SeaQuest DSV
Leader: Captain Nathan Bridger
Enemy: Anything not thought up in a Greenpeace meeting
Lesson: The UN will live on past the collapse of the ozone layer.
If ever there was a TV show that hid its climate change agenda more poorly, I’m yet to find it. SeaQuest DSV is nothing but a liberal-laced journey into a future world where the world’s oceans have been colonised in the wake of catastrophic war, climate change and environmental catastrophes. The rainforests have been destroyed, the world’s nations have been ripped apart and reformed, and the gallant scientific crew of the SeaQuest are here to patrol the waves. It’s nothing but a wet Star Trek, and my god it’s awful.
Let’s set the scene: it’s the early 1990s. Interest in environmental issues as a general concept are riding pretty high. Japan’s JARPN whaling program is in full flight, the depletion of the ozone layer is a major international concern, and the threat from rising global temperatures as a result of runaway climate change was giving Al Gore reason to join Clinton in the White House. Audiences were ripe for a sci-fi series based around these concepts — I’m just not sure they wanted them rammed down their throats in the way SeaQuest delivers.
Even the cast ragged on the show. Roy Scheider said in an interview half way through the second season “It’s childish trash…I am very bitter about it. I feel betrayed… It’s not even good fantasy. I mean Star Trek does this stuff much better than we can do it. To me the show is now 21 Jump Street meets Star Dreck.” I mean… wow. And this was after an entire series with a talking dolphin.
Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I haven’t even made it through season two yet. Sure, it’s got a wavy haired Jonathan Brandis and not one but two of the DeLuise brothers, but really there’s only so much *insert lefty argument here* that you can handle before you start wishing a giant octopus would show up and put them all out of their misery.
