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'SeaQuest DSV' the underwater competitor to TNG

<<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?

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.
Sadly, The Sincerest Form of Flattery was one of the good episodes of season 2, along with Daggers and Daggers Redux.
 
Oh yeah and yesterday we watched the episode "Photon Bullet" ~ In which Tim Russ (Tuvok) played a role as the semi-bad guy / semi-good guy..... and not to forget that Seth Green was also in that episode.... with a bad pony tail.
 
but my favorite character was definitely Lonnie Henderson.
She is probably my least favorite character. :lol:
So annoying, whiny, and always sticking her nose where it doesn't belong and getting the rest of the crew in trouble.
She was easy on the eyes though.
 
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initial feel from pilot episode

I just started watching the pilot episode and only have watched the first 20 minutes.
Irvin Kirshner was the director, rest his soul.

I loved the music on the DVD's menu even before the episode. It sounded very low fi from the mix though. I'd love to hear the HiFi stereo Audio CD soundtrack if they released one.

John Debney was the music composer on the pilot and I already like the music.
I see from imdb.com that Debney scored one TNG episode in 1994:
#712 The Pegasus
So with all the other parallels the music composer actually worked on both shows...as well as 2 episodes of ST:DS9 the same year (1993)
#110 The Nagus
#114 Progress
He did 4 other episodes of SeaQuest DSV in 1993 also:
– Photon Bullet (1993)
– Give Me Liberte (1993)
– Games (1993)
– The Devil's Window (1993)


The early exterior scenes are very California and very much a 1970-80s TV show look & feel and so unlike the production values we expect from shows today (17 years later) like CSI, Heroes, etc.
The picture quality really holds up well for being 17 years old. Surely it was mastered to digital videotape at the time and no loss of quality when it was compressed for the DVD master in 2005 some 12 years after it was broadcast.

I like how the show sets up the factions underwater similar to in space like Trek's alien races.
 
Re: initial feel from pilot episode

I just started watching the pilot episode and only have watched the first 20 minutes.

<snip/>
Don't forget that John Eaves was one of the design guys on the show (e.g. the UEO logo and the hammerhead shark figurehead are his).

Production of season one was based out of California. Then they moved production to Florida. One of the reasons why so many S1 actors left.

The show also has some value to cinema history, since it was one of the first shows along with Babylon 5 to make extensive use of the Video Toaster (this later turned into the Lightwave 3D package, which is now used in tons of TV and movie productions).
 
Re: initial feel from pilot episode

I just started watching the pilot episode and only have watched the first 20 minutes.

<snip/>
Don't forget that John Eaves was one of the design guys on the show (e.g. the UEO logo and the hammerhead shark figurehead are his).
He also came up with the concept design for the bad guy sub in the pilot, which wasn't used because it made no sense from an engineering perspective. I think it was reused in the seaQuest DSV game.
 
Re: initial feel from pilot episode

I just started watching the pilot episode and only have watched the first 20 minutes.

<snip/>
Don't forget that John Eaves was one of the design guys on the show (e.g. the UEO logo and the hammerhead shark figurehead are his).
He also came up with the concept design for the bad guy sub in the pilot, which wasn't used because it made no sense from an engineering perspective. I think it was reused in the seaQuest DSV game.
^^ One of his vices. John simply seems to love greebles in his designs. :D
 
I've been watching a couple more episodes.
I really love the music in this show.

The on-ship stuff does have a very much Trek feel as far as the on the bridge camera moves, focus pulls, and the corridor walk & talks, etc. No it is not Paramount's Trek it is a different group of people creating a similar show and they have done a pretty good job with the feel for the on-ship stuff. The exteriors are very Southern California and TV hokeyness production values. Totally not like the level of current TV series production values (CSI, Alias, Heroes, etc.)

I guess I would accept this show as a Trek replacement if I've seen all of Trek but I've not watched DS9 nor cared for it.

At least with the DVD there is a synopsis of each episode before you watch it which has given me the option to not watch some stories I'm not interested in.
Maybe I'll finish season 1 as from what I've read season 2 was just too ridiculous.
 
