Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) s01e17 Episode Script

- Here we are.
- Thank you.
- Mayl have a glass ofmilk, please? - Certainly.
I'll be right back.
It never ceases to amaze me.
One houryou are flying over wide-open Western spaces that seem to never end and then the next hour you start seeing the cities of the Eastern seaboard.
And they seem to never end.
Exactly.
This your first trip to Washington? Ah, but of course not.
You must make this trip so many times -you feel like a commuter.
- Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it does feel like that.
- Here we are.
- Thank you.
- No, thanks.
- I'm sorry, sir.
It's right there in my stewardess's manual.
I'm not allowed to take no for an answer.
- Even if I'm not hungry? - Especially ifyou're not hungry.
All right.
I'll just have coffee.
We are starting our descent.
And so we are.
I guess he was more tired than hungry.
Ifeveryone remains quietly in their seats, nobody will get hurt.
This is not a robbery.
That's very foolish.
Sit down.
Should anyone feel brave I would suggest that you glance to the rear and I would suggest also that you put on your seat belts.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Starring Richard Basehart David Hedison.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
And that's as much as I know, Chip.
The admiral can't just have vanished.
There has to be some trace, somewhere.
Well, Washington's checking out every possible angle.
- Do we continue on to Norfolk? - Mm-hmm.
Pending further orders.
Good afternoon, Admiral Nelson.
Let me help you.
Please.
Anything but, “Where am I?“ Aha.
You recognize me.
Schroder? Colonel Alfried Schroder.
Standartenfclfhrer Al fri ecl Sch roder- Even on this forgotten edge of nowhere, we must try to observe the amenities.
You- You really are Alfried Schroder! Please, Admiral No anger, no moral indignation.
You're much too weak for that.
You've been under sedation for over two days now making your journey halfiA/ay across the world to here.
I imagineyour coordination isn't all it should be.
I remember now.
The airplane.
Then you must also remember one of your fellow passengers.
Leutnant Demen.
Now that he is conscious, shall I put him in with the others? Nexh, Carl.
Admiral Nelson is one of my special guests.
I will escort him personally.
One more thing: There are highly trained, armed men all around here.
I merely say this with the hope that you will dismiss all the wildly heroic thoughts that are running through your mind? Danke.
We are people of habit, aren't we? Give us a few pieces of good timber, a few yards of barbed wire, and what do we do? We do what we know how to do best.
I trust you've given up any further attempts on my life.
You wouldn't have any better luck than the others anyway.
I have survived attacking armies, the collapse of my panzer divisions the bombings of Berlin, the shelling and burning of our bunker- - And a 30-year manhunt by the free world.
- Yes.
And that too.
I have been hunted like an animal.
I've hidden in the sewers of the world, like a criminal.
And through it all, I survived.
Yes.
You people always seem to survive.
You won the war, and you think you are heroes.
You call yourselffreejust men, while you label us war criminals.
Well, the whole world labeled you war criminals.
All that is ancient history now.
All our concern is here and now! I'll show you to your quarters.
Aren't you the slightest bit curious as to why I brought you here? I've got a hunch I couldn't stop you from telling me.
I've spent so many years planning and waiting.
Would you begrudge me my small pleasure at the fruition of my plan? That newsreel film I was watching.
It was taken in the sports arena in Berlin.
At the first anniversary of our FUhrer assuming absolute power.
- You understand German? - No.
Pity.
The language of poets.
Not always.
That day in the sports arena- Our FUhrerwas telling us of his plans for a thousand-year Reich.
Which lasted exactly 19 years.
You disappoint me, Admiral I had expected you to regard World War ll as it was- a minor engagement in a battle that can only eventually end - in our victory.
- Our victory? Those last hours in Berlin the FUhrer decreed that I was to take command of rebuilding the Fourth Reich on the ashes of the Third.
No, no, no.
No, Admiral This is no idle dream.
We've been working very hard these years.
Drilling a dedicated cadre rebuilding our strengths, assembling our forces- oh! I have gathered great minds here- scientists, military geniuses, theoreticians.
