Anyone who's seen the "VOYAGE" movie knows Irwin Allen loved piling one high-tension disaster on top of another on top of another. This episode, at a point where the show was beginning to be sillier and more absurd, feels like a throwback to season 1. The only "science" is the Gardner Fox "JLA" kind, where, you just have to accept things work because they TELL us they do. After all, it's "the future".
Kowalski's deep-sea-diving specialist brother Stan is rescued from seeming certain death, but it sends the entire Seaview and crew into even worse perils-- one piled on top of another, until by the end, Chief Sharkey fears the sub will have to be "scrapped"!
The best moments of the story are the personal, "human" ones, like when Kowalski stands up for his older brother, and when Stan does the same, or when Nelson, after everything he's done so far has failed horribly, refuses to give up, and adamantly tells Stan what he's going to do, NO MATTER WHAT. And then of course, the finale, when Stan finally manages to overcome the worst case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome I've ever seen on 60s TV, and come through when it counted. I also thought it was funny when Kowalski clobbered Kruger, then when Nelson walked in, both men said it was just a case of dizziness. The look on Nelson's face told you he knew they were full of it. It's cool when they can inject moments of humor like this right in the center of NON-NON-NON-STOP high tension.
Never mind the nonsense-science... the single most absurd thing about this episode is that, despite his brother being around the whole story, we STILL never find out what Kowalski's first name is! Unless "Kid" IS his given name (heh). ("Kit" ? Why not, there was a "Kit Carson".)
Don Gordon, who I always remember for a pair of amazing episodes of "THE OUTER LIMITS", does a fine job as a man half the crew comes to despise when he loses his nerve. Lew Gallo, who nearly clobbered him with a huge spanner wrench, apart from a long acting career, later went into producing, and was the one in charge of part of the run of the Stacy Keach "MIKE HAMMER" series in the 80s!
It SHOCKS me this was written by the same guy who did "The Terrible Toys" the week before (my vote for the STUPIDEST episode so far). This is NOT the kind of show you'd ever want to watch more than one episode a week of. Your NERVES couldn't take it!
Kowalski's deep-sea-diving specialist brother Stan is rescued from seeming certain death, but it sends the entire Seaview and crew into even worse perils-- one piled on top of another, until by the end, Chief Sharkey fears the sub will have to be "scrapped"!
The best moments of the story are the personal, "human" ones, like when Kowalski stands up for his older brother, and when Stan does the same, or when Nelson, after everything he's done so far has failed horribly, refuses to give up, and adamantly tells Stan what he's going to do, NO MATTER WHAT. And then of course, the finale, when Stan finally manages to overcome the worst case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome I've ever seen on 60s TV, and come through when it counted. I also thought it was funny when Kowalski clobbered Kruger, then when Nelson walked in, both men said it was just a case of dizziness. The look on Nelson's face told you he knew they were full of it. It's cool when they can inject moments of humor like this right in the center of NON-NON-NON-STOP high tension.
Never mind the nonsense-science... the single most absurd thing about this episode is that, despite his brother being around the whole story, we STILL never find out what Kowalski's first name is! Unless "Kid" IS his given name (heh). ("Kit" ? Why not, there was a "Kit Carson".)
Don Gordon, who I always remember for a pair of amazing episodes of "THE OUTER LIMITS", does a fine job as a man half the crew comes to despise when he loses his nerve. Lew Gallo, who nearly clobbered him with a huge spanner wrench, apart from a long acting career, later went into producing, and was the one in charge of part of the run of the Stacy Keach "MIKE HAMMER" series in the 80s!
It SHOCKS me this was written by the same guy who did "The Terrible Toys" the week before (my vote for the STUPIDEST episode so far). This is NOT the kind of show you'd ever want to watch more than one episode a week of. Your NERVES couldn't take it!
