Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story - part three

Since it's production in 1969, Seabase Atlantica has been largely forgotten about. The reasons are a mixture of legal and cultural. The few who saw it in early morning syndication in the US would rather forget about it as would the 'talent' who appeared in it. It's certainly not mentioned on James Darren's otherwise impressive resume.

In recent years, a few have made efforts to rectify this and in the mid-nineties, the magazine 'FanGrok' was the first to a publish a (slightly inaccurate) episode guide. Thanks to Paul Morehouse, we know the reasons for its shady past.

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Today however, I'm pleased to announce that the series will finally get a wider audience. The many political and legal obstacles that have prevented even the publication of images from the show have now been crossed. The complete series will be available on DVD from next month. We've managed to put together on a limited budget a selection of special features to accompany the HD remastered episodes. We even managed to convince some members of the original cast to contribute on the grounds that we will release it away with or without their own defence of their actions. The first 1000 copies of the box set will include a special 'Seabase Atlantica' calendar depicting many unseen photos from the show.

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All-in-all, it looks quite good having seen some of the test discs. I hope to include more details in a future post. 

Andrew-Mark Thompson

SEABASE ATLANTICA

Season two – September-December 1970

REGULAR CAST:

SHELLEY WINTERS…Doctor Hanna Bourbon

JAMES DARREN…Captain Anthony ‘Ziggy’ Shapiro

CHAD MARTIN…Aqua, the Mer-boy

BARBARA EDEN…Susan Crutch

JUDY ALLEN…Cindy Crutch

JONATHAN HARRIS…Voice of Debbie the Robot

2.01

BEYOND THE GREEN SEA

Wr. Stirling Siliphant

Dir. Irwin Allen

Professor Crutch, after a severe mental breakdown, is replaced by kindly matriarch Dr. Hanna Bourbon as commander of Seabase Atlantica. Aqua the Mer-boy discovers a giant starfish and is taken over by it. The starfish dupes him into thinking he’s the ghost of Blackbeard. Dr. Bourbon exorcises the ghostly spirit by placing a peutronic headband on Aqua to disperse the phantom. The radiation from the headband gives the Mer-boy unexpected telepathic powers that prove useful in later episodes.

2.02

MERMAIDS FROM URANUS – part one

Wr. William Welch and Irwin Allen

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Zsa Zsa Gabor (Mer Queen), Linda Evans, Stella Stevens (Mer Maids).

Green, scaly but beautiful mermaids capture Aqua the Mer-boy, wishing to use him to help them reproduce their race as all men on their home planet have been wiped out by a verminous space plague. Aqua telepathically communicates the location of the Uranian base to Dr. Bourbon, who launches a rocket with her, Ziggy, Susan, Cindy and Debbie the Robot on board to rescue him. But the rocket has to face a meteor storm before it reaches their friend. (Dynasty’s Linda Evans thought she was only contracted to film one episode of this two-parter and was shocked when she discovered it would involve more days filming than she really wanted. The producer was forced to lock her in her Winnebago for the duration of filming to prevent her running off.)

2.03

THE MUSHROOM HUSTLERS

Wr. Peter Packer

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: David Carradine, Goldie Hawn, Dennis Hopper, Bill Williams Jnr (Hippies).

Susan is turned on by magic undersea mushrooms and become deliriously hallucinogenic. She is rescued from a man-eating crayfish by a tribe of gentle underwater hippies, desperate for new supplies of the wonder fungus. Ziggy rescues Susan and entombs the hippies forever at the bottom of the sea.

(The giant mushroom prop actually heralds from the original 1939 MGM production of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.)

2.04

BATTLE OF THE WEREWOLVES

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Sober Martini

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr, Rick Springfield (Werewolves).

Ziggy is infected by a virulent peutronic virus that turns him into a werewolf. He goes berserk and releases another werewolf, being transported to the base, from its cage. They go on a killing rampage and, as more and more people becoming infected, the werewolves threaten to take over. It’s a race against time as Dr. Bourbon and Susan struggle to find an antidote before the entire world is taken over.

