Sunday, April 10, 2005

I miss SeaQuest

Is that so wrong?

I really think that SeaQuest filled the Star Trek void that TNG left and STV and DS9 were just not able to fill. DS9 had a great story line and a good way to carry over from one episode (and even season) to the next, but it was too exhausting to keep up with. STV was designed to be fun and sexy, but it was just too fun and sexy. The new Enterprise was just too little too late. I think it was supposed to bring back something TNG like, but they approached it like they did STV, and it just was too thin (and, more importantly, just too obscure and too late; people gave up by then). Plus, I think that Scott Bacula really peaked during Quantum Leap, which tried to combine science fiction with reality... If you got over the time travel thing at the beginning and the end of the show, then it wasn't that weird of a show. But because it wasn't that weird, it simply wasn't a contender to take over for TNG. Sliders was fun, but when Jerry O'Connel's brother Charlie (aka idiot) entered the show (and then later Jerry left) it really went down hill... and it still was too different to fill the TNG void... Additionally, it just got frustrating that they kept jumping from universe to universe. Each season had a new chance at getting home... but eventually you realized they'd never actually get there.

(I can see how the last part of that paragraph might turn into a commentary on Crossing Jordan as well, but I really don't know enough about that show...)

SeaQuest, however, had a good cast and a decent premise. It was fun because all of the older adults in the show would have been my age (or younger?) when I was watching it. They explored the sea, treating it as something so vast that it might as well be space. And they had neat technology, smart Wesley-like industrious kids, and lots to keep you coming back week after week.

But SeaQuest came out at a bad time. There were lots of shows trying to fill the TNG vacuum. Remember that other one? With the humans who find themselves on a planet (wrecked?) with all of those underground people that would shoot up out of the ground? What was that called? That took the DS9 path, and because of it it was too obscure to really catch on; plus it and SeaQuest split viewer numbers between them, I think. Good TV science fiction just died off.

Yes, I know there was Babylon 5, but that was also a bit too weird. It got lost in the realm of syndication too...

So we've had Stargate SG-1, but it started on showtime so people really missed the first good shows. Plus Richard Dean Anderson appeared to be the anti-MacGyver, and I think that confused some people. Now there's that new StarGate. I guess it hopes to bring in a fresh cast and introduce fresh stories. I think it'll be gone by next week.

So, to me, I really think SeaQuest seemed the most practical, and I really miss it because of that. I can't even find re-runs on anywhere.

Oh, SeaQuest, where are you? Do come back, won't you?

3 comments:

Jenn Onofrio said...

Mmmmm.. but wasn't that a Jonathan Brandis show? Or, was it before, and they ditched him?

He killed himself, you know... his friends sited intense depression re: his career.

Ted Pavlic said...

Yep. That was Johnathan Brandis. He was the Wesley Crusher-like figure on SeaQuest (which is so similar in name to Star Trek, ya' know?).

I don't think they ever ditched him. He never left the sub to go to the "academy" or anything like that. I think the show went down and took him with it. In other words, like any good sailing captain, he went down with the ship. (apparently in more ways than one :( )

Jenn Onofrio said...

That's so sad.