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did TNG producers ever think of suing SEAQUEST?


Is it me or did sea trek....I mean SeaQuest completely copy TNG?

the parallels are eerily spooky. numerous similar characters, similar music and even the cinematography. whilst I liked most of this I thought they pushed it a tad too far when they bought an empath into season 2?
I can just imagine Patrick stewart or will wheaton sitting down watching Seaquest. They must crack up laughing.

discuss....

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You're right. At the time I thought that the two shows were too similar but the worst part was having to put up with a Wesley crusher clone in Lucas. The show lost its way in the 2nd season and disintegrated into 3rd rate sci-fi. Now wonder Schneider was so upset. The whole alien storyline sucked.

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Yeah that was probably the most obvious analogue.

P.S: probably in the minority here- I actually liked the alien episodes. it was just all the demons, spirits and the empath episodes that were too much for me in season 2.

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I am a trekkie who grew up on seaquest. I'm very familiar with TNG and i see absolutely no similarity between the two shows.
Also, Bridger was played by Roy SCHEIDER. . . so, are you certain you know which show you're talking about???

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There was no similarity in the first season other than boy geniuses, but there certainly was in the second season when the show switched from science to science fiction (robots, time travel, shapeshifting aliens, gods, demons, mystical curses, giant prehistoric animals). Scheider himself saw the resemblance, complaining during the second season:

"I don't do this kind of stuff," Scheider said. "I said (to the production executives), 'If I wanted to do the fourth generation of Star Trek, I would have signed up for it. I wouldn't have done seaQuest. You guys have changed it from hardball into field hockey and never even bothered to talk to me.'"

If you want somebody to blame, look at idiots like producer Patrick Hasburgh, who responded to Scheider's criticism with, "SeaQuest is going to be a terrific and entertaining show for the whole family, and he is lucky to be a part of it." Yeah, your "terrific and entertaining show" got canned in the middle of the third season, Patrick. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

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Idiots always ruin everything, yet we are still giving them power to do so.

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I don't know to be honest. I think the boy-genius character was a bit of a nod towards STTNG, but the show was a bit different other than the fact that it was a sub in the ocean. I seem to recall that this was a Spielberg production, and a solid one too.

I didn't see much of TNG beyond the first season, so I can't really comment on the whole series, but to me it seemed highly original though perhaps playing to a slightly younger demographic than The Next Generation. Even so, what little I saw of it seemed fairly solid.

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No similarities? No, there were plenty of similarities, some looser than others, some stronger than others:

* An older seasoned Captain

* A younger intelligent Commander.

* Commander stopped his previous Captain from doing the wrong thing.

* Two characters with a previous romantic past (think Riker and Troi)

* A young teen genious (think Wesley Crusher, only on this show handled well)

* The Commander turns down more than one offer for his own command (Riker did that)

* The Captain and the doctor become romantically linked (and just like ST: TNG, it doesn't get a chance to move passed feelings, a date and a kiss)

* The episode "Nothing But the Truth" is actually similar to a TNG episode.

*And both season one composers scored an episode of TNG:
Don Davis ("The Face of the Enemy")
John Debney ("The Pegasus")



I won't list that the SeaQuest has a dolphin and that the Enterprise D -- though never seen and only referenced -- has navigational dolphins. They msut suck since they never came in handy. Ever. And since on any other Trek show.


_____
The New Number 2: "Are you going to run?"
Number 6: "Like blazes. First chance I get."

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Some time take a look at the film (and series) of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Not exactly plagiarized, but...

The head writer for SQ DSV David Kemper, (after O'Bannon wrote the screenplay for the pilot) was also one of the writers for Star Trek TNG. His episodes are some of the best of both series.

No fate but what we make. -Terminator II

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