Our vintage Starlog coverage continues under the masterful hand of the late Bill Warren, key correspondent for seaQuest’s run. Having already interviewed most of the principals, it was now the turn of an actress that was destined to become no less than a National Treasure in her native UK.
Although her fellow cast members would infamously brand her character ‘Doctor Crestfallen’ Stephanie Beacham’s Dr Kristin Westphalen would nonetheless become a key player and a firm fan favourite for the first season.
Already familiar to US audiences thanks to her turn in Dynasty and The Colby’s she had been enchanting British audiences for years having first appeared in two Hammer Horror films in the early seventies. Indeed, Beacham’s longevity could be attributed to her ability to transition and re-invent herself through the decades, having left the decadent ’80’s behind to become a positive role model in the ’90’s.
Bill Warren’s gift for casual revelations uncovers that the Westphalen role was originally written as a male, with only Beacham’s connections and persistence winning the Amblin execs over to cast the former glamourpuss in the show. And despite the negativity surrounding series lead Roy Scheider and conflicts with Producers, Beacham confirms the series lead made the effort to personally read with her for Network approval.
While Beacham speaks highly of all her fellow cast members and aspirations for the show, it was the budding romance between her character and the Captain that most captivated the audience imagination (quickly becoming the subject of reams of fan-fiction). While this did eventually came to fruition in the season finale, it would sadly also be Beacham’s final turn as the character having refused to re-locate to Florida for season two.
To this day, many fans cite the absence of the Westphalen character as one of the defining elements of the decline in quality of the show it would never truly recover from. As the internet campaign to ‘Rescue seaQuest’ gained momentum, a return to ‘Science Faction’ may have been the key motivator, but it was the chemistry between Bridger and Westphalen fans missed most…
The follow-up to veteran Starlog correspondant Bill Warren’s introductory feature on seaQuest (see last post) is this candid interview with teen sensation Jonathan Brandis. While Its impossible not to acknowledge the tragedy that would befall this talented young performer, we can at least enjoy his wit and insights during what was obviously a high point in his life and career.
With over a decade in showbusiness already, Brandis had clearly earned respect and admiration from his peers, and although he had already worked with stars of the calibre of Chuck Norris, was evidently full of admiration for his co-stars in seaQuest. Naturally the conversation would gravitate to star Roy Scheider, and here Brandis does his best to sound like a colleague and professional, when really you can tell he’s just as gushing a fan as anybody else who had seen JAWS.
The same could be said for his role in the show, where Brandis demonstrates true insight into the character of Lucas and his father/son relationship with Captain Bridger. Thankfully this would continue to develop throughout the season just as he hoped, and would ultimately be one of the best and fondly remembered aspects of the whole series.
The most endearing aspect of this interview, however, must be how humble Jon comes across, when arguably, his star was shining brightest. When he laments about having his mind blown by turning up for work on Monday morning surrounded by the people he watched on TV the night before you can’t help but think what a fabulous leading man he would’ve become…
While I’ve tried to chart the course of seaQuest’s history in a loose but nonetheless chronological order as best I can, occasionally material that’s new to me will surface, and some slips by completely. Now that the bottom of the In-tray for Season One is finally in sight (has it really been five years already??) an opportunity was taken to look back over posts, and I discovered this piece from November ’93 was one of the latter!
Indeed, its clearly early days as Starlog correspondent Bill Warren strolls around the set (identifying key pieces from the yet-to-be-aired episodes Games and Give Me Liberté as he goes) conveying the atmosphere and pace of the production well. With cast members affable and excited to be part of the show as ever (including Ted Raimi as – yes! – Mack O’Neill) the trouble behind the scenes is prevalent in this first of the articles from the World’s best sci-fi magazine of the era.
Though Rockne O’Bannon’s vision had been retained (for now) and the direction of the show seems unified at this point, creative casualties (such as Producer Tommy Thompson, see earlier posts) are starting to mount. Of all the comments made by producer Philip Segal about the show, his musings about man not ‘growing gills and walking into the sea’ bizarrely foreshadowing what was to come is probably the most poignant…
UK Starburst reporter Pat Jankiewicz picks up up from where US Starlog (below) left off for the ’94/’95 Yearbook. Though apparently well into season 2 at the time of writing, Ted Raimi’s character Lieutenant Tim O’Neill is still being referred to as Mack in the ‘talking Dolphin show’.
And speaking of Darwin, Raimi expresses his delight at the storyline from season 1’s ‘Hide & Seek’ being reprised for season 2 while revealing the that not only is the Dolphin fake for much of the time but that star Roy Schieder had particular fondness of the real one. While Raimi speaks fondly of his ‘rambunctious’ co-star (and his enduring association with a little movie called JAWS) and his love of jokes on the topic, apparently Raimi’s impressions of his colleagues on the show were the stuff of legend.
Also of interest are Raimi’s observations of Director of the aforementioned Shark tale and Exec. Producer for seaQuest, Steven Spielberg – whom he suggests was much more pro-active behind the scenes than what was generally thought. Recalling their introduction as similar to ‘meeting someone’s dad’ Raimi nonetheless confirms that it was indeed Spielberg’s show…
