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I just saw on a "Voyage" fan site that Season 1 Volume 1 is being released February 21st, 2006- 4 discs, $39.98 US- what fun!, the 1st season or two of this show were actually very entertaining, a real fave of mine from childhood, when I thought all the music Irwin Allen swiped from the Fox library was originally written for the series, Friedhofer's "Young Lions", etc come to mind. It ought to be fun to watch these again, though I wish they were releasing all 32 1st season episodes rather than the first 15. I'll say this for Allen, when he swiped music, he swiped from the best.
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I just saw on a "Voyage" fan site that Season 1 Volume 1 is being released February 21st, 2006- 4 discs, $39.98 US- what fun!, the 1st season or two of this show were actually very entertaining, a real fave of mine from childhood, when I thought all the music Irwin Allen swiped from the Fox library was originally written for the series, Friedhofer's "Young Lions", etc come to mind. It ought to be fun to watch these again, though I wish they were releasing all 32 1st season episodes rather than the first 15. I'll say this for Allen, when he swiped music, he swiped from the best. Season 1 is considered as the single best season owing to its scripts: see writer Harlan Ellison, William Read Woodfield. Besides, it is in black-n-white which make it interesting. By lack of budget, Irwin Allen introduced post-modernism inside his show by recycling 20th Century Fox scores from the 1950's.
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Jeff, I've seen a bunch of concern expressed online by "Voyage" fans who're convinced the DVDs are going to be mastered from horrible/ancient 35mm prints -- or even from 16mm prints that've been floating around. Jon I've got it on really good authority (Kevin Burns of Synthesis Productions) that the Voyage prints will be stunningly remastered from the 35mm elements. No worries here. It'll be a long trek getting all 110 episodes with Fox splitting up the seasons and for some reason, Fox is NOT splitting season one directly in half. If they were, there would be 16 episodes in the first set, not 15. So the next set will have 17. Weird. Jeff, was Fox able to scrape up the long unaired pilot? Not the 55 minute one, but the fabled longer version with alleged Dennis Hopper scenes? I'm a huge Voyage fan and a fan of Irwin Allen shows in general and have been looking forward to these releases for, like, ever.
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Season 1 is considered as the single best season owing to its scripts: see writer Harlan Ellison, William Read Woodfield. Besides, it is in black-n-white which make it interesting. By lack of budget, Irwin Allen introduced post-modernism inside his show by recycling 20th Century Fox scores from the 1950's. There's a lot more music tracking in later seasons, especially the third. The Enemy Below is completely mined on Voyage (both in stock music as well as footage). The best episodes of the first year were among some of the best stores on TV in general at that time. A shame the series went to a complete monster show in later seasons and was on the air primarily to bankroll other Irwin Allen shows. Some very creative accounting went into Voyage, which benefitted the other shows more. They'd have Voyage take the brunt of cost for props and costumes and then use those same items on The Time Tunnel and Lost in Space. Additionally, certain monies I believe were shifted over to the other series. So, Voyage would have a budget of, say, $260,000 per episode, but the series itself used very little of that (it sure didn't wind up on screen in the later episodes). I know someone who did research in the Fox archives and found a lot of that kind of money juggling. A shame, with more care, Voyage could have remained a fine program which would be well remembered by a lot more people.
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Posted: |
Dec 12, 2005 - 10:45 PM
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By: |
Jon A. Bell
(Member)
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The best episodes of the first year were among some of the best stores on TV in general at that time. Agreed. I still like a lot of 2nd season shows as well, such as "The Five of Us are Left," "The Left-handed Man," "Escape from Venice," "The Cyborg," and of course, "Jonah and the Whale," which I actually remember as a 4.75-year-old kid, and which scared the crap out of me! And, of course, the 2nd season featured the Flying Sub, which, next to the Seaview, the TOS Enterprise, the 1966 Batmobile, and the Proteus from "Fantastic Voyage," is on my short list of Coolest S/F Vehicle Ever. -- Jon
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Jonah and the Whale is my favorite episode. I loved the flying sub, even when it was doing boring stuff like falling to the ocean floor.
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I really liked the first season of VOYAGE. Plenty of political/cold war stuff. They didn't get into the seaweed monsters until much later on. And, of course, you get Henry "Bomber" Kulky as the Chief!! Yes, more intrigue in the first season, but some reasonably good science fiction, as well, "The Sky is Falling" used stock footage from "Day the Earth Stood Still" and recycled the saucer prop- and that episode with Robert Duvall as the survivor of an undersea civilization. One thing that dated the show almost 10 years after it's original run were those pre-title credit sequences that always flashed "1976" ( I think some said "1972")to announce that this takes place in the near future- way cool to an 8 year old in 1965, when that seemed like the distant future. Of course, there's always Richard Basehart's arch (but enjoyably so)line delivery.
