Seaquest DSV S01 Pilot Movie

One of my favorite shows from 1993-96 was the 'Star Trek under the sea' Seaquest DSV. It had all the parts necessary for success, a crusty old captain, a genius punk ass kid, military types, science types, a talking dolphin and a super advanced submarine. In later seasons they had their own little shuttle pods, genetically designed super soldiers and contact with aliens. 

Michael Ironside took over the bridge in the third season. They heavily teased a Seaquest in Space storyline but the show ran out of seasons before that could happen. 

It was a very expensive production but all the money is up on screen and the writing was the equal of the visuals. I had fond memories of Voyage Under The Sea, the 60s super submarine show so this one was an easy sell. My Father and I watched that one in syndication for years and enjoyed Seaquest as well.

Roy Scheider is great at Captain Nathan Bridger, the original designer of Seaquest. He heads a fine cast of young actors who are just as eager as a show like this needs them to be. Each also checks off all the racial and sexual types and adds enough quirks to make it all worth the effort. They certainly didn't shy away from taking chances with characters and concepts like artificial life, the downside of technology and monetizing the seas.

For many of it's three seasons this show was weekly appointment TV. I just checked out the two hour movie that started the series. It's held up pretty well. It's a solid action adventure series with a strong environmental message about preserving all life in the oceans, human and even octopus. Sometimes you have to use force to enforce the peace, however, so firing just one torpedo at the enemy is okay..

SeaQuest DSV (stylized as seaQuest DSV and also promoted as simply seaQuest) is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future"—originally the year 2018 in the first season—seaQuest DSV originally mixed high drama with realistic scientific fiction.[4] It originally starred Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, designer and commander of the eponymous naval submarine seaQuest DSV 4600. Jonathan Brandis as Lucas Wolenczak, a teenaged computer genius placed aboard seaQuest by his father, and Stephanie Beacham as Kristin Westphalen, the chief medical officer and head of the seaQuest science department. In the third season, Michael Ironside replaced Scheider as lead of the series and was cast as Captain Oliver Hudson. Also present was a dolphin character called Darwin who, due to technological advances, was able to communicate with the crew. Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project and served as one of the show's executive producers during the first two seasons.