| "Submarine Sunk Here"
writer William Tunberg had other TV credits such as Screen Director's
Playhouse and The Wild Wild West. Movie
credits include Garden of Evil (which he co-wrote oddly
enough with Freddie Frieberger, final season producer/butcher of
both Star Trek and Space 1999.) He also adapted the classic
Disney dog movie, Old Yeller from Fred Gipson's novel of
the same name. The episode is one of Season One's
best, and the only Voyage episode Tunberg wrote. Right off
the bat, we learn that Curly and Mr. Morton are in New London,
finishing up repairs and updates on Seaview's diving bell. |
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Bishop
and Evans about to tangle as O'Brien looks on. |
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Blake Distracted
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But the episode really begins with the confrontation
between seaman Evans and Lieutenant Bishop. It is never explained
why Bishop is a tight-ass, but tight-ass he is and bad timing
being what it is, Evans has just learned his pregnant wife is having
serious medical problems. He desperately wants reassurance
of emergency leave which Bishop is unwilling to even consider until
they reach port, just a few hours away. The end product
is a fist fight, one of those pivotal events in life which changes
everything in seconds, like being in an car wreck. The fracas results
in seaman Blake, Seaview's on-duty sonar operator, being distracted
for several minutes, long enough for the submarine to wander
into a derelict mine field. |
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Occupied
in the nose, Nelson sights the mines and desperately orders all-stop.
A cable has become fowled in the forward floodlight housing, and
the mini-sub is sent out to cut it free.
She works her way forward and severs the cable. |
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| The mine,
once freed rises, collides with another and causes a domino-effect
series of explosions. Caught in the middle of it 200 miles
out of New London, Seaview suffers damage, takes on water, and begins
to head, out of control, for the bottom . Pandemonium
breaks out as the crew desperately seek to save their sub and themselves.
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Nelson hauls soaked crew from below.
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Nelson helps haul crew out from below, but
as water continues to rise, must order seaman Harker to dog the
hatch in spite of the fact that Harker's buddy O'Mara is still down
there.  |
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Harker, overwhelmed by what he's had to
do.
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Harker: I couldn't hold him, sir. I just
couldn't hold him. He's still down
there.
Nelson: Dog the
hatch.
Harker: He's still alive down
there.
Nelson: Dog the hatch. That's an
order.
After Seaview hits bottom, Nelson says: Doc,
you can open your suit bag, that is if we still have one.
Then
he turns to Harker and says: Go aft and see if
there's any way to reach the auxiliary ballast tanks.
Harker
is in shock: I left him there. I just couldn't hold
him. I hadda leave him. I left him. I couldn't . .
I couldn't hold him. I tried to hold him -- I
couldn't.
Harker's stunned expression
and tone
of voice make it clear that he's horrified at his own
actions, a state of mind which will build until his anger
is unleashed on duty-derelict sonar operator Blake, whom Harker comes to blame for the misery
and death around him, especially the death of
O'Mara. |
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Submarine Sunk Here"
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