Internet Issues, Brave New World Week Held Over

Brave New World Week should continue early next week when hopefully they fix my internet so that it stops going down repeatedly.  I still have the second half of the writer's draft script and the blue revision script to post and discuss.  After that, uniform nametag pins.

Script, Brave New World (301), Writer's Draft Script Part One

Greetings from Brave New World week here on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Today is all about the first half of the writer's draft script of the third season premiere.  Compared to the treatment and beat sheet, this piece gets much closer to the final episode.  At fifty-nine pages, the script is a little long for the forty-five minute time slot.  Indeed, there are a few longer scenes, perhaps adding a few minutes.  There is also some changed dialog, but overall this is quite close to what made it to screen.  One interesting issue it the script's structure, seaQuest had a teaser leading into the opening credits and then four acts punctuated by commercials.  This script has no teaser, treating what became the teaser and act one as a single lengthy act one.  Today then, I will cover act one and two.

Bridger's grandson is still Christian, rather than Michael, Nexus is part of Micronesia and the Macronesian Alliance is still just the Alliance, although this is now acknowledged as part of New Australia's political Right.  The change from New Australia to Macronesia was coming, as this has been handwritten into the script.  Otherwise, the names and scene locations pretty much match the final episode; it is ten years in the future.

The opening scenes with the attack on Nexus has a few extra beats, there are some scatter mines launched, but still the same result, loss of fresh water and Fredericks taking out an enemy sub over the line.

Lucas' interrogation  now happens at what was formely the Ballard Institute in San Diego.  There is also a clearer reason why Hudson brings a gun into the meeting rather than just being an ass.  Afterwards, Marrs tells Hudson that Lucas' synaptic responses jumped when he saw the gun, but he was telling the truth.

The find-the-crew scenes are each longer.  In the Thailand Bar there is a bit more of an explanation of what is going on.  Dagwood and Darwin share a longer scene.  Darwin is part of a Sea World like dolphin show.  Dagwood sees him and starts to walk to the front, the crowd watching the show complain as he gets in their way.  Dagwood then rushes the tank and jumps into it.  This would have taken a while to film, had some logistical challenges, and does not add a lot to the overall story, so I can see why it was cut.  Finally, the Ford-Henderson scene has less left to the imagination, with them asking "did we."

After the crew reports to Hudson on the seaQuest bridge that the ship is ready, they leave the ship and have another scene by the helicopters.  Basically, Hudson tells Ford to crew up the ship, while they all watch the seaQuest being lifted by the helicopters, and then get in a helicopter themselves.

Finally, at Bridger's Island, Bridger's grandson Christian pulls a gun on Lucas, walks him to a camouflaged hut, but the kid is in a weakened state and Lucas is able to get the gun.  At that point Bridger enters the scene and he and Lucas share some additional dialog:
Lucas "Captain..."
Bridger "Lucas...thank God..."
The two men hold each other fiercely.
Lucas "God I was so afraid..."
Bridger "I was too, son...  I was too..."
I am sure the fans of the Bridger-Lucas parental dynamic would have loved the son part right there.  And, with that, end of Act Two.

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: the second half of the Brave New World writer's draft script.

Script, Brave New World (301), Beat Sheet

Hello again from the seaQuest MPS Blog with the next step in the development of Brave New World, the third season opener and practically another pilot of seaQuest.  After the treatment, several pages sketching out the major points of the element, the beat sheet, also known as a scene sheet, breaks the action into individual scenes.  This nine-page beat sheet, dated June 13, 1995 shows the season opener coming closer to what was finally realized on screen, but there are still differences of interest.  For example, Hudson and Bourne now have their final names, but Macronesia is still the Southern Alliance, and the year is still 2028.  The reasons for global instability are many: pirates and privateers, funded by corporations, sovereign nations taking over underwater confederations, the Southern Hemisphere is still against living under the yolk of the Northern Hemisphere, and the Alliance uses particle subduction to liquify land into ocean to make mining easier, but also it can be used as a terror weapon.