And now, we come to you, Admiral The future of this planet lies in its oceans.
You are the world's foremost marine scientist.
I think it's only right that you should be in charge of all the maritime projects for the Fourth Reich.
You're as insane as your FUhrer was.
You will agree to join us.
Now, or after some persuasion.
Not now or later.
We'll see.
Come.
May I introduce you to your distinguished companions? Gentlemen, please meet Admiral Nelson.
Admiral, mayl present Dr.
Gustave Reinhardt? Gustave Reinhardt? You're supposed to be dead.
I am.
We all are! - At least, as good as dead.
- That accident, three years ago made headlines all over the world.
Yes, Schroder showed them to me.
It's not every man who gets to read his own obituaries.
They called you the world's foremost psychologist.
A t least, now you know that your life's work has been appreciated.
So much so that I went to the trouble ofcrashing an airliner to bring you here.
Fortunes of war, Doctor.
And here, we have Anton Miklos.
My own private nuclear scientist.
I attended your Oxford lectures on new methods of exploding the neutron.
Mm.
That was long ago, before I disappeared, never to be seen again.
Oh, don't despair.
When I am ready, the world will again hear a great deal about you.
And this is Benjamin Brewster.
I know Mr.
Brewster's work.
Probably the world's top authority - on electronics until- - Until his untimely death in that nasty skiing accident.
Someday I might tell you who is really buried under that avalanche.
If I'm ever convinced that too much knowledge is not a dangerous thing.
And here's a man who lays no claim to genius at all.
- Tomas Brandig is merely the world's greatest athlete.
- I read the sport pages.
Three times Olympic decathlon champion.
And all it meant was a one-way ticket to here.
One-way tickets only if you all continue to stubbornly cling to your ridiculously outmoded ideas.
But there'll be enough time for indoctrination.
I will leave you now, to let you become better acquainted with your companions.
Oh, and you might tell Admiral Nelson how impossible his ideas of escape are.
Good day, gentlemen.
Now you are wondering what we all first wondered, eh? Why Schroder took so much trouble to drag us all here to this tiny spot on no one's map? Can't you see, Admiral? We are the new master race.
Welcome aboard.
- Thisjust came in on top priority circuit.
- More bad news? More no news.
He couldn't have just vanished without a trace.
Washington has their top agents on it.
They'll come up with an answer.
They'll come up with nothing, just as they have for the past two weeks.
There must be something we can do.
Some way we can help find him.
We can't just sit around here and let him break us down one by one.
- What else are we to do? - Fight back.
Against that? With our bare hands? Even David had a sling when he took on Goliath.
But we have a weapon, the best weapon in the world: brains.
So does he.
Ahh.
I see you're getting better acquainted.
Admiral Nelson, could we have a talk for a moment or two? Between the two of us, have you made any plans to escape? Get it out of your system so we can get down to serious discussions about the future.
Uh, if I were you, I would wait till the next changing guards and then storm the main gate.
Korpora/ Wendt is then on duty, and he is a terrible shot.
But of course, he makes a very passable sauerbraten and one does have to make compromises in this day and age.
Doesn't one? Carl, I think we have time for a game of chess while these gentlemen plan their little escape.
AufWiedersehe-n, mein Herren.
With that kind of conceit you'd think that he'd won the war instead of having lost it.
It's not just conceit.
The Prussian military mind is a marvelously precise mechanism.
Tough.
Unyielding.
Instinctively brutal.
Highly complex and yet at the same time almost completely predictable.
Underneath all this bravado Herr Schrodefs quite tense now.
I'd say he's close to making this master move he's been planning all these years.
That's a masterly analysis.
In my office, I'd make $60 an hour for less than that.
Ifwhat you say is true, something must have happened recently - to complete his plans.
- You have happened, Admiral.
Your capture makes everything complete.
With you, he intends to control the oceans of the world.
With me, nuclear power.
With Brewster, conventional power and communications.
And with Tomas here, he plans fashioning a new breed ofsupermen.
Through me, he plans to control their minds.
That's what he told me six years ago, when he first imprisoned me.
