List of main characters of seaQuest DSV season 1

This is the complete list of the main characters of seaQuest DSV season 1. The series went through significant cast changes after every season it was on the air. This list contains only those characters that were given credit in the main titles of the first season (therefore, does not contain characters such as Admiral Noyce (which is located at List of recurring characters on seaQuest DSV) or Lieutenant James Brody (which is located at Main characters of seaQuest DSV season 2).

First season cast.

First season main characters

Captain Nathan Bridger

Dr. Kristin Westphalen

Lucas Wolenczak

Commander Jonathan Ford

Early life

Ford comes from a very financially well off family, his father owning "Ford Freeport: Aquacultural Engineering", one of the largest undersea farming companies in the world. He had a bad relationship with his father and brother. In 2022, an undersea mining operation generated a dramatic rise in the temperature of the South Atlantic. A deinosuchus (gigantic prehistoric crocodile) thawed out and was threatening the local ecosystem and the lives of the local people. With the help of his family, Jonathan stopped the creature. With the lives of the local people at stake, the Fords were forced to settle their differences and reconcile. Ford's father decided to take a year off from work and give Jonathan's younger brother Ben the run of the company.^[1] His mother is deceased.^[2]

Appointment to seaQuest

Part of the original seaQuest's crew under Captain Marilyn Stark (2015-2017), Ford was forced to relieve her of command when she disobeyed orders and attempted to attack several other submarines after being ordered to stand down. For 13 months after this incident Commander Ford oversaw a major refit of the seaQuest to have the ship generally geared more towards scientific exploration/research and peacekeeping missions. In 2018, after the refit was complete, Admiral William Noyce was trying to convince retired Captain Nathan Bridger, the subs original designer, to take command and ordered Ford to act arrogant, cowardly and generally unfit for command in an effort to get Bridger to stay on board. Despite the ploy not working Bridger decided to stay on board after defeating Stark during her attempt at revenge.^[3]

Early on he was in continual conflict with Dr. Kristin Westphalen, the ship's Chief Medical Officer and head of the science department. After the discovery of the Great Library of Alexandria, in which Ford helped with the Excavation (he being the one who accidentally found it), he became much more interested in seaQuest's exploration and research mission and not just the military and peacekeeping aspect.^[4] The character had a romance with Lonnie Henderson in the show's third season, although this fizzled out after Henderson had to shoot someone she used to love in order to save Ford.^[4]

Background

Commander Ford was portrayed by actor Don Franklin and is one of three actors to remain with the show for all three seasons. Ford appears in every episode except for "And Everything Nice." The character of Ford was originally supposed to have a far different background, originally having him been a poor kid from Chicago who joined the navy to get away from his gang life after witnessing the death of his older brother.^[5] Since this was never established in the first year (except for the novelization of the pilot episode and non canon sources such as the others novels and an issue of the comic) it was disregarded for the rest of the series.

Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock

Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock was the Chief Engineer of the seaQuest DSV 4600 following her refit in 2018.

While at the naval academy, she, along with Benjamin Krieg, were top of their class, and were eventually wed. However, the marriage only lasted a year.

Being Chief Engineer, Hitchcock was also third in command aboard the seaQuest and was placed in command in several occasions, such as the Liberté space station incident where Commander Ford had been infected with an unknown virus and was unable to perform his duties.^[6]

On a mission to save a family from the clutches of an outlaw at the Broken Ridge mining facility, Hitchcock masqueraded as a singer in order to gain access to the mine and allow the family to board the seaQuest.^[7]

During an experiment that involved the flooding of the boat, Hitchcock, Ford, Lucas, Krieg, and Chief Crocker were attacked by environmental radicals who intended to use the ship's computer to disable various pollutant manufacturers around the globe. Hitchcock was held prisoner on the bridge along with Lucas where she began to gain their trust by telling them nothing but the truth (under the orders of Commander Ford), although, their leader ultimately believed she would lie to him. She fulfilled her orders by telling the leader that if he attempted to leave the seaQuest as it was sinking, the water pressure would crush his submersible. He didn't believe her and ultimately died.^[8]

She and Lucas later developed a prototype for a single-seat submersible that featured perfect laminar flow that replicated the tail of a fish in order to cut down on turbulence. Hitchcock had wanted to name it the Gazelle, though Lucas insisted on the Stinger. Ultimately, the name Stinger became official.^[9]

As the seaQuest's tour of duty came to an end, both she and Commander Ford were offered command of the H.R. Clinton, though, the UEO offered her more money to take command than Ford. With the destruction of the seaQuest shortly afterwards, Hitchcock agreed to take command and did not come aboard the new seaQuest in 2021.^[10]

Background

Hitchcock was portrayed by actress Stacy Haiduk and appears only in the first season of the series. Haiduk, unhappy with her character's development in the first season, opted not to return to the series for the second season. Her character was replaced by Kathy Evison's character, Lonnie Henderson.

Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg

Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg served as seaQuest`s procurement officer. He had previously attended the naval academy with Captain Bridger's son Robert and with Katherine Hitchcock, whom he was later wed to for a year. While at the academy, he painted the homecoming mule pink, something that Captain Bridger later found amusing. Krieg had aspirations of a command at sea, but, he never was able to fulfill that dream. Krieg was involved in a few minor transgressions during his tour of duty, such as attempting to extort an Arctic research outpost by selling them thermal underwear at an inflated price, as well as sneaking two-pounds of outlawed ground beef aboard the boat with the intention of making a real cheeseburger. When seaQuest finished its tour of duty and was summarily lost at sea, Krieg resigned from the navy and originally applied to become manager of a fast food franchise, though he tried to convince his fellow crew members he was either going to join the seminary or go to med school.

After the seaQuest-II was lost at sea, Krieg believed that all his old friends were dead. He attempted to run for the Presidency of the United States on an "Eat Peace" platform, but, apparently not many understood what that meant. By 2032, he had apparently relocated to Australia when it became the heart of the Macronesian Alliance. He attempted to lead a group of refugees to safety. Larry Deon gave them a large floating iceberg as their sanctuary. Little did they know that Deon had merely put them there to prevent seaQuest from destroying it. Deon did not count on the fact that Krieg, a former member of the seaQuest crew, would be convinced by Lucas Wolenczak, one of Krieg's closest friends aboard the boat, to be led to safety. Initially skeptical, though eventually pleased, to find that his old seaQuest crew mates were still alive after ten years, Krieg was given a fresh seaQuest uniform upon his return to the ship. Lucas asked him to stay aboard, but, Krieg refused, claiming while seaQuest had to save the world, he had to try and change it.

Background

Krieg was portrayed by actor John D'Aquino and appears in the first season of the series as a main character, and a guest appearance in the third season. D'Aquino, along with Royce D. Applegate was fired at the end of the first season in order to give the next season a "Younger, sexier feel". His character was somewhat replaced by Michael DeLuise's character, Tony Piccolo.

Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill

Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill was the communications officer of the seaQuest DSV 4600, originally serving under Captain Marilyn Stark. He remained aboard the boat after she had been relieved of duty and the seaQuest was refitted to serve as more of a research vessel.

O'Neill specialized in foreign languages, was fluent in at least a dozen and could adequately speak several others. He also shared some sort of unknown psychic link with Darwin which allowed him to sense when Darwin was ill.^[11]

A religious man since childhood, O'Neill was taught to believe that evolution topped out with mankind and had a difficult time believing in intelligent life on other planets, although, secretly wished that it existed.^[12]

He briefly pursued a relationship with Lieutenant Lonnie Henderson in 2021, although, he was uncomfortable with the notion of a shipboard romance and decided not to continue with it, although, the two remained friends.

Somewhat of a nervous individual, O'Neill was prone to occasional acts of heroism, such as fearlessly rushing to save Henderson from the clutches of an alien predator that had invaded seaQuest in 2022.^[13] He also questioned the direction his career was headed that year and tendered his resignation to Captain Bridger, though, Bridger assured him that the crew saw him as a valuable commodity, and decided to stay.

Ten years after the Hyperion Incident and the seaQuest`s return to Earth, O'Neill decided to remain aboard the boat under the command of Captain Hudson. O'Neill ran afoul of Hudson on several occasions, such as not responding to orders quickly enough during an emergency situation^[14] and questioning Hudson's orders to fire on Captain Bridger's fleet.^[15] O'Neill nearly ended his career by stealing a seaLaunch to rendezvous with his on-line girlfriend while in the middle of an unstable political area. However, his girlfriend, Heiko Kimura, turned out to be a defector from the Chaodai. He once again disobeyed orders by refusing to deliver Kimura into their hands, however, his actions ultimately saved both Kimura and the seaQuest, prompting Lucas Wolenczak to suggest that he may be in line for a promotion.

