Yup. Seaquest was first for me as well. Ugh, Seaquest...Right down to having another "genius kid" too. Shows were copying one another back then as well, believing everything's a cookie cutter template. How they would think "Staaaar Trek... under the sea!" would begin to work... There was that submarine show from the 1960s, but it wasn't memorable, is debunked in terms of "suspension of disbelief" (or would be by the 1980s), nobody's going to believe whole societies exist under water like that thanks to sonar, radiation, and cartographic equipment being able to map out depth and possible civilizations. Seaquest's initial formula could work... Not a bad attempt with making colonies under water, etc... but in came season 2, with trying to mix sci-fi and sheer fantasy in the way you don't mix carrot juice with jaegermeister and expect a successful recipe to lose weight weight. "Ooh, a bazillon year old underwater ship!" "Time travel!" "Young people!" "Cliche atop triteness!" And they're not going to find a new species of talking eel every week either... nobody's going to be reeled in to sit through season 2's garbage for sure. And yet they made a season 3, after getting the underwater crew... back to Earth? Okaaaay, that's admittedly impressive and probably because a show involving exploring the oceans had some potential somewhere... Michael Ironside was inspired casting, and what's more inspiring is how he was lured to bobber up the show. Despite it all, the show still floundered, was canned, and the dolphin was not happy... until the cats heard the sound of the tin opener going "whirr-whirr-whirr".
Seaquest could do with a reboot, if they had all the plot arcs and characters and complementary actors thought out beforehand. And then hope the audience tunes in. Season 1 had the most ideas in its favor. And season 3 certainly avoided the idiocy season 2 dived into...
