SeaQuest DSV, Season One Review Score: 7/10 | Date Posted: January 1st 2006 In: DVD Reviews Starring: Roy Scheider, Stephanie Beacham, Jonathan Brandis, Stacy Haiduk, Royce D. Applegate Directed by: Various Studio: MCA Home Video SeaQuest DSV, Season One Review by Robert Falconer | HNR Senior Editor SeaQuest DSV was one of those shows that some of us eagerly anticipated back in 1993 - a series that held tremendous promise and contained all the right ingredients: Roy Scheider as the captain of a high-tech super submarine in the year 2018; a talking dolphin named Darwin; plenty of gadgets, action, mystery and intrigue; an eye towards global conservation and science accuracy with Dr. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute serving as science advisor and technical consultant; and, of course, Steven Spielberg as executive producer. Not since Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea had there been a bona-fide underwater science fiction series offering an earth-bound - yet no less wondrous - alternative to Star Trek. Even the series' title bore a striking - some said intentional - resemblance to the Roddenberry space saga: Sea(Star) Quest (Trek). As mentioned above, all the elements for an exciting quality show were in place, yet it never quite hit the mark. The reason was writing and storytelling quality, and what appeared to be a profound lack of vision and leadership on the part of the lead producers. By the end of the first season, the series was resorting to the same cliches that had become the "camp" trademark of the aforementioned Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in the 1960s, as the producers trotted out ever more improbable scenarios, including an alien from another world who is discovered in an entombed spacecraft at the ocean's bottom (not necessarily a bad idea in and of itself, but one which doesn't quite work within the constraints of this series). Yet throughout, there are things about SeaQuest that were brilliant. The visual effects, though a bit primitive by today's standards, hold up reasonably well, largely due to the fact that most of the shots are set underwater, where the murky depths tend to mask the limitations of mid-'90s CGI technology. (As a comparison, have a look at the visual effects in Babylon 5, which was on the air at the same time, and you will see that SeaQuest holds up much better.) Moreover, Roy Scheider was perfect as Captain Nathan Hale Bridger, the original architect of the seaQuest (shades of Admiral Harriman Nelson who designed the submarine, Seaview, in Voyage are evident here) who is reluctantly lured out of retirement to command his creation in a politically fractured world increasingly dependent upon colonization of the oceans. Stephanie Beacham as Dr. Kristin Westphalen was also a wonderful choice as the ship's physician and the chemistry between her and Roy Scheider was palpable, but again underutilized. (By season two, Beacham chose to leave the show to pursue other opportunities, a significant blow to the series in the opinion of this reviewer.) Despite the show's problems, the series' first season does contain a handful of genuinely enjoyable episodes, including "The Devil's Window," "Treasure of the Mind," Knight of Shadows" (written by Star Trek: The Next Generation alumnus, Melinda Snodgrass) and "Better than Martians" (featuring Kent McCord as an astronaut and old friend of Bridger's). Speaking of guest stars, the series features a few notable appearances, including William Shatner as Tezlof, an exiled dictator with an autistic son who is attempting to return to power, and Charlton Heston as a scientist who claims to have discovered a way to create a genetically perfect human that can breathe underwater. However, the award for "most infamous guest appearance" must go to Shelly Hack (Charlie's Angels) however, who turns in a truly dreadful performance in the pilot as Bridger's nemesis, Capt. Marilyn Stark. It's utterly laughable and surely must rank as one of the most atrocious examples of miscasting in television history. Watch and you'll see what I mean. Though SeaQuest lasted three seasons (by 1995 under the name SeaQuest 2032 and the helm of Michael Ironside), the first season was arguably the best and showed the greatest potential for real story and character development. Unfortunately, despite some strong efforts, it never quite lived up to that potential, nor was it able to capture the writing quality or story sophistication of Star Trek, an observation Roy Scheider himself made during an interview with one of the trade magazines prior to his departure from the series in 1995. For fans of science fiction, or those who fondly remember the series, it's definitely worth picking up. For everyone else, the inconsistent story quality and relative lack of character development may prove a hinderance to enjoyment.

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