ORBzine SeaQuest DSV March 1999

When Dianne Duane was a Guest at a recent UK SF Convention, she was asked about her work on the novelisation of SeaQuest DSV. She and her husband (author Peter Morwood ) informed the audience that while they worked on that particular adaptation they flinched every time the fax machine beeped - because they knew it would be yet MORE rewrites for them to do! Believe it or not, that happened to them eight times a day for over two weeks!

When the show and the novelisation were eventually released, Dianne and Peter were often told how disjointed the script was, and how superior their version was - and little wonder, with so many rewrites and revisions to the original!

This pretty much sums up DSV - a show with no clear-cut concept behind it, no real idea of what it was or where it was going (until the 3rd Season, when it was cancelled half-way through).

The cast changed regularly - Stephanie Beecham dropped out after Season 1, and Roy Scheider only popped up a couple of times in Season 3. However, the actors who stayed around helped make the show worth watching. Pretty-boy Jonathan Brandis and the nerdish Ted Raimi had a certain charm - a pity the former has disappeared from our screens, while the latter is now known to fans of Xena: Warrior Princess as Joxer the Mighty.

Michael Ironside's role in Season 3 was typical of the typecasting he suffered - one only has to look at Starship Troopers to see how he made a career out of it.

The guest-stars became even more impressive in the final Season. In Season 2 we saw Mark Hamill, last seen in Wing Commander games - but Season 3 actually had Michael York as a recurring villain!

However, even with all the changes made in the 3rd Season, the series was still cancelled. That is a shame, especially when one considers the success of the vastly inferior Star Trek: Voyager series - but the legacy of SeaQuest's bumpy take-off was enough to drag it under, even at the end.

Season 1 (1993)

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 1] The Devil's Window
Shown 19 Sep 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 2] Treasure of the Mind
Shown 26 Sep 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 3] Games
Shown 3 Oct 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 4] Treasures of the Tonga Trench
Shown 9 Oct 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 5] Brothers and Sisters
Shown 17 Oct 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 6] Give Me Liberte
Shown 24 Oct 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 7] Knight of Shadows
Shown 31 Oct 93

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 8] Bad Water
Shown 7 Nov 93

SeaQuest DSV [Season 1, Episode 9] The Regulator
Shown Nov 1993
Reviewed September 2000

For a Rockne S. O'Bannon show, this is surprisingly good. Of course, anyone who has seen Farscape lately will not be surprised at all.

The episode starts when the crew discover one of the thermal regulator chips has blown out. This is a good excuse to show Stacey Haiduk in a skimpy, sweaty vest - even though the Captain is apparently unaffected by the heat. He orders that the crew evacuate the deck and double-bunk. Even the Captain has to let Lucas (Johnathan Brandis) bunk up with him.

The officers are desperate to get a replacement component. There is a nice piece of satire when they vid-phone the supply depot's Customer Service department. Instead they have to resort to a black-market salvage dealer called The Regulator. When he was a teenage genius, like Lucas, he developed a liquid-based aqualung - like the one used in The Abyss. In fact, at the end of the episode the technical advisor (Dr Bob Ballard) tells us that in RL experiments, one man breathed liquid for 45 minutes!

Stephanie Beecham pops up briefly.

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 10] seaWest
Shown Nov 1993
Reviewed 12th May 2001 [Saturday]

SeaQuest is called to an underwater mining colony run by an unruly Aussie played by David McCallum (Man From UNCLE). McCallum is a bully who pushes around poor unfortunate miner David Morse ( Green Mile ), who must be ten inches taller and ten years younger!

Stacey Haiduk goes undercover as a sexy lounge singer, and we get a happy ending. SeaQuest removes Democracy and restores Capitalist Oppression.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 1, Episode 11] Photon Bullet
Shown 19 Dec 93

Tim Russ ( Star Trek: VGR ) is a retro 1970s hacker dude with a dodgy pencil moustache. He recruits teenage hackers to help work on his Internex - they can chat with avatars, using voice-activated computers. Seth Green ( Buffy ) is another hacker, whom Lucas befriends. Of course, he is never seen again.

Lucas impresses everyone by playing 3-D Tetris. Of course, voting and banking are all done online. The plan is to use insanely powerful computers (user-interfaces!) to Make the world better. The morals are silly - SeaQuest is military, and its crew are killers.

