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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three Volume Two
02/08/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
region 1. pub: 20th Century Fox B000TLTCTK. 3 double-sided DVDs 660 minutes 13 * 50 minute colour episodes plus extras. Price: $29.98 (US), stars: Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Buy Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three in the USA - or Buy Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Season Three in the UK  check out www.foxtvdvd.com
This is the last of the 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' stories available at the moment, with more aliens, sea monsters and brainwashing than ever before.
These last thirteen episodes from season three also have some of my favourite episodes. 'The Mermaid', for instance, has a bona fide lady of the deep entrancing Captain Lee Crane waking up he tranquillisers her. It doesn't help matters that a male member of her species decides to create havoc on Seaview trying to locate her.
'Shadowman' is one of three stories to feature alien invasions. Watching this one again, I couldn't help feeling that its writer could possibly have been a Van Vogt fan as the shadowy alien would have been a ringer for the Follower from his 'Pawns Of Null-A' novel. 'Doomsday Island' where an alien sees the Seaview's nuclear reactor as a means to quickly raise its brood of eggs does raise an odd question as to where was its female mate who laid them. 'Deadly Cloud' is just that but it hides an metallic looking alien who takes Crane's appearance and also with an interest in its reactor. The times the crew of the Seaview have been exposed to radiation, its amazing that anyone's ever left. Oh, by the way, this is also the depiction of the world of 1980 seen through the eyes of people from 1965 so such dangers weren't really capitalised on at the time.
'The Brand Of The Beast' is a follow-up to the earlier season episode 'Werewolf' when Nelson's virus flares up again. It's planet Irwin for the solution although I'm not entirely convinced that a nitrogen environment wouldn't also have killed the Admiral himself.
The number of times that the crew were taken over shows a predisposition for bottle shows no doubt showing the need to control the budget. These days, such problems would have been thought of earlier and spread throughout the season. Oddly enough, these also allowed the cast to show different things when taken over and a little more air time. They also happened to be rather good episodes although be careful of watching them one after another. 'The Creature' of the story title is a plant. 'The Wax Man' is a sinister take-over by a clown dwarf replacing the crew with wax similes which is a lot better than described and nearly surreal. 'Destroy Seaview!' has a brainwashed Nelson doing the dirty on his own and nearly killing Crane in the process. There's a slight problem with this one when three enemy frogman appear and their submarine still over an hour from getting there.
Unusually, it was a wait until this season before we saw any mention of Nazis in 'Death From The Past'. This time, two science officers have been napping in suspended animation for nearly thirty years and want to finish the mission they started. There really should be a policy of keeping all visitors to the submarine on armed guard.
Menaces from this planet include a waking mummy in...er...'The Mummy'. 'The Fossil Men' covers human survivors by becoming rockmen and somehow actor Richard Basehart got a joke under dour producer Irwin Allen's eyes by commenting as Nelson that it was like talking to a brick wall to one of the creatures.
The Seaview nearly got sunk again, proven it can be manned with a skeleton crew and one confirmed destruction of another Flying Sub. L.B. Abbott's special effects team did exemplary work and that alone is worth the price of admission here.
I should also point out that all three seasons have carried interviews with actor David Hedison and this one has an audio interview with Richard Basehart. The stills gallery features gallery shots as well as production photos.
Although I can be critical of the science now, but when the series was first broadcast I doubt if anyone would have thought that people would still be watching it nearly fifty years later. It's only been shown on British television twice here and this DVD collection has yet to be released in the UK. The adventures are solid and its like meeting old friends again watching this series. If you have a multi-region DVD player this shouldn't cause any problems watching. If you haven't kick 20th Century Fox for a release in your region.
GF Willmetts
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