FROM "TOPPER" TO "BOTTOM"

During the squid attack sequence in "Eleven Days To Zero" (the first episode of 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'), footage from the theatrical movie of the same name was substituted. This was obviously done as a cost-cutting measure but it does play hob with the TV Universe. That's because Robert Sterling can be seen behind the visor in two close-up shots, and not David Hedison as Lee Crane. Sterling played the role in the film.

The shots are "blink and you miss 'em" quick edits in the overall scene. I never would have noticed this had it not been for behind-the-scenes notes at TV.com and at various Irwin Allen/Voyage websites. Even so, a splainin has to be made since it is visible. And if I can freeze-frame it, anybody can.

Therefore.....

In some way before he died, George Kerby (the role played by Robert Sterling in the TV show 'Topper') knew Lee Crane. Perhaps he was a family friend, or even a second cousin. Whatever the connection, he must have taken a liking to the young man and apparently was able to check in on Lee even after George died in a Swiss avalanche with his wife Marion.
Based on several episodes which I've seen of 'Topper', I know that the Kerbys did not play by the established rules of haunting. If they had, their ghosts would have still been trapped on that mountaintop since their spirits should have remained where they died. And on several occasions, the duo traveled along with Topper and the Mrs., sometimes even going off on trips of their own.

So it's possible that every so often George Kerby could have gone to wherever Lee Crane was stationed in the Navy to check in on him and to make sure he was okay. Once he learned that Lee had been transferred to an experimental submarine run by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research and not by the government, perhaps George tagged along for the ride to the North Pole.

As a ghost, there wasn't much he could have done for Lee as he was. Sure, he moved a few things around which looked like they were floating in mid-air, much to the consternation of Cosmo Topper. But against a giant squid?

Spurred to action, George would have done the only thing that he could think of - he momentarily possessed Lee to give him the extra physical strength he needed in order to fend off the crushing grip of the tentacles until the others could help free him.

And that's why we in the real world are able to see George Kerby behind the face-mask instead of Lee Crane during those moments. As was the case when Sam Beckett leapt into the life of someone in the past on 'Quantum Leap', we can see it happen but not the others around him. And Lee had no memory of the sensation by the time he got back to the Seaview. If anything, he probably chalked it up to stress under pressure.

And that splains the recasting of Lee Crane in that episode. There was another recastaway within that same episode, and that will be a little more complicated.....

BCnU!
Toby OB