All he needs is a nucleus for the master race.
Then he can strike and win easily.
Getting us all here is one thing.
Getting us all to work on his side is quite another.
He'll get us all to join him.
Make no mistake about that.
When Herr Schroder sets his mind to it he'll break us, one by one.
He used to be quite expert at that in the old days.
That's all the more reason to act, right now.
If I could just get my hands around Schrodefs neck.
That would accomplish precisely nothing, because then Deiner or one of the others would simply step into his place.
Brewster's right.
It's the idea that has to be destroyed, not just the man.
- And we can't do that here.
- Escape is impossible.
Even if we get away from the camp, where can we go? I've checked our positions with both the sun and the stars.
This island is thousands ofmiles from the remotest shipping lanes, let alone civilization.
We're not just going to roll over and play dead.
If we can't escape to the outside world we're going to bring the outside world right here.
N ow- Ah, what we need is another bulb.
This is the last of them, except for the light you're working by.
Well, with a little bit ofluck, it should bejust about enough.
- Hammer, please.
- Mm.
We can really send out shortwave radio signals with that? In theory, yes.
- [Taps 1 -Thank you.
Now.
Someone is coming! It's Tomas.
- I got it.
Nobody saw me.
- From the electric fence? No.
I found some wrapped around one of the tower posts.
- Your hands.
- I didn't have anything to cut the wire.
- Had to pull it loose.
- Dr.
Reinhardt.
- Here.
- Attach this.
To the light socket.
There.
- Now that shouldjust about do it.
- Indeed it should.
Uh, one- Now.
lfwe couldjustfind something to act as a sending key- How about that? Huh? Fine! That's just what the doctor ordered.
We're a whole blooming radio station.
Now if I canjust reach the right people.
Admiral? Be my guest.
Still nothing, Captain.
- Not even a wrong number.
- Keep at it.
Captain, when you asked me about shortwave I said a signal could carry around the world.
- But that's theory.
- Oh, I know.
But all we can do is stay with it.
Monitor the international wavelengths, as well as our own emergency band.
- And the low-frequency bands.
- Yes, sir.
It's almost dawn.
Well, I can keep sending for a few minutes yet.
We don't even know ifanyone can hear us.
That's why we have to keep on trying.
Every night.
As long as we can.
Captain Crane! - Crane here.
- Captain, I think I'm picking something up.
It's a C.
W.
signal that sounds like our code.
Put it on the amplifier.
- It's Admiral Nelson! - Mr.
Morton.
On the double! Get us a fix on the radio direction finder.
The admiral's alive And he's sending out a road map loud and clear.
Now here's our destination.
It's not too far away, so let's get moving fast.
Sparks, send a reply, just in case he's got a receiver too.
“Message received, loud and clear.
The cavalry is on its way.
Crane.
" The Seaview has received Nelson's message.
They are coming full speed.
To the rescue! M m.
It's still more than a day away.
- But we're moving at full speed.
- Well, it's not fast enough.
See if the engine room crew has a trick or two up their sleeve.
Iawohl.
Admiral Nelson.
First, let me compliment you on being so resourceful.
I had allowed you three days to build your shortwave radio and you did it in one single day Which puts us more than two days ahead of schedule.
You see, Carl, never underestimate scientific ingenuity.
You, um- You knew about the radio all the time? I didn't only know about it.
I had planned on it.
You see, Admiral you are just a small pawn on the chessboard.
Or perhaps a more apt description of your role in my plans would be bait.
- Bah? - Exactly.
Thanks to your noble efforts the Seaview is coming here, at full speed.
Straight into the very special welcome we have prepared for it.
Nota chance.
The Seavfew? not within Wishful thinking, Admiral If you had built a receiving set as well as a sending set you would have gotten this reply From your Captain Crane.
You see? Everything is going according to plan.
That would be very foolish, Admiral.
Yes.
It would be.
Especially since you have served your purpose and we really have no longer much reason to keep you alive.
Now.
As you've been so very helpful I think it only fitting to tell you how the Seaview is going to serve the Fourth Reich.
