The City Beneath the Sea

A city beneath the sea is found.

I have had vast experience with Voyage fans on-line, there seems to be a male-view of Voyage and a female-view of Voyage. The women often go for the characterization moments with the main cast (which is seen here with Nelson and Crane) and the guys often go for the more visual side of Voyage (effects of subs, sets, monsters, etc).

The City Beneath The Sea should keep the females happy but the guys might struggle with a "city" made up of tiny domes at the bottom of a Fox tank. Perhaps Irwin Allen's 1971 TV movie also tilted City Beneath The Sea has given me a fixed view on what an underwater city should look like (large sets, blinking light hardware, extras all over the place).

I am a male who also likes anything Nelson (Richard Basehart) says or does in Voyage, but he does not do enough here to keep me happy. Perhaps the most attention grabbing thing about this hour is the "stereo" sound effects on the DVD...which give the whole thing a new feel and sound.

Several ships have been lost near a Greek island. But when the Seaview goes to investigate, they find a dead diver...who has been booby-trapped to explode!! Surely, some baddie wants them dead...but why? To investigate, the Captain goes ashore and learns that a supposedly crazy man has seen a city under the sea! Soon Leopold Zaraff (Hurd Hatfield) wants to hire the Captain to be one of his divers...but the man has ulterior motives. What are they and why? See the show if you are curious.

This is an exciting and interesting episode. In many ways, they make Zaraff like a Bond villain (or vice-versa) and this one is highly reminiscent of Stromberg (Curd Jürgens) from "The Spy Who Loved Me". Well written and worth seeing.