[  Mood: Distorted ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC ]
So I have decided to return to my on-going series on where I look at what has happened to the actors form the late, great seaQuest.

This time around, I am looking at the women who were added to sex-up the second season. Even more than the men, these two women came to symbolize what had gone wrong with the show. This meant that they recieved more than their fair share of derision and hate from the fans. It didn’t help that they had, replaced two beloved, but older, characters. Rumours swirled on how they got their jobs, their relationships, their intelligence, etc. It was quite nasty.

seaQuest – Where Are They Now? – So Sexy It Hurts

Kathy Evison
Evison had a few guest spots on shows such as 90210 before getting cast as Lieutenant (j.g.) Lonnie Henderson on seaQuest. Initially a helmsman, she morphed into an engineer later in the series. Given that Henderson was the only female available as a romantic interest for the crew (see below for the fate of the other female character), she became a convenient love interest for season 2. In season 3, Henderson was paired with the XO Commander Ford, raising the hackles of fans who had already christened her "The Ho of the High Seas".

Evinson has done some guest spots since seaQuest, most notibly three different roles in three different episodes of Diagnosis Murder. The last of these was supposed to be a pilot for a TV series called Whistlers, starring her and Zoe McLelland. She has done loads of commercials, including a recent one for dog food that was one of the two inspirations for this series.

Rosalind Allen
Allen came to seaQuest from a series of guest spots, most notibly an episode of Sienfeld and a reoccuring role in All My Children. She took on the role of Dr. Wendy Smith, the new chief medical officer of the sub. The character was also psychic and was supposed to be a love interest for Captain Bridger. The bumping aside of Westphalen for an ingenue irked many fans, causing them to vent their rage on many a Usenet group. Allen’s character would not survive the second big purge at the end of season 2.

Since seaQuest, Allen continued to work in TV for a while, doing guest spots and commercials. She continues to do commercials but is now including teaching and directing in her work.

Next Time: Season 3! That’s right Ironside!

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Watching My son playing ]
So I recently finished the second book of the Honor Harrington series and found that it was an enjoyable book.

This installment finds Honor in charge of a new H.M.S. Fearless, now a heavy cruiser, as well as a whole taskforce. She is the military lead for a diplomatic mission to Grayson, a planet whose attitudes towards women can only be described as backwards.

Honor must fight against the inherant sexism in the star system, while helping negotiate a treaty and fight off the Havenite threat.

A good book, with the usual attention to detail that Webber is good at. Honor develops more as a character in this book. Making mystakes and having to pay the price for it.

I have already order book three from the library.

[  Mood: Happy ]
Urban fantasy has exploded in recent years with everybody and their mother (literally) writing books full of magic in the modern world. Some, like Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison and Rachel Caine do a very good job of it. Others botch it big time.

Into this world enters Ilona Andrews with the Kate Daniels series. Magic Burns is the second in the series, and it finds Kate settling into her new role as the liaison between The Order of Merciful Aid and the Mercenary Guild. In addition, she has been hired by the Pack to find a missing set of maps. Kate also ends up looking for a missing witch who seems to be connected in some way to missing maps. This leads Kate into a much bigger mess than she anticipated or wants.

This is an exciting, quick paced story with a very likable female main character. The world Kate inhabits is well thought our and in many ways original. This is one of the urban fantasies worth picking up.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son. ]
I actually made it outside today for one whole hour. That gave me the time to pick up a bunch of deadfall sticks from around our poplar. These I have kept because I can use them to protect my pea and bean sprouts from the pigeons who like to eat the tender shoots.

I also got two of our rainbarrells set up and ready to go. Ready to collect all the liquid goodness.

Finally I got part of a row of sugar snaps and snow peas each planted. Given that they can survive the cold better than most plants, this is a good thing. Next weekend I will plant some more to stagger the crop.

Oh! How I love getting my hands dirty.

[  Mood: Angry ]
[  Currently: Watching My son play ]
So Amazon thinks that books with GLBTQ content are "adult" and must be deranked to make their search results more family friendly.

Really?

Heather has Two Mommies (which was deranked but is now back) is too adult?

Really?

All I Could Bare – a memoir about being a stripper in gay clubs in Washington D.C. was deranked in February, but How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson was not. Heck they even let you look inside her book where she mentions showing her boobs to a tatoo artist when she was sixteen. There’s good wholesome, family friendly literature. I think I will read that to my son tomorrow night. (And bestiality has not been deranked. Excellent! I can buy Daddy Left Mommy for a Sheep for the boy).

Amazon initially told a young adult author that this policy was to make their searches more family friendly. Now they are saying it is a glitch and are denying that a hacker is responsible. Notice that they are not dealing with their earlier excuse. Nor are they dealing with the fact that this has been going on since February. Rumours are also swirling that this is an experiment that blew up in their face.

So what is Amazon’s real issue? Over reacting do gooders? Conservative whack jobs? Owners of an easily hackable database? Just plain incompetent?

The Internet will be the judge. Until then, enjoy the below.