Moving through the story, the UEO Central Command was originally in the Balboa Institute for Oceanographic Research, they had yet to acknowledge Robert Ballard as in the final episode.  The Nexus colony is the linchpin of the Micronesia colonies, which Bourne threatens to turn the trench they are in to mud if Hudson attacks.  The finding of the seaQuest crew is relatively the same, although Lucas is already in custody, and a handwritten notes suggests they were thinking of deleting the scene of Dagwood and Darwin at Sea World, and instead having Dagwood simply in the Saigon bar with Brody, Piccolo, and O'Neil.

There are lots of little pieces that were deleted, the episode was already too busy and could have been a two parter.  For example, when Lucas gets to Bridger's island, Bridger's grandson holds him at gunpoint and walks him over to a hidden hut to find Bridger.  Also, when they go to retake Nexus, their is a sub fighter battle, an assault on the colony, Bourne tries to escape in his launch, which then explodes once it is cut off from escaping.  The world thinks he is dead, but he is not really, it was a ruse.

This is also an in-development document.  There are several handwritten notes and questions.  Pointing out that the crew cannot really look up from the bridge and see the helicopters lifting seaQuest from the cornfield.  And, asking if Bridger's son had been seen before, for the purpose of a photo that Bridger's grandson had in his possession.  The writers had also yet to hit on the swim tubes as the secret way to get into the colony, but they are getting closer: "Then something Darwin (says) reminds Bridger of an old submarine maneuver from his past." No mention of what that maneuver was going to be, still the battle for Nexus described above sounds like it would have been cool, if too long and expensive to fit in the episode.

Finally, when Bridger gives his goodbye speech, he mentions Hyberion, and the deaths of Smith and Ortiz.  He leaves the seaQuest, because "he knows now she is an instrument of peace, and must be free to be dispatched for war."  A statement that seems problematic, an instrument of peace...for war?

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Writer's Draft of Brave New World.

Script, Brave New World (301), Treatment

It is that time again for the seaQuest MPS Blog, with this week focused on the scripting development of the third season opener, Brave New World.  Quite soon after they learned that the show had been renewed, the writers would start to outline a few episodes for the next season.  They put together treatments, a couple of pages per episode that describe the major plot points and help sell the ideas of the episode.  I have them for Season Premiere (Brave New World),  Kingdoms of Fire and Ice (In the Company of Ice and Profit), The Tunnel Project (Destination Terminal), Second Chance (Second Chance), Flowers for Dagwood (Unmade), Reunion (Reunion), Outbreak (Equilibrium).  Although the episode treatments I have for the third season are undated, based on the timing of the longer beat sheet and first draft script for Brave New World, I imagine these treatments come from May or early June 1995.

The three-page, and creatively titled, Season Premiere treatment has some interesting differences from the final episode: Hudson is Captain Oliver Hollenbeck, Bourne is Commander Alexander Bourne-Burundie, the Spector sub-fighters are Lysander-class SSKN-9, and the Macronesian Alliance is the New Southern Alliance, oh and the year is 2028.  Missing for six years seems to make more sense than missing for ten years.  I never did buy the whole, we have been missing for ten years and our already a few years old sub is still able to compete with newer models.

The basic pattern of the episode is there in this treatment, opening with an underwater battle, the Alliances is about to get control of the Pacific, Hollenbeck strongly interrogates Lucas, seaQuest personnel appear in strange places with no memory, seaQuest is in a cornfield, they get her back in the water, the Alliances moves to take Nexus, Lucas finds Bridger, and Bridger, Hudson, and the seaQuest free Nexus.  There are certain parts of the story missing, e.g., no grandson for Bridger, no swimtube entry into the Nexus colony.  The treatment specifically notes the deaths of Smith and Ortiz on Hyberion.  It also suggests that the Alliance got rich from mining and aquaculture, no mention of weapons like subduction and particle liquefaction.  Instead, the Alliance and Bourne-Burundie became "the voice of a new Southern Hemisphere, tired of living by Northern Hemisphere's law," reading more like political-economic-ideological expansion, rather than the more military-driven imperial expansion seen in the final episode.

