In this weeks episode of The SeaQuest Rewatch, Cory and Tom race through a dolphin's dreams as they discuss season 1 episode 18 & 19 "The Stinger" and "Hide and Seek" (originally aired as episodes 17&18).
The Stinger:
Lucas finds himself piloting a super fast single man ship that he and Hitchcock created as part of a bid to win a special UEO contract. While the tests are going well, the ship, known as The Stinger or The Gazelle, depending on whether you ask Lucas or Hitchcock, is soon attacked by an unknown assailant and is thrown off course, with Lucas and the ship being lost.
Lucas is soon rescued from the sea by a man who drags him to shore, activates his distress signal, and then leaves, calling himself a dreamer like Lucas. While Lucas recovers aboard the SeaQuest, Krieg finds clues that show the Stinger was actually stolen, leading them to check the logs of the tests and discovering the presence of the unknown attackers. The two main suspects are HydroGear and Tucker Technologies, two companies who are front runners for the aforementioned UEO contract. When Lucas IDs Tucker as the man who called himself a dreamer, Bridger orders the crew to find him.
Meanwhile, Tucker is hard at work on his own one man submersible ship, when he is confronted by goons from HydroGear Industries, his former employer, who inform him that they are there to take HydroGear’s property back, which includes Tucker’s ship as well as the man himself. Struggle ensues but Tucker is overpowered. They return to HydroGear and the owner, Dinato, explains that they own Tucker’s creations because of their contract but Tucker escapes after he activated a backup escape plan he had set up.
Dinato sends another goon authorizes to use more deadly force to retrieve Tucker but Crocker and his security crew show up, forcing the goon to take them all to Dinato, where he and his goons and a captured easily, revealing however that the Stinger has been completely dismantled as they had hoped to make use of the technology within it.
With just 24 hours to the official trials for the UEO contract, the whole crew pitches in to help Hitchcock and Lucas remake the Stinger, finishing with just seconds to go before the event. Lucas pilots again, facing off against Tucker and his own prototype, and while it looks like they might win, the Stinger begins to break down, coming in at second place and losing to Tucker.
Tucker congratulates Lucas and explains that there is a lot to be learned from losing and Bridger reveals he saw the mistake the two had made when they were designing the ship but decided that it was a better learning opportunity for them to discover the issues themselves.
Send Out the WSKRS:
Director of this episode, Jonathan Sanger, also directed an episode of The Flash ‘90 called “Sins of the Father.” He also directed a season 2 episode of Twin Peaks. He is well known as a producer and had early success in his career when The Elephant Man was nominated for 8 Oscars and won for Best Picture.
Dinato was played by Matt Landers who we have seen in The Flash ‘90 episode “Good Night Central City” as Harry Milgrim; his partner, Roger Briantree, has device that puts people to sleep. He also showed up in the Quantum Leap episode “What Truth, Gloria” as Roger; he goes on a date with Sam who has leapt into a woman.
Tom Green’s assistant was played by Ryan Alosio. We’ve seen him in an episode of Sliders season 3, “Stoker” where he played Morgan, the lead singer/lead vampire of the rock band.
Gaye, the assistant to Noyce, was played by Jack Blessing. He died recently in 2017 at age 66. He had a recurring role in Moonlighting, and The George Lopez Show. He also played Dulmar in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”; they go to the original series in a time travel episode.
Tom Reilly (the guy with the gun) was played by Anthony Powers. He played a crime boss in the Lois and Clark episode “Home Is Where The Hurt Is”; Mindy Church gets Superman sick with a Kryptonian virus. He also played Joey C in The Flash ‘90 episode Alpha; a female cyborg/Android episode.
Mimi Lieber, who played Kellogg (an officer during the race), will be back in another episode as Aunt Rose.
Tucker was played by Dennis Lipscomb. He was Stanley Gabels in the Lois and Clark episode “Resurrection”; he brought people back from the dead with a pill that simulated death and wants to unleash a flesh eating virus on Metropolis.
Hide and Seek:
While Westphalen pays a visit upworld to Malcolm, they are taken captive by an escaped dictator names Tetzlof who wants to militarize their dolphins for his own evil purposes, but when Westpgalen sees Tetzlof's son Caesar suffers from an undisclosed mental medical condition, she bargains with him for their release by bringing him to the Seaquest to meet Darwin, who Tetzlof hopes can cure his son. Ford has extreme misgivings about helping Tetzlof, given his past transgressions and racial purity mandate, but Bridger manages to convince him that this is the only way to help their crewmates.
Meanwhile, the nation's of the world are searching for Tetzlof for the crimes he committed as dictator and begin attacking the Seaquest. The ship holds them off but eventually their attacks force the Seaquest to dive into the far depths, flooding the main corridors which causes Tetzlof to become separated from his son. Darwin save Caesar who shows signs of understanding communication with the dolphin. Bridger and Tetzlof face off as the dictator threatens to destroy the ship but Bridger placates him by offering the chance for him to talk with Darwin.
Darwin uses a holographic projector created by Lucas to show his thoughts to everyone and shows images of Tetzlof, his crimes, and then his wife, who he left behind when escaping, choosing to save his son, while she was killed by his enemies. Realizing that his actions caused his son's conditions he asks Bridger to take care of Caesar while he decides to give himself up to his enemies and face justice.
Send Out the WSKRS:
The quote given in Bridger’s voice over is “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Tetzlof is, of course, played by William Shatner of Star Trek fame. He also starred in TJ Hooker, Boston Legal, Third Rock From The Sun and Free Enterprise, among so many other things. This episode was filmed around the same time as Star Trek Generations was happening.
Caesar was played by Christopher James Miller. At the time of this episode, he also starred in Star Trek Generations, playing Picard's son in the Nexus dream sequence scene. He's acted in a small handful of roles, which seem to be very gory and off the radar horror movies. He's done some script writing here and there, and directed as well. His credits seem to be more behind the camera these days.
The man on the emergency screen was played by Herman Poppe. He was in Robin Hood: Men in Tights as the sheriff's guard and The Rocketeer as the Zeppelin Captain.
The Serbian woman on screen was played by Ksenia Prohaska. We also saw her in the pilot apparently.
When Tetzlof calls into SeaQuest, someone was having fun with the graphics on the Vidcom screens. Particularly with William Shatner, placing the letters WS (William Shatner) and JTK (James T. Kirk) as well as the Starship Enterprise's serial number, NCC1701. The Other screens also feature the initials BB (possibly Bob Ballard from the Woodshole Oceanographic Institution) and the second Enterprise serial number, NCC1701A.
Whats Next?
Next up, we'll be discussing the episodes “Abalon” and “Such Great Patience.”
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