Product Description

EXPLORE THE MARVELS OF THE UNKNOWN AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP.

Welcome a spectacular underwater world populated by sinister foreign agents, deadly sea creatures, and evil scientists bent on world domination. This is the world of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Irwin Allen's sci-fi TV classic, a world of beauty, wonder, intrigue, and danger.

Season Two, Volume Two contains some of the most innovative and beloved episodes of the entire series. There's an island inhabited by ferocious dinosaurs, a ghostly U-Boat captain with a deadly agenda, a fire in the sky that threatens to melt the polar ice cap, and more! Prepare yourself for a world unlike any you've ever experienced...Prepare to dive!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15292 in DVD
• Brand: Voyage
• Released on: 2007-02-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 659 minutes

Amazon.com
As Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea moved into the latter half of its second season, the series continued its migration from Cold War plotting to an increased emphasis on sci-fi and fantasy adventure. For better or worse, this approach was a clear indication that VTTBOTS was reaching a creative impasse, and these 13 episodes collectively represent the series at its peak. Particularly noteworthy is the increased presence of the show's excellent supporting cast: Bob Dowdell ("Lt. Cmdr. Chip Morton"), Del Monroe ("Kowalski"), Terry Becker ("Sharkey"), Arch Whiting ("Sparks") and other series regulars are given more screen time in these episodes, which range from utterly ludicrous experiments in genetic engineering ("The Menfish") to sea-faring ghost stories like "The Phantom Strikes" (guest-starring the great Alfred Ryder as the undead spirit of a Nazi U-Boat captain) and its season-ending sequel, "The Return of the Phantom." These episodes demonstrate producer Irwin Allen's occasionally misguided willingness to stretch credibility to its breaking point, but that didn't stop some episodes ("Terror on Dinosaur Island," "Deadly Creature Below!" and "The Monster's Web," for example) from satisfying loyal viewers with the series' now-established blend of impressive miniatures (especially the large-scale Seaview submarine models) and cheesy monsters, the latter due to the series' limited budget. And while episodes like "The Sky's on Fire" (an uninspired variation of the VTTBOTS feature film) indicated the series' penchant for recycling plots, others like "The Mechanical Man" (guest-starring James Darren as a power-hungry android) are enjoyable '60s sci-fi that bear striking resemblance to the original Star Trek.

While co-stars Richard Basehart ("Adm. Nelson") and David Hedison ("Capt. Crane") continued to command the series with solid performances, the real fun of VTTBOTS came from its guest-stars, and these episodes are no exception. The adventures of the Seaview included a wide variety of familiar actors including Michael Ansara ("Killers of the Deep"), the ubiquitous Nehemiah Persoff ("Deadly Creature Below!"), Robert Loggia ("Graveyard of Fear"), Albert Salmi ("Dead Men's Doubloons"), and assorted day-players like John Dehner, Seymour Cassell, and Arthur O'Connell. So, while the series reached its entertaining high-point with these episodes, it was also walking a knife-edge between occasional innovation and repetitive, overly familiar plots which kept sparks flying (and fires igniting) on the Seaview's bridge while Hedison and his fellow cast members struggled to find new ways to toss themselves around while sub (i.e. the camera) was buffeted by its latest underwater threat. Silly? Perhaps, but one thing is undeniable for every nostalgic fan who invests in these DVDs: Voyage never looked or sounded better. The DVD transfers are consistently pristine, and in the bonus interview clips with Hedison (looking remarkably healthy at age 80), the series co-star readily admits that while he was growing bored with his role, these episodes are a lot more fun that he thought when they were during production, a full 41 years before these DVDs were released. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Dinosaurs, Ghosts and Monsters, Oh my!
Voyage to the Bottom of the sea is one of those Irwin Allen Shows. You know the shows of this volume are filled with Monsters and Ghosts of World War 2 U-boat commanders.

It is still great storytelling, With all the crap out on TV that is running now,this simple throwback to the monster of week was nice change from CSIs, Law and Orders, Reality shows, News magazines and game shows. The cast of the Seaview battling the bug eyed monsters and weird creatures may seem farfetched escapest entertainment by today's standards, but the quality is there.

And maybe that what we need today. At least I think so

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

Best Collection
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
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!