User Reviews

There's two ways of looking at this episode.

Either you think this is the turning point in the series; where the Seaview started to sink & stink, or you come to a deep realization that this is in fact where the show really started flying. It all depends on how you feel about werewolves. Either you think they're silly, non-scary and have very little to say about society, or you like 'em. Like 'em a lot.

C'mon, obviously werewolves are the coolest things on the planet. They're undercover monsters, they could be anybody. They're furry, like your pet dog. They have big upturned fangs. They kill in a messy bloody yucky way. They twist around a lot in pain when they turn into werewolves. They're the psychological lead-in to serial killers, maybe based on real documentation of psychopaths affected by moon cycles.

Anyway, this episode is possibly the best in the entire series. It's incredibly frightening, filmed in horror-show lighting and angles, a shock-ride down a steep hill to oblivion. The FX are great, by any standard. It's all about wolves, werewolves, a bubbling volcano and radioactivity. In one astounding scene it all comes together in a fistfight tussle down a mountainside.

Richard Basehart puts on an amazing performance as the nervous victim, hoping the mauling he got won't turn him into a werewolf. I figure it must be a true-to-life experience, cause Richard is plainly scared to death the writers are actually going to make him put those teeth in and squirm around. They almost do it, but remember Basehart is an actor who had previously worked in Italy with Fellini, with Gregory Peck and John Huston, and had been married to Va-va-va Voom Valentina Cortese. There's enough lingering respect from the producer to keep him from lurching around bumping into flimsy sets while clenching those big teeth in his mouth. He never quite becomes a werewolf, but it's so close, so close. You can see Richard sweating, reading ahead in the script, cursing to himself and drawing on yet another Marlboro Long.

How could this show be all about monsters without having a werewolf episode? It wouldn't be complete, it wouldn't do the audience justice, it just wouldn't live up to the highest standards of . . .

the good ship Seaview.

May contain spoilers.

I clearly remember being absolutely terrified of the VTBOS Werewolf episode as a kid, so I approached this offering with much anticipation. But wait a minute... the episode that I recall involved a diving bell (always bad news) and Admiral Nelson transforming into the Lycanthrope as depth and pressure increased. I don't remember anything about an erupting volcano, or a radio-active-rabid wolf, or another visiting scientist who will prove troublesome to the crew of the Seaview. The Werewolf episode that I recall centered around the terrifying moments when the diving bell was hauled back aboard the Seaview, it's porthole obscured with condensation. What lurked inside, the Admiral or the Wolf(man)? I quickly turned to the awesome IMDb data banks only to discover that the show lodged so firmly in my own data storage unit is another episode from later in season 3 entitled: "Brand of the Beast" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0888450/ That's what makes this one of the most entertaining series of all time: Two Werewolf episodes in one season! This show is action packed with enough twists and turns to keep fans glued to their sets throughout and there is even a time-lapse transformation scene (ala Lon Chaney) just to keep Werewolf fans happy! The scenes where Admiral Nelson is infected with Werewolf venom and ultimately caged, are both dramatic and truly touching. Only VTBOS can simultaneously plumb the depths and scale the heights of adventure!

Kowalski: on Damage Control detail.

When werewolves and mummies began appearing in 'Voyage', you immediately knew the writers were running out of ideas. Having said that though, Donn Mullally's 'Werewolf' is the first and best of the trio of wolf-man episodes. A team of geologists, headed by 'Dr.Hollis' ( Charles Aidman ), is studying volcanic activity on a sub-tropical island in the South Seas when one is bitten by a wolf. He in turn infects Hollis, who becomes a werewolf and murders the pilot of the Flying Sub. Unlike normal werewolves, whose transformations are triggered by full moons, radioactivity does the trick this time. And the Seaview has a reactor.

There are some good sequences here, most notably the werewolf attacking both Nelson and the ship's doctor ( Richard Bull ). There is some unintentional comedy too, including Nelson and his men bursting into the Reactor Room and, on spotting the werewolf, running out again ( its like something out of a Three Stooges short ). The make-up job on Aidman is first-class; unlike the werewolf in 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker' in 1974, this is the real McCoy, boasting hairy hands and fangs. It is a pity then the director ( Justus Addiss ) made a mistake in having it run around screeching in brightly-lit rooms. The same creature glimpsed in shadow from time to time would have been terrifying. At the story's end, Nelson is apparently cured of his werewolf condition, but he grew hairy for a William Welch-penned sequel: 'The Brand Of The Beast'.