DEAD MEN'S DOUBLOONS Airdate: Feb 12, 1966 Writer: Sidney Marshall Director: Sutton Roley Guest Stars: Albert Salmi (Captain Brent)

Captain Brent is on the Seaview and it seems he has a connection to a dead 16th century pirate. When on a dive, Seaview crew find an ancient doubloon that seems to put a curse on everybody, wild things start  happpening, such as the flying sub being shot down by a 16th century  pirate ship, soon after this an island of pirates is discovered and they seem to be after US missiles. Captain Crane gets to say "What country are you working for?" again.

The mixing of pirate fairy tale and modern day science is something Irwin Allen was very at home with. This episode came at a time when Irwin was getting his Time Tunnel series all ready to start later in the year and a pirate - Victor Jory - would appear in that series also. Albert Salmi is fine but he does not compare to Jory, however, Dead Men's Doubloons is still a great year two mystery adventure that highlights great pirate costumes, actors who look like pirates, the flying sub, good Sutton Roley direction, and as always Mr Richard Basehart holds the whole hour together.

A mid-1970s childhood memory of mine was watching Dead Men's Doubloons. That scene where the pirates stand outside the entrance of the cave an look up with joy at the flying sub going out of control. That was a mind blowing bit of footage to my nine year old eyes. This was before I saw Star Wars (1977). Before spaceships were controlled or destroyed by The Death Star. Dead Men's Doubloons is great today but there was a time when it was even better! The pirates looked really evil to me but 21st century viewers might not react the same way, in fact, footage of Captain Crane being held captive by pirates might look even homo-erotic by today's standards? The flying submarine is a very memorable part of this hour because it does an emergency crash dive not once but twice! This was still the early days of flying sub action and Irwin liked highlighting this wonderful craft in year two shows. To me, one of the most memorable things about year two's And Five Of Us Are Left was how the flying sub was used. We had men stuck in a cave since WW2 in the 1940s and the introduction to modern times is the flying sub, "There is something wrong", says a confused gent when looking at the flying sub.

Sutton Roley is someone I have mixed feelings about. I love the wild close ups he does but I hate the constant camera shadows we see in most of his shows. He directed the final episodes of The Man From UNCLE (in 1968) and not only do we see the camera shadows but we clearly see the cameraman as well. But Sutton has a place in my Irwin world as he directed three episodes of Voyage (including The Phantom Strikes) and three episodes of LIS (inluding The Anti-Matter Man). Sutton's camera is one of the characters in each of the shows he directs. Mixing history with modern day science was common in Voyage (Turn Back The Clock, And Five Of Us Are Left, The Phantom, Death From The Past, The Haunted Submarine, Blackbeard,  A Time To Die, No Way Back, etc) and I guess this partly explains why many Voyage fans like The Time Tunnel as well. I know many MALE Voyage fans like the wild action of Voyage, Dead Men's Doubloons reads like an action packed up-dated 1940s Republic movie serial, and for that reason this boy's hour is highly entertaining. Thank you.

With Many Thanks to StuOz for another great review!