First page of the three page treatment for Season Premiere (Brave New World) 

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: June 13, 1995 Beat Sheet for Brave New World.

Script, Brave New World Week (301)

Greetings everyone, it is Brave New World week here on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  In my script collection I have a beat sheet, treatment, writer's draft and blue revision of the third season premiere.  In case you were wondering, a beat sheet is a page or two quick run down of an episode, a treatment is a longer version starting to set up individual scenes, a writer's draft is the first version of the script, and the blue revision is several versions down the line.  These different versions help track the development of what was essentially a third pilot for seaQuest.  Every other day or so this week I will post and discuss these pieces in order, starting with the beat sheet for the then title Season Premiere featuring Captain Oliver Hollenbeck.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Brave New World Treatment.

Prop, Omni-Pacific Ticket, Destination Terminal (304)

Greetings once again from the seaQuest MPS blog.  Today's entry is a prop Omni-Pacific ticket from the third season's Destination Terminal.  This was one of the weaker episodes of the third season, partly because it is a super train gone a muck story, but mainly because of Ford's dancing.

The Omni-Pacific was a train running between New San Francisco and Beijing.

Somehow Ford was able to get two tickets for the train's maiden voyage.  He decided to invite Henderson.  One of the clear improvements over the second season was how some of the character storylines actually played out over the third season.

Here is the front of one of these prop tickets.

Below the jump, just whose ticket was it?

Prop, Senior Chief Petty Officer Patch, Rank Patch

Hello again from the seaQuest MPS Blog as patch week wraps up.  seaQuest uniforms displayed the person's rank with these types of patches on the right shoulder.  A smaller version of this rank patch was also on the left and right side of the collar.  The number of bars and stars signifies to rank, and the color relates to the department.  This light blue one with four bar is for a Chief Petty Officer who was part of the deck crew.

Of course, Chief Crocker wore this type of rank patch.  This shot is taken from To Be or Not To Be, where it seems they had yet to add the collar patches to Crocker's uniform.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: An Omni-Pacific Ticket.

Merchandise, UEO Patch

A quick one from the seaQuest MPS Blog today with a couple of merchandise UEO patches.

Comparison to a costuming-made patch from my previously published UEO Hat. You can see the UEO letters are slightly thinner on the prop patch vs. the merchandise ones.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: A Senior Chief Petty Officer patch.

Merchandise, seaQuest Patch Style One, seaQuest Patch Style Two

Hello again from the seaQuest MPS Blog as patch week continues.  Several varieties of seaQuest patches were made over the years, including those for costumes on the show and several merchandise patches.  The merchandise patches never quite matched the prop/costuming ones.  The colors are off, and the font of the 4600 is wrong.

seaQuest merchandise patch style one.

seaQuest merchandise patch style two.

Comparison to a seaQuest prop patch.  As said above, the way to tell the prop patch made for costumes is the general color, along with the size and font of the 4600.  None of the merchandise or other unofficial patches I have seen ever got that right.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: UEO patch.

Prop, J. Grayson Velcro Name Patch

Hello all and a quick one today on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  This is another Velcro name patch from seaQuest's first season, but this time of a background character.

J. Grayson name patch.

A character called Grayson was in The Regulator, but you do not see the patch on screen.  Grayson is in the scene where Crocker is reassigning crew quarters, he is one of the two people that have to bunk with O'Neill.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: a merchandise seaQuest patch.

