Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV Series) Terror on Dinosaur Island (1965) User Reviews

Prehistoric Venture

[ShadeGrenade · 8/10 · 11 June 2009]

One of the lovely things about Irwin Allen's shows was the story titles. This same season also gave us 'The Monster From Outer Space', 'The Mechanical Man', 'The Death Ship' and 'The Phantom Strikes', and all did what they said on the tin.

Nelson and C.P.O. Sharkey are in the Flying Sub observing the birth of an island. Something goes wrong with the controls and they crash. Nelson makes a flag in the hope it will be spotted by the Seaview. In the meantime, they have a more pressing problem to contend with - the island is populated by prehistoric monsters.

A pleisiosaur attacks Seaview, causing damage and flooding part of the ship. Crewman Grady is killed. Seaman Benson ( Paul Carr ) blames Captain Crane for his friend's death and vows revenge. When volunteers for a shore party are requested, he is the first to stick up his hand. He plans to shoot Crane once they are on the island...

The furore over 'Turn Back The Clock' the year before did not prevent Allen from using dinosaurs in subsequent 'Voyage' episodes. The creatures were photographically enlarged lizards, not Ray Harryhausen-style models, and pretty good they look too. One story flaw - if the island keeps going up and down into the sea like a yo yo, why don't the dinosaurs drown? ( Perhaps they're clever beasts who have their own oxygen equipment hidden in a cave somewhere ).

Nice interaction between Nelson and Sharkey, with the latter disclosing his first name: Francis.

Paul Carr appeared the previous year in various episodes as 'Seaman Clark'.

A fun story, like most of the 'Voyage' series.

One of the better eps, but not enough to the tough command decision

[MiketheWhistle · 7/10 · 25 November 2018]

Because IA reused footage from a prior movie this ep actually had decent special effects compared to some real garbage in the past 10 or so eps. No comments on what was a more realistic submariner sad potential reality which is to have to close water containment doors on what could be your best friend. Crane makes the command decision that the military trains its officers, nco's, and sailors to have to make the tough call, but don't ever think it doesn't destroy you. I never served on a sub but knew many, and it was something that just wasn't spoken of. If you ever give thought to the many who died in the silent service, do some searches for lost submarines to understand the great sacrifice so many have made.

Lots of Stock Footage, But Done Well Enough

[reprtr · 7/10 · 10 January 2021]

Irwin Allen was a producer who, like most in his profession, never let a frame of film go to waste -- his motto was, if something already in the can could be used to help put together key elements of a decent new story, pull it out and use it (even if it meant tailoring all kinds of details of the new story to fit the stock footage)! In this case, there were two stories mashed together in one episode, sort of like what Universal was known for doing in combining episodes of series like Tales of Fargo or The Virginian into feature-length films.

The better of the two stories is one of grief and revenge. Seaman Benson (Paul Carr. who had previously played a crew member named Clark in episodes of the series) is driven to plan the murder of Cmdr. Lee Crane (David Hedison), as he blames the latter for giving the order that killed Benson's best friend, Grady who, as a favor to Benson, had taken over the latter's assigned shift in a section of the ship that ends up flooded). The opportunity for revenge arises as Crane and the Seaview are trying to find and rescue Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart) and Chief Sharkey (Terry Becker), who have become stranded on an island where large prehistoric creatures are roaming around. As a result, not for the first time, Irwin Allen called up footage from his 1960 feature THE LOST WORLD; and he also utilized tinted black-and-white footage from the Season One Voyage episode "Submarine Sunk Here" (one of the series' high points, incidentally) to depict Grady's death.

The LOST WORLD footage seems hokey today but in the mid-1960s it looked great on TV, and the psychological side of the story -- especially the interactions between Benson and Kowalski (Del Monroe) -- holds the viewer's interest. Additionally, this was the episode in which the writers began exploring the notion of a friendship and bond between Nelson and Sharkey that would become an ongoing feature in subsequence scripts. And to top it off, for once, stuntman/extra Ron Stein actually gets a line of dialogue, though he is still uncredited.

Later entries in the series would turn to similar recycling of material, but at this point the writing and acting were still pretty fresh, and it works.

Some Cool Bits In This One

[StuOz · 26 July 2010]

This hour might not be a favourite but it is loaded with some cool miniature effects of the flying sub soaring over a cliff and a dinosaur attacking the Seaview. Also good is the fact that Del Monroe (Kowalski) is more featured than usual as he sorts out his oddball seaman pal and also looks for his lost Admiral in the dino island jungle.

What gets me about this episode is how one very noted Voyage/Sea fan - the late Mike Bailey - reacted to it. Bailey was not really a fan of season two Voyage but Bailey was over the moon about Terror On Dino Island? As another poster noted, this hour also features a moment when Sharkey and Nelson bond.

Allen recycles some old footage here...not that he didn't do that on many other occasions.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 10 February 2018]

The plot to "Terror on Dinosaur Island" is pretty simple and major portions of the show were lifted from Irwin Allen's movie "The Lost World". Additionally, stock footage of volcanoes is used...making this a pretty cheap episode to make.

The Seaview is observing an odd island that seems to have just grown up from the sea. Naturally, there is a lot of volcanic activity and wouldn't you know it but the Admiral and another crewman are lost when they are flying about the island on the ship's flying sub. The rest of the show consists of the two lost men trying to survive the earth tremors, magma and ridiculous dinosaurs (one is a baby alligator with fins and horns glued onto it)...as well as the Seaview crew looking for them.

So is this melange any good? Not especially. The dinosaurs are often crappy--even by 1965 standards and the show isn't particularly exciting as the finale is a foregone conclusion. There also is the very familiar incompetent/nutty crewman cliche....as this ultra-top secret sub apparently is manned by folks who recently got out of an asylum! Overall, not terrible...not great.