Maybe I'll finish season 1 as from what I've read season 2 was just too ridiculous.
The second season is mostly not worth watching.

Dream Weaver, the season 2 finale and the season 3 opener are loosely connected through a common story, but the season 3 opener rightly tries to sweep the former two and the rest of season 2 under the rug to get the third season's far superior storyline started.
So you could just as well ignore season 2 entirely (unless you're the masochistic type) and jump straight from 1 to 3.
 
I guess I would accept this show as a Trek replacement if I've seen all of Trek but I've not watched DS9 nor cared for it.

Then how do you know you don't care for it. I hate when people have attitudes like that. :)

I seem to remember a homage to DS9 in Seaquest where one of the shuttles was named DS9.
 
I guess I would accept this show as a Trek replacement if I've seen all of Trek but I've not watched DS9 nor cared for it.
Then how do you know you don't care for it. I hate when people have attitudes like that.
toughlittleship I have watched a number of the final discs in each season of DS9 via Netflix rentals just to see the Trek special features which were very much like the TNG special features. I've watched some of the 10 minute long the season lookbacks and I'm not interested in the show. It is an informed decision. I am not using this thread to bash DS9.

Now...Going out of 2010 on a good note. Happy new year.
 
Edward Jellico, Oliver Hudson, and William Adama make up the triumvirate of the ultimate hardass commanders IMO. ;) But they're not so bad once you get to know them.
 
I really liked seaQuest, even in all it's varied forms. I know this may be heresy to say, but I think I actually preferred Michael Ironside's Hudson to Roy Scheider's Bridger. There most definitely were a lot of Star Trek/seaQuest parallels, no doubt. Had the show been made for cable a few years later, instead of being on a network, it could have worked.

And the turbo mode gimmick? Can anyone say Super Pursuit Mode? :) (I hope I'm not so old that no one else here gets that reference.)
 
I really liked seaQuest, even in all it's varied forms. I know this may be heresy to say, but I think I actually preferred Michael Ironside's Hudson to Roy Scheider's Bridger. There most definitely were a lot of Star Trek/seaQuest parallels, no doubt. Had the show been made for cable a few years later, instead of being on a network, it could have worked.
They both have their merits. Bridger was a career officer who became disillusioned and turned to science in order to make the world a better place. Hudson was a hardened career officer who was horrified by how the world was spiraling into war and who pursued command of the only ship that might be able to make a difference.
And the turbo mode gimmick? Can anyone say Super Pursuit Mode? :) (I hope I'm not so old that no one else here gets that reference.)
Unlike Knight Rider they didn't really uglify the ship. The contraction of the aft modules was more like a high-speed fart, which is actually a good description of an idea that idiotic.
 
Lucas wasn't annoying, unlike his TNG counterpart.
I don't know about that one. Any series where a child shows up the trained officers on almost a weekly basis always grates on me a little.

He wasn't quite as annoying as Wesley, but there were moments when it was neck and neck.

-Bry


SeaQuest DSV/2032 was an oceangoing NG. For whatever reasons fans seem to loathe Wesley more than like. However, Lucas(Jonathan Brandis) was written to be likable, not annoying. I think it worked for the three seasons it aired, even with constant cast changes.:vulcan:
 
Wesley was a character that could have worked. Had he been played as a child who had an unusual gift, as The Traveler hinted at, and the crew of the Enterprise were working to develop that gift without revealing the details to him, and he gradually worked up to his position on the ship, that would have been an interesting angle.

But, instead, he was played as the 'boy genius' from day one, frequently upstaging the senior officers and not being portrayed in an even remotely realistic manner.

Lucas was, I thought, far more realistic and, as a result, more likable.
 
Wesley was a character that could have worked. ....But, instead, he was played as the 'boy genius' from day one, frequently upstaging the senior officers and not being portrayed in an even remotely realistic manner.

Lucas was, I thought, far more realistic and, as a result, more likable.


Agreed, that is a good analysis.:techman:
 
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