Blu-ray Review: SEAQUEST DSV: THE COMPLETE SERIES - NoReruns.net (2024)

The science fiction action/adventure drama seaQuest DSV ran for three seasons on NBC, from 1993 and 1996. The series was set in the near future (around 2018), at a time that the world’s oceans had become the latest frontier for resources. As the mining, pharmaceutical, farming, and other industries made their way into the depths of the oceans, the world was quickly becoming a dangerous place. Nations set up undersea borders, and split into confederations in order to protect their territorial claims. Eventually a peace treaty was hammered out, and the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO) was formed to administer it. The massive Navy warship, seaQuest, was retrofitted, turning it from warship to peacekeeper, including a large science contingent for research and deep-ocean exploration, making it the largest deep-submergence research vessel ever. At the helm of the ship is the reluctant Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider), a former Navy Captain who had retired and was living a more secluded life on an island after his enlisted son was killed. That is until he was tricked by Admiral Noyce (Richard Herd) into returning to take charge of the repurposed ship that he had originally had a hand in designing. Bridger’s crew includes Chief Medical Officer/head of the science team Dr. Kristin Westphalen (Stephanie Beacham); teenage genius Lucas Wolenczak (Jonathan Brandis), Commander Jonathan Devin Ford (Don Franklin), Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchco*ck (Stacy Haiduk), Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg (John D’Aquino), Lieutenant (junior grade) Tim O’Neill (Ted Raimi), Chief Manilow Crocker (Royce D. Applegate), and Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz (Marco Sanchez). Also aboard is Bridger’s dolphin friend Darwin, who is able to speak thanks to one of Wolenczak’s inventions. Darwin is voiced by the great Frank Welker.

In the show’s first season, the storylines focus on more environmental-related issues and research efforts. The season opens with an exciting rebel sub attack, and the crew also investigates deep sea vents, discovers the lost Library of Alexandria, deals with things such as a mass murderer aboard the ship, unknown life forms, teenage computer geniuses, children living in an abandoned munitions depot, a virus affecting the crew, storms, rescue missions, precarious political situations, environmental extremists, alien starships, pirates, and more. They also find themselves running against the clock to repair damage to the ship, trying to locate a frozen toxin before it melts, uncovering a ghost ship, going on a Wild West adventure, and trying to stop rivals and opportunists who want to profit from seaQuest’s technology.

The first season finale closes with many of the crew finishing up their tour and wondering what comes next for them. And it’s kind of fitting as several of the main characters don’t return for the second season, without any real explanation why. Gone are Chief Manilow Crocker, Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg, Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchco*ck, and the biggest loss Dr. Kristin Westphalen—Stephanie Beacham was such an entertaining part of the first season and it was sad to see her just leave the series unceremoniously, especially as her relationship with Bridger was growing. However, the second season brings in several new characters to fill the void. These include new Chief Medical Officer Dr. Wendy Smith (Rosalind Allen), weapons officer Lieutenant James Brody (Edward Kerr) who is rescued by the team, ex-convict Seaman Anthony Piccolo (Michael DeLuise) who’s an “experimental” with gills that allow him to breathe in the water, first generation naval officer/helmsman Lieutenant (junior grade) Lonnie Henderson (Kathy Evison), and new ship custodian Dagwood (Peter DeLuise), the imperfect, slightly slow prototype for a race of G.E.L.F.s (Genetically Enhanced Life Forms).

The second season takes the stories into much more of a science fiction direction (as you could probably tell by two of the new characters). Some of the storylines include genetically engineered soldiers revolting, contact with an alien ship, a parapsychological experiment gone wrong, love on the ship, time travel, an experimental sub whose AI goes rogue, a rescue mission gone wrong, an assassin aboard the ship, a crewman committing murder without any memory of doing so, the crew getting trapped in a deep sea cavern, a giant prehistoric crocodile, an ancient Atlantis curse, an alien predator from a comet attacking the ship, Neptune god of the sea, discovering Pandora’s box, a computer hacker known as The Maurader, an enemy using crew members’ dreams to gain access to the ship, invisible artificial life forms, and an abduction by an alien starship. I still quite enjoyed this new direction and some of the monsters-of-the-week storylines. While I missed some of the season 1 cast who didn’t return, I also enjoyed the new characters, who quickly become a part of the crew. The season builds to quite the cliffhanger, leaving the future of the show and many of the characters in question.