After we capture the vessel, we will place our own crew aboard.
And we will sail to here.
Don't you notice anything of particular interest about the spot I'm pointing to? It seems equidistant to Washington or Moscow.
And with both cities well within the range of the nuclear missiles carried aboard the Seaview.
Now, tell me, Admiral.
What do you think would happen after we fire two missiles, simultaneously- one at Washington and one at Moscow.
Right again.
The United States and Russia would immediately retaliate with all the power at their command.
Holocaust.
Awful nuclear holocaust.
Such as the world has never seen.
Even something like you couldn't want that.
No one could gain from that kind of destruction.
Wrong.
Very wrong.
A whole world is to be gained.
We will trigger it.
Then sit back while all the major powers of the world destroy each other.
And when everything is ashes we will strike out from this island.
And on those ashes build the Fourth Reich- a Reich truly destined to last 1,000 years.
You can't do it, Schroder! You'd be destroying millions ofiives.
Your lesson in political science is over, Admiral Now that the Seaview is going to be here in a couple of hours I have a great deal of work to do.
But you must have some feeling, some-some emotions.
Do you walk, or do we have to drag you? I believe you have a shortwave radio hidden in this hut.
Now, gentlemen you know that is contrary to all camp rules.
Give it to them.
They know all about it anyway.
Fascinating.
Ingenious! Building one radio from nothing is quite an achievement.
But I'm afraid it's going to have to stop right there.
You gentlemen will just have to rest on your laurels.
Well, what a coincidence.
Nelson goes to headquarters for a quiet little tete-é-tete.
Deiner comes right back here and confiscates our radio.
I told you.
- They knew all about the radio.
- Oh, really? But what about the extra food that Schroder always gives to prisoners with whom he's particularly pleased, hmm? - Gentlemen, gentlemen! -Well, it had to be him.
- How else could they know? - What would be the sense of that? I was the one who had you make it.
Why would I tell Schroder about it? Divide and conquer.
Divide some more and conquer some more.
How did the Schroders of this world become so good at it? I'm sorry.
I know you're upset about the radio.
I shouldn't have taken offense so easily.
No, you had every right.
I was completely wrong.
L-I'm sorry.
I apologize.
All right.
Now that the dissension in the ranks is settled what'll we do about the enemy? Well, the enemy seems to have the situation too well in hand.
Even these- these walls may have ears.
Schroder had me brought to his office so he could do a little crowing.
But what he really wanted was the Seaview.
And he had to tell me how we'd played right into his hands.
The engine room was just on the intercom.
No power system is supposed to be run this long at full speed.
- The reactor? getting heated - How bad is it? Right now, it's just giving out warning signals.
But if we keep on running at full speed- There hasn't been any more radio signals.
We don't know what's happening to the admiral on the island.
We have to keep running at full speed for the next five or six hours.
Okay.
You're the skipper.
Engine Room, this is the bridge.
We need at least six more hours at full speed.
But, Mr.
Morton, this reactor? getting hot.
So, it's getting hot.
The captain says full speed.
Well, that's it.
He intends to set fire to most of the world so he can rule over what little of it is left.
Ah, even Schroder.
Can he do this? - Then we must stop him.
- But what we must do and what we can do are two entirely different things, aren't they? - We can at least try.
- We did try.
Schroder toyed with us for a few days, and then told Deiner to step down heavily.
- It'; hopeless, ltel/ you.
- That may be, but Miklos is right.
We gotta make the attempt.
All right.
We'll try.
You once said the Prussian mind is almost entirely predictable.
Now is there anyway offiguring out what Schroder might be thinking? - What he expects us to do next? - Very interesting.
Then while he's one step behind, planning on a countermove we could be executing a counter-countermove.
Something like that.
With his knowledge of the radio destroying all our hopes for rescue he'd then expect us to, uh, fight amongst ourselves.
Yes, well, um, we've done that, haven't we? Then, he'd expect us to completely change direction.
Do something bold and daring.
Utterly foo/hardy.
Something foolish, like- Like storming the main gate, something like that.
