Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a successful television show by producer Irwin Allen (1916-1991). The show was based on a film of the same name from 1961. The TV show ran from 1964-1968. Allen was good at promoting so the movie got a novelization by Theodore Sturgeon and the TV show got a comic book from Gold Key. The comic ran for sixteen quarterly issues from December 1964 to April 1970, outliving the show that spawned it.
In issue #8 (May 1967) Admiral Nelson, Lee Crane and the rest of the crew go to the Arctic to face a strange survival in “Expedition to Doomsday”. The author is not known but the two-parter had two different artists. Part 1 was drawn by Joe Certa, and Part 2 by Alberto Giolitti. Their styles are pretty similar so the average reader wouldn’t even notice the change.
The Seaview goes to Greenland to pick up three scientists for an underwater study. They are observed by a foreign power bent on conquering the world (Read: Russians!) One of the scientists is an agent of the baddies, Dr. Rackshaw.
Sabotage almost destroys the Seaview when the guidance system is tampered with, causing the sub to hit the ice underwater. The mission continues. While studying an iceberg an earthquake releases a frozen dinosaur wrapped in ice. The specimen is taken aboard and allowed to melt. Lee Crane expresses his concern that the thing might have a spark of life left in it.
Rackshaw cuts the chains on the ice to allow the dinosaur to be free. The dino attacks the crew. Admiral Nelson and Lee fire at the beast but its hide is too thick for bullets. The admiral plays bait and lures the monster onto a airlock port. The dino falls through and is jettisoned out of the ship. It swims away, no longer in the story.
Rackshaw reports to the other sub with a message in a fake fish. The baddies decide to use their Z-Bomb, a device that freezes up living flesh. The crew of the Seaview will be powerless to stop their take over. Rackshaw steals a snowcat and buries the bomb, throwing much suspicion on him. He injects himself with an antidote.
The Z-bomb goes off, paralyzing the crew, but Rackshaw has forgotten the three men in the water. The Admiral, Crane and another man capture the traitor and point a cannon at the other sub, now visible and ready to take over the Seaview.
A warning shot and the bad guys give up. They give the Americans the antidote. Rackshaw runs away to join his fellows. The bad guy sub crashes into an iceberg and they all go to the bottom.
It maybe interesting to compare this story to “Deep Freeze” from 1953. (The Alaskan dinosaur came out of a mistaken discovery known as the Glacier Island Trunko carcase in 1930. (Thanks Markus!) Both have the Bradburyian frozen dino from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. The idea for “Expedition to Doomsday” Part 1 isn’t really new, but was similar to the TV episodes when monsters were loose on the ship. This was a frequently used plot device, and why not? A submarine is a wonderful bottleneck. H. P. Lovecraft even used the idea in “The Temple” (Weird Tales, September 1925).
I have to admit I was too young to watch Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea when it was first on. It was like most Irwin Allen shows, including Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel, shows that I knew about, really wanted to see as a Science Fiction fan, but never did. Or not until I was much older and far more discerning. (I watched the werewolf episode and found the program very long — 55 minutes– with lots of filler.) My Irwin Allen was really the later Movie Allen, who produced The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. The Allen of the 1970s, not the 1960s. More pedestrian and certainly not going to tell the story of a sub in the Arctic attacked by a dinosaur. Still, we have this weird little tale …
I liked the first season. It went downhill thereafter
my vague recollection about the series VTTBOTSea was that the series was actually based in the 70s, some ten years further on in the future from the 60s when it was shot. This aspect seems to have been left out after awhile to make it contemporary. It allowed, perhaps, for the more advanced technology present in the tv show.