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 12] Better than Martians
Shown Jan 1994
Reviewed First Week, October 2000

The world is overjoyed with the success of the first manned mission to Mars. Meanwhile, Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) and Stephanie Beecham go SCUBA diving with Darwin the Dolphin. Bridger hates futurists, as he calls them - those who want to explore space instead of the oceans.

However, something goes wrong during the astronauts' re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Bridger's boss (Richard Herd - V ) is ordered by the US President (an African-American) to recover the pod. Meanwhile the local ruler, the Montanyard President, orders his General (Aki Aleong - V ) to rescue the astronauts before Seaquest does.

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 13] Nothing But the Truth
Shown 9 Jan 94

SeaQuest has a skeleton crew. There is tension between D'Aquino and Franklin.

SWAT thugs hijack it - very stupid! The Government refuses to enforce its own laws against pollution. The Leader is an ex-UEO environmental officer, and Tim Kelleher ( Dark Skies ) is the nerd.

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 14] Greed for a Pirate's Dream
Shown 16 Jan 94

Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) is away - again. Stephanie Beecham gets Bridger's lines.

David Marciano and a crew get Magma Run. They dig for buried treasure, Bonet's treasure - the crown jewels of France, and Francis Bacon's plates. A buoy survives the Magma and they take it home.

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 15] Whale Song
Shown
Reviewed Third Week, October 2000

Richard Herd ( V ) calls Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) to the Pentagon. Several UEO-allied ships (albeit illegal whalers) were blown out of the water by a submarine somewhere called the Irish Ocean, and Bridger is ordered to hunt down and destroy the vigilante. Further hypocrisy is blatant: beef is banned on the Seaquest, although the Generals at the Pentagon eat it all the time.

Seaquest is a search & rescue sub, but the Pentagon insists it is used as a hunter-killer in this mission. Yes, the US Navy has no killer subs of its own!!!

The vigilante is played by veteran bad-guy actor Johnathan Banks, though here he is given a quite sympathetic character. Of note, there is a cameo by Peter Deluise - who became a series regular in Season 2. Also, to put things in time perspective there is a reference to Bill Clinton's 72nd birthday.

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 16] The Stinger
Shown 20 Feb 94

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 17] Hide and Seek
Shown 27 Feb 94

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 18] The Last Lap At Luxury
Shown March 1994
Reviewed Third Week, October 2000

The UEO top bureaucrats attend a top-level conference at a newly-opened underwater hotel resort. SeaQuest is on-site for security, and Lucas is guest-speaker at the conference. However, the bureaucrats mysteriously vanish - the only one who does not suspects it is the work of terrorists, and tries to put the UEO under martial law.

Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) and his boss (Richard Herd) organise a cover-up that would make the Russian Navy green with envy. Ted Raimi's character is good at CGI, which comes in very useful.

Was the idea of a change in UEO management a bad thing? The UEO is a pretty corrupt organisation - look at the Pentagon's treatment of its own rules about Beef and whale-hunting in a previous episode. Also, bear in mind that the third Season (set 25 years in the future) is set after the UEO collapsed and the world fell into anarchy ...

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 19] Abalon
Shown 1 May 94

Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) sends token black guy Commander Ford to the bottom of the sea, testing a pressurized suit for work at extreme depths. The TBG thinks he sees a woman who can swim without a pressure suit or oxygen supply. Bridger assumes the TBG is suffering from pressure-induced psychosis, and gives him some shore leave. TBG heads to the nearest bar, and hopes the mermaid will walk in.

By incredible coincidence, the Little Mermaid swims ashore nearby to explore the world above. She goes into exactly the same bar as the TBG.

Rob Youngblood ( Space Precinct ) and another Merman pop up to retrieve the Little Mermaid. They have an anachronistic victorian-looking submarine, but instead of working for Captain Nemo they serve Abalon (Charlton Heston - ) - a scientist who has abandoned the ways of the surface world, but made incredible scientific advances of his own.

The episode's B-story is about Lucas ( ). Like Commander Ford he gets some shore leave and goes after a girl. In this case, he attends a conference on the phenomena of post-adolescence. In fact, the conference is more of a biology practical - a party for tweenage nerds. This is Lucas's big chance to lose his virginity. A girl he likes apparently likes him too, and she will be there. The question is is Lucas ready? Like in As Good As It Gets, when Jack Nicholson's character (a middle-aged man) is told by his love interest you're not ready. Whatever that means.

seaQuest [Season 1, Episode 20] Such Great Patience
Shown 8 May 94

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 21] The Good Death
Shown March 1994
Reviewed Fourth Week, October 2000

At the request of the Amazonia Confederation, a South American ally of the UEO, SeaQuest intercepts a hostile submarine. It turns out that the sub is filled with refugee street children who have been rescued by Dr Westphalen's daughter.