The third/final season of the series renames the show to seaQuest 2032 as it picks up 10 years later, with the seaQuest ship and crew still MIA. For the past decade, the new man in charge, Captain Oliver Hudson (Michael Ironside), has been searching for the ship. Without the seaQuest there to keep the peace, the world has pretty much fallen apart. Following the economic summit of 2026, the UEO lifted the ban on colonial deregulation, causing lots of undeveloped basins to go back on the market. The UEO was unable to control the fallout of greed and money, and the large Alliance of Macronesia, under President Alexander Bourne (Michael York), has been gobbling everything up and expanding its empire. Things are quickly heading towards a world war. However, the seaQuest suddenly appears in the middle of a cornfield, but the crew has no memory of what has happened—for them it has only been a week. While most of the crew is back, it’s time for Bridger to say goodbye (Roy Scheider only appears in a handful of episodes). As the more militaristic Captain Hudson takes charge, this means civilian Lucas must now enlist and become Ensign Wolenczak if he wants to stay with the ship. Not returning this season are Dr. Wendy Smith and Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz, but joining the crew is Lieutenant J.J. Fredericks (Elise Neal), Hudson’s best student.

In this third/final season, the series focuses more on geopolitical drama, with the crew often dealing with the actions and fallout from the Alliance. Some of the storylines include stopping a weaponized iceberg, locating disappearing haulers, a runaway underwater train, missiles and the threat of nuclear war, turning one of the seaQuest crew into an assassin (we seem to get one of these each season), a crew rescue mission, a viral outbreak, a run-in with an old adversary, infiltrating an enemy base, time travel back to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a prison break. This season brings yet another new direction for the series, but once again I still enjoyed it. Captain Hudson is quite different from Captain Bridger, but is very necessary for the tone of the final season.

I never really watched seaQuest when it originally aired, so I was excited to check it out on this Blu-ray release. The show itself is well written, and features some exciting storylines, interesting character drama, and action-packed moments. It does a nice job of deleoping the characters while also taking the crew on some new, big adventure. At times it feels very much inspired by Star Trek: The Next Generation, with a similar look, feel and score. The themes and storylines of the series hold up quite well decades later, even if the CGI doesn’t. At the time the series was made, CGI was in its infancy and this was top-of-the-line stuff, but watching some of the underwater scenes now, it looks more like an animated 90s video game cut scene. This is especially the case in a scene that finds underwater turbines collapsing as the ground opens up to reveal lava. That said, the interior set of the ship looks amazing, and I never would have guessed that Darwin the dolphin wasn’t real.

The series starts off with a more educational slant, with oceanographer Dr. Bob Ballard providing some marine trivia at the end of the first season episodes, usually relating to something seen in the episode. In the second season, these segments are provided by the cast/crew, and then dropped entirely for the show’s final season. While the series went through many changes and iterations over its three seasons, I found it to be entertaining throughout, with great characters, adventures and storylines. The series also has some great guest stars over the seasons, including Kellie Martin, Shelley Hack, Udo Kier, David McCallum, David Morse, Jonathan Banks, Tim Russ, Seth Green, Luis Guzmán, William Shatner, Charlton Heston, Dom DeLuise, and Mark Hamill.

While seaQuest had previously made its way onto Blu-ray abroad in Australia (from ViaVision) and Germany (from Universal), Mill Creek Entertainment has made the series available on Blu-ray for the first time to U.S. audiences. I believe this may also be the first time the third season has been available on physical media in the U.S. The picture quality on this release is a bit of a mixed bag, but generally looks fantastic, with a clean, clear picture and an excellent level of detail in faces and textures. There are some second unit and establishing shots that are a bit lacking, but these are primarily in the 2-hour pilot, where some of these shots looked blocky or showed interlacing lines. There is also the odd darker scene here or there that has some extra static, which I primarily noticed in the final season. But for the most part I was shocked by how great this show looks. If not for the original 4:3 presentation, and outdated CGI sequences, it could have passed for something made today. The discs’ stereo soundtrack is more than sufficient, providing clear dialogue throughout, capturing all the action and excitement, and showcasing the show’s wonderful score. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray release ports over the nearly 28 minutes of season 1 deleted scenes that had been included on previous home video releases, and also adds nearly an hour of brand new retrospective interviews with the show’s creators.

The series is spread across 10 discs, with 4 discs for each of the first two seasons and 2 for the final season. This means about 5-6 episodes per disc, with 7 one of the final season discs (this may be why some of those darker scenes stood out in season 3). The episodes are presented in their proper order—a few of them aired out of order when originally broadcast. Each disc offers Play All and Subtitle On/Off options, and the bonus material is spread across the collection. Previous DVD releases only included the deleted scenes, so there is some nice new material for fans. The only thing missing is that the Australian release included both the feature-length and two-part episodic versions of the first and second season premieres, while Mill Creek’s release only includes the feature-length cuts. So I don’t think there’s any real loss. The series is packed in a one-inch thick Blu-ray keepcase placed inside an outer cardboard slipcover. Trays hold each of the discs.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (44:57:36)