2.05

MERMAIDS FROM URANUS – part two

Wr. William Welch and Irwin Allen

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Zsa Zsa Gabor (Mer Queen), Linda Evans, Stella Stevens, Bill Williams Jnr (Mer Maids), Eddie Boyle (Dog).

The rocket lands on Venus but Aqua is now under the thrall of the sexy Mer Queen. Dr. Bourbon is tortured and forced into the pit of mud to wrestle to the death with the Mer Queen whilst Ziggy and Susan are rescuing Aqua. The family return to Earth after the Mermaids’ power source is sucked out.

2.06

THE BIG BEAST

Wr. Jack Turley

Dir. Harry Harris

A giant purple cloud approaches the Earth and releases yellow and pink spores in the oceans, from which an evil turquoise and vermilion seaweed parasite emerges. Hanna must lure the creature into an extinct volcano, where Debbie the Robot is waiting to ignite a peutronic incendiary device. The volcano erupts bathing the parasite in hot lava and burning it to death. (Footage of the volcano erupting was taken from an NBC news report that one of the show's technicians had taped the night before shooting started.)

2.07

THE RETURN OF THE MARY CELESTE

Wr. Wanda Duncan and Bob

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: Henry Jones (Prof Sphere), Bill Williams Jnr (Sailor man).

Ziggy discovers the body of a man wearing an old fashioned sailor’s uniform and, in turn, stumbles across an ancient undersea civilisation peopled by the crews of vanished sailing ships. They are ruled over by the megalomaniac Professor Sphere, who plans to destroy the world with a giant atom crusher that will release super-heated plankton into the Earth’s core and split it open. He gets drowned when his security kitchen is flooded.

2.08

THE DOUBLE ANENOMIES

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Harry Harris

While swimming near the base, Cindy is swallowed by a giant sea anemone, which duplicates her form and sends it back to Seabase. The duplicate plans to turn the peutronic reactor on to over and infect the base with deadly radiation, in turn converting everyone into dangerous zombie werewolves. Just in time, Aqua finds the real Cindy’s body. He returns with her to help Ziggy grapple with the duplicate and toss it into a seaweed threshing machine. (This is another of Judy Allen's least favourite best remembered episodes according to one of her carers.)

2.09

THE RED VAMPIRE DEVILS

WR. Bob and Esther Mitchell

Director Harry Harris

Guest cast: Peter Mark Richman (Gonadski), Lloyd Bochner (Swasslehoffmann), Bill Williams Jnr (First and second vampire man).

Evil red agents kidnap Hanna and Susan and are then attacked and killed by two blood sucking vampire creatures. But with the two women now buried alive in an undersea grotto with less than an hour’s worth of air, it’s a race against time for Aqua the Mer-boy to telepathically locate them without himself becoming trapped and sucked to death by the savage vampire devils that guard the cave system. (The Russian embassy in Washington complained about the portrayal of their citizens as blood lusting vampires. A letter appeared in Pravda a month after the episode's transmission, denying that it was based on fact.)

2.10

DESTROY SEABASE!

Wr. Dan Ullman

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Jonathan Harris (Dr. Crutch), Bill Williams Jnr (Midget fire eater).

An underwater circus visits the Seabase but unknown to the denizens of Atlantica, the lead clown and ringmaster is, in truth, the insane Dr. Crutch, who has escaped from his top secret, high security lunatic asylum and plans to blow up the base. Luckily, Debbie the robot recognises her former master’s voice and electro-zaps him.

2.11

MURDER IS AN UNDERWATER NIGHTMARE OF REVENGE

Wr. Bruce Geller and Irwin Allen

Dir. Sutton Roley

Guest cast: Mike Connors (TV’s Joe Mannix), Kent Smith (The Murderer), Bill Williams Jnr (The other suspect).

