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Gosh darn those fiendish mermaid censors.

I'd never seen photos of 'Chip' with a moustache. Or pipe. He's a good looking guy and I actually love him on the show precisely because he is so deadpan. He certainly seems more alive in those photos than he does on the series.

I agree, mermaids aren't supposed to be wearing bras, damn this puritanic country of ours....

Oh, and Roddenberry, like with our current president-elect, just because you can get away with something legally doesn't mean you're not an SOB for doing so.

I've been really amazed at the music over the last week or two. I keep hearing Goldsmith (obviously culled from Jonah and the Whale), but I'm also hearing Herrmann (from Day the Earth Stood Still); I'm also hearing Alexander Courage, and others, yet for all of these (not taken from previous episodes or the Fox vault), there's no credit for any of these other than Lionel Newman's "Music Supervision" credit.

Say what you will about Irwin Allen and his storytelling (which I've mentioned previously as probably doing well on an episode ot MST3K), he did well with his music, even if he was rehashing music from previous episodes of the Fox vault.

On other notes, I still laugh out loud at some of the stuff, especially the succession of evil DoppelNelsons and DoppelCranes. Must have been hitting budget crunch and not able to afford guest stars for awhile.

Did you catch what I thought was the major change in the series with the invading alien meteor/rockets? This was a) the first episode where the Seaview began hitting that same rock on the way to the bottom; b) the Lost in Space influence kicked in in full gear with exploding aliens (at least that's how they always appeared and disapeared); and c) nearly every episode started featuring alien invaders (just how many alien civilizations were trying to invade us??), as opposed to the sea monster/mad scientist/enemy agents that up until now had dominated the series.

Someone mentioned earlier that 1966 (the current season's episodes) was the year Batman premiered to hit ratings and suddenly everything was going for the camp effect, Voyage included, I guess.

OK, it's another alien, but a neat one--just a column of flame.

But, of course, it speaks English even though it hasn't a mouth, and is so arrogant that it doesn't even bother to negotiate with the humans to get what it wants.

The episode has echoes of The Thing, with the creature in the ice block, the arctic outpost, the scientist who wants to help and learn from the creature versus the guys who want to stop it. Normally, I'd be pissed at the crib, but if you're gonna steal, it might as well be from something as great as The Thing.

I didn't believe for a second that the sub got that hot--they'd all be in boxers sitting fanning themselves and passing out. They don't even keep the hatch open or take turns going outside to cool off. Half the metal on the ship is welded together and yet they're still alive and in uniform! [Lou throws up his hands]

But the score! Herrmann, Courage, Friedhofer (I think). At this point Newman or Engel must have decided to borrow scores from 50s 20th Century-Fox films (as the other Irwin Allen series did as well). Before, I think they were reusing cues that had been composed for the series, now they have all of the 20th library to choose from. And the use of the cues in the episode was pretty good actually--seemed right and not out of place.

Well, Brand of the Beast has got to be one of the most stultifyingly stupid episodes of recent memory. First they're 4 hours from the sinking ship, then two hours, then six hours...

Nelson could have asked himself one simple question in this episode, W.W.C.K.D? (What Would Captain Kirk Do?).First he get's Sharkey and Ski in deep with the skipper, countermanding and counter-countermanding orders. The Reactor blows up, but it's okay afterward. Nelson goes on a werewolf binge, trashes his cabin, but then straightems it up afterward. Six of the worlds most brilliant men are at risk, but don't tell Crane you've become a werewolf who will send the sub to the bottom and trash the flying sub, then sink the incredible floating diving bell. Is it me or does the diving bell cable release switch just seem like the least needed switch in the diving bell compartment? Well, good news at least, the aircraft carrier just happened to be nearby to rescue the scientists after all.

REGARDING *THE MUMMY*: "This episode can boast one of the best musical scores of the entire series."
Music by Lionel Newman & Morrie McNaughton.

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REGARDING *THE MUMMY*: "This episode can boast one of the best musical scores of the entire series."
Music by Lionel Newman & Morrie McNaughton

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The recent episode you saw with a Courage credit (which I haven't seen) probably had an original Courage score.

I don't know about McNaughton, but Lionel Newman did a fair amount of composing in his day. The Mummy episode is on Thursday morning. I'm very curious to see just how good the score is and if it is original with no library cues.

As for the Beast episode, yes, really, really bad, with no one acting logically, Nelson growing and shedding hair like a Shelti, and everything resolving itself out of nowhere.

I wonder if the episodes would be better if they had to cut to the chase and Voyage were a 30 minute show instead of a whole hour? Then we'd only get one werewolf transformation instead of three.....

So Greg, what's with the Voyage drinking game? What are the questions and the points given and how does the whole thing work?

NP: King Kong Escapes (Akira Ifukube)

So, for Voyage, whenever the Flying Sub takes off, that's worth one drink. Whenever Nelson kills Crane, that's worth five, etc.

Check out Lazlo's link above for the VTTBOTS Drinking Game.

On another note, it appears that Jerry Goldsmith composed more than one episode (Jonah and the Whale) for Voyage. The Internet Movie Database has Goldsmith composing under the pseudonym "Michael Hennagin" for two episodes of Voyage.

"One of the best scores of the series"....well no wonder since it was mostly Bernard Herrmann with half the 20th library thrown in for good measure.

Well, The Drasnin Waxmen episode is due to play next Wednesday the 27th......

And Goldsmith...2 episodes as Michael Hennagin? In addition to the Whale episode I presume, but once again not listed at the Irwin Allen site.

And are they complete episodes or cues written for episodes? And why did Goldsmith use a psuedonym on some of these things anyway?

As far as the pseudonym listing for Goldsmith as "Michael Hennigan", ever since you began this topic, I've made sure to look at the music credit for each episode. I haven't (or don't remember) seeing the Michael Hennagin credit (but I did miss the first half of season 1 showings).

Finally got caught up with my backlist of episodes this morning. The Shadowman was a bit bogus. If they were that agressive toward us, why did the crew still go ahead and launch the space probe to their (sic) galaxy?

And is Nelson getting cranky, or is it just Basehart? Keeps telling Crane "it's better you don't know", or yelling at Sharkey or Morton "well..., uh, just fix it!"

Budget must have been an issue this season. Irwin Allen was in the middle of his second season of Lost in Space, which had received somewhat of a revamp, and was going to receive even more of a revamp for the third season. Allen was also planning The Time Tunnel, which was due next season as well. I suspect that his attentions (and funding) was being focused elsewhere.

The Sci-Fi channel showed Abbott & Costello movies Monday which means another day's wait for Drasnin's 'The Wax-Men' score now playing on Thursday.

As I speculated earlier, Allen's efforts were on LIS and the forthcoming TT. This episode was obviously used to either cut costs for awhile or get the series back on production schedule.

Oh, by the way, Chip Morton finally shows emotion (actually a grimace) as he watched the crewmen drowning on the monitor. Chip is running neck and neck with Mr. Spock for who can show emotion first.

BTW, the Vincent Price episode is a minor IA classic. It's been a long time since I saw it, but with Price and these ventriloquist dolls of Crane and Nelson trying to take over the Seaview, you know it's gotta be fun.

I caught yesterday's episode--I thought getting swallowed by those inflated trash bags once was one time too many.

There was one of those testy Basehart moments you were talking about earlier. Basehart orders the deck missles to fire at the creature with Crane still inside. Sharkey puts up a fuss and Basehart looks at him, shakes with annoyance, and says, "Just do it."

Given how many "you've got to be kidding me" moments there are in these episodes now, I'm sure he was just mimicking his director.

Harry Geller was credited with music this episode, but I've never heard of him before. Obviously, they had an expanded budget for this episode, affording both Price and a new score, not to mention the dolls and puppeteers.

Heard the crewmen have a betting pool going - which officer is going to get taken over by aliens this week? Who should we not trust to whack us with a crowbar when we're not looking? Which officer is not going to believe another officer and relieve him of command this week?

According to my calculations, they will have run through the entire 110 episodes on Feb. 8. Now the question is whether they'll repeat the series from the beginning (so we can see those early B & W episodes with scores by Sawtell and Friedhofer) or put something else on in its place.

The Sci-Fi channel was showing something called Sightings after Voyage and now it's showing episodes of Sea Quest DMV.