El Generalissimo (Luis Guzman - Bone Collector) demands that the kids be returned to his country. When Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) refuses, Guzman has his ships attack the minisub with the kids aboard, along with Stephanie Beacham, the token black guy and the token Oriental. The survivors sneak ashore and hide in the shanty town, but the police find their SCUBA gear and Guzman thinks Bridger sent a hit team.

The Oriental has a Chinese name, but states that his Grandfather was one of the Vietnamese boat people. Luckily for the others he is a martial arts expert and was raised in the country they are trapped in.

This episode simplifies an issue like the street children of Brazil. The children are the result of overpopulation, and they are the main cause of most street or petty crime in the country.

Seaquest [Season 1, Episode 22] Higher Power
Shown March 1994
Reviewed Fourth Week, October 2000

The SeaQuest is in Australia, and the day has been declared a national holiday to celebrate the opening of an underwater power plant run by Lucas' father. The SeaQuest crew get some much-deserved shore leave. Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) gambles with a pal of his, the Captain of an aircraft carrier, on the outcome of a game of beach volleyball between the two crews. Unfortunately we do not get to see Stacy Haiduk in a skimpy bikini, but you can't have anything - err, everything. Whatever.

As you can guess, something goes wrong at the power plant and the SeaQuest has to go in and save the day.

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2nd Season 1994

Seaquest [Season 2, Episode 1] Daggers Part I
Shown
Reviewed Fourth Week, October 2000

Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) is back on the Seaquest, with orders to take the sub out on a shakedown cruise. Lucas and the token black guy are still aboard, as is Ted Raimi. However, Stephanie Beecham has been replaced by a telekinetic doc chick. Stacy Haiduk 's replacement is Kathy Evison , a young woman who has brought Addison - her teddy-bear mascot whom she puts on top of her console for luck!

There are a couple of new crewmen, too. Michael DeLuise plays Piccolo, a physically modified convict who has been assigned to the Sub as an Ensign. Peter DeLuise plays Dagwood, a Genetically Engineered Life Form (GELF) who also becomes part of the crew.

While the main plot introduces the main cast, the B-story is about Dagwood's people. A colony of GELFs (actually a prison camp run by the UEO) revolts and holds the guards hostage. This sets things up for the second episode, which is SeaQuest's intervention.

seaQuest [Season 2, Episode ]
Shown
Reviewed 3rd May 2001 [Thursday]

This episode rips off the movie Sphere.

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18 Sep 94
Daggers (2)

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25 Sep 94
The Fear That Follows

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 2 Oct 94
Sympathy for the Deep

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 9 Oct 94
Vapors

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23 Oct 94
Playtime

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13 Nov 94
The Sincerest Form of Flattery

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20 Nov 94
By Any Other Name

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27 Nov 94
When We Dead Awaken

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11 Dec 94
Special Delivery

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18 Dec 94
Dead End

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 8 Jan 95
Meltdown

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15 Jan 95
Lostland

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22 Jan 95
And Everthing Nice

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19 Feb 95
Dream Weaver

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26 Feb 95
Alone

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 5 Mar 95
Watergate

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19 Mar 95
Something in the Air

seaQuest [Season 2, Episode 19] Dagger Redux
Shown April 1995
Reviewed 4th May 2001 [Friday]

Terminators with anti-tank handguns rescue the Dagger babe (who in RL married Kevin Sorbo - Hercules: The Legendary Journeys ). She teams up with a former child-prodigy who wants to eliminate SeaQuest so he can mine a mineral named trilium.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 2, Episode 20] The Siamese Dream
Shown 30 Apr 95

seaQuest [Season 2, Episode 21] Splashdown
shown May 1995
Reviewed Feb 1999 [saturday & sunday, ITV]
Reviewed 9th May 2001 [Wednesday]

In the prologue we see Mark Hamill as a shape-changing alien. Then the sub gets abducted by aliens, to fight on a waterworld ...

Season 2 came to a fiery double-episode conclusion. Notable were the presence of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The other guest star is Kent McCord, who reprises his role from Season 1.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 2, Episode 22] Blindsided
Shown 13 Sep 95

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Season 3 - 1995 (seaQuest 2032)

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 1] Brave New World
shown
Reviewed Feb 1999 [sunday, ITV]

Season 3 arrived - the submarine is now captained by Oliver Hudson (Michael Ironside - V: The Series, ). There is actually an attempt at a story arc this time; Hudson's mission is to generally make life difficult for Michael York's evil empire.

