Oh boy, this episode brings up so many different topics I don't even know where to begin. I guess the biggest, most obvious one is the trip to Mars. This has so many implications and side plots to go with it, and I don't mean just the evidence of life they found. And then there's the beginning of the militarization of seaQuest. This is about the point in the series where they start to get away from the science and more into the action/adventure. You'll also begin noticing less direct UEO involvement and more US military oversight. Then there's the foreign dislike of the UEO. Not only is it believable, but it's almost inevitable that anti-UEO sentiments will crop up. A crack in their normally rosy picture was opened with the miners in "seaWest," and that crack is widened here. I like that, it makes the future seem more real. There's also a lot of talk about space vs. underwater. There are concerns of public opinion, funding issues, and just plain pride. Bridger and Keller have a long discussion over this, Westphalen and Krieg discuss it, Bridger and Westphalen lament together about what the events will mean for them. I like all that because it shows how interrelated everything in life is. You can't have tunnel vision and only focus on one area and just forget about everything else. And of course, there's the focus the world puts on the lost astronauts. How totally believable is this? Think Apollo 11 moon landing in July '69; think Challenger on January 28, 1986; think the week of September 11, 2001; think Columbia just a few weeks ago. That last one is especially poignant and relevant, and I found myself looking at this episode through entirely different eyes after Columbia went down. The writers do a wonderful job of portraying not only the jubilant standstill at the beginning, and the shocked, harried rush to find the astronauts afterward.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
Wayfarer - I don't even know how to express just how awesome it would be if NASA were to send a manned mission to Mars. "If there were no other reasons for going to space, the awesome challenge would have been enough." Engineers are famous for creating or improving things simply to see if they could. "I see advances from our mission benefiting everyone back home on Earth." I cannot tell you how much of the technology we use today was originally developed by NASA. The best example is computers. In order to fit them on the tiny space capsules, the big bulky computers of the 50's had to be essentially miniaturized, and these smaller computer parts eventually filtered into the mainstream to become the great-grandfathers of the current PCs. "Just the thrill of what we did could galvanize an entire generation of explorers and scientists." Why do you think we went to the moon in the first place? Kennedy set up that 'before the decade is out' challenge in order to galvanize the country. And it did. Just as a trip to Mars would do. For all the above reasons and more I think that humans should continue to reach farther out into space. And not just with unmanned crafts, but we ourselves. Our natural curiosity about what's out there will never be satisfied if we don't. Do I think man will set foot on Mars before I die? Probably, I certainly hope so. Do I think we'll have a man on Mars by 2018, as in seaQuest? Probably not, not after two satellites crashed in Mars orbit and now with Columbia. But someday, I think we need to go there.
Life on Mars - This topic is a little stickier. At its heart, it comes down to 'do you believe in aliens?' Because if we do ever find evidence of life, no matter how trivial, on Mars, it has incredible implications for finding more advanced life elsewhere in the galaxy. I'll save my thoughts on aliens for the more relevant episode down the line a ways. But I will address my opinions on life on Mars. Do I think there is evidence of life there? Maybe, I wouldn't be surprised if there is. But I don't think, if it is there, that it will be anywhere near as advanced as a snail (even though there is new evidence of water trapped under the surface, and even more of it than scientists expected to find). Microbes or bacteria or something like that is all we're going to find there, if anything.
Yuwenia bentleyi - Go here for the story behind this little guy. I thought it kinda cool.
CHARACTERS:
I like President Hoi Chi of the Montagnards. He's got a commanding presence and a kind heart. He's truly thinking of the best thing for his people, unlike Tran. But I get the feeling he's not in complete control of his country. It's not quite a puppet government, but Tran is able to circumvent him entirely too easily.
There are nice parts in this episode for everyone, even the lesser characters. It's episodes like this that remind you this really is an ensemble piece. And especially since everyone's parts are appropriate to their strengths and characters.
I really like Ortiz' affection for the WSKRS. It's kinda cute. They're his babies, and he laments their death, but recognizes that they are, after all, just machines and the life of the astronauts is more important. I also like how Bridger deals with Ortiz. He helps build his self-confidence by asking questions that lead Ortiz to the eventual answer, but at the same time let Ortiz figure out that answer on his own. That's a nice technique.
Nathan Bridger:
I've been putting off a discussion of Bridger for longer than I probably should have since he's the main focus of the series. There are just so many directions you could go with him. Because of the amount of screen time he gets throughout the season, we know the most about him, and he's the most well rounded character. But we do get a nice glimpse of his humanity here with his second-guessing of his actions and his inability to deal well with failure. You need moments like that to remind you that he is just like you and me. But I think the more appropriate way to look at Bridger is through his many friends that we're introduced to throughout the season. He knows such a wide variety of people, from the old buddy Admiral Noyce to the fun-loving Malcolm Landsdowne to his run-in with Guy Peche to the eccentric Regulator, astronaut Scott Keller, rogue environmentalist Max Scully, sub designer Martin Tucker, Secretary General of the UEO Andrea Dre, old buddies who command other ships, heck he even knows the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. That list alone is almost half the episodes in the season. I realize that after almost six decades, you know a lot of people. And the majority of the people he knows he's met through either the Navy or his interests in sub designs and dolphins. I also recognize that most Navy officers are extremely friendly and know tons of people because they move around so much. But my point to all this is that we learn a lot about Bridger through the introduction of his friends, and vice versa. His military contacts come from his career-conscious first go-round with the Navy, when he was apparently quite a fast rising star officer. His interests in dolphins led him to Malcolm, and his design of seaQuest gave him many contacts in that arena. But I think it's Noyce and Keller, Bridger's two Academy (I'm pretty sure they all met at the Academy) friends that reveal the most. The one we see here is Keller. Their repartee here is excellent. They take care of business and get that out of the way, and then lapse into their friendly competition of words and branch off from work. Especially poignant is Keller's request for Bridger to look in on his granddaughter. We need this humanizing aspect of the astronauts to make us care whether or not they get rescued at the end. At the same time, we see just how loyal Bridger is to his friend as he rises above the pettiness in order to concentrate on finding the core samples. I'm not sure how many people can honestly say that they would go that far for a friend.
QUICK QUESTIONS, QUERIES, QUANDRIES AND COMMENTS:
Until this time through, I never picked up on the fact that Crocker's dad fought in Vietnam. I guess the dates would be about right, I just never caught that line before. Either that or I never really thought about it.
Oh yes, the German Santa Rosa attack and Italian Torino class subs. Well first of all, why would they use a Spanish term to refer to German subs? Secondly, the German navy uses numbers, not names, for their subs. Think U-571, U-505, etc. As for the Italians, they have four classes: Sauro, Toti, Pelosi and Longobardo (the last two are actually larger versions of the Sauro class). It's possible that the NATO designations for these are different, but I wasn't able to find any reference to a Torino class sub at all.
BOB BALLARD MOMENT:
Research in space tells us about both Earth and other planets. In August of '92 the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite was launched. It circles Earth every 112 minutes at an altitude of 850 miles, where it uses its radar altimeter to map the mountain ranges under the sea.