Background

O'Neill was portrayed by actor Ted Raimi and was one of three actors to remain with the series for entire duration. The Character of O'Niell was originally supposed to be a character named Garry Stephen Bachmann from Ottawa, Canada. This was then changed to be a woman named MacKenna O'Neill, then the character was changed back to a male and renamed "Mack O'Neill".^[16] This name was used right up until filming was to begin, name tags designed for his uniforms that read "M. O'Neill" are known to exist before it was ultimately changed to "Tim."^[17] This is also why his name was Mac in the comic and Stephen Bachmann in the non canon novels.

Chief Petty Officer Manilow Crocker

CPO Manilow Crocker was on the brink of retirement when Admiral Noyce personally asked him to sign aboard seaQuest when it was put back to sea in 2018. Crocker had served together with Captain Bridger before and, as a result, did not regret his decision to serve one more tour with his old friend.

As Chief of Security aboard seaQuest, Crocker was responsible for the safety of all aboard. On more than one occasion, he was ordered to board enemy vessels and colonies to take the occupants into custody. Crocker was also the first Human being to lay eyes on an actual alien when the seaQuest found an ancient alien starship entombed in an underwater rock face. The alien fired at Crocker, but, it was merely a method of transportation which moved Crocker to a holding area aboard the alien ship, before finally returning him to seaQuest.

As seaQuest`s tour ended, Crocker was finally able to retire and had secured a civilian job as head of security for Tucker Enterprises. Unfortunately, Crocker's wife Helen, informed him via a video message that she had fallen in love with another man, devastating the Chief. With his personal life in ruin, Crocker volunteered to a dangerous mission to take a seaLaunch to the World Power facility that was engulfed in an exposed lava flow in the hopes of finding Dr. Lawrence Wolenczak and possibly a solution to the problem. His mission a success, Captain Bridger ordered him to abandon seaQuest with the rest of the crew in order to spare his life.

With seaQuest destroyed in the incident, Crocker firmly believed that there would never be another seaQuest.

Background

Chief Crocker was portrayed by actor Royce D. Applegate. In the second season, Crocker was replaced by Lieutenant James Brody as head of security aboard seaQuest, while Applegate was dismissed from the cast, replaced by Edward Kerr.

Chief Petty Officer Miguel Ortiz

CPO Miguel Ortiz was a member of seaQuest's original crew under Captain Stark. After she was relieved of duty, he stayed on, serving again under Nathan Bridger's command.

As the Head Sensor Operator, Ortiz was responsible for controlling the boat's WSKRs (Wireless Sea Knowledge Retrieval Satellites) and was also involved in various away missions. He could understand Spanish and had a knowledge of Greek mythology, particularly that of Atlantis.

Like Dr. Wendy Smith, it is assumed that Ortiz was killed in action while the crew was trapped on Hyperion.

Background

Marco Sanchez portrayed Ortiz during the first and second season of the show. He requested to remain for the third season, but was ultimately let go after NBC decided to lower the cast number. The character that ultimately became Ortiz underwent 2 radical changes before becoming what it did. First he was a man named Drew and then was changed to being the son of a rich Vietnamese family named Ngyuen Ky before settling on making him Cuban, the name originally being Mundo Ortiz.^[16]

Darwin

Darwin is a dolphin. He is able to communicate to the crew through the assistance of a translation device known as the vo-corder, and to navigate throughout the seaQuest via a series of water-filled access tunnels leading to the ship's moon pool openings, where he could interact more directly with the rest of the crew.

Nathan Bridger was living on an island before accepting command of the seaQuest when he rescued Darwin from a fishing net. He began working on communicating with and training Darwin, using hand-signals to communicate. The two became close friends, and even in his capacity as captain, Bridger often referred to him as "My dolphin," treating him at times like a very fond pet, and at other times like an equal, even diverting the ship from a research mission in order to seek medical assistance when Darwin became sick, citing that he was a member of the crew just as much as anyone else.

Lucas was also shown to have a particularly close relationship with Darwin after Darwin and Bridger joined the crew, and it was Lucas who developed the vo-corder translation system (based on Bridger's notes) for communicating with Darwin. Lucas once noted that Darwin tended to follow him around, and that they were something of an inseparable pair.

Darwin, being in a unique position, often assisted the crew in key ways, such as planting a homing beacon on another ship, splashing water onto a containment field device when Bridger and Crocker were trapped inside, and various other accomplishments.

References