a5c7b9f00b In the early 21st century, mankind has colonized the oceans. The United Earth Oceans Organization enlists Captain Nathan Bridger and the submarine seaQuest DSV to keep the peace and explore the last frontier on Earth. By the mid-21st Century, humankind has colonized the oceans and formed the UEO–the United Earth Oceans–as a military organization to police it. Formerly a high-ranking member of the UEO, Nathan Bridger retired after the death of his wife, and retreated to an isolated island to study dolphins. An attempt is made to hijack the Seaquest DSV, the UEO&#39;s most powerful undersea vessel, and Nathan–its original designer–is convinced to return to active service, to assume command of it. His second in command is Cmdr. Jonathan Ford. In second season, the DSV added Dagwood, a prototype GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form), Tony Piccolo, a man with surgically implanted gills, and Dr. Wendy Smith, a telepath/empath, to its crew of specialists. The series has New Age leanings, often presenting stories that deal with environmental issues or mix myth and mysticism–from ghosts to &quot;gods&quot;–into its science fiction. I disagree with what seems to be a majority of other reviewers that this show goes downhill after Season 1. If anything I feel it improvesit goes along, though admittedly NEVER achieves what definitely SHOULD have been perfection given the quality of talent this show had both behind and in front of the cameras. If you enjoy creative science fiction, you will enjoy SEA QUEST, and I believe you will find the 2nd season to be the best of the 3. The stories are creative and it is both very well acted and well written. Character development is sadly lacking though, which I think is the fatal flaw of SEA QUEST. Definitely NOT on a par with STAR TREK VOYAGER here. You find yourself wishing a lot of things happened which never do especially in terms of crew interaction. SEAQUEST also tries to do far too much in its time frame. It seems like nearly every show involves a near end of the universe which SEAQUEST must somehow defuse within 45 minutes. <br/><br/>So, in a nutshell:<br/><br/>ON THE PLUS SIDE:<br/><br/>1: ROY SCHEIDER - the man is always fun to watch, and SEAQUEST pays a few subtle homages to the JAWS legacy along the way…<br/><br/>2: A very young (18) BRITTANY MURPHY shows up cutea button near the end of Season 3. <br/><br/>3: For those who like dolphins, DARWIN is a treat. <br/><br/>4: Stories are creative, more so starting in Season 2.<br/><br/>SHORTCOMINGS:<br/><br/>1: Not enough character development, too busy trying to save the world <br/><br/>2: Too many plodding exterior underwater shots of the vessels<br/><br/>3: Theme music is a snooze - they could have used a ditty by Selena Gomez <br/><br/>4: The series ends justit seems to be hitting its stride - typical network shortsightedness - I suppose NFL NBA and NASCAR are more important. <br/><br/>5: Not enough eye candy - the female cast members are attractive, but not used to their full potential (no bikinis sad to say), and attractive guest stars are few and far between. <br/><br/>6: Other than Darwin the dolphin star, there is almost no other sea life in the show. <br/><br/>7: The whole Mark Hamill storyline really is remarkably annoying. SPOILER HERE, STOP NOW IF YOU CARE: This show actually starts out in 2022 for the first season and then somewhere along the line Luke Skywalker shows up and kidnaps the whole ship in a big UFO to another planet to win some pointless war, then returns it 10 years in the future. This premise of a UFO snatching up the whole ship and whisking it away to another planet HAD a lot of potential, but in the end just squandered its special effects budget on a silly pointless story. Plus, Mark Hamill is one of the most overrated actors of all time. Seriously, if not for STAR WARS he&#39;d be selling knives on 4am infomercials. <br/><br/>8: DEUS EX MACHINA happens FAR too often in this show. <br/><br/>All in all though, well worth watching. I&#39;ve sat through far worse. The sad tale of seaQuest DSV should forevermore be inscribed into a producer&#39;s guide of &quot;what not to do&quot; to a TV series.<br/><br/>The first season was hands-down one of the greatest seasons of sci-fi adventure television ever. The premise, the characters, the writing, the acting, the production design, and even one of the most inspiring opening themes ever…<br/><br/>I was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in many respects the first season of seaQuest DSV, airing opposite TNG&#39;s seventh season, was a more interesting show. It succeeded by not copying the Trek science fiction formula, but by complementing it, with a mythology grounded more in science fact than fiction. The series just exuded the feel of smart television, whether that feeling came from the subtle nods to current scientific research coming true or the almost Sorkinesque highbrow dialogue or Dr. Rob Ballard&#39;s involvementa consultant.<br/><br/>And then, well, to adapt a common internetism, the show &quot;triple backflipped over the shark.&quot;<br/><br/>Perhaps the one in the opening credits.<br/><br/>All of a sudden, four of the more interesting characters (those played by Applegate, Beacham, D&#39;Aquino and Haiduk) vanished into thin air. The remaining cast were neutered to shells of their former selves. The show took a nosedivefarplotting was concerned, and instead of thoughtful stories about real issues we got pulp culled from the worst of the worst of cruddy science fiction. Psychics! Laser guns! Time travel! Plants taking over the sub! Gigantic Crocodiles! Evil Aliens™! Genetically-engineered slave warriors in skimpy wetsuits!<br/><br/>Wherever the show could have stunk, it did. NBC, still no doubt rather proud of the fact that they&#39;d cancelled Star Trek twenty-five years earlier, wanted silly lowest-common denominator sci-fi to grab an even bigger share of the ratings. Unfortunately for NBC,the ratings attested, even the lowest common demoninator of Americana really had no wish to have to endure an hour of second season sQ DSV.<br/><br/>There is some online opinion that show redeemed itself in its third season, although I personally feel that &quot;seaQuest 2032&quot; was no less odious than the year that had preceded it. After pushing the magic reset buttonhardthey could following the events of the second-season cliffhanger finale, the writers essentially remade the show, turfing Scheider and any pretext that they&#39;d attempt to tell smart television ever again. The show became a hammily-acted excuse of a drama, ditching the wide-eyed wonder of the first season and turning it into a geekfest of underwater shoot-em-ups with an evil bunch of pseudo-Australian pseudo-Fascists wrapped in a coat of paper-thin political intrigue™. Now more of an underwater Babylon 5 (and even that&#39;s being too kind) than an underwater Star Trek, I cried few tears when NBC put the show out of its misery.<br/><br/>So, for all you wanna-be producers out there, a few lessons: (1) If a show is smart and popular, consider the fact that making it dumb will probably make it unpopular. (2) Never, ever toss aside characters for no reason other than to get people who&#39;d look better in a wetsuit. (3) I&#39;ll take a talking dolphin over a bald tattooed version of Forrest Gump anyday. (4) Despite what your polling data may tell you, submarine fighters are not cool. (5) If a friggin&#39; genius like Rob Ballard has agreed to work on your show, you&#39;re doing something right. If said friggin&#39; genius leaves your show and you replace him with Michael deLuise attempting to read fascinating facts about penguins off a teleprompter, you&#39;re doing something wrong.
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364 weeks ago