Well, then we'll have to do it.
We don't want to disappoint him.
And while some of us are diverting attention with that the rest of us will be executing our real plan.
Yes, ifthere is a real plan.
There will be, as soon as we know exactly where and when he intends to spring his trap on the Seaview.
Anybody notice any unusual construction recently? Yeah, they- They cleared the channel out.
South side of the island, about two years ago.
They'd have to do that anyway, to freight in their supplies.
No.
The supply boats dock at the lagoon, on this side of the island.
There might be something to that channel.
They had me installing special wiring there about four months ago.
Well, then all we have to do is find out what that wiring sets in motion.
We'll have to send someone out there to take a look.
It's impossible.
The guards would shoot any prisoner outside the walls on sight.
The last time someone went past the fence- Schroder had him tortured for four days as a lesson to the rest of us.
And then, when Schroder got tired of his role as teacher, he had him killed.
I'll go.
There's a place behind the next hut where I can get under the fence.
I checked it out.
It's a blind spot.
The tower guards can't see it.
- How about your hands? - I'll go under the fence.
I won't touch the barbed wire.
Thinkyou can find that channel? I know that side of the island.
They had me out there cutting some timber a few months ago.
- I'll find the channel - Good.
- When do you want me to go? - Tonight, as soon as it's dark.
And be careful.
We don't want anything to happen to the world's greatest athlete.
Good.
Very good.
It's easy to see now how you won all those marvelous Olympic medals.
Oh, don't worry.
After we've carried out our plans we will again hold the Olympic games.
And you may command them, for the Fourth Reich.
Thanks, I'd like that.
Hey, listen, about the, uh- The guard.
Yes.
It's unfortunate, but necessary.
Don't let it concern you.
Now, tell me.
What do those great minds in the hut think they are going to put over on Colonel Alfried Schroder? Nelson's forming a plan with two steps.
The first step is diversionary.
Rush the gate.
The channel seems to end about here.
There's a hut on a rise above the channel.
I followed some of the wires as close as I could.
But I was afraid there'd be a guard post so I didn't get closer than about 50 feet or so.
I've been inside Schrodefs radio room.
He has enough equipment to control anything on this island.
Brewster's right.
The controls are the key, and Schroder would have those right in his headquarters building.
Now, think hard.
This, uh- Has there been anything brought to this island so strange that you must have thought that Schroder had gone off the deep end? The nets! Months ago I-I was on a work crew, unloading supplies.
And the cargo was huge steel nets.
- Submarine nets.
- I was wondering what kind offishing Schroder was going to use them for.
Controls are the key.
We've got to knock them out of action before he can close those submarine nets over the Seaview.
Nelson, I think it's impossible.
We can't just walk out and tear apart the headquarters with our bare hands.
We're not going to tear it apart.
We're gonna blow it apart.
Miklos, you're our expert in that department.
What do we need to make explosives? Well, if you ask me about advanced nuclear fission I could probably give you some kind ofan answer.
But a plain little bomb? It's too simple.
I've never given it any thought.
Well, it's all exploding energy.
The basic principle must be the same.
To a large degree.
First, we'll need some kind of a covering or shell to contain the energy and then release it all in one explosive burst.
- How about dried mud? Clay? -Yes.
Something like that.
Then we'll need some kind of electrical charge.
- Something t0 detonate it.
- Oh, don't you worry.
I'll get you a spark.
As for the explosive itself, we'll need a base ofammonium nitrate or sodium nitrate.
And how much force would this explosive release? The explosive force will be more than sufficient for your needs.
Fine.
Reinhardt, you get some mud.
Brewster, start working on the detonators.
The Seaview has stopped.
- How faraway? - Not more than halfa mile.
Mm-hmm.
Captain Crane is a good officer.
As every good officer knows, he has to first carefully reconnoiter unknown terrain.
He will send out skin divers, who will scout the island and they will report that the lagoon approach is much too heavily fortified.
Then, of course, he will come in on the only other approach the south side of the island.
- And into the channel.
- Yes.
We went to so much trouble building it, it seems only right that Captain Crane should use it.
