seaQuest DSV

It’s an enjoyable throwback to simpler sci-fi, and it’s a smart show.; The special effects and sets hold up, even if the characters don’t.; The acting is passable, but nothing spectacular, and I’m still not sure how they got a performance out of a dolphin.; I mean, was that thing real or what?; Recommended for the fan with extra cash.

This derivative but technologically advanced series has a sufficiently interesting premise and enough high-tech toys to perhaps survive the hostile waters of Sunday night programming.

The marvel is that anyone is still watching after the plodding premiere episode. ... Succeeding episodes have been better, mainly because they have emphasized the show's homespun attractions. One is a talking dolphin named Darwin... The other is a Star Trek-like combination of imaginative sci-fi story lines and the cozy ethos of Wagon Train.

So far, seaQuest hasn't achieved the kind of nuttily intricate, oddball- festooned plots that make the [Star] Trek shows objects of cult adoration.

Much of the opening episode is weighted with defining all this glistening new hardware, introducing the staff and waiting around wondering if the reluctant Bridger will return to duty. [14 Sept 1993]

Too much is at stake for SeaQuest to remain this awful. [10 Sept 1993, p.3D]

It needs people stories instead of technology stories.

Ham performances seem to be encouraged, perhaps as a means of keeping viewers puzzled in lieu of being enthralled.

Spielberg appears to be suffering from movie-industry arrogance, the belief that any old piece of tripe will sell on TV. He certainly would not have tried to film a script like this for one of his mega-movies. Where's Jules Verne when we need him? [12 Sept 1993, p.TV16]