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Feb 19, 2012

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
(B483)


Scenes from the View-Master packet Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483).

 

View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), packet cover

Packet Cover

 

From the original packet cover:

Gunfire shattered the peace of a Caribbean island as two criminals made their escape from a penal colony, stole a boat and headed out to sea . . .

The Seaview, the world’s first, non-military, nuclear submarine, was also lying peacefully in the Caribbean, while her builder, Admiral Harriman Nelson, dangled beneath her in a diving bell, exploring the vast depths. Suddenly, from the ocean’s floor, a shadowy, monstrous, being rose and reached for the tiny bell.

To the public, Seaview is a scientific underwater laboratory. To the government, she is a mighty secret weapon. To the Admiral, and to Seaview’s Captain and crew, she is a ship with danger and adventure as her cargo.

 

View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), booklet cover

Booklet Cover

 

From the 16-page booklet:

“ESCAPE”

When the sleek bulk of the nuclear sub Seaview slips beneath the surface, the silent twilight of all the earth’s seas become her home. To the public, she is a traveling laboratory for scientific research and exploration; our government leaders know her as one of our country’s mightiest secret weapons.

The Seaview is the brainchild of Admiral Harriman Nelson, brilliant scientist-engineer and director of the sub’s activities. In command of the Seaview itself is Commander Lee Crane who, with a tough and skillful crew, guides the complex craft on its perilous journeys.

Our Voyage seems peaceful enough: the Seaview, surfaced and silent, is basking in the brilliant sunshine of the Caribbean. Far below, Admiral Nelson is in the Seaview’s diving bell, exploring in wonderment the depths too great for even Seaview’s tough hull.

NOTE: The episode title as aired on ABC-TV was “Deadly Creature Below!” from the Series’ second season.


 

Scene 1


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 1

Dobbs and Hawkins fled from island prison

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Just a few days before, the peacefulness of the Caribbean had been shattered by an event that would bring violence to the Seaview, also. At a penal colony on one of the Grand Bahamas, two hardened and desperate long-termers, Dobbs and Hawkins, had overpowered a guard, seized a small boat, and made good their escape in a burst of gunfire.

They had paddled down a small river to the sea and then, caught in the Gulf Stream’s flow, had drifted helplessly. When their tiny craft overturned, they could only cling weakly to its keel and drift on . . .


 

Scene 2


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 2

Rescued by Seaview, they plan to seize flying sub

 

From the 16-page booklet:

As the tiny yellow diving bell swayed gently in the deep currents, Admiral Nelson was busily recording important data of the dive when the bell’s radio suddenly came to life. “Admiral? We’re going to have to pull you up. Lookout has spotted a capsized boat with a couple of men on it. We’ll have to get under way to pick them up.”

The two limp figures were quickly hauled aboard the Seaview, and a visit from the ship’s doctor, plus a welcomed meal, soon had them on their feet. Dobbs was the pair’s spokesman.

“We’re – ah – business associates,” he said. “We were vacationing in Miami. Went out on a little fishing trip in the boat. Rowed a little too far, I guess; couldn’t get back.”

Accepting their story, Admiral Nelson told the two that he wanted to make another dive that day, but that he would use the flying sub afterwards to take them to the nearest land—the Grand Bahamas.

When the bell once more reeled out from its winch, Dobbs and Hawkins pleaded to be allowed to watch, but they spent most of their time carefully examining a plan of the Seaview—especially the location of the ship’s arsenal and the flying sub.

“We’re sure not going to let that Admiral take us back to the Bahamas,” Dobbs muttered to Hawkins. “Look for a chance to make some kind of diversion. Then we can grab some guns and that flying sub and beat it to Brazil.”


 

Scene 3


voyage_03cr-e3-540w

When Admiral Nelson went down in diving bell . . .

 

From the 16-page booklet:

In the twilight of the ocean’s depths once more, Admiral Nelson was filming the scene and reporting his impressions to Commander Crane. “This is fantastic, Lee. I’ve never seen such a variety of species—some have never been seen before, I’m sure of it . . . wait, what (sic) wrong? Lee, all the fish suddenly have disappeared, as though something frightened them. Send me down there . . .”