The only other approach would be here, along the south end of the island.
- Chip, are you sure about the lagoon? - It's too shallow for us.
Without looking hard, I counted four gun emplacements on the cliffs above it.
They've got every inch of that lagoon zeroed in, just waiting for unexpected callers like us.
- We could blast our way in.
- No, no.
The admiral wouldn't stand a chance.
We'd better slip in quietly.
Now, the reefs block us east and west.
Okay.
I guess that just leaves the south side approach.
That's it.
There you are, Admiral.
Your own private arsenal.
Nobel himselfcouldn't have made better explosives for you.
Well, we'll just have to see that they get very special delivery.
Everything's quiet out there.
Schroder is nowhere around, no lights on in his quarters.
Now, I'd guess that the Seaview will move in just as dawn breaks.
- We'll have to act right now.
- That's right.
Everybody got a bomb? - Yeah.
- Okay, one last check.
After all, we're going into battle.
Okay.
Brewster.
You and Miklos and Reinhardt will have to create as much diversion out front as you can.
Enough so Tomas and I can get past the fence and circle around behind the headquarters building.
I used to be a pretty good bowler at cricket.
lfl could just lob one of these through their munition hut window- It would make a very pretty picture indeed.
One of us has got a good chance of getting through.
Whoever does blows that headquarters building apart.
- Right.
- Good luck.
There.
That's the spot the tower guards can't cover.
Good.
We'll wait for the diversionary fireworks.
Should be any second now.
I'm afraid you're mistaken once again, Admiral At this moment, your very clever companions are being rounded up in the compound.
- Quick! Over the fence.
- May I, please? Thank you.
I must compliment you once more on your, uh, ingenuity.
What a very nice little bomb.
Too bad it will not explode.
Because a traitor sabotaged it.
Don't be too harsh on Tomas.
He is not as intellectually secure as you and the others.
Therefore, he could not withstand one of my persuasions.
And therefore, he has joined the winning side that much sooner.
And besides, sabotage, infiltration, traitors- They're all perfectly acceptable weapons ofwar.
- Are/ft they? - Yes.
Yes, I guess one has to expect that dealing with something like you.
I must now recommend that you rejoin your companions.
You'll soon have company: the officers and the crew of the Seaview.
You're worse than any of them.
Now, now, now.
Now, Admiral Nelson.
That was a most unnecessary and foolish thing to do.
I keep expecting so much more from you.
Come, Tomas.
I don't think you'll be very safe in the compound from now on.
Besides, you've earned the right to watch us spring the trap.
Captain, there's a channel opening up in front of us.
Let's get a look on visual.
Let's take her in as close as we can.
It's no use.
The Schroders of this world will always be one step ahead of us.
Well, we've still got a chance.
You can't wish him and his plans away.
We've got a lot more than wishing going for us.
Ifonly we don't run out of time.
The Seaview is moving into position.
Carl, switch the viewer on.
Viewer on.
Perfect! No, no.
Let me do that.
Indicator light! N ow! N ow! And, that's- That's all of it, Lee.
But how could you have figured Tomas? I checked every foot of that barbed-wire fence.
There wasn't an inch of it that wasn't covered by one of the guard towers.
There's only one way that Tomas could have gotten over that fence.
- IfSchroder wanted him to.
- Mm-hmm.
Once I was sure of that, I knew that Tomas had sabotaged the bombs.
Aside from the one I repaired after he'd finished working on it.
And switched with him.
Along with something else very special: a timing device I made out of my wristwatch.
The doctor's just finished his checkup on the passengers.
Mr.
Miklos and Mr.
Brewster need some shots and Dr.
Reinhardfs blood pressure's a little high- otherwise, they're in pretty good shape, considering Schroder's hospitality.
I'm glad we didn't get a taste of that hospitality.
H' he'd have sprung those steel nets on the Seamew“.
we wouldn't have been able to maneuver.
He could have played cat and mouse with us.
He could have played cat and mouse with the whole world.
You mean, whatever would have been left of it.
Yeah.
Whatever would have been left of it.