It is all happening in this hour: The submarine Seaview goes crashing to the bottom, crew members are swallowed by a giant sea creature and in the second half of the hour Nelson turns into a complete bastard for no logical reason in the script! You put this all together, you get some stock movie music with gusto playing over it all...and what do you get? A ten out of ten episode! Another fun thing about No Escape From Death is how a few very noted Voyage/Sea fans have reacted to it. One noted fan - Mark Phillips - said "My vote as the worst Voyage ever", while another more comical fan described it as "No Escape From Stock Footage".
The stock footage from other Voyage episodes comes thick and fast, there is no question about that! But, with me at least, this is not really an issue as, wait for it, taking footage from season one's Submarine Sunk Here is actually okay with me as, wait for it, I think No Escape From Death did a better job with the action footage it used. I can hear some fans getting heated over that comment, but give me a chance here...
While I agree that Submarine Sunk Here is a much better scripted hour, I can't say the same about the music used in SSH and music is a HUGE part of Voyage to me. The stock movie music in No Escape From Death is outstanding and 100 times better than the SSH music.
As for Nelson's unexplained attitude in the second half of the hour? Was this actually Richard Basehart having a bad day on the set of Voyage? A lot has been said about Basehart's view on Voyage season three and this hour might be enough to make you hunt down those books/Starlog articles by Mark Phillips.