Deep Trouble

Deep Trouble is the nineteenth book in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. It also has a sequel, the fifty-eighth book, Deep Trouble II.

Plot
Siblings Billy and Sheena Deep are spending their summer vacation on the Caribbean island of Ilandra with their uncle named Dr. Deep; he goes simply by Dr. D. Dr. D's assistant, a muscular graduate student named Alexander DuBrow, serves up lunch to the kids: chicken salad sandwiches.

Only his cooking's terrible so Dr. D offers to grill some fish for dinner. Billy overhears a private conversation between Dr. D and representatives for the Marina Zoo. The zoo crew wants Dr. D to find and trap a mermaid that has been reported in the area. The zoo offers Dr. D the princely sum of one million dollars.

Billy is too excited to sleep so he goes out early to search for the mermaid. Billy's night swimming is suddenly interrupted by a hammerhead shark that almost kills him. Fortunately, the mermaid comes and attacks the shark, saving Billy's life. Dr. D nets up both Billy and the mermaid and drags them onto the deck of the ship. Billy tries to argue that the mermaid saved his life, but the mermaid is put into a large glass tank on the deck until the zoo crew arrives. Billy is enjoying dreams of Sea People when his slumber is interrupted by the sound of crashes and a splash. Above deck he discovers the mermaid is in the process of being kidnapped! The men brutally toss Billy into the tank. Billy starts yelling for Alexander, as Dr. D is knocked out on the floor and Sheena is offering no help against the four burly men. Finally Alexander does show up, only to side with the thugs.

The thugs toss Sheena and Dr. D into the tank, lock it, and then throw it into the water. The top of the tank is meshed, so the three characters inside the tank fight to break the locks before the tank submerges completely underwater. As they struggle, the "kidnappers" and Alexander speed off, mermaid in tow. Just when things look their worst, a myriad of mermaids appear and hoist the tank above the water level. Dr. D and the kids break open the latches and escape to the dinghy. As the other mermaids rescue her, the thugs attempt to set fire to Dr. D's dinghy. The mermaid is set free. Billy sneaks out by the coral again in hopes of catching the mermaid to say goodbye.

In a Goosebumps twist: When Billy is searching for the mermaid, he is attacked by a sea monster which he encountered in the beginning of the novel.

Collector's Edition
After Scholastic made Creep from the Deep, they made a remake of the Deep Trouble novel. It released on March 2008. The book has special features in the back, and also has a raised cover. Though, the remake's cover looks almost identical to the original one.

Sequels
Its two sequels are Deep Trouble II and Creep from the Deep.

TV episode Trivia

 * Jason McSkimming, who played a mutant, would later star in an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? called The Tale of the Last Dance about a mutant, in the role of the mutant's rival.


 * The green fish man is wearing the exact same costume as the fish person from "Shocker on Shock Street".


 * In the books, Billy is 12 and Sheena is 10. However, in this episode and its predecessor, Sheena appears to be the same age as Billy, possibly even older.


 * This episode retains very little from the book, even using some of the plot from "Deep Trouble II".
 * When Billy calls Sheena "Sheena Of The Jungle", he is refering to the movie Sheena--about A girl named Sheena whose parents were killed in the Safari. Sheena was raised by a mystical witch woman of an African tribe.