User Reviews

Something or someone is removing the oxygen from the atmosphere of the watery planet Aquatainia, so Dr. Zharkov (Joseph Nash) plans to replace the life-giving gas with 'solonon', a temperamental substitute. The Doctor suspects the aggressive 'fish-men' may behind the disappearing oxygen as part of their campaign to conquer the land but, as 'solonon' can be triggered to fission under water (which would destroy their underwater civilisation), the land-people would have an absolute deterrent against any future attacks. The episode reflects the 'peace through strength' philosophy that was driving nuclear proliferation in the 1950s and neither Flash (Steve Holland) nor Zharkov seem to be overly concerned that their intervention could easily doom an entire civilisation. The episode is pretty awful. The plot makes little sense and the two verbose 'underwater infiltrators' are dressed in wet-look slickers and diving fins (to denote their amphibious nature,) and speak with almost cartoon-German accents (as the series was shot in Berlin, the actors may have been speaking English phonetically). The ending is particularly ridiculous as a "threat to the galaxy" is ended by a small explosion in a pond. Not one of the better examples of Flash's adventures in the mid-fifties.