Michael Ironside was the best thing about Season 3, IMO. And I definitely remember Bob Ballard's factoids during Season 1.
Agreed. I'm a Season One fan, loved the Robert Ballard closing comments. I didn't like Season Two or Three, and wish they would have stayed with the more scientific format of the first season.
I really really liked Seasons 1 and 3, albeit they were completely different shows. I liked Season 2 back when it aired, but I recognize now it was goofy as hell. Even parts of Season 1 don't stand up that well anymore (but other parts really do, and more than anything dumping Hitchcock, Crocker and Krieg was one of their biggest mistakes).
I've never understood why people liked season 1 so much. I thought it was only ok when it first aired, but it was actually quite boring and unforgiveably repetitive. (really how many stories can you do about scientists that went into hiding). The sci-fact direction of season 1 was VERY limiting. Simply put, for an adventure/drama show...the real world ocean just is not that interesting. The most memorable episodes from season one were either the pure scifi eps or the political eps. Unfortunately NBC decided to push for more scifi episodes and thus it became Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The most intersting aspect of seaQuest, right from the pilot, was the unique politics of the 21st century created for the show. In fact the very first sequence in the pilot was about depicting how unstable the political situation was in the world of 2017. That was what the show should have focused on...and ultimately what they did focus on in 2032. That's why season 3 always struck me as the superior season. Having the seaQuest and a weakened UEO struggling to keep the world from collapsing into all out war IS a workable premise for an adventure/dramatic TV series. Its the reason that season 3 felt like a tighter better run show...they actually had a direction.
The problem with season 3 is they ditched science completely and started off on the wrong foot. After the horrid season 2, there was just too much crap involved that was leftover. Plus season 3 wasn't all that great, they went back in time to the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a silly runway train episode. If they combined the science and discovery of the first season with the politics and war of the third season I think they would have a great show on their hands. It's why I'm in favor of reboot. But 5 seasons of just season 1 would have been boring, and 5 seasons of just war and gloom would have been boring too.