Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Cave of the Dead (1964–1968) Online

The Flying Dutchman-theme is used for the third time in Voyage. Is Nelson seeing impossible images, such as an old boat blasting at the flying sub and skeletons in the Seaview control room, or are these things real? My god this one begins so well! But like a couple of season three shows (The Deadly Cloud, The Plant Man) this episode runs out of steam around the time we get into act three. The whole hour is fun but the second half feels a bit like a balloon just hit by a pin. Look at Basehart in the second half: He has that who-gives-a-crap look to him. Oh well. Let me just centre on the teaser and act one...

The teaser: What a knockout! The Flying Sub in a storm! We never see this footage again so enjoy it here! Act one: The stuff with Warren Stevens talking to Basehart about impossible visions is one of the season four highlights! The acting is so strong from both actors that you almost think this stuff is really going on. Great stuff! The bit in the cave will go down well with classic Star Trek fans: That pirate voice actually belongs to Bart La Rue...the voice of many Trek aliens!

The Flying Sub, containing Admiral Nelson and Commander Van Wyck ( Warren Stevens ) streaks through a stormy sky. Four ships have vanished mysteriously without trace in the same area. Finding nothing, the Admiral is keen to return to the Seaview, but Van Wyck becomes adamant that they continue searching. Suddenly, they spot an ancient rigger, and it opens fire. The craft swoops down and lands near an uncharted sub-tropical island.

They find Dutch writing on the wall of a cave, and narrowly avoid being killed by a booby-trap. The last person to enter was not so lucky, His skeleton is nearby, the rib-cage containing an ornamental dagger. As soon as Nelson removes it, a booming voice tells him that he has evoked an ancient curse.

Returning to the sub, Nelson sees that the crew have been transformed into skeletons...

A retelling of 'The Flying Dutchman' legend. The Dutchman was, you may recall, a seaman whose bad judgment resulted in the deaths of his crew and whom was forced to sail the seven seas for all eternity. Here its Commander Van Wyck who is in this position, and must remain so until he can find another to take his place. Guess whom he has in mind? This was Warren Stevens' third 'Voyage' appearance, the other two were in Season 1's 'The Saboteur' and Season 3's 'The Day The World Ended'.

New footage of The Flying Sub's retractable arms was employed here for the first time, and would be reused ( like all of Allen's S.F.X. sequences ) in later episodes. But it is the scene with the skeletons on the bridge of the Seaview that is the most memorable.

This was a fun outing for Richard Basehart and his friend and former roommate Warren Stevens. This is Warren Stevens 3rd appearance on Voyage. The first is season ones "The Saboteor" season 3 "Deadly Invasion" and this episode. It's pretty campy. They run into a storm while in the flying sub searching for the lost ships and the reason they went missing. They are shot down by a 200 year old Square Rigger. They spot an unknown island as the flying sub floats on the surface with damaged radio so Nelson isn't able to contact Seaview. Nelson decides he wants to investigate the island. They take a rubber raft to the island. Once ashore Van Wyck discovers a cave. When Nelson arrives he says "so it's a cave." They decide to explore. As they are walking along they hear a noise and with a music que, a sword falls from above. Van Wyck quickly pulls Nelson's arm so that the sword misses him. Here we see a bit of hamming it up is how I describe Basehart's reaction as he appears to pull down on his leather flight jacket "Thanks, that could have killed me." As they venture further into the cave they find a skeleton with a dagger in it. Nelson removes the dagger and next there is a loud booming voice telling him he is cursed. Suddenly there is a loud rumbling sound and then begins a cave in. Both men run out of the cave. Warren Stevens winds up rolling onto the sand while Richard Basehart deftly lands on the soft rubber raft. I always thought that was kind of funny. Then it's decided that it's time to get back to the flying sub. Once back aboard it's suddenly noticed by Nelson that the flying sub appears undamaged. Can Wyck starts to really try to mess with Nelson's mind. He denies they were shot down by any square rigger and that there was never any storm. Worse yet he denies there was any island. The only evidence Nelson has is the dagger which he was determined to keep. Nelson contacts Seaview and Crane. Tells him about the storm and the island. There's no island on any of the charts and they never picked up the storm. Nelson is beginning to feel more than a little frustrated. He tells Crane they are heading back to Seaview and breaks radio contact. Next we see Nelson coming out of the hatch that leads to the flying sub and when he turns to face the control room he sees that it is manned by skeletons. I always thought they should have aired this episode a few weeks later. It would have made a good Halloween episode with all the skeletons. I have read that there was a Voyage episode that was done purposely in fun. I always wondered if this was it. Richard Basehart and Warren Stevens seemed to have fun with each other in this one. That is something we may never get an answer to. This is the only episode I remember seeing Basehart actually hamming it up like he did in different scenes. I always felt he should have done some guest roles on a sitcom or two. He was spot on in the role he did in the movie The Bank Hoax with another good buddy Burgess Meredith. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. "Cave of the Dead" originally aired October 8, 1967. It was a fun outting and Basehart gets to let his Nelson character be a bit lighter than usual. All in all a fun show from the final season.