulaic path his shows took. But he knew his audience and what worked. The critics may have hated the monsters and silly plots, but the audiences loved them.


Voyage has arguably some of the most ludicrous plots - outside of Lost in Space which was after all, a kid's show at heart - but it ran the longest and got huge audiences.


Something that clocks up 110 episodes is doing something right. I wonder what a fifth season would have brought?

 

[FrancisP]

Originally Posted by Nebiroth




The point is that Outer Limits was a monster of the week show and it was a quality show.

Except that the best episodes didn't have monsters in them! And many of the "monster" episodes, the "monstrousness" was just a sideshow.


Very few of The Outer Limits episodes were of the "creature feature" B-Movie type that had a tendancy to turn up to menace the Seaview!


It's a bit of a stereotype but on the whole monsters do tend to feature in US TV science fiction.


British sci-fi tends to be a lot more understated, and if there are monsters they remain for the most part unseen.


You only have to look at Space:1999. The second season saw a complete revamp to aim the show squarely at the US market - and it;s filled with rubber suits. Sadly!


Irwin Allen is often derided by critics for the formulaic path his shows took. But he knew his audience and what worked. The critics may have hated the monsters and silly plots, but the audiences loved them.


Voyage has arguably some of the most ludicrous plots - outside of Lost in Space which was after all, a kid's show at heart - but it ran the longest and got huge audiences.


Something that clocks up 110 episodes is doing something right. I wonder what a fifth season would have brought?

[/QUOTE]

There were a number of excellent episodes that did feature monsters on the Outer Limits. Even in Voyage's 4th season the monster shows worked. The Abominable Snowman was a suspenseful cat and mouse game with the crew not even knowing what they were looking for well into the show. They also did a good job of disguising who it was until the last 5 minutes. The Man Beast also had a number of curves written into it that made it interesting. As to Space 1999, that had a number of issues. Start with wooden leads and scripts that matched Voyage's worst scripts on a regular basis. Dragon's Domain was one of the better ones, despite the monster, because it had a decent script behind it.


I have heard that ABC was interested in a fifth season despite the ratings drop but Allen turned a renewal meeting for Voyage into a pitch for Land of the Giants. If true then I suspect Allen knew that a 5th season of Voyage would mean smaller budgets vs Land of the Giants which was the most expensie show on tv at the time.

 

[Regulus]

I was watching the Pilot Episode today. "Brought to you by W.T.F. Pharmacraft." WTF?

 

[kowalski65]

Damned if I can leave this thread alone!

Just wanted to chime in about the monsters on Voyage. I loved the monsters, though some of them looked a little ersatz. (When I was a kid, I changed the channel if I didn't see a monster within the first 10 minutes of an episode!) I even liked the translucent, garbage bag creature from Season 2's "Monster from Outer Space."


What got under my skin - at least viewing these Voyage as an adult - was the atrociously hokey aliens that diminished the last two seasons.

I could handle aliens like Michael Pate's Gelid ("Flaming Ice - Ssn. 4",) Robert Duvall's Zar ("The Invaders - Ssn. 1") or Nelson's malevolent doppelganger ("Day of Evil - Ssn. 3".) But costumed creatures who vocalized their world-domination threats through the disconnected, flat voices of Lost in Space stalwarts Jim Mills, Bart LaRue and Jock Gaynor were like nails screeching down a chalkboard for me.

I think the worst episode by far was "Deadly Cloud," with its dorky looking alien dressed in a grey diving suit and the mask that "took over" Prof. John Robinson in a Lost in Space episode. Season 3's "Doomsday Island" was shaping up to be a good episode, until the chief amphib-alien started jacking his jaws. I think "The Heat Monster" of Season 3 could have been decent, if the menacing Zippo from another galaxy had spoke telepathically, as the Dick Tufeld-voiced killer brain in Season 3's ("Monster from the Inferno".)

 

[DVD S.]

I can't believe with all of the many years since the 3rd season of Lost In Space came out,

that I didn't know that the previews were included as a bonus...maybe I just plum forgot

about them being on there, if so...my bad!!

It is really unfortunate that they couldn't do the same for Voyage and include the previews

as an extra, but oh well...

it's just nice, to finally have the series completed!

Also, kowalski, I found your comments about the bad monster/alien episodes to be very

funny and you were right on with your assessments about these episodes...!

I thought that "Deadly Cloud" was a real snooze, in fact, when watching Voyage in

earlier times, the 3rd season became a real slog-fest in the latter part of that season

and commercials just made it all the worse...the episodes seemed to go on interminably

and I just wanted them to get to the 4th season, enough already!

That being said, the 4th season does have some episodes that are practically 'Ambien':

(..."Terror" for one, which as it goes on, becomes just a pale imitation of season 3's

"The Plant Man", which though not perfect, I like so much better than this hot orchid mess,

on the plus side, at least the orchid aliens didn't have Jim Mill's voice, or any voice at all)!

 

[Harry-N]

Regarding the "next week" previews. One has to understand that these little 30-second films were basically a function of the network that was airing the series at the time - in VOYAGE's case this was ABC.


Exactly how each producer handled the showing of what was to be on "next week" was different in virtually every case. VOYAGE had straightforward little films with (usually) Ray Didsbury doing the narration. It was separate from the program that preceeded it.


