User Reviews

Simon Cowell is thankfully nowhere to be seen in this Season 2 'Voyage' episode, which was the last of the entertaining spy stories made to compete with James Bond and 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E'. Scientist 'Dr.Liscomb' ( George Tyne ) is kidnapped outside the Nelson Institute for Marine Research in Santa Barbara, California, and taken to the headquarters of the Kaber Toy company, headed by the sinister foreign spy 'Alexander Kaber' ( John MacGiver ). Liscomb is the inventor of a new defence system, and Kaber wants him to hand over the details. When the scientist refuses, Kaber puts him into a conversion tank ( which looks like an M.R.I. scanner ) and he becomes a life-size doll. 'Captain Shire' ( Bill Hudson ) of the U.S. Defense Department has an agent in the factory, but when he contacts them he is killed. Shire and Nelson must proceed carefully as the factory is doing work for the U.S. Government. They decide the best approach is an official visit...

A good episode from the pen of William Welch, the show's most prolific writer. It is slick and excitingly directed by Leonard Horn and MacGiver makes a fine villain, with Jan Merlin suitably slimy as his sidekick 'Henderson'. However, it is let down slightly by the blatant reuse of the helicopter attack from 'Eleven Days To Zero'. To be fair, the sequence is employed in a different context, and Hudson is playing an entirely new character, but it detracts from an otherwise strong episode.

Incidentally, the closing credits lists the MacGiver's character as 'Corby' but in the show itself, he is Kaber. Presumably the name got changed during production.

The loss of the spy stories meant that, from here on, 'Voyage' only had two types of plot left - 'invasion from outer space' and 'monster on the rampage'. Some of these managed to be good, but many - including 'The Plant Man' and 'Doomsday Island' - were laughably bad, giving the show an unfortunate reputation it has never fully managed to shake off.

You cannot take "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" too seriously. It was a fantasy sci-fi series and often due to budget and technology available at the time the monsters come off as silly. But I find I still can enjoy the shows because if you just suspend disbelief and accept it for what it is, it's actually pretty exciting. However, in the case of "The X Factor", I cannot look past the seriously stupid writing. Sure, I could accept the silly notion of wax-sealing folks but so much else about the show really made me groan...all too often.

The show begins with a top scientist being frozen in wax to await shipment to some evil foreign power*. Soon, an agent hidden within the midst of this evil toy and novelty company is caught trying to contact the outside for help. He gets a brief message off to Admiral Nelson....but NOTHING about the message indicated they were calling from the toy company. Still, in spite of this, they somehow KNOW that this toy company is a cover for evil! Okay....a big leap but I could look past it.

What eventually follows is a ridiculous ending where only four navy men from the Seaview infiltrate a heavily guarded base of espionage. First, when they car caught, there is a fire hose conveniently located right next to the Captain's hand. Second, the naval men don't bother to knock these men out or take their guns. In fact, most leave their own guns lying on the ground. Third, when they are cornered, they find a conveniently located manhole...with the cover askew as if to invite them inside! Fourth, they then find a bank of electrical relays...just waiting to be switched....and this loss of power stops the baddies from waxifying the Admiral with only a few seconds to spare!!! Again and again, such ridiculous coincidences occur throughout the program....and I couldn't wait for it to end.

By the way, if you've seen the pilot episode you may notice that the intro sequence when baddies are trying to kill the Admiral is recycled. The only difference is that the injured Admiral in this show was laying on his side and picked off a guy hanging from a helicopter with his pistol....which appears to be at least a few hundred yards away!!! Nelson could EASILY be the star of an Olympic shooting team with skills like that!!

One of the poorer efforts for a generally good series. This episode features a raid on the Nelson Institute's parking lot (apparently quite a unsafe place to be) to kidnap a prominent scientist...the garroting of the driver is quite amusing as initially the assailant hits his nose with the rope and he doesn't react. Anyhoo Nelson and Captain Shires embark on a road trip which involves stock footage of the scene from the pilot episode in which a helicopter attacks a car with Nelson and Captain Shires (in pilot same guy was called Captain Phillips)in which the car crashes and explodes and then Nelson comes tumbling out quite alive and ready for action! No more ruining the plot but there were many more solid episodes than this one.