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.

Prop, Hudson Headset, Brave New World (301)

Today on the seaQuest MPS blog is another prop from the third season.  This is a non-electronic, that is no lights, headset used by a couple of characters in the season premiere Brave New World.  Brave New World was something of a third pilot for seaQuest DSV, or the first for seaQuest 2032.  The episode sets up the world ten years after the last episode ended with seaQuest seemingly destroyed.  It introduced Captain Hudson, who started off as an ass, but settled into a more thoughtful character within a couple of shows into the season.  Although the first few episodes of the season were a little rough, the show's third season had a consistency in scripting and characterization that easily beat the second season and perhaps is more even than the first season.

Non-electronic headset made of adapted headphones and solid plastic arm.

Hudson wearing the headset in the opening scene of Brave New World.

Below the jump, images of the prop and of characters wearing it in this episode

Set Design, Reunion (312)

Greetings once again from the seaQuest MPS Blog.  Today is a comparison between a set sketch and the final set in Reunion from the third season.

This is a sketch of the Tartarus Federation machine room set from Reunion.  From this image, you can see the set was planned as a series of walkways and tubes.  This is pretty much how the final set turned out.  One thing I could not spot in the final episode are the two doors evident on this sketch.  You can see from the written notes, they planned to reuse parts of the train from Destination Terminal to help make up the set.  I did not see any parts of the Omni-Pacific train in this set, but later in the episode at the research station there is a clear reuse of the doors from the train.

The final set in the episode is a little different.  For example, there are stairs that are not on the original sketch

Below the jump, more images from Reunion.

Roy Scheider Signature, Captain Nathan Hale Bridger

A simple one today on the seaQuest MPS blog.  A signed photo of Roy Scheider dressed as Captain Nathan Hale Bridger.

Next time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: A set sketch from Reunion compared to the final episode.

Storyboard, Dream Weaver (215)

Greetings again from the seaQuest MPS blog, and today is a storyboard from the second season episode Dream Weaver.  This is a storyboard by Mark Simon, whose book I mentioned yesterday.  It covers the scene where Dagwood first finds Ortiz hiding from the alien, then smells the alien, he and the alien growl at each other and fight, before the alien gets shot multiple times and just wanders away.

In sum, Dream Weaver was a rip off homage to movies like Predator.  In the episode, special guest star Mark Hamill is an alien refugee who is being hunted by a predator-like alien whose embryo pod, for some reason, attaches to seaQuest.  What follows are lots of dark corridors and hunting, with a few jumps, fights, and laser blasts.  Not bad, not great, very middle of the road.

Below the jump, higher resolution photos of the storyboard and some comparisons to the shots in the finished episode.

Storyboards, Mark Simon's Storyboards: Motion in Art

A short post today on the seaQuest MPS blog.

Yesterday I posted a page from the pink revision of the Daggers script.  This script featured a deleted sequence with Brody being chased through the prison colony and diving into a tunnel with an escape pod.

What is really cool is that Mark Simon's Storyboards: Motion in Art includes numerous storyboards and production drawings from seaQuest, including the a sketch of the above-discussed deleted tunnel.

I encourage you to pick up Simon's book.  It is one of the few recently published books to have anything about seaQuest in it.


Next Time on the seaQuest MPS Blog: A framed storyboard from Dreamweaver.

Script, Daggers, July 10, 1994 (201)

Today on the seaQuest MPS Blog is an early script revision of the second season premiere episode Daggers.  Daggers seems like a placeholder title to me.  "Well, it is about the daggers revolt, so lets call it Daggers until we come up with a better title...ahhh the titles are not onscreen, so who cares."  Not to mention the "credits to be determined," which becomes Jonathan Falls.  This has to be a pseudonym, because I can find nothing else by Jonathan Falls on IMDB or elsewhere online.  Perhaps this means that the episode was a team effort of the entire seaQuest writing staff, or perhaps whoever wrote it was displeased with how the episode turned out and wanted to Smithee it.

Scripts for seaQuest used the standard color revision system, so after the writer's draft, you had white pages, pink pages, and then blue, yellow, and green, before starting again with second white, and so on.  This is a pink revision from July 10, 1994, suggesting it is still early in the process.  The episode was shown on TV on September 18, 1994, so there was only a couple of months between scripting and the finish product.  The quick turnaround always impresses me with TV production in comparison to movies.

What is a dagger you ask...

