Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea The Deadliest Game (1964–1968) Online

Scripted by one of my two or three favourite Voyage writers - Hendrik Vollaerts - and guest starring one of my favourite Voyage bad guys: Lloyd Bochner! How could we go wrong here! We don't get much in the way of submarine special effects or quality music, it is all just great drama from a crazy General and a wonderful Admiral Nelson! Great stuff.

Good old Del Monroe as Kowalski is pleasing towards the end when he does some quality visual acting when responding to a rant from the oddball General. Look out for it.

Some of the sets are a bit average but all in all this is great stuff and better than many of the first season shows that did this kind of story.

"The Deadliest Game" brings star Richard Basehart and guest Audrey Dalton after the passing of twelve years. Though they shared no on-screen time, the actors were both last featured in 1953's "Titanic." With that said, the plot of "The Deadliest Game" centers around a treacherous Army general (played by Lloyd Bochner) who will do whatever is necessary - including killing the President (played by veteran Robert F. Simon) - to bring about a nuclear attack on "the enemy." This is one of the better espionage-type episodes of the series, offering supporting players Del Monroe ("Kowalski"), Terry Becker ("Chief Sharkey), and Bob Dowdell ("Chip Morton") some key scenes. Dowdell really comes off well as he gets to show his running skills as his character must elude the gunfire from a less-than-skilled "marksman."

Another bit of inspiration comes from the casting of genre favorite Robert Cornthwaite ("The Thing from Another World," "The War of the Worlds," and so many, many films and television shows) as one of Bochner's co-conspirators.

"The Deadliest Game" is a refreshing change-of-pace from the "monster-of-the-week" tales that would plague the show for much of the rest of its four-year run.

'The President' ( Robert F. Simon ) is being given a guided tour of Deep Center - a new undersea bomb shelter. Captain Crane is with him. Suddenly, all communication with the surface is lost, and the V.I.P.'s find themselves trapped. Worse, the nuclear reactor goes haywire. Nelson discovers the trouble is being caused by a radio beam coming from somewhere in Weymouth, Virginia. Along with 'Kowalski' ( Del Monroe ) and 'Sharkey' ( Terry Becker ), he sets out to put the beam out of action.

There seems to have been a rule among producers of American adventure series in the 60's and 70's, if you ever need a smooth villain, call Lloyd Bochner. This talented actor graced many films and series of that period, including John Boorman's 'Point Blank'. Here he is cast as 'General Hobson', a fanatical five-star military man determined to use the Deep Center crisis as an excuse to launch a preemptive nuclear strike at Russia. After a run of spy stories in which either the Russians or Chinese were the villains, here the menace is home-grown. Hobson is like the Walter Matthau character in Sidney Lumet's 'Fail-Safe' ( 1964 ) only worse. He has help in the shapely form of book-shop owner 'Lydia Parrish' ( Audrey Dalton ), a lady with a handy gun that shoots electrical bolts instead of bullets.

Good to see the normally underused Bob Dowdell getting more screen time than usual. Robert F.Simon - later to play 'J.Jonah Jameson' in the Nicholas Hammond 'Spider-Man' series - makes a convincing President.

Note the impressive set for the Deep Center reactor room - it later turned up in the show as part of the Seaview!

"The Deadliest Game" is a better than average episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", though it is very much a reworking of the plot from the movie "Seven Days in May".

The story begins with Captain Crane and the President working on an undersea hideaway. Should a nuclear war begin, at least the President will be safe. At the same time, a very jingoistic retired general (Lloyd Bochner) happens to be around...and he seems to think everyone but he is incompetent. Admiral Nelson, oddly, seems to be the only one who dislikes the general or suspects his motives.

The episode is tense, has some pretty good action and guest stars Bochner (one of the most recognizable TV faces of the era) make this one worth seeing. So, despite being a remake, there's plenty of new material that make it a very good episode.