In this weeks episode of The SeaQuest Rewatch, Cory and Tom breath the alien waters as they discuss season 1 episode 20 & 21 "Abalon" and "Such Great Patience."
Back in the MagLev:
This week, we looked deeper into Bob Ballards history in 1966 and 1969. We think the numbers on VidCom Screens relates to certain moments in his professional career.
Abalon:
While Lucas lies to Bridger about going to a conference so he can actually go to a party hoping to have some time with his one time love Juliana, Ford is forced into shore leave after experiencing what may have been hallucinations of a mermaid while he was testing deep sea mining equipment.
A man unaccustomed to free relaxation time, Ford tries to chill as best as he can but when he sees a woman in the bar that looks exactly like the one he saw swimming underwater without any type of swimming apparatus or equipment, he approaches her, trying to strike up a conversation until she runs off towards the ocean. Ford follows and sees her attacked by two men and jumps into the fray to give her time to escape but unfortunately gets knocked out and dragged into the ocean depths below by them.
Meanwhile, Lucas, who at first was put off by Julianna when she kissed a guy at the party, finds out it was actually just her brother who was sent with her to watch out for her. Juliana and Lucas reconnect and make plans for some private time so that they can go “all the way.”
Ford awakens in the undersea lab of Abalon, a man who faked his own suicide decades earlier after his experiments in underwater breathing were outlawed. Over the years in secret he managed to implant gills into humans so that they could survive underwater and plans on operating on Ford next.
Upworld, as Bridger and company search for Ford, the woman that Ford saves introduces herself to them as Mika and helps them find Ford, taking them to Abalon’s secret hideaway. Bridger, seeing Ford encased in a glass tube full of water, breaks the glass and a fight ensues that is stopped by Abalon himself when he orders his sons to stop fighting and allows the crew to leave with Mika and Ford. Later, as Ford recovers, Mika reveals her gills and fin enhanced body and Ford offers to take her out someday to the ballet.
Back at the party, which is promptly broken up by the police, Lucas and Juliana come to the decision that neither of them is ready to go “all the way” as Juliana’s brother busts into the room and kicks Lucas out, who gets pulled over for reckless driving in The Stinger on his way back to the SeaQuest. After returning home, Bridger grounds Lucas from the stinger and offers some advice on carrying protection.
Send Out the WSKRS:
Felicity Waterman played Mika in this episode. She played Dana in a movie called Miracle Beach with Dean Cain, Alexis Arquette and Pat Morita; a guy in California gets a genie (named Jeannie) for no real reason and falls in love with her while pursuing a “babe” he likes. She was an alternate to be cast in the lead for the TV series La Femme Nikita but the role was given to Peta Wilson. However, she did a guest appearance in the pilot episode. She was also in the movie’s Die Hard 2 and Lena’s Holiday, and appeared on shows such as Knots Landing, Ellen, Northern Exposure, Baywatch Nights and Weird Science. Her last credit was for 22 episodes of a series called Pensacola: Wings of Gold in 1999-2000. She’s also appeared in a number of movies that require her to be in a Bikini on the posters, notably the TV show Thunder in Paradise starting Terry Hulk Hogan and a bunch of his wrestler friends.
Lucas (Jonathan Brandis) mentions The Sanger Institute in this episode. This is likely a shout out to series director Jonathan Sanger. There is, however, a Wellcome Sanger Institute. According to their website, they “lead ambitious collaborations across the globe to provide the foundations for further research and transformative healthcare innovation.”
The traffic Cop was played by Rick Fitts. He’s still a working character actor. We’ve seen him in the Lois and Clark episode “All Shook Up” as Frank Madison. He was also in a soap opera that ran for two years called Generations about two families, one black and one white.
The other cop was Fitz Houston, another working character actor. We saw him in the Quantum Leap episode “Honeymoon Express” as the “Black Senator.”
Dustin Nguyen played Chief William Shan, one of Crocker’s men. He is best known as Officer Harry Truman Ioki on 21 Jump Street. He’s currently working as a director and producer mainly with Vietnamese company Dreamscape DBS. He was also in the new movie 22 Jump Street as Vietnamese Jesus.
Andrew Wasser was Biff, Lucas’s friend. There isn’t too much notable but he did make a guest appearance on 90210 which was incidentally written under his name on the VidCom.
Rob Youngblood played Kaman and we saw him in Sliders twice. Once he was the Sheriff in “Paradise Lost” and then he was Keeper James in “The Great Work.”
Matthew Sheenan played Shapra. He also played Kevin Wenthworth in the Quantum Leap episode “Raped.” His only other credit is Blue Skies Are A Lie, a 1995 comedy drama movie.
Gustavo Perez is credited as Arab Prince. Not sure where that was.
Charlton Heston is Abalon! Nuf' said...
Such Great Patience:
As the Seaquest observes tectonic plate shifts deep below, multiple crewmen report having headaches that seem to be related to a recurring high frequency sound in the area. Darwin is also affected as he keeps repeating random words rather than his usual speech patterns. Suddenly, one shift reveals an alien spacecraft from almost 1 million years ago resulting in a team of SeaQuest’s finest, led by astronaut Scott Keller travel to the ship to investigate.
The team, consisting of Keller, O'Neill and Krieg soon come upon an alien with a threatening device on its wrist capable of quickly vaporizing anything, as chief Crocker finds out himself when he follows the team into the ship to find out why their communications went down, and ends up confronting another similar alien who attacks with the weapon.
Back in the SeaQuest, after Bridger defies several orders from his higher ups to attack and destroy the vessel, the team’s launch ship returns but without the crew aboard. Instead they discover that another alien member of the space ship piloted the craft back and is now moving around the ship at super fast speeds, attacking crew members, and finally stopping in Lucas’s quarters where he had been working on a way for Darwin to communicate with the aliens.
With the help of the professor, the crew determines that the aliens use their science to project a holographic image in order to travel around the ship. Bridger asks Darwin to communicate to the aliens that they are all friends and the alien smiles, understanding. After the alien projection returns to its ship, the rest of the crew on board the spacecraft make their way back to SeaQuest, quickly followed by the return of the crew mates that were thought to have been killed but instead were transported away and now transported back.
Bridger holds a meeting of the senior officers and they decide to not reveal the aliens home galaxy to the UEO, and instead send a message of friendship to the alien’s homeworld, hoping they will come to earth and seek out the SeaQuest.
Send Out the WSKRS:
The alien was played by Karyn Malchus. Besides playing Headless Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus, she returns in season 2.
Whats Next?
Next up, we'll be discussing the final eps of season 1, “The Good Death” and “Higher Power.”
Send in your feedback to TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment