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Rating: - My Favorite Season of Voyage
Usually the first season of any show is its best. Although I enjoyed season 1, season 2 was my favorite season of Voyage. There are several reasons for this. Season 1 was fairly serious and filmed in black and white. Season 2 was the first season filmed in color and like so many other series that had their 1st seasons in black and white, (Voyage, Lost in Space, Wild Wild West, U.N.C.L.E., etc,)the second season looked just beautiful in color. Voyage looked better than most with the blue of the ocean, blue skies, and those colored lights flashing on and off aboard the Seaview.
But the real reason was the scripts. The second season of Voyage was a nice combination of sci fi. and James Bond adventure. (Bond and U.N.C.L.E. were at their height of popularity at that time. The first season of U.N.C.L.E. ran against the 1st season of Voyage on Monday nights. If only we had a VCR or DVR in those days.)
Season 2 opened with one of my faves: "Jonah and the Whale" wherein Admiral Nelson and a female Russian scientist (Gia Scala,) are swallowed by a giant whale in their diving bell and Crane must lead a party inside the whale to rescue them (TV Guide did a nice spread on this episode.) It sounds preposterous but I love this episode. This was followed by several other excellent episodes including the very serious "And Eight of Us are Left" and "The Cyborg" with Victor Buono as a mad scientist creating a cyborg Admiral Nelson. There were several weeks of Bond-oriented episodes, (the excellent "Left-Handed Man" and "Deadliest Game,") followed by the classic "Leviathan" where one of Nelson's scientist friends grows to gigantic proportions (and goes insane,) spending much of the second half of the show tackling the Seaview and trying to stomp it into the ground. Truly magnificent special effects that still hold up great. (After each episode, the ratings were checked and it was found that the monster shows outrated the non-creature oriented. As a result, for its 3rd season and beyond, Voyage became, unfortunately, a monster of the week series.
Some other memorable Voyage episodes from the second season in this set, and volume 2, include the poorly-titled "Monster from Outer Space." This was the first appearance of a rather silly-looking inflated alien (reused in another episode later on.) This was also the first time an alien took over the consciousness of the entire crew (with the usual exception of either Nelson or Crane who must defeat them alone.) This plotline was used ad nauseum in seasons 3 and 4. There was also "Terror on Dinsaur Island," a much better episode than the first season's "Turn Back the Clock," (75% of which was taken from the Irwin Allen film "The Lost World.") I also liked "Killers of the Deep," guest-starring the great Michael Ansara, a reworking of the WWII film "The Enemy Below" with much of the footage taken from that 20th. Century Fox Film (like "The Lost World" also co-starring David Hedison.") "The Skys on Fire" is a reworking of the original Voyage film from 1961. I also enjoy "Dead Men's Doubloons," a guilty-pleasure with Albert Salmi as the leader of a spy-ring who believe they are reincarnated pirates. Finally, there is "The Mechanical Man" with James Darren as one very nasty android. (Darren would star in Irwin Allen's "The Time Tunnel" the following season.")
There are many other enjoyabe episodes, but these are some of my favorites. As stated previously, it was a very nice combination of sci. fi. and Bond-like adventures. If only it had stayed that way. However like Allen's other series and other tv shows of the time like Man from U.N.C.L.E., the show started serious and than gravitated into silliness as time went on. Season 2 was the high-point of Voyage. However no matter how silly it got, the excellent acting of Richard Basehart and David Hedison and the seriousness with which they played their roles always made it enjoyabe to watch.

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