ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

seaQuest DSV was going to utilize traditional model work for the visual effects for the series. Production Designer Richard Lewis convinced Producer Steven Spielberg to allow a CGI test to see if the show could utilize CGI instead of going with miniature models in the spring of 1992.

This was done with an off-the-shelf LightWave 3D on an Amiga 2000 computer. The result convinced both Steven and Universal Studios that CGI could achieve the look they wanted and be cost-effective.

This story parallels the Babylon 5 (1993~1998) TV series. Creator J. Michael Straczynski was planning on utilizing the usual model miniatures special effects that had been used for science fiction television shows since Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost In Space, and Star Trek: TOS.

Visual effects designer Ron Thorton (Hypernauts) was able to demonstrate to JMS that CGI could be used for all of the visual effects scenes for the series, and would not cost as much.

Richard and Ron were true visual effects pioneers who brought an entirely new era to science fiction television shows.

[Bud Brewster]

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My only complaint the CGI in SeaQuest was the way they never showed the submarine on the surface.

But I suppose the design they used would not have looked as impressive as the Seaview did in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Excellent point, Bruce. Some of the best scenes filmed of the Seaview were the ones as she plowed along the surface.

If the budget allowed it, the VFX team should have constructed a miniature model of the seaQuest and shot scenes of it running on the surface just like the Seaview.

[Pow]

Dick Van Dyke was a fan of seaQuest and visited the set. He was fascinated by how the visual effects team used CGI on the production. In time, Dick Van Dyke started experimenting with CGI on his pc. He has created CGI for his family and friends.

[Pow]

Some more seaQuest DSV trivia from various sources.

Seaquest was shot at Universal Studio's stage 28 in Hollywood. This was where the opera box seats still were from the classic Lon Chaney film "The Phantom of the Opera."

Steven Spielberg was in Krakow, Poland filming his Academy Award winning movie "Schindler's List" during the production of seaQuest. He was also supervising the editing of his "Jurassic Park" film.

That situation, along with executive producer Tommy Thompson and lead actor Roy Scheider clashing, made many challenges for the nascent show.

Spielberg ordered a shut down of the production. David Burke was brought in as the new executive producer.

Thompson said that he was receiving conflicting input from Amblin executives, Scheider and Spielberg on what direction they wanted the show to take. TT saw seaQuest as a hard-ware-based action show driven by external conflict. Others wanted the conflict to stem from the dynamics of the crew and the natural perils of the sea.

Rockne S. O'Bannon (The Twilight Zone, Alien Nation) was brought in at the beginning stages to develop the premise. "They had no idea if the show should be set five months into the future, five years or five hundred years," according to O'Bannon. He said "Let's place it just far enough into the future that we can play with the technology, yet close enough where we can do stories that are formed by our modern existence."

One idea for a character that O'Bannon had that was dropped was that of Dr. Shimura. "He was a somewhat tragic figure. He was conducting studies into being able to replace damaged human and animal organs with plant and vegetable matter. He had been diagnosed with cancer and had used the technique on himself. Because of the unstable nature of his new organs, he must now stay within the highly controlled environment of the seaQuest. He was a prisoner of his own experimentations."

O'Bannon wrote the script "Armageddon" which was never filmed. "In it, seaQuest believes that a nuclear war has transpired and that they are now all alone," said O'Bannon."It was a psychological study of how the crew reacted over the event." At this time, Spielberg shut down the troubled production. He wanted a more positive vision of the future.

O'Bannon stepped away from the show. He then was working on the development of a brand new science fiction television series with the working title "Space Chase" with the Jim Henson Company. This would become Farscape.

Sidebar: Poor seaQuest, so many conflicts. Still, the first season was pretty darn good. O'Bannon's Farscape is, for me, one of THE finest SF shows ever produced.

[Pow]

As a fan of seaQuest, I'm embarrassed to just discovering this fact about the futuristic submarine yesterday.

The seaQuest will never be seen moving along on the surface of the ocean.

The outer shell is a living, oxygenated organism that allows the submarine to descend to extreme depths. So apparently, this organism is unable to survive in the air above water.

Another tidbit I didn't realize regarded those fantastic W.S.K.R.S. (Wireless Sea Knowledge Retrieval Satellites) a.k.a. as whiskers. These were the sensor probes that traveled alongside the seaQuest that collected various data.

Using the hyper-reality goggles & gloves, a crew member can see, smell, and feel what the whiskers are experiencing.

I knew that the h-r goggles and gloves performed this function with the sub's awesome Hyper-Reality Vehicle during explorations. We see this on several episodes such as in the episode "Treasures of the Mind" where the seaQuest discovers the submerged famous Library of Alexandria.

But I don't recall the whiskers being used in the same way on any episode. Perhaps this concept was dropped before production? Perhaps they simply never got around to writing a script featuring the whiskers in this particular manner?