For other uses of Trapped In the Depths see Trapped In The Depths (Disambiguation)
Trapped in the Depths was the 20th produced, and broadcast, episode of the British television series Supercar.
Plot[]
It's Supercar to the rescue, when two men are trapped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean aboard their disabled bathyscaphe...
Synopsis[]
The World Navy have got themselves a new bathyscaphe. Its mission is to explore the vast depths of the ocean.
Off the coast of New Zealand, the U.S.S Mistral has begun to lower the bathyscaphe, Lu-1 - and its two-man crew, Commander Phil Keefe and John Fraser - into the sea....
Suddenly - at 3500 fathoms - the lowering cable breaks! Now out of control, Lu-1 plummets down to the sea-floor. With the phone-line dead, Keefe and Frazer send faint Asdic signals...
Far away, at a certain secret base in Nevada, Supercar has been fitted with a new Sonic Gun; and Mike and Dr. Beaker are preparing to test it for the first time. For a target, Dr. Beaker places a coconut on a glass bottle, and Mike begins his count-down. But then Mitch enters the room and, eying that coconut, decides he wants it! It's only by sheer luck that he somehow manages to jump clear in time, for Mike - unaware of the chimp's presence - has just fired! Nor does he miss - for both bottle and coconut are destroyed, thus concluding a successful, if rather harrowing, test...
LU-1 Bathyscaphe
Elsewhere, aboard the stranded Lu-1, Keefe and Fraser are trying to shed some of the bathyscaphe's weight, in order to get it to float upward. They jettison the ballast and the main batteries, but to no avail; Fraser believes they’re either jammed between rocks, or Lu-1 is flooded with water...
By now - having learned about Lu-1's peril - Supercar, with Mike and Dr. Beaker aboard, has reached the New Zealand coast. Submerging, the Marvel of the Age follows the lowering cable down into the sea-depths, in the hope that doing so will lead to the stricken bathyscaphe...
They reach the severed end of the cable - and find it has been bitten through. Who - or what - did the biting? None other than a huge deep-sea fish monster, now heading towards them! Mike brings the Sonic Gun into play, and Supercar manages to escape safely...
The interrupted descent resumes, and - finally - Lu-1 appears! Fraser's earlier assessment of the situation has proved correct: Lu-1 is indeed lodged between some rocks. Using Supercar, Mike tries to carefully nudge the trapped bathyscaphe free - and his efforts at last meet with success, as Lu-1 begins its ascent towards the sea-surface, and safety.
Cast[]
Regular Cast[]
(Graydon Gould)
(Sylvia Anderson)
(George Mercell)
(David Graham)
Guest Cast[]
(George Murcell)
(Graydon Gould)
Notes[]
- As a name for underwater radar apparatus, Asdic (anti-submarine detection investigation committee) was superseded by Sonar (sound navigation and ranging), in 1963.
Continuity[]
- Everyone refers to the bathyscaphe as "Lu-Lu" despite the fact that the side of the bathyscaphe only says Lu-1.
- When Mike's talking to the crew of Lu-1, he refers to John Fraser as the Commander (it's really Phil Keefe, however).
- Professor Popkiss gives the pressure at 4,000 feet as 10,000 psi (pounds per square inch), but the pressure at this depth is actually about 1,797 psi. In any case, Mike needs to know the pressure at 4,000 fathoms (24,000 feet), which is about 10,706 psi.