LOST IN SPACE on CBS was handled differently, at least for the first two seasons, with its cliffhanger style as it seemed to actually begin the next episode where a crisis would occur a minute or so in. It was freeze-framed at that point and a "Tune in next week" card appeared. Once LOST IN SPACE hit syndication, it must have felt to the packagers that these little teases were actually part of the show, and they sort-of were, though they rarely had anything to do with the prior story. The "reset" button had been hit and we were about to begin an all-new adventure. It was very different from VOYAGE, and became the fashionable thing to do in its day. BATMAN did it, TIME TUNNEL did it, etc. So in shows like these, those "next week" cliffhangers are more important to the overall flow of the series.


LOST IN SPACE dropped the practice in its third season, going back to the more traditional "next week" promos, and those ARE included on the third season DVDs as extras. I think because of the style of the first two seasons, keeping the "next week" promos as part of the syndication package seemed in order. But for VOYAGE, those just weren't deemed necessary for some reason or other. It would have been a treat to have those, but alas, it wasn't to be.


Harry

 

[kowalski65]

Well, I'm sad to say I think this thread has finally petered out. There is one thing I'd like to tack on IF (1) anybody is still interested (2) I can find the hard copy (3) and I can figure out how to reformat it and post it here:

A Ms. Sara Stephens (don't know her, never met her) in 1998 posted a seven-page Excel document titled "How Well Do You Know Your Voyage?" on geocities.com. It was a quiz that asked the participant to match quotes from Voyage episodes with the character who said them, the character to whom they were said and the title of the episode. I had a ball with it.

You can't find it in cyberspace any longer because as most of you may know, geocities.com no longer exists. But before Sara's site evaporated, I'd printed out a copy of the quiz. I know I have it at the bottom of some briefcase or file cabinet drawer.

If I find it, I'll check back here in a week or so and if this thread is still alive, I'll see what I can do about posting it. . .

 

[Harry-N]

Hey Joe - Just the other day I stumbled onto the fact that the old Geocities site was mirrored before it disappeared, and guess what's still there:


http://www.reocities.com/TelevisionCity/2044/quotes/quotesgu.html Main site here: http://www.reocities.com/TelevisionCity/2044/


I haven't looked through it - too excited to have found it - but it could be fun.


I've barely had time to scratch the surface with the VOYAGE S4V2 set - I did look at "Secret Of The Deep" and had fun with that one. It looked like a cobbled together affair, but sometimes those can be fun. I also started the Blackbeard episode but was too sleepy to get through it.


Harry

 

[kowalski65]

Good Lord!! As a middle-aged fart, I continue to be amazed at the stuff one can discover floating around the electronic ether! You're my hero for the day, Harry, because so far, I wasn't finding the pages I'd printed out. This is fantastic, thanks!

I think DVD S., Regulus, Joe, Mark, Francis, Gary and all of the other Voyage fans who have commented on this thread will want to thank you, too.

Sara(h!)'s quiz should take the average Voyage enthusiast about 30 minutes to complete.

There is only one I haven't been able to place: The sixth quote from the bottom, "This isn't the time for your life's story." I'm pretty sure Morton said it, but I can't nail the episode and to whom it was said. (If anybody knows it, post it, please!)

I just hope "the gang" checks back again and discovers the golden nugget I tried to post (and Harry succeeded in posting) here.

 

[Harry-N]

Unfortunately, taking a glance at that quiz, I wouldn't stand a prayer of a chance of getting more than a couple right, and that would largely be guessing.


Though I remember watching *some* of VTTBOTS during its ABC run (probably some of the second through fourth seasons), I then spent years without seeing any of them at all. While I taped a few from the SciFi channel back in the late 90s, I didn't really have much impetus to actually *watch* them, except as a verification of something that I'd read on the web or in a book.

I always intended to really get into the show, and thanks to the DVD's, I'll now be able to do just that. There is certainly some basic knowledge I have regarding the show, it's guest stars, the general idea of the stories, but I'd not be able to identify dialog like that written out on a piece of paper. That will have to be left up to the fanatics out there who've memorized the lines. Maybe after a few times through all of the DVDs, I'll be able to do better figuring out the answers. But I was certainly happy to help find this little quiz.

I'm not sure if that old site was the one I once downloaded a VTTBOTS screensaver or not. I know I still have the thing and have used it a lot over these years. I think it was originally appropriated from an outfit named Xaracube, which featured a rotating cube where you could place any bitmap image on the six faces of the cube. This website (that I got it from) had it pre-packaged with six VTTBOTS images, not very large or detailed, but remember, this was from the days when we all had 15" CRT monitors running 800 x 600 resultion at best! Anyway, that screensaver has always been fun to play with. Currently I've got it configured with the four Irwin Allen '60s show logos and one with the logo from THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN.


Harry

 

[rkerker]

"This isn't the time for your life story" was spoken by Chip to Chief Sharkey in "Timelock".

 

[kowalski65]

Thanks a lot, Rob. (No wonder I couldn't remember. "Timelock" had to be one of the very worst Voyage episodes!)

 

[Mark Collins]

Yes thankyou Harry I enjoyed it very much!!! I noticed it covered a great deal of season 4 and season 1. Here are my two links I enjoyed while we waited for the final release of the show.


http://www.vttbots.com/Voyagesite.html
http://www.iann.net/voyage/