SeaQuest DSV

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 for NBC. It aired between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future" (the year 2018 in the first season), seaQuest DSV originally mixed high drama with realistic scientific fiction. The first two seasons star Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, designer and commander of the eponymous naval submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, the ship prefix standing for "deep-submergence vehicle".

Jonathan Brandis portrays Lucas Wolenczak, a teenaged computer genius placed aboard seaQuest by his father, and Stephanie Beacham portrayed Kristin Westphalen, the chief medical officer and head of the seaQuest science department. In the opening episode of the third season Bridger departed DSV 4600 and was replaced by Captain Oliver Hudson, played by Michael Ironside. 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.

Production of the first season was marked by disputes between the producers, NBC and cast members, changes in the production staff, and an earthquake. The second season saw changes in the cast, as well as continued disputes between cast members and producers. The third season introduced a new lead actor and title. While initially popular, the series began to decline in ratings throughout its run and was abruptly canceled in the middle of its third season.

"The twenty-first century. Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on earth, the ocean. As captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians. For beneath the surface lies the future."

The series follows the adventures of the high-tech submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, a deep-submergence vehicle operated by the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO), a global coalition of up-world countries and undersea confederations, similar to the United Nations.

The storyline begins in 2018, when mankind has exhausted almost all natural resources, except for on the ocean floor, where human colonies have been established. The UEO was created after a recent showdown of nations and confederations at the Livingston Trench in the North Atlantic Ocean. The showdown was depicted in the pilot episode, "To Be Or Not to Be", and remained a recurring element for the duration of the series.

The seaQuest was designed by retired naval captain Nathan Bridger for NORPAC, a military organization mentioned in the pilot, which loans the vessel to the UEO. Bridger is asked to take command of the vessel, and after initial reluctance—he had promised his now-dead wife not to rejoin the Navy after their son was killed in naval combat—agrees.

The mission of seaQuest, Bridger, and the crew is to protect seafloor colonies from hostile nonaligned nations, to mediate disputes, and to perform undersea research, much of which was still in the preliminary stages when the show began production in 1993. The first season's storylines primarily dealt with plausible oceanographic research, environmental issues, political machinations of the world and the interpersonal relationships of the crew.