When a visiting scientist is murdered on the Seabase, Dr Bourbon is forced to bring in outside help in the form of TV’s Joe Mannix. The private detective is forced to use all of his wits to identify the murderer before he strikes again spelling doom for the base and its crew. (Mike Connors agreed to appearing in this episode as a forfeit for losing a round of golf with Shelley Winters.)

2.12

THE UNSEEABLE MENACE

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Ronald Neame

Seabase Atlantica is infiltrated by mysterious sewer dwelling entities which attack and devour people in bathrooms. Ziggy and Aqua the Mer-boy are miniaturised and sent down the plumbing in a two-man sub. They destroy the creatures with special anti-septic grenades. (This episode utilised the sub from the movie 'Fantastic Voyage' after the director discovered it on the 20^th Century Fox lot under a tarpaulin. Sadly the prop was not in the best of condition and the show's budget did not allow any restorative work to be carried out on it. Look closely in the second act and you can see the phrase 'What's jammin kid?' graffitoed just by the escape hatch handle.)

2.13

STAR OF BEDLAM

Wr. Irwin Allen

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Evil tree).

In this special Christmas episode, Dr Bourbon, Ziggy and Aqua the Mer-boy journey to investigate a strange light that falls into the sea. They find what appears to be a Christmas tree sent from the stars. Returning with it to the base, they are horrified to discover that it is really a deadly space conifer that has been sent to pave the way for an all-out invasion of planet Earth. The tree paralyses Dr Bourbon and Ziggy with stinging needles but just in time, Aqua telepathically convinces it that it is an ordinary Christmas tree and is a worldwide symbol of peace and goodwill. With the conifer frozen, Dr Bourbon is able to destroy it forever with a powerful defoliant and Christmas is saved.

2.14

TOAD HELL

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Warren Stevens (Dr. Gammynekker), Bill Williams Jnr (Toad tongue operator).

The crew of the Seabase find themselves lost in the Mojha desert under threat from the giant toads of Dr. Gammynekker. The evil doctor plans to use his toads to threaten the UN with annihilation but Dr. Bourbon is able to stop him and he is devoured by one of his toad minions during a freak electrical storm caused by his peutron ray bomb.

9/8/2014 STOP PRESS: The DVD release of 'Seabase Atlantica' has been postponed due to unforseen legal issues with the estate of Irwin Allen.

Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Story

Written by Andrew-Mark Thompson

Based on material originally written and researched by Paul Morehouse and first published in the magazine ‘FanGrok’

With humble acknowledgement to the work of Adam Richards and Owen Richards.

Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story - part two

In my previous piece about Seabase Atlantica, I referenced one Paul Morehouse upon whose original research these pieces are based on. He had managed to unearth fragments of the story of the TV series and the reasons for its ongoing neglect. Although he furnished me with a number of images and the odd photosopy, all I really have is the original article he wrote for us back in nineties.

The fact that 'Seabase Atlantica' was made was down to a number of unique factors at the time. The two major ones were the confidence the studio had in Irwin Allen's ability to “create another Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and the ever increasing financial problems that Twentieth Century Fox found itself in as the sixties came to an end.

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The box-out to the right is taken from Paul's original article and sets up the lie of the land that the new series was born into together with the unique way that money was found to finance the show.

The over-confidence of the show's production team to produce episode-after-episode of the first season saw them continue to produce a second the following year without realising the series had yet to air on one of the major networks.

Eventually production stopped and the financial problems of the studio suddenly took charge of the situation. The cost and value of the show roughly equated to a sizeable part of the taxes owed by the studio to the IRS. In a bizzare series of top secret discussions between studio accountants and IRS investigators, a contract was drawn up that resulted in the US Government taking posession of 'Seabase Atlantica' – its assets, episodes and intellectual ownership – as part payment of the tax bill. (Apparently, one of the documents that Paul had also allegedly included a request from a leading Senator for the telephone number of Julie Andrews who had recently starred in Twentieth Century Fox's musical flop 'Star!' but whether this was followed up, is something between the Senator and Ms. Andrews.)