Prop, K. Westphalen Velcro Name Patch

Today on the seaQuest MPS Blog, an ultimately unused Velcro name patch from the first season.  seaQuest had numerous scripting, casting, and producering (if that is a word) changes during its three season run.  There were also frequent costuming changes, and not just the switch from the black to the blue uniforms from season one to season two.  Something seemingly as simple as name patches went through several iterations during the first season.  The first patches had the characters first initial and last name, as seen on the below K. Westphalen patch.  While my patch does not appear to have made it to screen, several of these first style patches did.  The next iteration for Westphalen, that did make it to screen as seen in To Be or Not To Be, replaced her first initial with an acknowledgement of her doctorate, hence Dr. Westphalen.  Later on in the season, as seen in The Good Death, costuming added another line to the patch to indicate that Westphalen was part of the MED-TEAM.

K. Westphalen Velcro Name Patch.

Below the jump, a few more images from the first season showing the changing name patch styles

Prop, UEO Collar Patch

Greetings again from the seaQuest MPS Blog.  This week is patch week on the MPS blog.  I have a variety of uniform patches to share with you all.  Today, a UEO collar patch.  I have two of these, but I cannot find the second one right now; it will probably turn up as I dig deeper into my seaQuest boxes. 

UEO Collar Patch.

Captain Bridger wearing a jacket with UEO collar patches from The Fear that Follows.

Captain Hudson in a khaki uniform with UEO collar patches in Smoke on the Water.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Dr. Westphalen uniform name patch.

seaQuest 2032 Crew Hat

A quick one today on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  During season three, the crew were given this seaQuest 2032 hat.  I have always wanted one, but have not been able to; whenever they show up for sale, I never have had the money.  In fact, this image comes from a recent ebay auction where I watched the hat for days, but could not get the funds together to buy it before someone else did.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: it is patch week.

Merchandise, Blue seaQuest Hat

Hello all from the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Today is the penultimate hat for hat week here on sQ MPS.  This is another merchandise hat brought from Universal Studios Florida.  It is simply a blue baseball hat with the seaQuest logo stitched on.

Below the jump, a few more photos of the hat

Merchandise, Black seaQuest Hat

Time for yet another hat here on the seaQuest MPS Blog's hat week.  During the first couple of seasons, seaQuest was a merchandizing machine, with action figures, tie-in novels, trading cards, T-shirts, hats, and much more.  I have piles of this merchandise that I will post over time on this blog.  I got this hat from Universal Studios Florida, back when they actually made film and TV there. 

Black seaQuest hat, a little dusty and dirty from use, but otherwise pretty good.

Below the jump a couple more shots of the hat

Prop, UEO Hat, Daggers (201), The Fear that Follows (202)

Good morning from the seaQuest MPS blog.  Yet more hats here on sQ MPS, with a UEO hat featured in numerous episodes.  I only grabbed images from the first two second season episodes, Daggers and The Fear that Follows, but anytime there were UEO soldiers in the background, chances are some of them were wearing this type of hat.  I have commented on Daggers before when I posted an early script, but as for The Fear that Follows, talk about a mix of things that just do not come together.  Yea, the aliens from Such Great Patience, but they seem different.  They are no-longer exploring, but looking for the beginnings of life (?), because they are dying (?), and they think the beginnings of life might help them with their death (?).  Oh, and lets throw in some Native American mysticism, because that will be cool.  Even though the season one episode made it clear the aliens had made it here a million years ago, somehow they also returned and chatted with Indians who were around in the last thousand years.  Also, lets arrest Darwin, that would be a good way to open the episode.  Oh, and lets make everyone forget what happened with a little time travel.  Seriously, too many half-baked ideas.

The UEO hats on the show were simply a black military-style hat with a UEO patch sown on.

As seen in Daggers, with UEO 'soldiers' wearing the hat while guarding the GELFs.  I use soldiers in quotes, because of the second season's lax attitude to military protocol.  Seriously, you are prison guards and you are playing video games?   A great seaQuest drinking game, when the UEO or seaQuest military personnel act like they are not in the military; no salutes, no standing to attention, lax uniforms, etc.  At least they got that right in the third season.

