Typically silly episode with really illogical plot development. Just how did Admiral Nelson work out the flying sub was a fake? Three orange skinned amphibious aliens (from Scorpius) plan to destroy the Seaview so that they can recover the atomic reactor and harness it to hatch out millions of eggs which are scattered across the shore of an uncharted island. The aliens first seem all powerful – capable of transfixing the humans instantaneously and teleporting them to the island – but later one of the aliens uses a force shield instead and subsequently becomes prone to attack and destruction via a laser weapon – why didn't he simply transfix his attackers as he did earlier? The sounds the creatures make – a low level growl; the costumes and incidental sounds – (as crew members are made to appear and disappear or become transfixed) are straight out of the 'Lost In Space' sound library. There is also a short extract of the theme from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' played over one scene in a corridor. Reasonably entertaining in a daft way. There are the usual fires and explosions and the slightest short circuit in an engineering panel causes the Seaview to rock back and forth alarmingly (as usual). The costumes (although very obviously men in rubber suits) – are quite well done and imaginative.
2 Reviews
This Episode: Nine Out Of Ten
StuOz11 August 2010
Another alien invasion, with one amphibian (Lars) on an island and another on Seaview, both causing harm and wishing to take over the earth.
My god this season is really on a roll here, week after week Voyage does these amazing shows, some more amazing than others, most requiring a love of the fantastic, a love of loud dramatic music, a love of miniature effects, and yes, a love of Irwin Allen and Richard Basehart.
Now we come to Doomsday Island, and yes, Voyage is still on the roll of greatness! What a knockout teaser with the amphibian breaking out of the giant egg. This might come as a surprise to today's younger viewers, but one tiny bit in the teaser was viewed in Australia as too violent for afternoon re-runs! When the amphibian puts his hands around the head of the crewman (trying to crush his head) that bit never made it to Aussie TV in the 1970s and 1980s! Finally, in 1992 I saw it uncut and found out what I missed for two decades!
Doomsday Island is monster madness as we have TWO monster shows going on at once. Crane and Kowalski deal with the very talkative red-boy on the island while Nelson deals with the silent but angry red-boy on the Seaview. Two monsters is better than one. Adding to the greatness is new effects footage of the Seaview and the flying sub. And the stock movie music is used very well here.
The highly regarded Voyage/Sea fan - Mark Phillips - called this hour "as close as Voyage came to doing a live action cartoon" and I totally agree. Doomsday Island gets nine out of ten. One point gets taken away as the "Lars" voice artist could have been better.
My god this season is really on a roll here, week after week Voyage does these amazing shows, some more amazing than others, most requiring a love of the fantastic, a love of loud dramatic music, a love of miniature effects, and yes, a love of Irwin Allen and Richard Basehart.
Now we come to Doomsday Island, and yes, Voyage is still on the roll of greatness! What a knockout teaser with the amphibian breaking out of the giant egg. This might come as a surprise to today's younger viewers, but one tiny bit in the teaser was viewed in Australia as too violent for afternoon re-runs! When the amphibian puts his hands around the head of the crewman (trying to crush his head) that bit never made it to Aussie TV in the 1970s and 1980s! Finally, in 1992 I saw it uncut and found out what I missed for two decades!
Doomsday Island is monster madness as we have TWO monster shows going on at once. Crane and Kowalski deal with the very talkative red-boy on the island while Nelson deals with the silent but angry red-boy on the Seaview. Two monsters is better than one. Adding to the greatness is new effects footage of the Seaview and the flying sub. And the stock movie music is used very well here.
The highly regarded Voyage/Sea fan - Mark Phillips - called this hour "as close as Voyage came to doing a live action cartoon" and I totally agree. Doomsday Island gets nine out of ten. One point gets taken away as the "Lars" voice artist could have been better.
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