Oh, the dialog on this show

Aside from the goofy monsters, one of the charms of this show was the sometimes ridiculous dialog on the show. It makes you wonder how many times Basehart must have looked at a script and said, "Oh my God!" Here is one moment from the episode "Werewolf" where he's talking to a professor played by Charles Aidman:

Nelson: [Admiral Nelson, Captain Crane and Professor Hollis are discussing what they should do about the radioactive volcano on the island] There's a first time for everything. We've got to try to blow out a volcano before it blows itself out.

Hollis: Blow it out?

Nelson: You know, the way you try to blow out an oil fire, only on a much bigger scale.

Hollis: It can't be done. A volcano is not an oil well fire, Admiral.

Nelson: I know that, but we're hoping the the radioactivity inside the volcano will blow itself out, if we trigger it with our devices.

Hollis: What difference does it make if the volcano blows itself or you blow it out?

Nelson: We're not going to blow it out, we're gonna blow it in.

Nelson: [On handset] Missile room, prepare torpedoes tubes 1, 2, 3, and 4 for firing. Implosion warheads, set fuses for 0600.

Hollis: What is an implosive warhead?

Nelson: Well, it creates a vacuum by exploding inward, it creates an implosive chain reaction.

Hollis: Has such a device ever been used on a volcano?

Nelson: No, but there's nothing we can lose by trying.


Most of what Nelson says is absurd, like an implosve warhead that "creates a vacuum by exploding inward, it creates an implosive chain reaction". We also learn that if you explode a bomb in thee presence of radioactive lave that it will somehow stop an erupting volcano. The other thing I like about that exchange is that it's almost as if Prof. Hollis is trying to point out that Nelson isn't making any sense.


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And another thing - Nelson never seemed to figure out the difference between a missile and torpedo.