Altered Voyages

As the mighty submarine seaQuest sets sail again on the rocky seas of TV series competition, at least one issue from the first season that troubled some fans will be addressed. "I think you´ll see the stories taking a stronger science-fiction bent," says co-producer David J. Burke.And supervising producer Carleton Eastlake concurs. "It´s odd that you´ll be seeing shows that are a little more colorful in terms of dealing with the future, while at the same time, they´re going to be more human." Well, most of the cast will be more human; there are doubts about two of the five new cast members.In addition to the acknowledgement that this series is, after all, science fiction, there have been other changes aboard the seaQuest - and to the sub itself, of course, since in the first season finale, it blew up really good. The bridge has been redesigned so that the crew sitting around the edge face inward now. The idea, Burke says, "was to bring the actors closer emotionally by having them face one another." Other than the substantial changes to the bridge, though, the newly-built ship will look much the same - like a long, drawn-out squid.Or, suggests Burke, a manatee. The show has shifted its production base from Hollywood to Florida. "we were shooting some test footage at Sea World," Burke explains, "with whome we hope to have a very good relationship; they have enormous facilities and can provide us with some interesting things. A manatee was floating by the camera, and looked startlingly by the seaQuest - which looks like a manatee in a flat hat."Rumors floated around the nation´s computer bulletin boards that NBC had ordered the production to become "younger and sexier." Burke admits that, "Since the day I got there, they´ve asked us to make it sexier, but they´ve not asked us to make it younger. We´re having a wardrode change" to reflect that instruction. "Everybody was wearing these sort of stove-pipe jumpsuits that were totally unisex. Stacy Haiduk had a spectacular figure, but you couldn´t tell from the neck down is she were a man or a woman. So the uniforms will be a little more contoured, a little more relaxed. The science side of seaQuest won´t be in uniform, though."Captain Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider), Commander Jonathan Ford (Don Franklin), Lucas Wolenczak (Jonathan Brandis), Ortiz (Marco Sanchez) and O´Neill (Ted Raimi) are all due back, but four crew members have gone ashore permanently: Hitchcock (Stacy Haiduk), Krieg (John D´Aquino), Dr. Westphalen (Stephanie Beacham) and Security Chief Crocker (Royce D. Applegate), have left the show.