Below the jump, a few more shots of the hat and people wearing this hat style in the show

Prop, Deon Hat, In the Company of Ice and Profit (302), Smoke on the Water (303)

It is that time again for the seaQuest MPS Blog, today with another hat for hat week.  This one was part of the costume for Deon's soldiers in several episodes in the third season.  It features in the background of both In the Company of Ice and Profit and Smoke on the Water.  In the Company of Ice and Profit was an okay episode, but took a while to get going.  I previously posted a Deon Menu from this episode here on the sQ MPS Blog.  Smoke on the Water is better, and has the seaQuest actually fight a couple of dynamic battles, with movement, lasers, torpedoes, sub-fighters, and the like.  This is unlike Daggers, where I previous complained that they simply intercept torpedoes until the other ship ran out.  As season three has yet to be released on DVD in the US, I am not able to get decent resolution photos of people wearing this hat in those episodes.  So be warned, the images from the episodes are blurry.

Deon hat.

You can just about see these Deon hats on the two soldiers in this image.  This is from In the Company of Ice and Profit, where Deon's soldiers help refuges escape from Macronesia.

Below the jump more images of the hat and of blurry people wearing blurry Deon hats.

Prop, UEO Peacekeeper Blue Beret, Brave New World (301)

Hello again from the seaQuest MPS blog.  This week is hat week here on sQ MPS, including some merchandising ones and some prop ones used on the show.  First up is a UEO Peacekeeper Blue Beret as seen in Brave New World.  You can see several of these hats when the Nexus colony is liberated towards the end of that episode.  Right now I do not recall if the hat shows up in any other shows in the third season.

This prop is simply a blue beret with a badge sown on. 

The badge evokes the UEO logo, with the addition of a sword and dove.

Here is the beret as seen in the episode.

Below the Jump a few more shots of the beret.

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Luca Wolenczak

Hello all and welcome back to the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Today is a short one, with proof that a Canadian Lucas Wolenczak exists.  I have yet to add this action figure to my set, but one day...

Blurry Canadian Lucas with a US Darwin.

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: A Blue UEO Beret.

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, The Regulator

Hello again from the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Up now is the last of the Canadian action figure series that I have in my collection; although, I do have something extra to post tomorrow to finish up Canadian action figure week.  Today's action figure is The Regulator, aka Leslie Ferina.  One thing I liked about seaQuest's first season was the way characters, in particular Bridger, had a history with other characters.  Hence, why Bridger knows that The Regulator is Leslie.  It made the show feel like a lived-in environment, which was missing in the second season, but kind of happened again in the third season.

Front of Canadian The Regulator.  As with yesterday with the Canadian O'Neill, The Regulator's bubble is not in great shape.  It is dented and cracked, and the card is covered with price stickers.  Still, these Canadian ones are hard to get hold of, so I am just happy to have one, despite the condition.  I always thought this figure was cool, as it came with The Regulator's organtuan best friend called Verne.

Back of Canadian The Regulator.

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: A confirmation of Canadian Lucas.

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Lieutenant J.G. O'Neill

Here we go again on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Today is Canadian O'Neill. 

The bubble on this action figure is in terrible shape, but the rarity of the Canadian series means this is the best I have been able to get...so far.  As with several of the other action figures in this set, O'Neill has three different price stickers.  The green Toys-R-Us price sticker shows the seaQuest action figures started at CA$6.99, but they lowered the price to 3.98 and then 1.98.  Indeed, I still recall seeing US seaQuest figures warming the pegs at stores back in 1994.  In particular, Captain Bridger was overpacked, with some stores having nothing but Bridgers on the shelf.  Playmates made way too many of the seaQuest figures, thinking the show was going to hit big like their Star Trek TNG line, which ran during that latter show's height in its later seasons.  They should have learned from the action figure line by Galoob, which did not do that well during the first season of TNG.  All this means that the seaQuest action figures will probably never be worth that much...but they are still very cool.

The back of the card.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Canadian The Regulator

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Chief Crocker

Good morning from the seaQuest MPS Blog and we are now over half way through Canadian action figure week.  Today is Canadian Chief Crocker.