 

Scene 4


voyage_04cr-e3-540w

Dobbs wrecked the bell’s winch

From the 16-page booklet:

But, high above, Dobbs had found a way to get the diversion he wanted—as he wondered about the missile room, ignored by the busy crew, he noticed a sign on the diving bell winch, “Do Not Oil.” Standing nearby was an oil can. With a quick movement, Dobbs twisted off the lid of the can and dumped the contents on the clutch mechanism. With a tortured shriek, the winch ran wild!


 

Scene 5


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483)< Scene 5

The criminals ran as the diving bell fell

 

From the 16-page booklet:

“Lee! What’s wrong up there? We’re dropping too fast!” The Admiral’s voice came urgently over the radio speaker.

But Lee Crane and his crew were too busy fighting the runaway winch to answer. As smoke filled the compartment and the shriek of grinding metal filled the air, Lee finally spotted the trouble. “Kowalski! There’s oil on the clutch—douse it with gasoline!”


 

Scene 6


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 6

A huge beast reached for Nelson’s bell

 

From the 16-page booklet:

As the desperate struggle went on in the Seaview, the tiny bell lurched downward at an ever-increasing rate and the pressure on the ball mounted. Nelson threw open the bell’s compressed air tanks to avoid being crushed by the awful force of the sea bottom. Almost crushed himself by the air pressure, Nelson fought to maintain consciousness; and so he did not see, rising from a subterranean canyon, a huge, almost formless creature whose glowing eyes were fastened on the yellow bauble dangling invitingly over its weird head.


 

Scene 7


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 7

Stopped in time, Nelson discovers sabotage

 

From the 16-page booklet:

With a dying scream of protest, the gasoline-soaked clutch finally caught, and the diving bell jerked to a stop. “Admiral! Admiral! Are you alright?” Lee called over the radio microphone.

“Start emergency recovery procedure,” he barked to the crew when he received no reply. By the time the bell was drawn up into the Seaview’s hull, Nelson had recovered enough to demand an immediate investigation of the mishap.

“Look,” said Lee, “here by the clutch—an empty oil can! But who . . .?” He answered his own unfinished question. “Dobbs and Hawkins! They were standing near here just before the clutch went out. Where are they now?”

“I don’t know, Lee,” said Nelson, getting two guns from a locker, “but I think we’d better find out!”


 

Scene 8


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 8

The armed convicts tried to capture the flying sub

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Racing through the sub’s intricate passageways, Dobbs and Hawkins had managed to locate the arsenal and had helped themselves to a .45 automatic and a submachine gun. Leaping into the Control Room they had herded the startled crewmen into a corner and moved on toward the nose of the Seaview and the hatch to the flying sub. Just as they were struggling with the hatch openings, Crane and Nelson burst through the doorway at the opposite end of the Control Room.


 

Scene 9


voyage_09cr-4-540w

Crane and Nelson battled Dobbs and Hawkins

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Taking the situation in at a glance, Nelson shouted “Take cover!” to the crew; and when Dobbs and Hawkins opened fire, his gun barked in reply. Crane and Nelson ducked behind cover, and the Control Room echoed with the crash of bullets as the desperate Dobbs and Hawkins battled for their freedom.


 

Scene 10


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 10

Bullets smashed the Ballast Control Panel

 

From the 16-page booklet:

As Hawkins wildly sprayed the compartment with bursts from his submachine gun, there was a flash and then a brilliant explosion from an overhead bank of controls.

“Admiral! They’ve hit the Ballast Control Panel!” Lee shouted. And then the Seaview suddenly twisted drunkenly as the tanks reacted to the wrecked board.

As Nelson and Crane rushed to control the stricken boat, Dobbs and Hawkins dove down the hatch to the flying sub.


 

Scene 11


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 11

The convicts escaped from the damaged Seaview

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Quickly slamming the flying sub’s hatch behind them, the two criminals tumbled into the control seats.

“You sure you can fly this thing, Dobbs?” Hawkins quavered.

“Sure, I’m sure,” snapped Dobbs. “I can fly a plane, and this is just like one, aint’ it? Look,” he added, “here’s a check list for take-offs. You read it off and I’ll do the flying.”

While the frightened Hawkins hesitantly read from the complex take-off instructions, Dobbs pulled and pushed and threw what he hoped were the proper switches and levers. With the Seaview’s crew busy trying to save the listing sub, Dobbs and Hawkins managed to open the sea doors and achieved a wobbly launching.


