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'SeaQuest DSV' the underwater competitor to TNG

Seaquest in the first season could do somewhere near 200 mph. It's directly mentioned in one of the episodes. That's definitely quite speedy. :D According to Wikipedia it was 160 knots or 295 km/h.
 
bullethead said:
Cyke101 said:
Oh, I forgot a rather blatant one: in the third season, seaQuest was upgraded with a turbo engine capable of speeds extremely higher than its normal cruising speed. It operated not unlike warp drive (the fins even moved to facilitate the change, kind of like Voyager's nacelles). I suppose the show was sick and tired of the fact that submarines are slow vessels.
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Actually, I recall seaQuest cruising around at speeds that make real subs look slow. The turbo thing would be the equivalent to flank speed on modern boats.
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But in the 3rd season, they would consistently travel large gulfs of the world in rather short amounts of time 200mph is still slow when compared to the size of the planet.

However, this turbo thing was used to catch up to an innovative, state-of-the-art high speed monorail, which was already going faster than most other forms of travel. I don't have hard numbers, but it was definitely faster than 200mph.
 
I watched the first season when it originally aired and really enjoyed it, but I quickly lost interest in the second season. I became interested in Star Trek and Seaquest at about the same time. Seaquest didn't make it.
 
Cyke101 said:
bullethead said:
Cyke101 said:
Oh, I forgot a rather blatant one: in the third season, seaQuest was upgraded with a turbo engine capable of speeds extremely higher than its normal cruising speed. It operated not unlike warp drive (the fins even moved to facilitate the change, kind of like Voyager's nacelles). I suppose the show was sick and tired of the fact that submarines are slow vessels.
Click to expand...
Actually, I recall seaQuest cruising around at speeds that make real subs look slow. The turbo thing would be the equivalent to flank speed on modern boats.
Click to expand...

But in the 3rd season, they would consistently travel large gulfs of the world in rather short amounts of time 200mph is still slow when compared to the size of the planet.

However, this turbo thing was used to catch up to an innovative, state-of-the-art high speed monorail, which was already going faster than most other forms of travel. I don't have hard numbers, but it was definitely faster than 200mph.
Click to expand...

Maybe it was some sort of Supercavitation modification:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation & http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/gear_supercavitation.html
 
<<A battle between the seaQuest and an automated submarine in Season 2 played out like your usual TNG battle. Some fancy maneuvering, a beautiful but slow shot of a vessel cruising, firing one sustained energy attack, and much of the additional action happening via dialogue rather than on-screen special FX.>>

Firing energy weapons? Underwater?
 
This thread has got me streaming Season 3 of SeaQuest on Netflix now. The SFX are really bad. Show was definitely made before it's time. :lol:
 
I recently watched the episode with the supersonic underwater monorail in its vacuum tunnel. Hmmmmm. :D :D :D Towards the end they used the sea as a "cushion" to stop because they were speeding out of control. What would normally happen to a train that breaks through a tunnel wall (that's maintaining a vacuum under high water pressure) and hits seawater at around 3,000 mph? lol hilarity.

Anyway, the Seaquest Turbo Mode didn't get use in that ep. But in the next one, with the underwater nuke facility and the crazy admiral, they did use turbo mode to escape from a torpedo barrage. They had already sustained ~6 torpedo hits at this point and then hit the turbo button. The rate of acceleration probably should have collapsed the Seaquest like a slinky, but the 6 torpedos probably should have turned it into a shredded heap too so what can I say. ;)

Season 1 is so much better than 2 & 3 partly because this technological ridiculousness is much less common. Actually it's almost a proto Andromeda in some ways now that I think about it....
 
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It's so weird seeing Michael Ironside in a role where he's not some evil jackass. It's actually kind of cool rooting for him for a change. I like Capt Hudson. :techman:
 
^He doesn't have to be evil to come off as a jackass. Did you see Terminator 4? That was a good example.

I agree about Hudson though. In spite of the fact that he was no Bridger.
 
The first season obviously was the best one, since it still tried to show a possible future and presented how some then-current scientific discoveries could be applied (though often taking it too far, like with the mermaid). A notable exception was the Halloween episode with the ghosts inside the sunken ship, but the fun more than justified it.

The second episode was one of the worst TV science fiction moments I've ever seen. Something that can stand proudly next to stinkers like TOS' Spock's Brain, VOY's Threshold and the later seasons of Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda.

Season 3 managed to repair a lot of the damage done by the second season, taking the show into an improved, darker direction. But by then it was already too late and they canceled it, just when it managed to stand on its feet again.
 
Oh come on.
Is it really that hard? I mean after watching Robocop could anyone see Kurtwood Smith playing comedy?
 
Jochk said:
I've never seen this show, or heard of it, is it any good?
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I watched it when it first came out, but I think it was somewhere near the end of season 2 or the beginning of 3 where I just lost interest.... to me, it just didn't seem to go anywhere...... I also believe I watched SeaQuest before I got into TNG, go figure.
 
It was cool. Hudson was great, but my favorite character was definitely Lonnie Henderson.

Anyways, it was always clear it was Star Trek, underwater. But since I like Trek, I never considered that a bad thing.
 
Well my wife and I started watching it again. We ran out of other shows and went through the ST series a lot, so we needed a break. This is her first time watching it and she likes it.

And although it's still a bit dated (So are ST seriesez) and the stories are a bit predictable, the stories are still done quite well and the characters are pretty good.

The only thing I don't like is that damn preachy vegan hippy sailor during the credits, going on about the environment, and global warming, and living in peace & harmony with our fellow sea creatures of the ocean, and hugging rainbows.

Cripes, even Star Trek isn't that damn bad, I feel like I'm in church when the credits roll.
 
Rulius said:
<<A battle between the seaQuest and an automated submarine in Season 2 played out like your usual TNG battle. Some fancy maneuvering, a beautiful but slow shot of a vessel cruising, firing one sustained energy attack, and much of the additional action happening via dialogue rather than on-screen special FX.>>

Firing energy weapons? Underwater?
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Yep, definitely. There's a good clean scene of the seaQuest firing energy beams not unlike a green version of the TOS Enterprise phasers. The episode is called "The Sincerest Form of Flattery" in Season 2, about the seaQuest battling an automated submarine programmed with... Bridger's mind! (don't you just love those campy second season episodes?)

The vessel's energy weapons become more prominent later in the season and in S3, when the show becomes more action-centric.
 
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