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The second box out to the left is also taken from Paul's original article and explains the way that the series vanished from the face of television history and the legacy it had on future film and TV production.

There may well be hope on the horizon for television aficionados to finally see 'Seabase Atlantica' soon. 

More on that in part three.

SEABASE ATLANTICA – Episode Guide - part two

Season one - September 1969-March 1970

REGULAR CAST:

ROBERT YOUNG…Professor Jonathan Crutch

JAMES DARREN…Captain Anthony ‘Ziggy’ Shapiro

CHAD MARTIN…Aqua, the Mer-boy

BARBARA EDEN…Susan Crutch

JUDY ALLEN…Cindy Crutch

JONATHAN HARRIS…Voice of Debbie the Robot

1.14

LAND OF THE LOST CATERPILLARS

Wr. Justin Addiss

Dir. Malachi Throne

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Caterpillar man), Tarquin Font (Butterfly man).

Whilst exploring a beautiful undersea forest, Ziggy and Susan discover a giant chrysalis which, when hatched, threatens to devour the seabase. Aqua the Mer-boy must get supplies of a rare seaweed that the creature feeds on to lure it into a trap in order to electro-fry it to death, However, the giant caterpillar turns into a mystical sea butterfly and departs into outer space.

(Actor Tarquin Font was working as a waiter at a local restaurant when the director noticed how much he looked like a butterfly and cast him in the episode.)

1.15

RETURN OF THE DEAD SEA GHOST

Wr. J E Selby (Irwin Allen)

Dir. Felix Feist

Guest cast: Adam West (Marlo Pernicker), Bill Williams Jnr (The Ghost of Amelia Earhart).

A wily accountant threatens to close the seabase down due to excessive costs. However, he quickly changes his mind when the resurrected ghost of Ameila Earhart kidnaps him. Prof Crutch is able to convince the dead sea ghost pilot to release the accountant before trapping the spirit inside a peutron capsule headed for outer space. (Bill Williams Jnr is actually wearing the same costume as Florence Henderson did in the previous ‘Ghost of the Airways’ episode. To hide his distinctive male features, the costume department issued Williams with a cloak which he could bring up to cover his face when necessary. Even though he was agile at this, in one later shot, you can clearly see stubble on Amelia Earhart’s chin.)

1.16

MONSTER FROM THE TENTH DIMENSION

Wr. Anthony Wilson

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Sludge man).

A giant sentient sludge creature from another dimension kidnaps Crutch and threatens to absorb his brain. Ziggy and Susan, with the help of Debbie, detonate its power supply and the monster turns into nothing more than harmless mud. (The original title for this episode - as written on an early shooting script in red crayon - was ‘Another Fucking Piece of Shit’.)

1.17

TREASURE OF THE LOST WRECK

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: David Wayne (Shuvvitch), Denver Pyle (Captain Vagishatt), Bill Williams Jnr (Pony boy).

The team discover a shipwreck with a vast chest of gold bullion aboard. Evil foreigner agents steal the gold that is, in truth, a weapon capable of disintegrating the free will of people’s minds. Jon Crutch is affected and raids the base’s peutronic reserves. Ziggy and Aqua the Mer-boy must stop him before Debbie is affected by the power drain and turns back into a giant fish-eating robotoid werewolf. (Bill Williams Jnr wore his own Pony boy costume for his scenes in the third act.)

1.18

THE WISHING DEVICE

Wr. Dan Ullman

Dir. Nathan Juran

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Golden Octopus man).

Cindy discovers a wishing machine, capable of granting her every wish, at the base of a long-dead volcano. The golden octopus man who guards it seeks her out in revenge, but is destroyed, along with the device, when the volcano is sent back in time by an alien robotoid from the planet Jupitarius. (This episode is actress Judy Allen’s favourite least worst episode according to her carer.)