This is one of the better condition Canadian card fronts that I have in my collection.  No price stickers and only some shelfwear at the corners.  You can see on the left side the large blank space where the US cards had the character's photo and name.  They really should have added something there, perhaps a ship or a dolphin, because it just looks empty.  I am also not sold on the pink color of the sticker with the character's name.  I wonder why they went with that color, as opposed to a nice ocean blue?

Back of the Canadian Crocker card.  Apart from the damaged corner, the card back is in decent shape.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Canadian O'Neill.

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Lt. Commander Katherine Hitchcock

It is that time again on the seaQuest MPS Blog and we continue with the Canadian series of seaQuest action figures.  Today is Lt. Commander Katherine Hitchcock.  Same deal as before, action figure and accessories are like those in the US, but the card is the single generic bi-lingual version with a pink name sticker on the bubble and a barcode sticker on the back of the card.

Front of the Canadian Hitchcock card.  This one has no price stickers, but several prominent creases.  Again, the much smaller production run for the Canadian market means getting hold of the Canadian series is much harder than their US counterparts.

Back of the Hitchcock card.  One thing that is evidence is how much better looking the accessories on the card are than the ones included with the actual action figure.  Look at the paint job on the Sea POC, Vo-Corder, Stun Gun, and PAL that are on the card vs. the lack of paint job on those with the figure.  Still for a mid-1990s action figure, these are not too badly put together.  The H. R. Probe is a cool addition, despite the fact that they kind of forgot it in the show.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Canadian Crocker.

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Commander Jonathan Devin Ford

Good morning from the seaQuest MPS Blog as Canadian Action Figure week continues.  This time around, it is Canadian Commander Ford.  Again, the figure and accessories are the same as the US release, and the card is the generic Canadian one with the addition of the pink Ford sticker on the front and the barcode sticker on the back.  As with Bridger, the Ford figures were individually numbered.  This Ford is 0290, but as seaQuest figures have six digits, I imagine this is a printing error with the last two digits missing.

Canadian Ford's front, despite a few creases and price stickers, the card and bubble are in decent shape.

The back of the card is again the generic card with all the biographies and accessories, even if the figure does not come with those accessories.  In fact, despite only Hitchcock having the Hyperreality Probe, it appears on every Canadian card.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Canadian Hitchcock

seaQuest Action Figures, Canadian Series, Captain Nathan Hale Bridger

Greetings again from the seaQuest MPS Blog.  This week is focused on the M of MPS, exploring merchandising through the Canadian release of the seaQuest action figures.

In the United States, Playmates released a total of nine seaQuest action figures based on the show's first season.  Bridger, Ford, Lucas, Hitchcock, Crocker, O'Neill, and the Regulator were the initial release on the first wave, with Darwin and Dr. Z appearing in the cases a little later on.  Another time on the seaQuest MPS blog I will run photos of the US versions, which can be commonly found online, through ebay, etc.  The seaQuest figures share much with the then running Playmates Star Trek action figure line, from the general design and layout of the card and bubble, to their size and level of detail.  They are decently designed action figures with likenesses that are on par with the mass-produced action figures of the time.  Of the nine released in the US, seven appear to have made it to other territories, i.e., Canada and Europe.  As far as I have been able to determine, Darwin and Dr. Z were never released on Canadian or European cards.  The rest are out there, but as the markets in Canada and Europe were smaller, fewer were produced for those territories.

My collection of Canadian seaQuest action figures.  The only one I am currently missing is Lucas Wolenczak, but I was able to confirm the existence of a Canadian Lucas through searching online photos.

