Seaquest DSV came at a time where there was a healthy boom of big budget, quality genre TV shows appearing on the airwaves which included The X-Files, Lois & Clark, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. Of those shows, Seaquest was perhaps the weakest, and as such, the most troubled series to make it on air although that didn't stop it from producing a few gems on the way.
Seaquest's history can be divide into three, which just so happens to align with the three produced seasons of the show. The first season took it's cue from Star Trek The Next Generation, with an expensive ship bound science fiction drama (underwater instead of outer space) that was one part serious sci-fi drama (although it was always dumber than it thought it was) and one part action adventure. Thanks to declining ratings, the producers started dumbing down the drama, replacing the older, more interesting actors with younger, prettier mannequins and upping the fantasy adventure of the plots. If quality megastar Roy Scheider was worried what type of nicey nicey bullshit he'd gotten himself into in the first season then it's no wonder he fled the show at the conclusion of the second. The third rebooted the show yet again with a more aggressive military based universe and a harder edged lead actor with the legendary Michael Ironside. Although the show was still more adventure than drama at this point, it did allow for some impressive high concept science fiction episodes which fitted in snugly with the tougher cast and premise.
The best episode produced was way back at the shows inception with Games, which was the fourth story to be broadcast. Again riffing from Star Trek, it's a Space Seed like tale of a highly intelligent mass murderer loose on board the ship engaged in a high stakes game of cat and mouse with the captain. Brit actor Alan Scarf gets to do his best Hannibal Lector on the crew and does it with scenery chewing aplomb delivering a detached insanity mixed with a self-amused arrogance.
What makes this work is the chess game played between Roy Scheider's Captain Bridger and Scarf's madman Zellar. A tense display of brinkmanship is always more compelling than a shoot out any day of the week and the bluffs and counter bluffs of the two men combined with massive global consequences for their actions is damned exciting stuff.
Of course, in the cold light of retrospect Seaquest does look a bit daft and childish compare with the likes of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica that have succeeded it, but episodes like Games still have the ability to entertain.
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