• All 57 episodes of the TV series spread across 10 discs:
  • Season 1 (1993–94), 24 episodes (18:10:17)
    Disc 1: “To Be or Not to Be”, “The Devil’s Window”, “Treasures of the Mind”, “Games”, “Treasures of the Tonga Trench”
    Disc 2: “Brothers and Sisters”, “Give Me Liberte”, “Knight of Shadows”, “Bad Water”, “The Regulator”, “seaWest”
    Disc 3: “Photon Bullet”, “Better Than Martians”, “Nothing but the Truth”, “Greed for a Pirate’s Dream”, “Whale Song”, “The Stinger”
    Disc 4: “Hide and Seek”, “The Last Lap at Luxury”, “Abalon”, “Such Great Patience”, “The Good Death”, “Higher Power”
  • Season 2 (1994–95), 22 episodes (16:50:55)
    Disc 1: “Daggers”, “The Fear That Follows”, “Sympathy for the Deep”, “Vapors”, “Playtime”
    Disc 2: “The Sincerest Form of Flattery”, “By Any Other Name”, “When We Dead Awaken”, “Special Delivery”, “Dead End”
    Disc 3: “Meltdown”, “Lostland”, “And Everything Nice”, “Dream Weaver”, “Alone”
    Disc 4: “Watergate”, “Something in the Air”, “Dagger Redux”, “The Siamese Dream”, “Blindsided”, “Splashdown”
  • Season 3 (SeaQuest 2032) (1995–96), 13 episodes (9:56:24)
    Disc 1: “Brave New World”, “In the Company of Ice and Profit”, “Smoke on the Water”, “Destination Terminal”, “Chains of Command”, “Brainlock”
    Disc 2: “Spindrift”, “Equilibrium”, “Resurrection”, “Good Soldiers”, “Second Chance”, “Reunion”, “Weapons of War”
• 1080p / 1.33:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
• Subtitles: English

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (27:52)
  Deleted scenes for several first season episodes can be found on the discs with their respective episodes.
  • 101 To Be or Not to Be (8:18)
  • 103 The Devil’s Window (:59)
  • 104 Treasures of the Mind (3:04)
  • 115 Nothing but the Truth (3:25)
  • 116 Greed for a Pirate’s Dream (1:29)
  • 119 Hide and Seek (2:13)
  • 120 The Last Lap at Luxury (1:10)
  • 121 Abalon (5:41)
  • 122 Such Great Patience (1:33)
• Creating seaQuest with Rockne S. O’Bannon (10:02)
  In this brand new interview, series creator Rockne S. O’Bannon discusses setting the show just 25 years into the future, taking a more positive approach to the future, basing the series in science, and wanting to make an adventure and exploration show that families could watch together. He also talks about working with deep sea explorer Bob Ballard, the various exploration vehicles Ballard had created to explore the Titanic, and his on-screen marine trivia at the end of the first season episodes. O’Bannon also talks about the decision to focus the larger scale conflicts as corporations fighting over resources rather than using geopolitical-based conflicts. He closes things out with a discussion of assembling the show’s writing team. Includes video footage of O’Bannon’s interview, clips, and behind-the-scenes production photos.
• Directing seaQuest with Bryan Spicer (11:03)
  In this brand new interview, director Bryan Spicer talks about how he got involved with this project, some of the challenges he faced, working on a motion picture scale, how the L.A. earthquake affected the production, the storyboard process, the mechanical dolphin, the set, moving the show to Florida, how the series changed after the first season, and more. Includes audio of Spicer over clips and production photos.
• Directing seaQuest with John T. Kretchmer (13:43)
  In this brand new interview, director John T. Kretchmer talks about his work on the series and how working on Jurassic Park helped prepare him for it, filming on the stage and backlot, the size of the production, the use of special effects, some of the production challenges, filming in the space capsule, shooting emotional scenes, the change in themes over the seasons, and more. Includes video footage of Kretchmer’s interview, clips, and behind-the-scenes production photos.
• Directing seaQuest with Anson Williams (11:53)
  In this brand new interview, director Anson Williams talks about his early acting career and being directed by Stephen Spielberg, how he got into directing and started working on seaQuest in its second season. He discusses the special effects, the stunt sequences, the changes to the series in the third season, working with Michael Ironside, and more. Includes video footage of Williams’s interview, clips, and behind-the-scenes production photos.
• Maiden Voyage: Scoring seaQuest (13:00)
  In this brand new interview, composer John Debney talks about his early work and how he got involved with the series. He discusses the process of creating the initial score presentation and demo for the theme, his reactions to seeing early cuts of the show, his inspirations, the themes of the series, the orchestra composition and recording process, Darwin’s theme, and more. Includes video footage of Williams’s interview, the original promo theme, clips from the series, and behind-the-scenes production photos.

Final Thoughts:

Mill Creek has put together a nice collection for fans of seaQuest DSV. While the CGI may not really hold up, the series itself looks and sounds great. The release includes some interesting new interviews and ports over the deleted scenes from previous home video releases, so there’s no need to worry about losing something if looking to upgrade. I hadn’t seen the series before this, but was pleasantly surprised, and enjoyed it in all of its various iterations, tones and themes over the three seasons. It’s an easy recommendation for fans of the series, or of this style of show in general.