If you look at TV series in general, the vast majority of them are not about the military. So why shouldn't there be more SF shows that aren't about the military? Not every big government project in history has been a military one. Consider the TVA or the creation of the interstate highway system, say. Okay, those involved the Army Corps of Engineers, but it wasn't about shooting and fighting. There are times when the government is willing to invest major funding and resources in things other than warfare. That hasn't been the case much since the Reagan era, but the political pendulum's bound to swing back eventually. We'll need a major investment in science if we're to survive climate change, and developing undersea colonization or food production, sustainably of course, could be an important way to do that. So I have to disagree -- it's very plausible to me that we could see a major investment in the scientific study and development of the ocean depths over the next century. There might very well have to be.
In the Interstate Highway System, you picked a pretty bad example of a large-scale project undertaken without consideration of its enormous military applications, particularly in relation to the logistics of national defense.
Well, I've driven on the interstate highway system a lot and I've never seen a tank. There's more to life than the military.
The interstate highway system was justified by military necessity. In a way, it was probably a ruse, but that didn't mean that it would have been build without the internal defense argument.
The point is, even military projects don't necessarily entail getting into gun battles and spilling blood. Even if the research project did have some military underwriting, that doesn't mean the show would have to be about military action and combat. A lot of what the military does is peaceful, constructive, even scientific. I think there are more than enough sci-fi shows about future wars and ray guns and death and violence. I want to see more science fiction that's actually about science.
The last thing we need is another flag-toting military show where fascist spying laws and chemical torture prove to save us from the evil brown men. I'd much rather watch Submarine Star Trek than Submarine 24. And I can't imagine any military show nowadays not being about terrorism, and not approaching the subject by marrying patriotism to torture and spying.
No one said that every episode of Seaquest reboot would need to be military shooting, but the military would have to play an important part if you want to keep the show interesting and realistic.
Why? What's so interesting about the military? I find civilians plenty interesting. And, as I said, I think they're underrepresented in SFTV as it is.