Other than the talking dolphin, I liked the first season only.
Any SEAQUEST fans?
- Thread starter bionicbob
- Start date
If I were to retool it, the first season would have more of an arc, the second season would still have aliens but no fake killer plants. The aliens in season 1 were interesting and would have been nice to see them not lame and take over the show. The show could have been a great blend of sci-fact and a war theme that underlines the show. There were hints of that in season one, but they needed more of that. Have a little more fight episodes that increase as the show goes. Seaquest would have started as a science ship but would turn into a war ship over time.
See, I don't get the need to follow the original if you're reimagining the show. I'll go into detail here as I found my original idea, which I'll work on turning into an original work. My reimagining would take place in 2029.
A number of meteors impact the Earth in 2009, forcing us to make our ocean-is-our-survival push. millions of people died and governments found that within a decade only the highest points on Earth would be habitable so hundreds of ocean habitats were constructed. By 2019, fleets of advanced subs were built to maintain order and mankind became almost feudal again, with different countries and alliances hoarding different goods, forcing trade.
By 2026, life has settled down and people live in peace with isolated incidents of violence. An multinational science expedition finds an ancient ship buried in the sea floor and resurrect it, finding that it is still in full working order. It was built by a previously-unknown ancient human race and the expedition members use the ancient ship as their base of operations, learning how to use it as they go along. Every world wants to use it, but the expedition use it for themselves, and become the guardian of the world's oceans, charting the oceans and making scientific discoveries, mediating disputes and keeping the peace.
In 2029 the story begins.
That's what I had, with the ancient ship being the seaQuest. But I'll be retooling it for an original piece.
I liked the talking dolphin because it was reasonable technology...
Oh god NO! That's like merging seaQuest with the worst elements of Stargate: Atlantis.
The key to making a reimaged seaQuest work is to ditch the science/exploration aspect of the original show. The ocean is not space. If you stick to reality you are severly limited in storytelling options (thus foceing you to either move to political/military stories or devolve into Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea).
A reimaged seaQuest should focus more heavily on the political/miliary/peacekeeper aspect of the original premise (and 2032).
The talking dolphin, while reasonable technology, came across as silly because it was seriously overused. Darwin is a neat piece of technology but the character was annoying. That so many episodes of the first season focused on Darwin really hurt the show.
I actually really like undermining the seaQuest's role as a peacekeeper. The arc of the original series was, unkowingly, the rise and fall of the UEO. Its starts out as a somwhat more enhanced version of the UN in season 1 (its job being to prevent tension in the world from turing into a world war). In season 2 its evolved into a de facto world government (it makes laws, has its own currency, and even manages an orbital weapons system). By season 3, 10 years later, the UEO system is starting to breakdown and member states are in open revolt (and its once global authority has been shrinking to that of its most loyal states). Thus another world war is looming.
That's actually a really interesting story arc, even though it was not done intentionally.
That's actually a really interesting story arc, even though it was not done intentionally.
Gotham Central, with all due respect, are you mad? Having seaQuest as a political/military/peacekeeping show was horrific. The fact that we know so little about our oceans was the original premise for the show and explored what really could be down there. We've explored less than 1% of our planet's oceans. How does "keeping it real" limit storytelling? you can have political upheaval as the backdrop for telling the story of life aboard the most advanced sub in the world.
There is so much potential in real life for a reimagining of seaQuest you don't have to make it up, which is why season one was by far the best. Like JMS said regarding Star Trek, if you need a holodeck to tell a story on the frontier of space then you have no business telling stories out there, or words to that effect. Science fiction at its very core is about science and how humanity works with it, otherwise you end up in fiction, or at worst, fantasy. Come on, the last episode of season two was just pure fantasy, with no science fiction element in it at all. A good science fiction show has science fiction, science fact, and human interest, without any one of those three you have a dead fish.
If you want war underwater, go watch Crimson Tide or The Hunt for Red October, both should have science fiction in for you, especially the latter.
There is so much potential in real life for a reimagining of seaQuest you don't have to make it up, which is why season one was by far the best. Like JMS said regarding Star Trek, if you need a holodeck to tell a story on the frontier of space then you have no business telling stories out there, or words to that effect. Science fiction at its very core is about science and how humanity works with it, otherwise you end up in fiction, or at worst, fantasy. Come on, the last episode of season two was just pure fantasy, with no science fiction element in it at all. A good science fiction show has science fiction, science fact, and human interest, without any one of those three you have a dead fish.
If you want war underwater, go watch Crimson Tide or The Hunt for Red October, both should have science fiction in for you, especially the latter.
While I think a reimagined seaQuest would have room for exploration, the fact of the matter is that undersea colonization between now and whenever the show would take place would necessitate a lot of exploring, leaving less unknown stuff for the seaQuest to examine. Of course, one can get around this by having seaQuest look at wrecks from WW3 (which would give a lot of backstory), but there's only so much you can do with that.
Without long term arcs and action, people are going to lose interest in the show after the novelty of having a show underwater wears off. And then we'll have gone full circle, with a cancelled show full of potential that no one will touch for another ten years or so.
Good Will Riker
Admiral
That is how I feel about the first 3 seasons of TNG.
Each season distinctly different and having a unique tone of their own as if the show is still experimenting and trying to find its "space legs."
Also, SEAQUEST effectively ended Roy Scheider and Jonathan Brandis's Hollywood acting careers.
Good Will Riker
Admiral
I'm sorry, if you want REAL undersea science watch the Discovery channel or Animal Planet. The fact is that the oceans are farily dull to the point that you have to make stuff up. The most interesting episodes of season one had NOTHING to do with sea exploration and everything to do with the politics of the 21st century. The fact remains that the seaQuest was designed as a 1000 foot long military vessel. Its not the Enterprise and the oceans are NOT deep space. A show about a mile long peacekeeping submarine ought to focus its attention on trying to keep the peace, not looking at fish.
Undersea exploration leads you on a straight line to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea territory because eventually you end up having to find Atlantis, undersea gods and aliens.
I really liked the first season, and thought that it took from the best of TNG to create "Star Trek: Underwater". The second season abandoned what I liked about the show and took the from the worst of TNG. I gave up on it about half-way through the 2nd season. By the time the 3rd season came around, I was willing to give it another chance, but NBC kept pre-empting the show. I missed a good chunk of the 3rd season when it aired.
A couple of years ago I bought seasons 1 and 2 super cheap. Now I wish they would release season 3 so I can fill in the gaps.
A couple of years ago I bought seasons 1 and 2 super cheap. Now I wish they would release season 3 so I can fill in the gaps.
Where did you find them for cheap? I have been thinking they would be $15 but they are still like $35.
They were on a rack at the local Walmart for $10 each, but this was a couple of years ago. I don't remember seeing them there since then.