Yep, this is the introduction of Dagwood and the other Daggers, or GELFs.  In fact, Daggers is essentially a second pilot for seaQuest, now being shot in Florida, and introducing new characters, a new science fiction focus, and even a new ship, the seaQuest II.  Several of the new characters are interesting, if drawn on standard tropes and written broadly two-dimensional for much of the season.  And yes, there were some really terrible episodes in the second seasons, but Daggers was not too bad.  It had some story issues...the super-duper military sub that the GELFs steal that only has a couple of rounds of torpedoes.  Seriously, rather than think of a good way to end the showdown between the seaQuest and the GELF's sub, or perhaps have both ships actually battling it out with torpedoes and explosions on your Sunday night action-adventure series, the writers get out of the situation by having the daggers run out of torpedoes and seaQuest using nothing but intercepts.  The episode also spends too long on the underwater shenanigans with the GELFs invading UEO headquarters.  Yes, we see you are filming underwater and have little personal sub toys, but get on with it.

The new bridge set, however, was very cool...

Below the jump is another page from the script showing a deleted sequence and a pictorial comparison to the final sequence in the episode.

For Your Consideration Video/VHS, Splashdown (221)

Next up on the seaQuest MPS blog is the first of my "For Your Consideration" videos.  Back in the days before Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital download there was this big boxy thing called VHS.  The idea of being able to buy an entire season was still a dream, with perhaps two episodes per tape if the show was even released at all.  The UK and some other European countries got commercial video releases of seaQuest, the US did not.  With videos, the picture was not great and the sound could be spotty, but they were perhaps a little better quality than old cable TV reception.  In fact, where I lived experienced a massive thunderstorm when Splashdown first aired, rendering the picture and sound a snowy and hissy mess.  Yes, you might say not being able to watch this particular episode was an improvement....talk about going off the deep end, if the deep end was kidnapped and forced to fight on another planet involving a huge amount of people you never see on screen because the extras budget had already been used up that season.  Contrary to what some might say, there were some decent episodes in seaQuest's second season, but Splashdown was not a highlight.

You don't remember Splashdown, it was the episode were the seaQuest was stolen by a flying saucer...

 

 To fight in a civil war because the aliens did not have advanced underwater technology...

But wait, they have mines, and there goes the seaQuest DSV 4600 II...

Not that anyone on the show every remembered it was actually the second seaQuest as they had destroyed the first at the end of last season.  Grumbles over.

As for the promised VHS tape, "For Your Consideration" videos were sent out to the members of various entertainment award organizations like the Emmys to drum up votes for particular episodes of a TV show.  The show's producers would pick an episode they were proud of and thought they could win in particular categories.  They would push for things like best show, best actor or actresses, etc.  So, for the season two finale of seaQuest, what were the producers proud of?  What did they think they had a chance of winning?  They were aiming high for either Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing or Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.  Still, the secondary market in these tapes meant I was able to get some better quality episodes years before the show was released on DVD.  And no, unlike things like producer's cuts or other internal videos, this "For Your Consideration" VHS has not extra footage, it is just the finished episode as shown on NBC.

Below the jump are a couple of larger resolution photos of the "For You Consideration" video.

Prop, Deon Menu, In the Company of Ice and Profit (302)

Up first on the seaQuest MPS blog is a great little prop from the third season episode In the Company of Ice and Profit.  The episode itself was not one of the strongest of the third season, but it does feature the return of Krieg who for some reason was still wearing his first season seaQuest uniform

As for the prop, it is a hot pink menu.  In this episode, O'Neill, Piccolo, and Lucas...I mean Ensign Wolenczak...eat at a Deon Industries restaurant.  On the menu were a variety of foods that were illegal in the future, including beef from gassy cows as we learned in season one's Whale Song.

Here is the menu in the episode.

And here is the prop itself.

I think it is cool that the writer of the episode and whoever made this prop recalled the rareness of beef in the seaQuest universe.  Whether you liked the third season or not, they made a clear effort to develop a consistent in-universe continuity with callbacks to the first season...even if it included Krieg wearing the same clothes for over a decade.

Below the jump are a couple of larger resolution photos of the menu.

seaQuest Merchandise, Props, and Scripts Blog

Welcome to the seaQuest Merchandise, Props, and Scripts blog; MPS for short.  I have an extensive collection of material from this great 90s TV show and wanted to share, so I started this blog.