This is a fairly interesting episode, especially as it's the first time they bridge the gap between space and the ocean in the series (something they tend to do fairly frequently). The background to the Liberté space station is quite interesting, especially how they slowly reveal more and more about it. And the writers continue building on the fantastic world they've been developing all season. They expand on the political situation in the world, the history in space, and the underwater world with the Aquasphere (in fact, according to Bob Ballard last week, there are structures similar to this in existence even now). The plot itself is a little bit lame, but I'm willing to overlook that.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
I think it's extremely believable that there could be an undiscovered spaceship on the bottom of the ocean. Groups are still finding old shipwrecks to this day.
I like the computer-stupidity of some of the older crew despite the fact that most of them would be under forty now. The majority of people under forty in this day and age are fairly tech-savvy, but I guess much of that is just a functioning knowledge unless you work in IT.
Genetics is a fairly newsworthy topic anymore, so it's interesting to see that even ten years ago things like the chromosome altering for biological weapons would show up on this show. Especially the biological weapon thing. That's been big news lately with Iraq.
CHARACTERS:
Other than maybe briefly in "Games," this is the first we get to see of the Ford/Krieg dynamic, which obviously comes into play more later on down the road. These two are certainly opposites though.
Westphalen comes across as kind of cold and a little bit bitchy in the episode, especially in her dealings with Ford. She's all warm and joking with Bridger (and the humor is cute), but that's early in the episode. I guess when she works too hard she tends to forget common courtesies.
I love the crewmember with the wife back home. I know he's mostly just a reason to give Bridger a chance to make a speech, but to me he's a humanizing factor in this situation. It's easy to forget that this is after all just a job for these characters. They all have families back home on dry land waiting for them.
I can easily understand Ford's frustration in being stuck in a small, confined space for a long period of time. I get that same way on a long airplane flight. One of the curses of living so far from my parents.
Katie Hitchcock:
I made the mention in my last review that we've mostly seen Katie Hitchcock in her professional capacity so far in the series. And while I'm glad to see that women's role in the military continues to keep growing and they gain more positions of leadership, I prefer characters who are a little more rounded, who have other sides to them than just work. We get little glimpses of her personal side here and there, especially in a couple weeks in "seaWest," but for the most part, just work so far. So let's tackle Katie from a professional point of view. Technically, Katie is third in command of seaQuest, which means she probably takes a couple shifts in charge of the bridge each week. And that's good; even in the current Navy, once you reach the level of Lieutenant Commander (and equivalent ranks in the other services), you're expected to begin taking on more leadership roles in preparation for taking a position of command down the road. But having control of the bridge for a normal shift is far different than being the sole person in command. This is the first time she hasn't had Bridger and/or Ford just a phone call away when problems come her way; she has to make the calls herself. That's the hardest part of command, knowing that the decision you make impacts your entire crew, and you have to be willing to order other people into situations that could conceivably lead to their deaths. You also have to be smart enough to know when to fight and when not to. I think Katie shows a great capacity for this here; she does remarkably well for her first time out. And as the season goes along, she gains more experience, more confidence in her abilities. (On a side note, this is one of the good things about Bridger -- he's not only a commanding officer, but a teacher as well. I think many of the characters come out of the season much more knowledgeable and much more confident than they start out.) The only problem in Katie's growth as a commander is that it comes with a decline in her role as engineer. When the season started, Katie was one of my favorite characters simply because she was an engineer (and a female one at that), and I've always naturally tended toward engineers. But in the long run, her career will benefit more from being in command as opposed to engineering. Unfortunately the show does take a hit, though.
QUICK QUESTIONS, QUERIES, QUANDRIES AND COMMENTS:
I have never been able to figure out the 'pre-Lucas' comment. The 'current' year for the show is 2018. Lucas is 16 -- a little math leaves us with a birth date of 2002. Still with me? Lucas says "the North Sea Confederation...lit the candle on her in twenty and three." Translation: Liberté was launched in 2003. That's one year after Lucas was born. Maybe Lucas just means it was before he was really aware of what was going on in the world.
I'm assuming the North Sea Confederation is the equivalent of the European Union countries. Which would roughly correlate to the Liberté being launched by the European Space Agency. I guess this show aired before the ESA became involved with the International Space Station.
Lucas tells Bridger and Ford he "jacked into their internet," they being the North Sea Confederation. Granted, my knowledge of computers is closer to a user level than a hacker level, but I was under the impression that 'internet' referred to a connection of a bunch of different 'nets' and servers. I think the proper term to use in this case in 'intranet' which refers to an internal connection of computers and servers, and usually isn't accessible to outside computers without a little hacking and cracking.
It's hard to believe Ford isn't temporarily relieved of command the minute they placed him into quarantine. I would think that a natural step to take instead of waiting to see if he develops symptoms.
BOB BALLARD MOMENT:
This week Bob talks about the Wireless Sea Knowledge Retrieval System (WSKRS), and the autonomous undersea vehicle they're based on. The modern equivalent just [sic] went to sea in '93.