Amazon rank.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
Season 2 brought a lot of changes to seaQuest. Even though the ratings were good, NBC wanted more. To that end, Patrick Hasburgh was brought on to revamp the series. What resulted was a purging of older characters who were all replaced by, younger, sexier actors. Some turned out to be decent actors and were accepted by the fans. Others were just cute faces and becamed villified by the fans. Viewership would begin to dwindle in season two as plots became campy, b-grade sci-fi rip-offs and seaQuest became an industry wide joke.

seaQuest – Where Are They Now? – The Replacement Fillers

Michael DeLuise
The second son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Michael was born into acting. He had his first role at ten and continued to land series roles and re-occuring guest stars until he was cast as Seaman Tony Piccolo in the second season of seaQuest. Piccolo was a navy enlisted man convicted of striking a superior officer. As part of an early release program, he agreed to have artificial gills implanted. Rebellious, he tried to escape when he was initially posted to seaQuest. He quickly replaced Krieg as the big brother/role model/best friend to Lucas, with whom he bunked. In the third season, Piccolo became a favourite of new captain Oliver Hudson. He was promoted to Warrant Officer and qualified for subfighter pilot training.

Since seaQuest, Michael has been busy. He stepped out directly from cancellation into the role of Andy Sipowicz Jr. in NYPD Blue. He also starred in the short lived Broklyn South. From there he has runs on Gilmore Girls as well as guest spots on Lost, Stargate and CSI:NY. He has also directed and produced a comedy called Between the Sheets.

Peter DeLuise
Peter came to seaQuest off his breakout role in 21 Jump Street. Playing Officer Doug Penhall brought Peter to the locker doors of the world. Including mine. Being the eldest son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Peter was also exposed to Hollywood very young. As Dagwood, Peter played a Genetically Engineered Life Form, or GELF. As a prototype, Dagwood had some flaws that made him not what the customer ordered. Due to that, he ended up as a janitor in the UEO. After saving O’Neil’s life, he was invited to stay on seaQuest.

Since cancellation, Peter has kept busy with acting, getting guest spots in a variety of series. He has also taken a turn at directing, working in a bunch of Vancouver based shows. But it is in the various Stargate series that he has made his mark. Director, writer and producer, guest star, he has done it all. So much so that he is kind of a legend in Stargate fandom. Series producer, Joseph Mallozi called him “the walking Stargate omnipedia”.

Edward Kerr
While he had done a couple of made for TV movies, seaQuest was Edward (sometimes known as Ed) Kerr’s breakout role. As Lt. James Brody, he lead the security detail on the sub. A man’s man, he could fight, drink and charm with the best of them. He was also meant to be a sex symbol, someone the ladies could sigh about. Rumours swirled that Kerr was also not happy with the direction the series was taking, and asked to have his character killed off in the third season. The producers obliged, killin his character off midway through season 3.

Since his turn as Brody, Kerr has done quite well for himself on TV. In addition to his many, many guest spots, he had a lead in the short-run David Kelly series Snoops. Kerr also ended up in Legalese with James Garner. Finally, he has ended up in the Marco Sanchez produced video Ambition to Meaning: Finding Your Life’s Purpose along with other seaQuest alum, Don Franklin and Michael DeLuise.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Canadian Doctor Who fans!!!

Space has picked up series 5 of Doctor Who.

This means, that unless the parent network of CTV does something amazing, it will not be shown in HD.

No, I am not dead. I have been busy with the ramp up to work, the podcast and my writing.

I am still working on the seaQuest, where are they now entries. The next installment should be out this week.

But until then, I had to share, especially given that Joe and hold that Soaps are Urban Fantasy:

What Daytime Soaps Taught Us (Well, Besides Sex)

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Dollhouse ]
Note: This entry was completely ready to go Friday when the computer crashed. Since then, I have been super busy, hense the delay.

SeaQuest – Where Are They Now? Season 1 – The Survivors

Not all of the actors found themselves out of a job at the end of season one. Along with Scheider and Brandis, the gentlemen below managed to make it to the vastly revamped second season.

Don Franklin
A classically trained dancer, Franklin had already had small screen success with Young Riders. He turned down the role of Walker’s sidekick in Walker, Texas Ranger to do seaQuest. As the sub’s XO Commander Jonathan Ford, Franklin played a man who was a talented young many who was on his way up. Always taking courses, it was clear from the show that Ford was a leader. In the third season, with the sub returning from an alien planet, Ford found his career stalled as he had been away from Earth ten years. In addition, his captain was now the hard-assed Hudson who was less than supportive. Along with Raimi and Brandis, Franklin would appear in every episode of the series.

After seaQuest, Franklin landed starring roles in the mini-series Asteroid and the series Seven Days. He has gone one to guest starring in a variety of network shows, including reoccuring spots in NCIS and Daybreak.

Ted Rami
Raimi was the second person cast for the pilot, after Scheider. As the ship’s communication officer Lt. (j.g.) Tim O’Neill, Raimi quickly became a fan favourite. O’Neill was fluent in least a dozen languages, and could adequately speak several more. It was also hinted that he might be psychic when Darwin the Doolphin was able to communicate with him.

With the last name of Raimi, Ted has been anything but unemployed. As Sam’s younger brother, he has found employment in Xena, as Joxer the Mighty, and in the Spiderman movies. He has also had many guest starring roles in series such as CSI:Miami and Supernatural.

Marco Sanchez
Sanchez’s big break came with his role on seaQuest. As Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz, Sanchez quickly became a fan favourite. This was due, in part, to the friendship between O’Neill and Ortiz. Unfortunately, he did not survive the second revamping of the series at the end of the second season.

Since his time on seaQuest, Sanchez has done well for himself. He landed a reoccuring role in Walker, Texas Ranger which then turned into the spin-off series, Sons of Thunder. Since that was cancelled, he has continued to work with many guest starring roles, including Dollhouse and The Mentalist.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
I have updated the first two entries with pictures and will be working on the next one today.