Atlantis DSV

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Picard
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Atlantis DSV

Post by Picard » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:09 pm

http://atlantisdsv.newcapequest.com/episodes/index.html
http://atlantisdsv.newcapequest.com/library/index.html

Site I found a while ago while searching for some Seaquest DSV - related stuff.

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2046
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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by 2046 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:04 pm

Their story advertisement blurbs are just covered in cheese.

But I don't mean that rudely . . . they are excellent according to the modern concept of "excellent drama blurb", and probably good if you're interested at all. If these were Star Trek stories, I might consider the blurbs overwrought but I'd still probably click on the stories. (But they better not suck.)

However, there was something about the setting and the overdone high-falutin' blurbs that just made the whole thing seem absurd. The withering war with "Macronesia" didn't help, because I simply imagined Micronesia's islands and it made me want to giggle at the thought of a bunch of angry atolls trying to rig up some sort of massive industrial base. What are they using? Coconuts? Dive-bombed by swallows, no doubt.

But more importantly, this sort of thing makes Star Trek sound as silly as it is, as silly as most fiction is. But first, a counterpoint:

Star Trek frequently features a cast of shipmates who invariably find themselves at the heart of most major events, and we can all admit to ourselves how silly that really is. But I have to say, this Atlantis thing does it worse, though in fairness this is inherited from seaQuest. I mean, with it set on Earth and on a submarine, the silly factor just jumps out at you more than usual, because not only are you set up where you want to have your main crew be at the heart of every critical event, but like Airwolf or Knight Rider everything eventually has to revolve around your story's central mode of transportation. Star Trek actually does well in that regard, given that an interstellar ship is sort of required for an interstellar culture. But it doesn't work on Earth. Put another way, a submarine show like that is no different really than having everything set on a "hero train" that chugs along to different stops every week and becomes involved in major political events, and inevitably some evil train will try to do battle with it, and the conductor will have an evil twin, and so on.

But let me get more specific:

"Only a few short weeks have passed since the outbreak of the war against Macronesia, and the UEO, outnumbered and outgunned, is reeling in the face of nearly certain defeat. The Atlantis DSV and her crew are sent on a mission deep behind enemy lines to uncover the truth behind one of the most tragic losses of the war - the destruction of the seaQuest DSV... "

In the midst of a war of a scant few weeks which you're losing (badly), you're sending an advanced warship on a fact-finding mission regarding the destruction of another ship? It's a 40 year old boat with stupid capitalization in the name, and maybe that blonde kid finally got killed off. Leave it be.

If they're that stupid, they all deserve to get hit in the head with a coconut.

(But of course, the overdone blurb probably serves to capture reader interest for SeAqUeSt fans, 'cause they're like "dustrUction OMG!" . . . but nobody else could possibly care at that point.)

Of course, Trek is guilty of the "let's go NOT fight the war" thing, too. Thanks to Berman's refusal to let DS9 be a proper war show, we get one of their most advanced warships doing Incredible Shrinking Science Missions.

"Far from the battlefields of the war in the Pacific, the crew of the Atlantis uncover a plot that threatens to destroy the UEO from behind a curtain of conspiracy. Who is responsible, and what they discover could lead to something much larger than anyone could comprehend... "

Dude, they're getting their asses kicked by atolls and wasting warships on historical research. A janitorial staff strike could probably destroy the UEO at that point.

Much larger than they could comprehend? Then they fail, it seems, or else they foil the eveel plot by sheer bumbling.

"The epic conclusion to the first story arc of Atlantis DSV. With so many questions unanswered, two ships and two Captains set out on a long journey to unravel a dangerous conspiracy. As the world stands on the brink of armageddon, the UEO's future is as uncertain as the fate of the crew themselves. As they are hurled towards the most devastating climax of the conflict, the crew go boldly unto the breach...
... and not all of them will make it back home alive..."

So profoundly cheesy here. I mean, I'm sure by this point if I were a reader I ought to care about the characters, however silly that is, but I really don't. And I gather from the two ships and two captains thing that the Seaquest (eat that, capitalized Q!) was not actually destroyed.

"The war stands at a turning point, and the UEO holds its breath as the Atlantis is sent on the most dangerous mission of its career, deeper in to enemy lines than anyone has previously gone. The crew stands on a precipice, and are faced with their most desperate hour.
Nothing will be the same."

OMG! It'll all be different! OMG!

What does UEO stand for? Unabashedly Emo Overactors? I mean yeah, an ad blurb doesn't need to sound like a computer reading the phone book, but good grief.

But more to the point, their entire society apparently depends on this one mission undertaken by this one ship. (Y'know, the one they were sending off on a ridiculous time-wasting assignment just last week.)

Trek hasn't really gone quite that far. Sure, there was ENT season 3, but that had the benefit of being well played ("Well, at Headquarters we all think you're idiots, but if you wanna go off toward nowhere based on some crazy junk from your protein-resequenced-LSD we figure we can spare the ship").

In any case, I rather prefer the general attitude of early Stargate SG-1 where they were so delightfully not full of themselves.

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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by Picard » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:24 pm

2046 wrote:The withering war with "Macronesia" didn't help, because I simply imagined Micronesia's islands
Given that "Macronesia" is actually "Micronesia + Australia + New Zealand" + almost entire West Pacific... and "Macronesia" first appeared in SeaQuest's third season (after aliens and skipping entire decade).

http://atlantisdsv.newcapequest.com/lib ... ighres.jpg
you're sending an advanced warship on a fact-finding mission regarding the destruction of another ship?
...beacouse events around destruction of that another ship imply treason at highest levels of your government?
And I gather from the two ships and two captains thing that the Seaquest (eat that, capitalized Q!) was not actually destroyed.
Except for the fact that Atlantis has sister-ship, and while there is Seaquest mentioned in series, it is 3rd ship having that name.

It looks like you read nothing except for descriptions under episode links before posting.
http://atlantisdsv.newcapequest.com/lib ... istory.htm

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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by 2046 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:27 am

Of course I didn't read more. My whole post was explicitly about the cheesy blurbs.

As for the Macronesia bit, I didn't realize they'd inherited it from the show, so I'll forgive them that one . . . albeit only to assign blame for it further up the chain to the show creators themselves. That's just awful.

I did watch some of that show when it was on, but I remember it lost my interest at some point fairly early on and even the addition of Michael Ironside wasn't enough to get me to jump back in.

In any case, my intent was not to diss on the fanfic stuff or your enjoyment thereof, though I'm sure there was collateral damage as I discussed the blurbs. Mine was a more general point about the silliness of fiction overall, with related thoughts on Trek.

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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by Picard » Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:46 pm

Well, Seaquest istelf is just Star Trek under water (especially later on) and Atlantis DSV is basically Deep Space Nine (Dominion War storyline) underwater, except for the fact that events are centered around battleship, instead of space station and destroyer-class vessel. And I guess that it is exactly these facts (plus design of vessels) that got me into it - idea and its execution are still better than most of Star Wars EU, judging from little I got to know about it from Wookiepedia.

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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by Kor_Dahar_Master » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:14 pm

I enjoyed SeaQuest DSV especially when Michael Ironside was in it as i like him as a actor.

Considering he uses the method and that some of his characters are pretty mental he must have been interesting to work with.

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Re: Atlantis DSV

Post by Picard » Wed Mar 16, 2011 5:33 pm

Yes, Ironside is pretty good actor.

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