1.19

THE INVISIBLE FRIEND

Wr. Arthur Weiss

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Davy Jones (Locka).

Aqua the Mer-boy befriends an invisible force called Locka which, when smuggled into the base by Aqua, causes havoc and mischief by playing dangerous practical jokes on everyone. Prof Crutch loses his atomic powered fountain pen that, if tampered with the wrong way, will release deadly peutronic radiation and kill everyone in a ten-mile radius. The invisible force becomes affected by it and pleads with Aqua to join with him. Eventually, the force mutates into a giant invisible werewolf. Tearfully, Aqua the Mer-boy has to destroy his new friend by flooding his body with deadly gamma rays.

(This episode was banned in Saudi Arabia which is odd because the series was never broadcast there.)

1.20

THE BLACK STAR OF CALIGARI

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Sober Martin

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Man).

The asteroid Caligari is on a collision course with Earth. The only way to stop it is to create a megalonic field around the Earth using the Prof. Crutch’s peutronic piles. The heroic plan is dangerous and enemy agents are despatched to stop Crutch. Meanwhile a rampaging sea cucumber threatens Hawaii. (The episode features stock footage from the ‘Lost in Space’ episode ‘Blast off into Space’)

1.21

THE ATTACK OF THE CAT PEOPLE

Wr. Shirl Hendryx

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Eartha Kitt (Pussy Queen), Yvonne De Carlo (Pussy General), Heather Young (Pussy Alpha), Bill Williams Jnr (Pussy man).

Intelligent Pussy men from the planet Skargyll invade Atlantica. Jon and Ziggy are forced into creating a giant fur bomb that will accelerate the hair growth of every man on Earth turning them into Pussies. Crutch discovers that the Pussy men are vulnerable to fresh water and drowns them to death. (Two specially trained cats were used in the final control room scene but were lost when special effect technicians flooded the set for the explosive climax of the episode.)

1.22

FRUITS OF THE DEEP

Wr. Bob and Esther Mitchell

Dir. Richard Donner

Cindy’s hair is turned purple when she eats a wild undersea pomegranate. Prof Crutch races against time to save her from becoming totally purple-ized but he has become infected by a leaking peutronic container and is in danger of irreversibly becoming a werewolf forever. (The television show that Cindy is seen watching in the first scene is actually footage from Irwin Allen’s unsold TV pilot for ‘The Astounding Captain Fish’.)

1.23

VENDETTA OF THE MOON MEN

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: Fred Gwynne (Horton Crabtree), Bill Williams Jnr (Moon man), Ken Matthews, Jock Gaynor (Other Moon men), Bob May (Robo Centurion)

Jon Crutch’s old college friend, Horton Crabtree, is in league with insane aliens from the backside of the moon who plan to extinguish the sun and plunge the Earth into total darkness and invade it as well. Just in time, Ziggy is able to radio control a giant mirrored satellite into orbit so as to reflect the sun’s rays onto the alien base, burning the vile moon men and their army of robot Roman centurions forever. (Munsters actor Fred Gwynne claimed not to remember “a bloody thing” about filming this episode in his autobiography… but we know he did.)

1.24

THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE BLUE PUFF CREATURES

Wr. Harlan Ellison

Dir. Jerry Hopper

Guest cast: Bill Williams Jnr (Blue puff creature operator).

Cute furry blue creatures that develop and multiply at an alarming rate plague Atlantica. They break into the base’s peutronic stores and begin to grow in size. Jon Crutch has to inject them with a rare seaweed serum in order to poison them forever. (The blue furry creatures were actually purchased en-masse from a local toyshop. Their eyes were removed and their bodies were stuffed with red jello for their final scenes. Harlan Ellison is the pen-name of writer Cordwainer Bird.)