 

Scene 12


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 12

The Seaview’s crew managed to stop the ship

 

From the 16-page booklet:

In the Seaview’s bullet-riddled Control Room, Lee Crane and his officers were frantically attempting to bypass the blasted Ballast Panel and regain control of the wildly-veering ship.

Suddenly the Sonar man shouted, “Captain, there’s a sea mount dead ahead.”

Glancing quickly at the image from the Seaview’s nose TV camera, Crane ordered “Engine Room—All back, emergency!”

The Seaview shuddered as its powerful nuclear engines ground into reverse. Slowly the biting propellers eased their rush forward; the sub’s nose came up slightly, barely clearing the lip of the underwater mountain. For a split second the big boat hung motionless . . . Gauging the time exactly, Crane snapped, “Stop all engines!” and the Seaview dropped to a crunching landing atop the plateau.

For a moment the big submarine was eerily silent as each man paused to draw a deep breath after their narrow escape. Then, the well-disciplined crew leaped back to the task of putting the Seaview back into running shape again.


 

Scene 13


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 13

But Dobbs couldn’t control the flying sub

 

From the 16-page booklet:

When Crane and Nelson went forward to the submarine’s glassed-in nose to evaluate their precarious position, they saw, just above them, the flying sub, flitting erratically through the water.

“It’s Dobbs and Hawkins,” Nelson said. “They’re out of control! Give me that microphone.”

“Dobbs,” he shouted into the radio. “Let up on your rudder. Do you hear me, Dobbs?”

But in the flying sub, Dobbs only snorted at the radioed advice. Clutching the controls he shouted to Hawkins, “He ain’t going to trick me. Shut that radio off!”


 

Scene 14


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 14

It spun down and was seized by the creature

 

From the 16-page booklet:

But Dobbs’ frantic efforts only caused the flying sub to behave even more erratically. As he fought the controls, the flying sub whipped into a tight turn and then suddenly flipped onto its back and fell into a spinning dive.

As it whirled deeper and deeper into the darkening waters, two dully-glowing eyes turned upward to follow its descent. As it neared the bottom, a shadowy form rose from the deeper shadows at the base of the sea mount. A seaweed-like tentacle groped out and plucked the falling craft from its path like a child might grasp a leaf.


 

Scene 15


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 15

Nelson stunned the creature with a laser beam

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Staring at the apparition which had suddenly appeared in their windows, Dobbs and Hawkins at first were simply paralyzed with horror. Finally Dobbs clutched at the radio microphone.

“Nelson! Nelson!” he screamed. “Something’s got us. Help, Nelson, Help!”

“Dobbs! Dobbs, listen to me!” Admiral Nelson broke in. “What are you talking about? What’s got you?”

“I – I don’t know,” Dobbs squeaked back. “It’s big – It’s huge, monstrous. It’s holding us . . . Hurry, Nelson, in heaven’s name, hurry . . .”

Hearing their frantic plea, the Admiral and Crane hurried back to the Control Room for a report from the ship's Damage Control Officer.

“We’ve managed to bypass the damaged panel, sir, and we can fill and empty the ballast tanks O.K. But I’m afraid the port tank has been weakened by the sudden change in pressure when the panel blew up.”

“We’ll have to take a chance on it, Lee,” snapped Nelson. “We’ve got to get those men!”

Easing slowly off the plateau, the Seaview dropped downward. Peering through the nose windows, Crane and Nelson caught their first glimpse of the creature who was fondling the flying sub like a toy.

“Admiral!” gasped Crane. “Wh-what is it?”

“I don’t know, Lee,” Nelson said, “But we’d better try to subdue it with our Laser Beam.”

As the Seaview steadied on its weird target, a bright beam flashed out, and the huge “thing” gasped, staggered, and fell, dropping the flying sub.


 

Scene 16


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 16

Picking up the flying sub, Seaview’s tank collapsed

 

From the 16-page booklet:

“We’re in luck, Lee,” said Admiral Nelson. “It landed right side up. Prepare for recovery.”

The yawning doors under the Seaview’s bow opened and the big sub hovered over the smaller, crippled vessel, while the automatic recovery mechanism scooped it up.

“Put an armed guard over the flying sub hatch,” Crane ordered, “and let’s get out of here . . . that creature was only stunned. It’s stirring again!”