VTTBOTS is still on the schedule for the February 28th listing.

Sounds like they'll give the series a second viewing, meaning I can catch the first half of the 1st season, which I missed.

Basehart kept showing up in Allen productions (mostly TV movies), so did Bob Dowdell, even the Hispanic-American actor that was one of the extra Seaview crewmembers kept showing up in as an extra in Allen productions (as an extra in Poseidon Adventure). I don't think Hedison ever worked for Allen again, and he's been relegated to daytime soap operas (not a bad paycheck, just no real stretch for an actor).

I saw him in a Ringo Lam Hong Kong movie from the 80s of all things.

That definitely is a different arrangement and performance of Paul Sawtell's theme. I don't know if that's been in the can for awhile or if it was rerecorded for the new title sequence. I think I like the old arrangement better.

The visuals of the new title sequence are okay, but here I also prefer the old title sequence. There is no image of the Seaview at all, which I think is a mistake. The freeze of the image at the end of the episode teaser and the sonar/radar rings seems have been designed in tandem with the new countdown title sequence in Lost in Space (both happened at nearly the same time during that current season). Williams new music for the LIS theme worked, but I don't think the new arrangement for Sawtell's theme does.

THEN....if all goes well and the Sci-Fi Channel repeats the series from the beginning as their schedule indicates....

Monday, Feb. 12 & Tuesday, Feb. 13--the first two episodes of Voyage season one scored by Paul Sawtell (the first episode is supposed to have a different arrangement of the theme as well).

Wednesday, Feb. 14--a Valentine's Day present to us all, the one episode of Voyage scored by Hugo Friedhofer!

By the way, I just heard the John Williams and Sandy Courage scores for LAND OF THE GIANTS. I almost collapsed from profound boredom. Maybe they didn't want to waste any good music on a crappy show.

Remember when everything went down the toilet in 1968? The assassinations, the riots. And worst of all, both VOYAGE and LOST IN SPACE got cancelled. But guess what got the green light for 2 frigging years? LAND OF THE GIANTS.

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You 2 are absolutely incorrigible. What the hell's next---a semiotic analysis of LAND OF THE GIANTS?

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Well, I am working on a post-modern analysis of the semiotic subtext of Irwin Allen as a purveyor of existentialism as seen from the context of Jean-Paul Sartre using the sayings of Will Robinson, Dr. Smith and the Robot. I hope to be in publication by the end of the year.

After that, I may begin focusing on the effects of short lived science fiction series such as Space Rangers, UFO, Man From Atlantis, Manimal and others as a national treatise on the conservative agenda and direction that the country has taken and it's sociological implications on the creation of future short lived science fiction TV series.

As for the Land of the Giants CD, I think it's better music than you do, but nothing special. I suppose the same could be said for much of Voyage's scores, but I seem to like a lot of the music in these episodes (in many cases more than the episodes themselves).

As for a semiotic, post-structuralist, Psychoanalytic, Jungian, Delluzian take on a random 35 second segment of a single Land of the Giants episode taking into account issues of gender, class, and race, I refer you to my already published 206-page unreadable, jargon-filled monograph available as a special issue of the Journal of Balding Fat Guys who Watch Lots of TV and Have Nothing Better to Do than Pick Shows Apart Out of Boredom Vol. 1176 No. 138

And Greg you bum, that chair at Walamaloo should have been mine! Mine! MINE!! I'm hacking your computer so I can steal your ideas and publish them first. I'm dining some cronies so they'll write scathing reviews of anything you try to issue next. That'll teach you to out p.c. me.

The first episode, 11 Hours to Zero, which is on the Voyage CD along with Goldsmith's whale episode, just aired Monday morning.

Shot in color but originally shown in 1965 in b & w, the Sci-Fi channel showed the color version. It looked great. Allen should have used color throughout.

The episode was one of the best Voyage episodes I'd seen. And the scoring really worked. If they'd kept up this level of quality throughout, Voyage would have lasted more than 4 seasons. Still, even here the writing was on the wall, what with the divers fighting a giant octopus in the middle of more interesting political intrigue.

Hopefully, I will catch up and can contribute meaningfully to this discourse.