1.25

RENDEZVOUS WITH DOOM

Wr. Richard Shapiro

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: Bette Davis (Lizard Queen), Dianne Summers, Karen Steele, Bill Williams Jnr (Lizard Women).

An old and ancient race of Amazonian Lizard women is discovered by Crutch who, believing them to be evil, eradicates them with a giant peutronic bomb.

(In the Lizard Queen’s bed chamber, the portrait hanging on the wall is of actor William Conrad and was originally used in an episode of the western series ‘Have Gun – Will Travel’ that the Cannon actor directed once.)

1.26

GREMLINS FROM MARS

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Herve Villechaise (First amphibian).

Small green amphibian men from Mars pay the base a visit but Prof Crutch is unable to decipher their electronic language and he electrocutes them. (This was actually the 14th episode to be completed but was left on the shelf until the spring because someone had forgot about it.)

To be continued in part three by clicking here.

Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story

Written by Andrew-Mark Thompson

Based on material originally written and researched by Paul Morehouse and first published in the magazine ‘FanGrok’

With humble acknowledgement to the work of Adam Richards and Owen Richards.

Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story - part one

Introduction

I was first introduced to the bizarre-ness that is (or rather was) Seabase Atlantica by an American friend called Paul Morehouse back in the mid-nineties. It was the dawn of the internet age and Paul lived just outside Philadelphia in the US. I’ve since lost touch with him. A friend of a friend told me he got married and moved to Canada whilst someone I met a few years ago told me, he had died from a septic paper cut. Whatever his fate, I have him to thank for this little effort. His was the original research and most of the words within the episode synopses are his. All I have done is to embellish the facts with fresh ones that I have uncovered in the two decades since our first efforts.

What is ‘Seabase Atlantica’?

In short, it was a TV science fiction adventure series made in the late sixties/early seventies (accounts differ with dates) by the later Master of cinema disaster, Irwin Allen. Irwin at the time had made a name for himself in television with success with the likes of ‘Lost in Space’ and ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’ – both of which were known in equal measures for both their incredible special effects and their increasingly bizarre storylines.

‘Seabase Atlantica’ built on all this… or at least, it is reputed to have. The thing is, nobody actually remembers it and very few have actually seen it.

Irwin Allen’s ‘Devon Productions’ made the series for Twentieth Century Fox at a time when the studio was in a dire financial situation. A lot of money was ploughed into ‘Seabase Atlantica’ as a production but the show saw very little return. The reasons are subject to conjecture but the most enduring one suggests that it was made without a sale to a major network such as ABC or CBS. It was assumed that one of them would buy the finished product but instead, all of them turned their noses up at it. At the last minute, some quick thinking saw the first season air on a handful of local syndicated stations and there are reports that it was sighted in Norway in 1972 or possibly it was Sweden in 1973 – we just don’t know! 

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One of the most tangible sightings was in the UK where early copies of a 1969 edition of the ‘Radio Times’ heralded its forthcoming debut on BBC1 but most archive copies from the period seem to suggest these early editions were withdrawn and reprinted with alternative programming for the show’s alleged Saturday night slot.

Fate would deal ‘Seabase Atlantica’ a further blow in 1971 – a blow that would involve the US government and seal the show’s future in a permanent limbo. Part two will follow shortly.

SEABASE ATLANTICA - 
season one 
episode guide - part one

September 1969 - March 1970

REGULAR CAST:

ROBERT YOUNG…Professor Jonathan Crutch

JAMES DARREN…Captain Anthony ‘Ziggy’ Shapiro

CHAD MARTIN…Aqua, the Mer-boy

BARBARA EDEN…Susan Crutch

JUDY ALLEN…Cindy Crutch

JONATHAN HARRIS…Voice of Debbie the Robot

1.01

INVASION OF THE WEREWOLF ROBOT

Wr. William Welch (from a story by Irwin Allen)

Dir. Felix Feist

Prof Jon Crutch is putting the finishing touches to his new invention – the hyper-intelligent robotoid his daughter has christened ‘Debbie’. Suddenly, a power surge causes it to go out of control and to raid the sea base’s peutronic reactor. Affected by the radiation, the robot is transformed into a werewolf and kidnaps little Cindy Crutch. Ziggy follows them to a cavern beneath the ocean floor where he is able to activate some radiation dampening plankton and cure the robot’s lycanthropy. Debbie is later repaired and becomes the latest member of the Crutch family.

