SECRET OF THE DEEP Airdate: Feb 11, 1968.

Writer: William Welch Director: Charles Rondeau Music: Leith Stevens (stock from Man-Beast) Guest Stars: Peter Mark Richman (Hendrix)

A year four episode where several elements (and stock footage) of Voyage are placed together to create something very special. An unknown hostile power is causing all sorts of problems at the bottom of the sea - sea creatures all over the place and blackmail attempts - and agent Hendrix is on board to seek out the mystery. However, it turns out that Hendrix is a double agent. This is the episode that made me go from being a Voyage fan to a Voyage Nut. Voyage was apart of my 1970s Australian childhood, then it vanished from Sydney television for three years (three years takes forever to pass when you are a kid).

In January 1983 - when I was 16 and just finished High School - a re-run of Secret Of The Deep appeared on Oz network tv and this was the hour that turned Voyage into a lifetime hobby. The teaser has Hendrix talk to Crane about a threat to world peace. Crane responds with "That threat could come from space as well as from the sea". That line did it for me as Crane seemed to be making out that space aliens drop in all the time and that it was normal. Very cool to my 16 year old mind. Then it is battle stations as a bolt of underwater lightning strikes the Seaview..."It could be too late already" says a shocked Nelson as the sub shakes with the help of fireworks, action music, sound effects, miniature effects, sharp editing and the feeling of total disaster. As the Seaview hits bottom, suddenly we cut to the two-headed eye ball monster. Then the teaser ends and the new and improved year four theme music starts. At this stage I was hooked for life. As I say, it created a feeling and feeling is what the color episodes were all about.

The scripts may of lost some punch but the images and music remain forever locked in your mind. 1960s Star Trek and 1960s Outer Limits are simply not as memorable to me. But it is not all images and music that make up Voyage. Acting, acting, acting also helps! I wish I could say that Richard Basehart gets some good lines in this hour, but that is not the case. However, we get a hint of the cool Nelson quirks when, in the flying sub, Nelson responds to a grim Hendrix comment by saying "Don't sound so grim, we intend to come back". That sounded cool to a 16 year old StuOz. In this episode, the cool acting actually comes from Mr Peter Mark Richman as Hendrix. Not so much in what he says, but rather the looks on his face and the way he looks so smart dressed in black. The scene where Hendrix belts the hell out of the circuitry crewman is perhaps my favourite fight scene in all of the series. After this scene, Crane has had all he wants to take from Hendrix - "TRIPLE THE SEARCH PARTY, HENDRIX IS VERY DANGEROUS AND I WANT HIM SHOT ON SIGHT" says Crane on the radio. Hendrix responds with an almost cynical grin. Great stuff.

The rest of the action comes in the form of stock footage, from other episodes, of giant fish and a giant two-headed eye ball monster. But a new viewer to the series will have no idea that the footage is taken from other episodes and will FEEL like he is watching an hour of tv made that looks like a million dollars. I think this hour would sell the show to new action-fans...regardless of the age of the viewer. The two headed monster has been seen twice before in Voyage - in The Condemned and Deadly Creature Below - but despite this being the third encounter with the beast, Secret is my favourite eye ball monster episode. The Condemned was a year one show still stuck in the too grim Outer Limits tone and Deadly Creature was missing the talents of someone like Richman.

Despite Richard Basehart getting too little to do, this episode has many of the elements that make the Voyage series what it is... monsters, a spy, miniature effects of the Seaview and FS1, Leith Stevens music, great acting from a great guest star, and the general feeling that we are watching a film rather than a tv episode.  If this "film" can do for others what it did for me, well, you are in for the ride of your life. Thank you.