Fantastic Voyage (TV series) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fantastic Voyage |
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Title card
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| Genre | Science fiction |
| Directed by | Hal Sutherland |
| Voices of |
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| Composer(s) | Gordon Zahler |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 17 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
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| Distributor | Disney–ABC Domestic Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 14, 1968 – January 4, 1969 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Fantastic Voyage; Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov, a novelization of the movie |
Fantastic Voyage is an exciting American animated science fiction TV show. It's based on the famous 1966 movie about a team that shrinks down to microscopic size! This show had 17 episodes, each about half an hour long. It aired on ABC-TV on Saturday mornings from September 1968 to January 1969. The show was made by Filmation Associates and 20th Century Fox. There was even a Fantastic Voyage comic book series! Later, the show was shown again in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel from 1992 to 1996.
Contents
What is the show about?
Fantastic Voyage tells the story of a super-secret United States government group called the C.M.D.F. (which stands for Combined Miniature Defense Force). This special group had the amazing power to shrink people down to a tiny, microscopic size.
The main characters were:
- Commander Jonathan Kidd, the leader
- Erica Lane, a biologist and doctor
- Busby Birdwell, a brilliant scientist and inventor
- Guru, a mysterious person with special powers
This team would shrink down for their missions. They could only stay tiny for 12 hours at a time. They traveled in a microscopic flying submarine called the Voyager. Their job was to fight hidden enemies of freedom, whether they were criminals or even tiny germs!
Professor Carter, who managed the shrinking process, gave the team their missions. Another person, known only as "the Chief," oversaw everything. You only ever saw the Chief's shadow. The voices for the characters were done by Marvin Miller, Jane Webb, and Ted Knight.
How is it different from the movie?
The TV show changed a few things from the original movie. In the movie, the team could only stay miniaturized for 60 minutes (one hour). But in the cartoon, they had a much longer time limit of 12 hours. Also, the meaning of the CMDF name was slightly different. In the show, the "D" stood for "Defense," and it was "Combined Miniature Defense Force." In the movie, it was "Deterrent," and the group was called "Combined Miniaturized Deterrent Force."
The Voyager Submarine Model
While the TV show was being made, a company called Aurora Model Company created a plastic model kit of the Voyager submarine. This model was released just a few months before the show ended.
Because the show didn't run for very long, this model kit was only made once. This makes it one of the rarest kits from the Aurora company. Many of these kits were bought by fans to play with, so they often got lost or broken. This is another reason why they are so hard to find today.
Later, a company called Moebius Models made a new version of the Voyager kit. They used an original kit to make sure it was just like the first one. This new kit even included the special delta-shaped stand that Aurora used for its airplane models.
Episode Guide
| Episode No. | Title | Original Air Date | |
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| 1 | "The Gathering of the Team" | September 14, 1968 | |
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Professor Carter and Busby Birdwell choose the team: Jonathan Kidd, Erica Lane, and Guru. Busby also agrees to be the pilot of their ship, the Voyager. The team and their ship shrink down for a test mission inside a single drop of ocean water. An accident damages the Voyager, and the team must fix it and get back to normal size before their shrinking power wears off.
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| 2 | "The Menace from Space" | September 21, 1968 | |
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The team investigates why a rocket crew suddenly ran out of oxygen and died. They shrink down with a scientist who turns out to be an enemy spy!
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| 3 | "The Magic Crystal of Kabala" | September 28, 1968 | |
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A wizard uses a special crystal ball for evil. The CMDF team must go inside the crystal to destroy the bad magic within.
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| 4 | "The Atomic Invaders" | October 5, 1968 | |
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Strange butterflies are causing explosions at power plants. The CMDF team discovers that tiny alien creatures are behind it.
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| 5 | "The Master Spy" | October 12, 1968 | |
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A master spy named Gottfried Seneca sneaks into the CMDF. He shrinks Professor Carter and then pretends to be him to mess up the team's missions.
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| 6 | "The Mind of the Master" | October 19, 1968 | |
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Guru is badly hurt by an enemy in the Himalayas. Erica finds out his brain is damaged and the only way to help him is to go inside his mind. Another mystic is brought in, but this mystic is actually the one who attacked Guru.
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| 7 | "Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" | October 26, 1968 | |
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The team must stop tiny toys from escaping and causing trouble. Some of these toys are rubber Indians who go on the warpath!
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| 8 | "The Day the Food Disappeared" | November 2, 1968 | |
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Mysterious, fast-growing weeds are destroying crops across the country. The CMDF team finds out an enemy group called the BOAF is responsible.
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| 9 | "Revenge of the Spy" | November 9, 1968 | |
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Busby gets trapped in an enemy base, but he sends the Voyager back to headquarters. The rest of the team, along with two new experts, try to rescue him.
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| 10 | "The Hobby House" | November 16, 1968 | |
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A new test signal interferes with the CMDF's radio, causing the Voyager and its secret cargo to crash-land among the toys in Jacob's Hobby House.
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| 11 | "The Spy Satellite" | November 23, 1968 | |
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An enemy satellite can take secret pictures through solid walls. The Voyager team is sent to sabotage the satellite from the inside.
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| 12 | "First Men on the Moon" | November 30, 1968 | |
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Commissioner Upjohn's spoiled son, Alvin, visits. He takes control of the Voyager and flies the team to a fake moon used for laser testing. The adults have to rescue him when he gets in the path of a laser.
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| 13 | "The Great Busby" | December 7, 1968 | |
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Erica shrinks Busby without permission to use him as a puppet in a children's hospital show. But a jealous puppeteer steals her "puppet"!
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| 14 | "The Barnacle Bombs" | December 14, 1968 | |
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A special Navy submarine goes down into a hole underwater because of an evil professor. The Voyager team goes to find it.
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| 15 | "The Perfect Crime" | December 21, 1968 | |
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Kidd seems to betray the team by stealing Busby's new portable shrinking machine and joining a criminal mastermind named Eric Mensa.
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| 16 | "The World's Fair Affair" | December 28, 1968 | |
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Enemy agents threaten to blow up the World's Fair. The CMDF team must find and stop them among all the people at the fair before it's too late.
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| 17 | "The Most Dangerous Game" | January 4, 1969 | |
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Dangerous radioactive ore is found in an old coal mine. The crew flies into the mine to stop the whole state from getting contaminated.
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In Popular Culture
The show was made fun of in an episode of Rugrats (episode 25). In that episode, Chuckie swallows a watermelon seed, and the babies shrink down to get the seed out so it won't grow inside him!