1.02

THE RETURN OF KING PRAWN

Wr. Arthur Weiss (from a story by Harlan Ellison)

Dir. Robert Spar

Guest cast: Tim O’Connor (The Prawn).

A giant intelligent prawn man invades the aqua-base, claiming that the Crutch family are destroying the seabed with their latest experiments with nuclear fission. He hypnotises Aqua and commands him to put the peutronic pile on overload. However, the super-prawn is overcome by the radiation and faints.

(Tim O’Connor had just finished filming an episode of ‘Mannix’ when he got the call to the Seabase Atlantica set. Despite his and his agent’s effort, he was unable to get out of his contract for the role.)

1.03

WISH UPON A CRAB

Wr. Bob and Esther Mitchell

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest Cast: Carroll O’Connor (Voice of Crab)

A Red spy satellite crashes in the sea near the base and begins leaking deadly radioactive isotopes into the sea. Cindy pet spider crab finds the wrecked satellite and, affected by the radiation, it grows to enormous proportions and threatens the base. With Prof. Crutch’s help, Cindy is able to communicate telepathically with the crab and tormented by what it has done, it explodes.

(Richard Basehart was originally cast as the crab’s voice but was overdubbed in post because the director wanted a more friendly sounding crab.)

1.04

GHOST OF THE AIRWAYS

Wr. Shimon Wincelberg and Steven Bochco

Dir. James Goldstone

Guest cast: Florence Henderson (The Ghost of Amelia Earhart).

Jon Crutch discovers the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane and takes it back for study to Seabase Atlantica. There, the poltergeist spirit of Miss Earhart reeks havoc and eventually takes over the body of Susan Crutch. Ziggy manages to render her unconscious and places her in a lead-lined anti-gravity chamber. Switching on the decompression oscillator, he is able to exorcise the spirit and destroy the phantom aviator forever.

1.05

BRAIN EATERS FROM DEEP SPACE

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Felix Feist

Guest cast: Ernest Borgnine (King Anthrax), Bill Williams Jnr (The Arbitron).

The Crutch family accidentally discover the lost kingdom of Atlantis and its king – Anthrax – falls in love with Susan. If the others are to ever leave the city, Susan must stay behind and marry the monarch. The only way to escape is for Ziggy to battle the Arbitron – a giant two-legged sea urchin – and claim Susan for his own.

1.06

PRISONERS OF THE SPACE MENAGERIE

Wr. Richard Shapiro

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest Cast: Basil Rathbone (Keeper), Bill Williams Jnr (Rubber Pluroid Man, Green Gorilla Creature, Giant Lizard Monster, Zoldax the Barren)

Giant men from the centre of the sun imprison Ziggy and Susan in their space zoo on the planet Mercury. Jon is forced to bargain with the aliens using the sea base’s peutronium rods – a power source that they desperately desire.

(Some sources suggest that the filming of this episode led to guest star Basil Rathbone’s shingles during his final years.)

1.07

THE COSMIC ELIMINATORS

Wr. Bob and Esther Rantzen

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Ricardo Montalban (Golden Alien Man), Bill Williams Jnr (Semun).