Moving with agonizing slowness because of its damaged ballast tank, the Seaview began to rise toward the surface. As compressed air replaced ballast water in the tanks, the depth indicators showed more and more ocean under her keel, and the Seaview’s crew began to breathe once more.

But suddenly there came a grinding crash of crumpling metal and the thunder of rushing water—the damaged tank had collapsed! Seaview was out of control and sinking!


 

Scene 17


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 17

With the sub sinking, the crew lightened ship

 

From the 16-page booklet:

And so once again the Seaview’s crew fought to save their crippled craft. Commander Crane rushed to aid the helmsman at the sub’s controls as he struggled to stop their descent. “It’s no use, Admiral,” cried Crane. “She won’t respond.”

“Lighten ship, Lee,” answered Nelson, “and fast!”

Commander Crane did some swift figuring at the chart table. “Calculating the weight of the water we’ve taken in on that ballast tank, getting rid of all of our torpedoes and missiles should just about do it.”

“Good,” Nelson replied. “You jettison the torpedoes . . . I’ll deactivate the missiles and dump them”


 

Scene 18


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 18

But the creature captured the Seaview!

 

From the 16-page booklet:

But as Nelson and Crane fired their unarmed weapons into the sea, the Seaview suddenly came to a jarring stop. Metal groaned on metal as the big sub was twisted and turned by a gigantic force.

Seaview was captured by the creature!

“All engines, back emergency!” Commander Crane called over the intercom. But with all her power churning the ocean to a bubbling froth, the mighty Seaview was still in the creature’s grasp. It effortlessly held the big sub, turning it slowly from side to side to examine it like a boy with a new toy.


 

Scene 19


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 19

Nelson fired a delayed action missile

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Inside the sub the men tumbled about like rag dolls in a shaken box. Commander Crane somehow scrambled over sprawled figures in the tilting passageways to the forward Missile Room.

“Admire,” he gasped. “I’ve tried to break loose with full power. It’s no use.”

“Go back to the Control Room, Lee,” the Admiral ordered. “We’ll have to try to blast loose. The next time we roll toward the creature, I’ll fire a missile into it. I’ll put a time delay on the detonator—maybe we can make it to the surface before it explodes. It’s our only chance! When you hear the missile go, give her everything she’s got!”

As the Seaview was roughly turned once more, Admiral Nelson clung grimly to the missile controls. When the big craft lay almost on her side, he punched the “Fire” button.

Seaview shuddered as the missile was ejected with a thump. From outside there came a muffled, watery cry. And then . . . Seaview floated free!


 

Scene 20


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 20

Blasted loose, Seaview fled as the missile exploded

 

From the 16-page booklet:

“Engine Room” Crane cried, “port engine, back emergency. Starboard engine, ahead flank!”

Twisting violently away from the creature, the lightened Seaview struggled upward with painful slowness. All hands braced themselves for the missile’s blast. Then it came, like a mighty hammer crashing on the hull, hurling the submarine toward the surface with a violent thrust.


 

Scene 21


View-Master Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (B483), Scene 21

Returning to base, Seaview prepared for next voyage

 

From the 16-page booklet:

Once again on the calm surface of the Caribbean, Admiral Nelson and Commander Crane checked damage reports as the Seaview limped back to base for repairs. “She’s quite a boat, Admiral,” Lee reported. “Aside from the collapsed tank, all damage is pretty minor. And Dobbs and Hawkins are under guard in the brig. They were a pretty subdued pair when we took them out of the flying sub.”

“I was just thinking about those two,” said Nelson, “and that creature. They have no more regard for human life than it did.”

“That’s right,” Crane agreed, “and the tragedy is that Dobbs and Hawkins might have been something else. The creature never had a chance.”

“Who knows,” Admiral Nelson mused. “Maybe Dobbs and Hawkins didn’t, either.”


3 comments:

Joe Dokes said...

Great slides. I'd swear that was the Smog Monster from that crummy Godzilla movie but this TV show came first.

Anonymous said...

scene 6 was absolutely terrifying when I was a kid. I think it's burned into my cortex somewhere.Thanks for posting this.

Spurwing Plover the fighting shorebird said...

Hmm underwater Bem(Bug Eyed Monster)what you suppost it ate? WHALES?