I have kind of mixed feelings on this episode. It's good and I love seeing lots of Darwin, but when you look at it closely, it's a fairly weak plot all in all. I'll get into Darwin later, but for now let's just say that it's pretty inevitable that an early episode would look at him and his relation to some of the people aboard seaQuest. But that part of the story really does drag along. He's sick, oh, let's wave our hands around a little and wonder what's wrong with him and why he talks like Yoda. Even the so-called dolphin expert doesn't tell them anything new. I will say that the beach scene with the group gathered around the table is the best scene in the whole hour, simply because it combines all the themes of the episode, and seemingly more things get figured out in that five minutes than the other 55 together. There is a lot of wasted time in this episode (swimming through the tubes, positioning the platform, etc.), far more than most others. A lot of it is necessary in a way (more on that later), but some really isn't. For example, the mind reading...thing (for lack of a better term) toward the beginning with O'Neill and Bridger -- that gets dragged out too much. And what's more, that little bit would be far more interesting if the topic were revisited at a later date. But even in "Hide and Seek," where Darwin's swimming around in dreams, it's more of a plot device than something they really go into much depth with.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
The big science this week has to do with the black smokers. I think this is a really good topic for seaQuest to be looking into. Scientists have known about them for about 23 years now, and I'm sure there's still tons they don't know about them. Part of the reason is because the smokers are so far down there. Even with current technology, there are big limits on how deep humans can go and survive for very long. But with seaQuest, you're talking deeper than people could ever go before. Add to that Dr. Young's Magma Buoy, and the implications are incredible. Predicting volcanoes is just the most obvious use. The smokers themselves could provide help in combating cancer, or even who knows what. Anyway, really cool topic, too bad it's a kind of limited look at them here.
CHARACTERS:
Raleigh Young is a nice, fully rounded character. That's something we get a lot with this show. My perception may be colored slightly by having seen his later appearance in "Greed for a Pirate's Dream," but even this week you get a good insight into the character. He's been so focused on his work for so long, and he's so close to seeing that dream come to fruition that it's beginning to affect his judgment. But at heart, he's still a good guy.
Similarly, Malcolm Landsdowne becomes a nice, complete character by the end of the season. He takes a little longer to develop, but you get a good start with this episode. He's a nice mix of silly and serious. Much of the time he's a little offbeat, almost flamboyant even. But when it comes to dolphins, he can be quite serious about his work. He and Krieg are very similar in that respect.
A lot of the time that gets wasted this week is because of the large number of 'reaction shots.' By that I mean when the camera does a long shot of one person's face as he or she reacts to something. For example, someone finds a dead body and there's almost always a shot of the discoverer's face looking shocked or disgusted. Well there's a lot of that this week. Normally, I don't like seeing that many reaction shots because they just waste time. But here, they're kind of important because the story is driven heavily by emotion. There's the pain Bridger and Lucas feel at having to say good-bye to Darwin; there's the frustration Dr. Young feels at the delay in the schedule because of Darwin's illness. When there's a lot of emotion involved like this, you have to find some way to show that emotion.
Darwin:
Darwin is by far the most unique character on this show. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take one of the early episodes and use it to look more in depth at him. And I'm not talking about my review here. When you come down to it, this episode is about the relationships that exist between the crew and Darwin. Bridger's obvious -- Darwin is the closest he has to a family. Similarly, Lucas' best friend is Darwin, even this early in the cruise. O'Neill apparently has this strange mental link to Darwin, and it affects him deeply. Even Ford and Westphalen get into the act, backing up Bridger's actions to Noyce. It's nice to see that right from the start, Westphalen looks on Darwin as a member of the crew ("I'm also the chief physician."). I'd like to think that all of them do. Because the crew can talk with Darwin, even if they don't always understand what he's saying, there's a link there that doesn't exist with most pets and animal friends. Perhaps that's what the writers were trying to convey with the mental link. Unfortunately, there isn't much growth in Darwin the character throughout the season. Of course, I'm not quite sure how a character like that could grow either.
QUICK QUESTIONS, QUERIES, QUANDRIES AND COMMENTS:
Is there anything other than viral or bacterial illnesses?
I'm surprised Bridger tells Malcolm about the vocorder. We learn later in "The Regulator" and "seaWest" that it's classified and they don't tell just anyone about it. Does Malcolm have some sort of high classification with the UEO? Or does Bridger just forget security?
ALERTS FOR THE FUTURE:
"I think I’ll carry on working. I don’t think Raleigh or his ceramic suppository will mind my absence." -- Westphalen takes a pass on seeing the Magma Buoy launched, remember this come "Greed for a Pirate's Dream."
BOB BALLARD MOMENT:
For posterity's sake, I'll let you know the topic Bob talked about after each episode. This week it was about the black smokers and how they were discovered in 1979. He then went on to mention the "pollution" they produce.