A golden alien man arrives at Seabase Atlantica to place Jon Crutch on trial for his continued bastardising of the Earth’s resources. Cindy is forced to use a telepathic memorathon to call up incidents from her father’s past to plead his innocence. The alien decides to finally grant Crutch his freedom when he sees a single tear in the child’s eye. (This story features footage from the unseen pilot ‘God Thing With Nine Brains” and previous episodes. It was hastily made when star Robert Young turned up drunk and dyed green on set one morning following a stag do for actor James Brolin.)

1.08

PREHISTORIC PERIL

Wr. Arthur Weiss and Irwin Allen

Dir. Irwin Allen

A massive explosion in the seabase’s peutron store catapults the Crutch family back to prehistorical times where they battle stock footage from Irwin Allen’s movie ‘The Lost World’. As the local volcano threatens to devour them all, Cindy wakes up. It was all a dream.

(Another episode hastily put together to allow star Robert Young to recover further.)

1.09

THE DAY OF THE ATOM MEN

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: David McCallum (Horrkostovich), Bill Williams Jnr (First Spy), Ian Wood (Third Spy), Gerry O’Dell (Fourth Spy), Simon Greenfield (Spy).

Evil red scientists infiltrate the seabase and its peutron rods. However, they become infected by their atom radiation and turn into werewolves. The added radiation count reanimates Cindy’s dead pet crab, which kills the atom-wolves in a massive nucleonic explosion. (This episode re-used footage from ‘Wish Upon a Crab’)

1.10

THE DOOMSDAY MUSIC

Wr. Bob and Wanda Ventham

Dir. Nathan Juran

Guest cast: The Kelp Drifters (Themselves), Don Knotts (T.P.Flexiton), Bill Williams Jnr (Gorilla).

A visiting pop band are unaware that their manager, Mr. Flexiton, is really a foreign agent who plans to use the group’s music to enslave and control the world’s youth population. Aqua the Mer-boy is mysteriously unaffected and smothers the group’s amplifiers with liquid seaweed before their live broadcast from Atlantica can take place. Mr. Flexiton is beaten to death by a gorilla. (The song featured in this episode, ‘I Wanna Kiss Your Octopus’, was released as a single by The Kelp Drifters and got to number sixty-eight for one week in the Billboard Top 100 until someone noticed.)

1.11

THE SPACE CANNIBALS

Wr. William Welch

Dir. Harry Harris

Guest cast: Ronnie Reagan (Voice of Dossar), Bill Williams Jnr (Fungoid Man).

A giant fungoid man from space arrives at the base. Its plan is to kidnap humans as food for its master, Dossar – an energy being from the planet Mercurion. Crutch lures him to the base’s main control centre where Debbie the Robot short-circuits him. (Actor Ronnie Reagan had originally requested no on-screen credit for his role but this was declined as the graphics department had already ordered the letraset.)

1.12

SCRIPT OF DOOM

Wr. Sidney Marshall

Dir. Sobey Martin

Guest cast: Vincent Price (Phutt), Bill Williams Jnr (Mummy man).

The Crutch family discover an ancient scroll at the bottom of the sea, little realising that once its hieroglyphs are translated, it will summon the Egyptian god, Phutt, who plans to snuff out all life on Earth. He doesn’t though because of something. (Vincent Price auctioned off the dentures he used in this episode in the 1980s to raise money for saving babies. They fetched $35 before tax)

1.13

FIRE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Wr. Charles Bennett (from a story by Irwin Allen)

Dir. Harry Harris

A long dead volcano erupts and threatens to engulf the seabase. Jon and Ziggy journey to cap the crater with a peutron plug, little realising that little Cindy is trapped in a cave beneath the raging inferno. It’s up to Aqua the Mer-boy to rescue her before the area is showered with deadly peutronic particles.

(Some of the background plates of the volcanic fire were re-used by Allen in the movie ‘The Towering Inferno’)

Continued in part two here

Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story

Written by Andrew-Mark Thompson

Based on material originally written and researched by Paul Morehouse and first published in the magazine ‘FanGrok’

With humble acknowledgement to the work of Adam Richards and Owen Richards.