User Reviews

"The Day the World Ended" is one of the better installments from Voyage's third seasons. Though it features a brief "monster bit", a gimmick that would place prominently in the show's final two seasons, it hearkens back to the more "serious" tone of the first year as it tells a taut tale that combines political intrigue and mystery.

Former child star Skip Homeier is good as the U.S. senator with something more than just a investigative visit up his sleeve. The script allows him, as well as all the principal cast members some valuable screen time. Even radio operator Sparks, played by Arch Whiting, has a few more lines than usual.

Impressive use of stock footage of San Francisco and New York add to the story. Also, the Fox backlot serves as a passable Washington, DC.

'Senator William Dennis' ( Skip Homeier ) is brought aboard Seaview to see the latest in submarine detection devices - the X-4. On a large wall map of the world, pinpoints of light representing the locations of U.S. subs can be seen going out. Radio contact with the subs breaks down. Nelson is baffled. Crewman 'Kowalski' ( Del Monroe ) shoots at what he thinks is a sea monster - in fact its another crewman. Crane also sees the beast. Nelson, Sharkey and Dennis head for New York in the Flying Sub only to find it eerily deserted. What is going on?

A puzzle of a story from the pen of William Welch. It is not far removed from the 'Avengers' classic 'The Hour That Never Was' or 'Many Happy Returns' from 'The Prisoner. Skip Homeier gave such a smooth performance as the villain in Season 1's 'The Amphibians' that he was brought back for this, and returned the following year as 'Robek' in 'Attack!'. The weirdness is explained by Dennis' mastery of hypnosis. He wants the X-4 to help him seize power. Patterson is the only crew member who did not meet him, hence he is unaffected. The hallucinatory sea monster is in the titular beast from the previous year's 'The Monster From Outer Space'. You have to give Welch credit for depicting a U.S. Senator as a power-seeking megalomaniac.

This episode sort of harks back to the good old days of the Seaview and its crew getting involved in the murky world of political espionage. Here we get a rather oily politician who got himself elected Senator (of Kowalski's home state), coming from nowhere, to clinch a surprise victory. This bad guy (excellently played by that master of villainy, Skip Homeier) has a secret gift of mind control, getting himself elected unfairly, he now wants to steal Admiral Nelson's latest toy, an electronic box of tricks that can locate every nuclear ship and submarine in the world's oceans. Nelson obviously intends for it to go to the US Gvt, Homeier's character plans to steal it and either use its theft to lever more power for himself or sell it to the highest bidder.

The episode does include a couple of monster scenes (very briefly) imagined by Kowalski & Crane but the highlights are the scenes of a deserted New York as Homeier has Nelson & Sharkey believing that Washington DC and New York have been evacuated through some unknown catastrophe.

He stupidly shows his hand by rigging the Flying Sub to blow up and he ends up being shot dead in a struggle. As he slowly dies, his control over Nelson, Sharkey and those back at The Seaview is relinquished.

I would've given the episode a full 10/10 but for the plot hole that Homeier's villain wants to return "to the safety of The Seaview" (get his hands on Nelson's device) but naturally, Nelson demands to find out why cities have been evacuated. Surely Homeier's character could've planted the suggestion in Nelson's mind: "The Senator is right. We must go back to the ship."?? But this episode is still better than most of the "monster of the week" ones where the cast struggle to sell the story.

Warning: may contain spoilers.

Episode three keeps the action moving, as the mind control theme makes a rapid re-appearance. It's amazing how many variations have been written on that subject, yet it obviously resonated with the audience tuning in for adventure during the mid-1960s.

This time around the outsider is newly elected Senator William Dennis who comes aboard Seaview to inspect the latest exotic equipment installed on the Seaview, namely the X-4 submarine tracking device. Upon arrival, the Senator makes the rounds shaking the hand of virtually every man on board, in the grand tradition of glad-handing politicians everywhere.

Kowalski (who hails from the Senator's elected state) is the first to experience the first of a series of seemingly impossible visions. The condition spreads rapidly throughout the crew, culminating with the seeming disappearance of every submarine from the world's oceans as all the lights on Nelson's X-4 tracking board blink out one by one until only Seaview is left. It seems that all life has disappeared from the Earth, save for the Seaview and her crew! Admiral Nelson sets in the Flying Sub out on an exploratory mission to N.Y.C. with the Senator in tow. The scenes in an apparently deserted Manhattan are suitably eerie, and may well have influenced the terrific opening sequence of "Omega Man".

This episode is particularly well acted and directed, with little ironic touches throughout (such as Kowalski shooting someone else, for a change). One has to wonder whether the fact that the Senator's mental domination is established through a handshake, is a bit of sly political commentary.

Richard Basehart continues to impress with his usual intensity, and for any who are still in doubt of his abilities, I would suggest viewing: "Decision Before Dawn" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043459/ VTBOS continues to deliver in it's third season, as the series shifts subtly from tense Cold War drama to Sci-Fi adventure, to reflect the rapidly the changing times.

Kowalski, recovering in Sick Bay.

Remember that movie with Dustin Hoffman and Samuel Jackson where they go as a team down to the bottom of the sea and find an object that broadcasts scary nightmares to the various crew mates? Well, that was based on a book written by no less than Michael Crichton, so there's absolutely no way he could have based it on this fantastic episode of VBoS, which he would have first seen when he was an impressionable 24 years old.

Even so, "Sphere" sure smells like this episode.

I mean, they go down to the bottom of the sea and everybody starts getting these waking nightmares. It's awesome, and totally disarming. What the heck is going on here? Kowalski shoots at Patterson, and there's this wrenching hospital scene with them trying to patch things up, it's totally realistic and WHAT in HORNEYTOADS is UP with those DOTS?

Then all heck breaks loose, they lose their way, the Admiral jets around in the Flying Sub like a scared little bunny, everybody disappears, monsters are roaming around, they can't get a decent bagel in New York, it's very disconcerting.

And the strangest thing of all is that actor Skip Homeier, playing the evil Senator guy, looks exactly like my friend Greg. I mean, exactly. He's an identical twin to Greg. The first time I saw him I thought, what's Greg doing on this show? And he's always hovering in the background, leering at the proceedings, just like Greg would. Now the thing is, my friend Greg is an orphan. He doesn't know who his biological parents are. So it makes you wonder…

Anyway, I sure like this episode and I think Mr. Crichton likes it too, so we're all in good company, here on . . .

the good ship Seaview.

The Day Washington DC looked like Gotham City? When the guys walk the streets of Washington it is actually a 20th Century Fox set that was also used as Gotham City in Batman (1966) sometimes. And while on Washington, this hour features totally NEW footage of the Flying Sub moving over the city that is a knockout. They say season three had a small budget but they spent big at the start of the season!

The story itself, about everybody in the world slowly vanishing, is outstanding, but the hour gets two points taken away because the answer to the mystery is just too hard to swallow. As my IMDb review history reveals, normally I can turn a blind eye to the many holes in Irwin Allen story telling, but for some reason I just can't go along with this one. At least the ending in given humour when Nelson responds to the explanation by brushing it off with "Yes, something like that, Chief".