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.