Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea - Other Media

Other Media

The success of the film led to the 1964–1968 television version on ABC, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. During the run of the series this film was remade as a one-hour episode. The episode was written by Willam Welch and was titled "The Sky's on Fire." No mention is made in the episode of the skyfire ever happening before. This is one of several reasons that proves the film is not part of the television series' continuity. Many of the scenes in the film became scenes or even episodes in the television series.The television series is a remake of the movie.

In June 1961, Pyramid Books published a novelization of the feature film by Theodore Sturgeon. The book was reprinted several times during the 1960s. One of those reprintings has Richard Basehart and David Hedison pictured on the cover, but the book is still based on the Walter Pidgeon film. Collectors who want a novelization of the television series should find City Under the Sea. That book uses the television characters, but should not be confused with either the television episode or the later Irwin Allen film of the same name.

Sturgeon's book is based on an early version of the film's script and has the same basic story as the film. The book also has a few characters that were not shown in the film and some additional technical explanation. Some scenes are different from the film. Some scenes in the book are wholly absent from the film, and likewise some scenes from the film are entirely missing from the book.

The original 1961 cover of Sturgeon's book shows a submarine meeting a fanged sea serpent. This scene appears in neither the novel nor the film. The design of the submarine on the 1961 cover matches neither the Seaview shown in the film nor the Seaview described in the novel. The cover submarine's bow is opaque, and her "Observation Room" is a rearward projection from the base of the conning tower. The basic shape of her hull resembles that of USS Skipjack (SSN-585), the first American nuclear powered submarine with an "Albacore hull", including the cruciform stern and single propeller.

Interestingly, a submarine design very similar to the craft on the 1961 cover, and its mission to save the world, shows up in a Dell Comics series called Voyage to the Deep in 1962 to capitalize on the movie's popularity. Its mission also took it to the Mariana Trench to stop the Earth from wobbling out of orbit. It stopped publishing by issue #4. That ship was named Proteus.

In 1961 Dell Comics created a full color adaptation of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie. The comic was Four Color Comics #1230. The comic book has a few publicity stills of the movie plus a section on the history of submarines. In the comic book the Admiral's first name is Farragut instead of Harriman.

The movie poster shown at the top of this article is one of four posters that were made to promote the film. Each has different wording and slightly different drawings. Each poster promotes the movie from a different perspective. The poster shown also promotes Sturgeon's book.

There is also a board game, manufactured by a company called GemColor, that is tied to the movie and not the television show. The box has a photo of a diver with an eight-foot miniature of the Seaview.

The film has been released on VHS and DVD. Recently, models of Seaview have also begun turning up and can be located either at the show's (and Allen's) official Web site and under other sites featuring science-fiction models. A 36-inch Seaview, with lights and interior details, is top of the line.