User Reviews

This is yet another episode featuring Ulla and her mini sub. The script writers for Flipper seemed determined to wring as many episodes out of this cool sub and the beautiful Ulla. It begins with some flirtatious bantering between Ulla and Porter. The makers of Flipper never seemed to want to explore a romance between the two; content to have them admire each other platonically. Anyhow pretty soon they are in trouble trapped in the mini sub on the ocean floor thanks to a dud propeller.

Flipper must now convince Sandy and Bud who have just come home from school to follow him out to open water. A brief aside - this was an era when kids dressed a little more formally to school and still used an old fashioned leather belt to hold their books together rather than a cool label backpack as is the norm with kids today. It's also hard to imagine a 16 year old boy living in the Florida Keys today going to school in long cotton drill pants.

Having persuaded the boys to take the launch out to the site of the sunken sub, Flipper must now convince them that the problem lies deeper than the diving depth Sandy is comfortable diving to. He admits to some 'rapture of the deep' at 150 feet but the sub is deeper still and not within sight. Flipper finds a portion of the broken propeller to bring to the boys and they quickly deduce what has happened. Sandy is taken even deeper by Flipper to find the sub. Having been certified as a scuba diver, I can tell you that coming back up from such depths without getting the bends requires a few safety stops while ascending even more so considering that Sandy already had done a 150 foot quick dive with no safety stops and made the second dive within a few minutes. Even someone young, fit and experienced at scuba diving as Luke Halpin was by the time of this episode, such stops are imperative. The producers finally give heed to diving safety by having Flipper take the cable down with Sandy only descending to a safe depth on his third dive. Also the supposed deep water shots were in reality filmed near the surface because the surface is visible.

Technical details aside, its awesome to see the boys rescuing their Dad and maintaining their cool as they go about the task. Sandy immediately radios for the Coast Guard helicopter and assertively overrides their suggestion to go back for a diver by instructing the cable be lowered without delay. Bud knows another deep dive by Sandy is risky but Sandy seems prepared to risk the bends to save his father's life. Its just as well that Flipper could attach the cable and finally the boys are elated to see the sub surface. Sandy shows very mature leadership under pressure.