The Mermaid

Airdate: Jan. 22, 1967 Writer: William Welch Director: Jerry Hopper.

Guest Stars: Diane Webber (The Mermaid)

Review By StuOz.

Photos By Linda Delaney.

Crane captures a mermaid who eventually leads the sub to an undersea nuclear bomb about to explode. Also, since this is year three, a monster, year two's Manfish, makes a comeback. I hope my reviews attract new viewers to Voyage and if so the first name to watch out for in those credits is Mr William Welch! This writer knew exactly what Irwin Allen wanted and he gave it to him. This writer worked on all Irwin shows but was less involved in LIS. Welch scripts about time travel are the best but this guy also had a talent for making the totally fantastic seem almost real. Never is this more true than in The Mermaid episode. In one corner we have Crane in a trance over his new found mermaid and in the other corner we have Nelson in the very real world looking for a bomb. Mixing the two storylines is what I call William Welch/Irwin Allen magic.

The next episode after this one was William Welch's The Mummy and that same magic was used. A 3000 year old mummy walks around the sub but realistic things like Crane being too sick to work, the Seaview needing to be in the Middle East in 70 hours, the Seaview then going in the wrong direction, these things kept the hour in the real world.

Welch and Irwin could make the totally fantastic seem almost real, a very special talent that nobody then and now can do so well. But back to The Mermaid. I am not big on screen love stories so I will leave that side of the show to other reviewers, the mermaid does not talk so we don't know much about the girl, much the same way that we don't know much about the mummy. Viewers like myself have other things to watch and in this case it is humour. Were you amused by The Mermaid episode or is it just my Australian love of people behaving in an easy going way? Crane is easy going in this hour and his trance like acting reminds me of John Robinson in LIS's The Dream Monster. The humour comes from Nelson being confused by Crane and Nelson being so serious and single minded about finding that bomb, "You have not listened to a word I said" says Nelson to Crane. This episode has so much in it, good underwater swimming footage done with interesting music playing, having the manfish return seems a bit pointless but I  am easy going on the idea of bringing him back, that great scene towards the end where Nelson looks at the nose window and sees the mermaid directing the sub to the bomb, his face is saying " Is this for real?", top acting from Basehart. And this episode ends with totally unexpected Nelson laugh and a totally unexpected (and amusing) Nelson remark about what do with the bomb. Very realistic acting from Mr Basehart. I still stand by what I said in another review, all of year three is very special to me, only five episodes were of lesser quality and even those five shows had something of interest. I like the whole series of Voyage but year three is unique because, to me, the magic just kept on coming from episode 1 to episode 26. The Mermaid and The Mummy are classics and a change from the space aliens, and you will feel the imagination of Irwin Allen in every scene. Thank you.

Special Thanks Once Again To StuOz For Another Great Review.

Also, Many Thanks To Linda Delaney For Her Wonderful Rare Photos.