Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Brand of the Beast

A loose valve in the “pile” (basically a box with some metal pipes) of the reactor room (the Seaview is full speed ahead in turbulent waters to help a ship containing “the world’s greatest scientific minds” which causes the reactor to go damn near critical) needs repair so Admiral Nelson (who else but the most important senior officer on the Seaview?) proceeds to take it upon himself to fix it. But after a pop as Nelson opens the box to fix the valve, his protective glove on his right hand doesn’t help, causing a viral infection that had been dormant, it seems, after a vaccine had concealed a beast from surfacing. Okay so in the past there had been a werewolf gone crazy, attacking Nelson. The vaccine helped him. Well, radioactivity has now reversed the vaccine’s effects and the viral infection has returned to bring about werewolvery to Nelson. So Nelson is a werewolf with a scratch that, if it breaks the skin, will spread the infection to other crewmembers he might attack. Yes, the threat of radioactivity doesn’t encourage the Seaview’s officers to wear protective suits going into the reactor room or exercise caution after the damn door to the room blew off nearly taking out Kowalski! So Nelson gets a boo-boo on his hand, instead of radioactive effects resulting in cancer, and turns into a werewolf. But he fixes the pile so that at least is one less crisis to worry about. But werewolf Nelson goes berserk in the CIRCUITRY ROOM (big sign on door, with a room full of machines making noise you probably recognize in some cave on a planet in Lost in Space), and he happens upon the “most important room in the entire sub”. Aw shucks. Sucks to be Skipper Crane. Or poor Robert Dowdell who can’t even get a credit on the show anymore. I think the poor guy has one scene of dialogue with Crane as Chip is told to keep the boys unaware of Nelson’s condition…keep ‘em busy, Chip! We get plenty of Sharkey! Yep, Chief is told to keep a secret regarding Nelson’s werewolf problem, and make sure no one comes to his locked room to bother him. He doesn’t tell Skipper. You know, the second in command (“You already had a lot you were dealing with…” Ummm, and the importance of his commanding officer and friend having an overbite might not be worth noting???). Chief, though, he’s the perfect candidate to hold onto a secret. Becker has that face as Chief that conveys, “Oh, shit!” so well. You see anxiety on Becker’s Sharkey accompanied by the beading sweat and frightened eyes which might be why he squeezed poor Dowdell out of the show’s upper tier because while Chip is cool and chill, Sharkey is nervy and always on the verge of shitting his pants. I can’t imagine which I’d prefer to be ordering the guys around. I’m a bit hard on Sharkey, though. He maintains his calm tone despite knowing that Nelson is a werewolf and the Seaview has no business pushing the limits of its capabilities to get to a ship that could or could not be saved. Then Skipper gets a good idea in his noggin about using the Flying Sub to take to the skies to find the ship…but there’s a catch involving like zero visibility and terrible weather conditions! Not to be deterred, the werewolf heads to the very location he shouldn’t…the Flying Sub. Like the CIRCUITRY ROOM, which thanks to the werewolf’s handiwork caused the Seaview to crash into the ocean floor, halting rescue efforts as engineering needed repairs, the werewolf just goes berserk in the Flying Sub, further causing damage rendering it unusable. After recovering, Nelson decides to go into the Diving Bell so he can sever ties with the Seaview and not endanger the crew. But Skipper wants to bring him back. Risk it all. Well, guess what? During the pressurization of the diving bell’s descent and jerk-ascent back to the Seaview caused a dose of nitrogen in the bloodstream that cured the virus. Yes, a load of hogwash, but at least Basehart is such a convincing actor he can make the most ludicrous science sound plausible. They had to save Nelson somehow.

Look, I am all kinds of snarky about this episode but it is fun. It is stupid, but I like how this cast remained serious and took to the material with a real sense of professionalism. Nelson looking all Naschy was cool to me, but for a really fine actor like Basehart this is demeaning. Much like Bogie as Mr. X. You just know Basehart was starting to agonize after such an often smart and slick first season’s worth of quality episodes which respected his talents and character. It would only get worse as time goes on, but as much as I love the B&W episodes, Voyage… in color pops off screen. Just serious eye candy. The Seaview, as the producers and crew stayed true to their fans, faced crises constantly and machines were always exploding and the sub was often right back on the ocean floor in need of repairs. Attention was quite attuned to the CIRCUITRY ROOM. And once again in this episode a character (Nelson, who told his guys to lock him in his room, decides to leave!) heads into the ventilation ducts to travel the sub to another area in escape mode. There’s plenty of action and noise. Even if common sense and controlled storytelling took a nose dive…

Easily my favorite scene has Crane addressing Sharkey's "insubordination" (Nelson tells him not to tell anyone about his situation, and to keep out everyone) for taking a note meant for Nelson, couriered by Kowalski. He is upset about this. Kowalski persists on taking the note to Nelson but Sharkey won't relent. Crane sentences Sharkey to his quarters but Nelson shrugs it all off. It is pure macho soap opera stuff. Orders and chains of command. Crane sizing down Sharkey and Nelson brushing it off as nothing to get worked about. This just amused me to no end.