SeaQuest DSV: Season One
**1/2  out of *****

Created by
Rockne S. O'Bannon
Cast
Roy Scheider .... Capt. Nathan Bridger
Stacy Haiduk .... Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Hitchcock
Royce D. Applegate .... Chief Manilow Crocker
Stephanie Beacham .... Dr. Kristin Westphalen
Jonathan Brandis .... Lucas Wolenczak
John D'Aquino .... Lt. Benjamin Krieg
Don Franklin .... Cmdr. Jonathan Ford
Eric Miles .... McGrath's Aid
Ted Raimi .... Lt. j.g. Timothy O'Neill
Marco Sanchez .... Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz

It had been a long time since I watched SeaQuest DSV when a friend of mine asked me if I would like to review it. Having somewhat fond memories of it, and having some free time on my hands, I agreed to revisit the series and share my thoughts. For those that do not know, SeaQuest DSV is a TV show that was made in 1993, about an advanced submarine whose crew was made up of part military personnel and part scientific researchers.

In each episode, Captain Bridger and his crew would usually encounter some sort of problem while pursuing some scientific research goal or another, which would be resolved by the end of the episode with some cool-headed thinking and a little luck. While it is true that I had fond memories of this show, it is also true that after watching it now, I cannot truthfully say that I am as fond of it now.

There are a range of things that I picked up on as an adult that I did not as a child watching the show, the acting at times left a lot to be desired, and some of the themes came through a little heavy handed. Some of the names for things seemed a little sad, like the ‘hyper-reality probe’ or how the organisation the SeaQuest is part of is called the ‘United Earth Oceans’ (U.E.O), when the ‘earth’ part is totally redundant. On their own, some of these sorts of things are fairly trivial, but they do add up, giving SeaQuest a slightly unpolished feel [Lets not forget the chilling vision of a privately owned internet/Internex... ED].

Unpolished, that is, outside of the computer generated content, which was one of the major attractions to the show. While not that impressive by modern standards, the CGI in the show was state of the art for the time, and probably the best that television of the time had to offer. It made extensive use of CGI throughout the series, and my only gripe is that the acting and writing were not up to the same standard as it; perhaps if they had spent slightly more attention to them the show would have had a wider range of appeal, and lasted more than two and a bit seasons.

That said, the show was clearly aimed at a young audience, with strong attempts to show how science can be interesting including clips at the end of each episode talking more about the science involved. In addition to this, the show also had strong moralistic themes that complimented the educational aspects of SeaQuest, and many characters could be seen as role models for the target audience. While some of this lacked subtlety, it would be unfair to call this an area of concern, given the shows target audience. Although a lot of the show seems cheesy to me now, when I first watched the show I did not feel like it was pushing its message too strongly. Or that the science overpowered the entertainment aspect of the show.

Overall, I enjoyed re-watching the first series of this show, but it is definitely not as engaging as an adult as it was for me as a child. There were a few highlights, notably Charlton Heston’s appearance in the episode Abalon which was very good, and William Shatner and Seth Green also guest star in episodes.

The only extras included on this set by Universal are a collection of deleted scenes. The content provided is a little stingy, there are no included booklets, etc, and even on the discs themselves, there is only one audio track with no commentary. While the cover boasts ‘over 30 minutes of deleted scenes’, almost all of these are basically different cuts of existing scenes, or short scenes that do not advance the plot very much, and were cut for good reason.

If you were a big fan of the show when it screened, then you will enjoy seeing it again, if only to see if it is still as you remember. If better extras had been included, like a making of or a commentary, then this box set would be more appealing, as it is, I would recommend that if you were not a big fan to begin with, then perhaps you rent it first.

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