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I love Richard Basehart! I haven't looked over all the Time Tunnel features but there IS a longer version of the pilot and the production photos include a shot of Dennis Hopper so you may be in luck... FYI, Currently TIME TUNNEL is showing on THE ACTION CHANNEL, which is part of either SHOWTIME or CINEMAX. One day they were showing the very first episode of the series and much to my surprise they were showing the original PILOT with scenes that were not in the aired episode. I hope they have BOTH versions in the DVD set when it comes out as well. Ford A. Thaxton
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I agree. The aired pilot has a cliffhanger going into the second episode. The unaired has a different ending (used in a later episode) and the following show does not pick it up. The Action Channel, IMO, made a bit of a boo boo with that. At the same time, it was nice to have a great clean digital copy of the longer pilot (which is even better in the long form). Jeff: at least you've comfirmed that Dennis Hopper was indeed in the episode. Thanks!!!
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I actually felt the opposite. I never made the Space Seed connection and other than the suspended animation gimmick, The Invaders seems much different to me in plot and tone. The Human Computer, however, I always felt closer to The Ultimate Computer. But everyone's mileage varies. Sci-Fi Adventure series in the 60's shared many plots: Kirk was given an android duplicate in What Are Little Girls Made Of? and so was Admiral Nelson in The Cyborg. Both episodes were resolved by having the hero use the duplicate to send a coded message. The Cyborg, though, was first. I also consider it the better episode. Evil duplicates were all over the dial since a split screen shot or two was cheaper to do than hiring another actor. I always felt that Voyage and Star Trek were more equal for comparison than Trek and LiS were, even though they get compared simply by virtue of being set in space. I'm glad you're enjoying the series. Hopefully you won't be too turned off by the complete change in tone when it hits color. The second season is my favorite; more exciting and the Flying Sub really opened up the series. Seasons 3 and 4 are when people usually "jump ship" because the monsters took over. But there are some real gems scattered about. Star Trek is my all time favorite series, but Voyage is favorite 1½. I haven't looked over all the Time Tunnel features but there IS a longer version of the pilot and the production photos include a shot of Dennis Hopper so you may be in luck... http://www.amazon.com/THE-TIME-TUNNEL-HISTORY-TELEVISION/dp/1593932863/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1374583886&sr=8-5&keywords=time+tunnel This book is a fantastic guide for fans of The Time Tunnel. A very thoroughly researched volume with all the behind the scenes facts you could ask for; budgets, story memos, production drawings, rare stills and more. Lots of pictures of Dennis Hopper's scenes never seen by fans. Totally recommended!
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What do you think of that companion book? SEAVIEW: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by William E. Anchors, Jr. and Frederick Barr, Lynne Holland http://www.amazon.com/SEAVIEW-Anniversary-Tribute-Voyage-Bottom/dp/1880417219/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp Not as good or of the same type. There was no effort in researching the Irwin Allen files at UCLA and some of the notes are wrong. It is an overall fine "fan created" book, but there are a lot of little comments that take away from the professionalism of it, such as commenting on Captain Crane's "elegant hands" or his "beautiful face," the "handsome men" of the Seaview, and so on. There are some great interviews and commentary, but a little too much adoration. I used to be on a couple of email groups with some of the gals who contributed to the text and I recognized their "crushes" immediately. That's fine for fanzines, but for a book like this, it's amateurish. It's not omnipresent, but when you run into them, it's jarring and made my eyes roll so much they almost got stuck in my head. There are plans to release a revised edition later this year which may or may not clean up some if the text. Pages will be added, but recently guy who ran Alpha Control Press, Bill Anchors, passed away. So I don't know if that will end the releases.
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Regarding "The Invaders", I thought it was very close to "Space Seed". The admiral only wakes up one of the inhabitants from their status chambers. The leader demands the others are awaken but the Admiral denies his request. The "Invader" reads the ships technical manuals in order to learn about the Seaview's strengths and weaknesses, etc. Of course the icing on the cake was seeing a very young Robert Duval. I forgot about that aspect. I guess it was pretty close at that. I just enjoyed how Duval pronounced "aluuuu-mumum." Great touch!
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