Ironside put on weight before he made this series - he certainly seems to be bulkier than when he went one on one with Schwartzenegger in Total Recall.

He lost weight in Starship Troopers - well, he lost limbs, anyway. :)

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27 Sep 95
In the Company of Ice and Profit

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11 Oct 95
Smoke on the Water

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18 Oct 95
Destination Terminal

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 5] Chains of Command
shown 1 Nov 95

The UEO nukes Macronesia (the Philippines) from a secret base in the Marianas trench. This was the First-Strike option, which makes the UEO untrustworthy. A Brock Peters type plays the Colonel Kurtz character. His second-in-command is a Latino babe, like someone in a James Cameron Film.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 6] SpinDrift
shown 8 Nov 95

The babe is arrested and sentenced by Macronesia. Michael York is evil for no reason. A token good Macronesian sacrifices himself for her. He does not even get to have sex with her.

seaQuest [Season 3, Episode 7] Equilibrium
Shown
Reviewed 30th May 2001 [Wednesday]

Seaquest discovers an area that has been infected with a biological organism that kills all marine life. It turns out that the organism was created by Seaquest twelve years previously. A fleet of Environmentalist submarines prevents SeaQuest from interfering further - and the Environmentalists are led by Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) )! The real conflict is not between the Captains, Bridger and Hudson, but between the scientists - Bridger and Lucas.

It turns out that having a submarine with bio-skin was not a good idea. We finally get to meet SeaQuest's medical officer, an African-American woman.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 8] Resurrection
shown Dec 1995
Reviewed 19th Feb 1999 [Friday]

Jonathan Banks turns up to reprise his role from Season 1.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 9] Good Soldiers
Shown 20 Dec 95

A scientist confesses that one of his secret labs was not destroyed. Now the island it is on has been handed over to Macronesia, and the UEO must destroy the proof before the Macronesians can locate and weaponise it. Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider - Jaws (1975) ) is put in charge of the mission.

Once the SeaQuest has gotten him to the island, Bridger takes a mini-sub to the secret underwater entrance. His Away team is Lucas (Jonathan Brandis), Ford and Dagwood the big Gelf. It turns out that Ford used to be a guard there, while the big Gelf was one of the inmates. Yes, the lab was used for medical research on genetically modified subjects.

This is a nice allegory for historical atrocities, as Ford has to come to terms with the inhumanity that he was formerly a part of. Racism is also touched upon, as Dagwood turns against his pale-skinned friends. The Gelfs are visibly distinct from regular humans, because of their camouflage-impregnated skin, and now that difference in skin colour is all Dagwood can see. He associates all humans with the mis-deeds of a few. The moral being that identity politics is a bad thing.

Michael Ironside ( V: The Series ) is left in charge of the SeaQuest itself. Unfortunately the massive submarine is hard to conceal against Macronesian probes, so he must use whatever he can to prevent discover. After all, by illegally crossing an international border they have committed an act of war.

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 10] Second Chance
shown
Reviewed 6th March 1999 [Saturday]

This is the obligatory Time Travel episode - last season the DSV was travelling to the stars with Mark Skywalker Hamill, and this time it's going back to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The only thing about this episode that really stands out (apart from the main storyline, which is the kind of thing this Season was meant to be AVOIDING) is the final scene - where Pretty-Boy Brandis meets up with his 1960s GF (now an OAP at a retirement home). Something about this scene, the romance with overtones of lost youth, made this reviewer think of the Gloria Stuart scenes in Titanic - themselves based on Somewhere in Time .

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 11] Brainlock
Shown 12 Jan 96

The UEO charter is up for renewal. Michael York wants to remove the UEO. Hudson and the MegaCorp CEO are now on the same side.

The babe Evison teaches Piccolo to read - he is dyslexic.

This story is set after the trans-pacific railway episode. There are recurring villains, plot arcs and even some character development!

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 12] Reunion
Shown 28 Jan 96

SeaQuest DSV [Season 3, Episode 13 - Finale] Weapons of War
shown
Reviewed 7th March 1999 [Sunday]

This week's episode is centred around Ted Raimi - it has to be said, he deserved a better fate than becoming Joxer the Mighty.

Our Joxer, like poor Willow in Buffy [Season 1] , is foolish enough to indulge in an on-line relationship. Shock, horror!

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