Front of the Canadian Captain Nathan Hale Bridger action figure.  As with all the Canadian releases, the card is a generic card and does not focus on the specific character.  Instead the name is included on the pink sticker.  As the Canadian release had a significantly smaller run to match the population of Canada, it was not cost effective to design and produce multiple character cards.  Much of the text on Canadian Bridger's card is in English and French, to match Canada's bilingual nature.  The action figure itself and the accessories are the same as the US release.  During this era, Playmates individually numbered their action figures, and this Bridger's number is 049019.  This suggests the Canadian version was packaged towards the end of production run.

This is the back of the Canadian card.  Again, all the Canadian action figures have the exact same back, with the abbreviated biographies and generic description of accessories.  Also, the character biographies are limited to the seven released action figures.  The only thing that changes on the card is the barcode sticker, which identifies the specific figure.

Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: Canadian Commander Ford.

Director's Set Kit Sketch, Playtime (205)

Up today on the seaQuest MPS Blog is a Director's Set Kit Sketch from the second season's Playtime.  I do not own this piece, but found the image somewhere online.  I do not remember where it came from right now, so if it belongs to you, say something and I will give credit, link to your site, etc.

Playtime was another acceptable, not too good but not too bad second season episode.  It does feature one of the common issues with the second season, which is that the show is called seaQuest, but most of the action in this one takes place on land.  In the episode, the seaQuest receives a child's voice message asking for help and is sucked into the future.  In that future, there are only two people left, because of an epidemic and the fact that everyone started relying on computers.  The computer that controlled everything was Centsys, which was the thing that brought the crew to the future.  The computer wanted the seaQuest crew to destroy it, so that the remaining couple would have to work together, rather than just playing computer games.  Video games that feature giant robots that fight each other through the abandoned cities.  Of course, there is no discussion about the genetic problems of this Adam and Eve situation.

Director's Set Kit Sketch of the Centsys computer terminal with a VR video game chair on the bottom left.

And here is how it was realized in the episode

This comparison shows that it was pretty close between what the set designers gave the director to plan out their shots and what was finally realized on set.

Below the jump, a few more shots from the episode.

Script, Sympathy for the Deep, August 16, 1994 (203)

Good morning from the seaQuest MPS Blog with today's entry featuring the first blue revision of the second season's Sympathy for the Deep.  This was one of those second season episodes that were just about acceptable, but nothing close to special.  It was about an underwater colony where the people suddenly go crazy.  Come to find out, scientist Shelton had invented a devise to remove all the negative feelings from people, and now that evil is somehow a sentient being releasing waves of evilness.  Unlike many second season episodes, much of this one actually takes place underwater, but it is just not deep in characterization or writing.

Here is the blue revision of Sympathy for the Deep.  Although this was the third episode shown in the second season, it has the first production number.  One of the ways you can tell these early season two episodes are how little Henderson was in the show.  This is because she was one of the last characters added in the second season.  An interview with Kathy Evison confirms this, where she noted "They wrote me in almost as an afterthought to introduce another woman into the show. Since the first few scripts were written before my character even existed, that's the main reason why I just had an 'Aye, aye, Sir! ' here and there in early episodes."

Sympathy for the Deep does feature a complicated machine making half a cup of coffee.  Coffee was really expensive in the seaQuest universe, not only do you only get half a cup, but no free refills either.

Below the jump, a couple more pages from the script, featuring a change of scenery, a deleted piece of technology, and comparison to images from the actual episode.

For Your Consideration Video/VHS, Knight of Shadows (108)

Another awards season VHS today on the seaQuest MPS Blog.  This video is of the first season episode Knight of Shadows.  As with the Splashdown video I posted earlier, the seaQuest producers wanted this episode nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.  Searching online, I do not see any evidence that this episode won any awards.  Unlike Splashdown, however, this is a good episode; it is one of my favorites.  It is a ghost love story featuring a sunken liner, and it was first shown on Halloween night, 1993.

For some reason it was also the only time in the first season that the episode's title was shown on screen.  Perhaps they were happy with their pun?  You see it is a Halloween episode so it is dark and stormy night, and features a good man or a knight, yeah not really that clever.

Below the jump, a photo of the video itself and a few images from the episode.