#FreeWillyFriday: Willy vs. Seaquest DSV

 I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, “Evan! Seaquest took place in the year 2018, but the last movie featured Willy aboard the starship Enterprise! Even the earliest incarnation of that storied vessel didn't launch until the year 2151, and the last entry clearly suggested Willy was involved with the Next Generation crew, whose television series took place over the years 2364 to 2370.”

Whoa. Calm down.

First, I'd like to remind you that these aren't actual movies, just posters I drew when I probably should have been doing something more productive in junior high. Second, how did you know all those dates? Did you spend more time Googling it than anything else I did for this entry? Also, were you a big Seaquest fan?

I thought I was going to be. I mean, you had Roy Scheider from Jaws. And a talking dolphin. It was like Star Trek, but underwater!

Seaquest lasted three seasons, from 1993 to 1996, on NBC, but I didn't. Looking up information about the show to jog my memory, I think I must have watched somewhere into season 2, but mainly I just remember Scheider, the dolphin (Darwin, who spoke through a computer) and Jonathan Brandis.

Scheider, Brandis and Ted Raimi. From https://amblin.com/tv/seaquest-dsv/

The show was set in, yes, the year 2018, when humanity had colonized the oceans. The Seaquest was an advanced submersibe vessel protecting and exploring on behalf of the United Earth Oceans Organization. Darwin was, of course, voiced by Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who did all the movements in an early motion capture suit.

Darwin, the real star of the show. From https://amblin.com/tv/seaquest-dsv/

OK, I made that last part up. I don't remember a whole lot about the show, but in the course of writing this I learned a) it's streaming on Peacock, b) the theme song won an Emmy and c) in the third season, they traveled a little over a decade into the future, Michael Ironside replaced Scheider as the captain and the show was retitled Seaquest 2032.

And since they time traveled and people in Star Trek time traveled a lot, that's why the movies aren't really out of order.

But why, you might ask, would Starfleet send personnel traveling through time to pick up an apparently murderous whale and/or his son and/or clone? I don't know – maybe the same reason they came back to the '80s to snag those humpback whales in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?

And while you wrestle with that, you might find yourself asking, why is Willy suddenly as big as the Seaquest? To which I might respond, clearly you've given this a lot more thought than I ever did.