Main characters of seaQuest DSV season 1

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This is the complete list of the main characters of seaQuest DSV season 1. The series went through significant cast changes after every season it was on the air. This list contains only those characters that were given credit in the main titles of the first season (therefore, does not contain characters such as Admiral Noyce (which is located at List of recurring characters on seaQuest DSV) or Lieutenant James Brody (which is located at Main characters of seaQuest DSV season 2).

Contents 1 First season main characters 1.1 Captain Nathan Bridger 1.2 Dr. Kristin Westphalen 1.3 Lucas Wolenczak 1.4 Commander Jonathan Ford 1.4.1 Early life 1.4.2 Appointment to seaQuest 1.4.3 Background 1.5 Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock 1.5.1 Background 1.6 Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg 1.6.1 Background 1.7 Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill 1.7.1 Background 1.8 Chief Manilow Crocker 1.9 Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz 1.9.1 Background 1.10 Darwin 2 References

First season main characters

Captain Nathan Bridger

Dr. Kristin Westphalen

Lucas Wolenczak

Commander Jonathan Ford

Jonathan Devin Ford
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	Weapons Of War (09/06/1996)
Portrayed by	Don Franklin
Information
Date of birth	March 4, 1990
Specialty	Command
Occupation	Executive Officer in the Navy
Title	Commander
Nationality	American

Early life

Ford comes from a very financially well off family, his father owning "Ford Freeport: Aquacultural Engineering", one of the largest undersea farming companies in the world. He had a bad relationship with his father and brother. In 2022 a sharp raise in the temperature of the water in the South Atlantic, caused by an undersea mining operation, a deinosuchus (gigantic prehistoric crocodile) thawed out and was threatening the local ecosystem and the life of the local people. With the help of his family they stopped to creature and settled their differences. Ford's father decided to take a year off from work and give Jonathan's younger brother Ben the run of the company.^[1] His mother is deceased.^[2]

Appointment to seaQuest

Part of the original seaQuest's crew under Captain Marilyn Stark (2015-2017), Ford was forced to relieve her of command when she disobeyed orders and attempted to attack several other submarines after being ordered to stand down. For 13 months after this incident Commander Ford oversaw a major refit of the seaQuest to have the ship generally geared more towards scientific exploration/research and peacekeeping missions. In 2018, after the refit was complete, Admiral William Noyce was trying to convince retired Captain Nathan Bridger, the subs original designer, to take command and ordered Ford to act arrogant, cowardly and generally unfit for command in an effort to get Bridger to stay on board. Despite the ploy not working Bridger decided to stay on board after defeating Stark during her attempt at revenge. ^[3]

Early on he was in continual conflict with Dr. Kristin Westphalen, the ship's Chief Medical Officer and head of the science department. After the discovery of the Great Library of Alexandria, in which Ford helped with the Excavation (he being the one who accidentally found it) and was a lot more interested in seaQuest's exploration and research mission and not just the military and peacekeeping aspect. ^[4]. The character had a romance with Lonnie Henderson in the shows third season, although this fizzled out after Henderson had to shoot someone she used to love in order to save Ford.^[4]

Background

Commander Ford was portrayed by actor Don Franklin and is one of three actors to remain with the show for all three seasons. Ford appears in every episode except for "And Everything Nice." The character of Ford was originally supposed to have a far different background, originally having him been a poor kid from Chicago who joined the navy to get away from his gang life after witnessing the death of his older brother.^[5] Since this was never established in the first year (except for the novelization of the pilot episode and non canon sources such as the others novels and an issue of the comic) this was disregarded for the rest of the series.

Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock

Katherine Hitchcock
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	Higher Power (05/22/1994)
Created by	Rockne S. O'Bannon
Portrayed by	Stacy Haiduk
Information
Gender	Female
Date of birth	June 17, 1990
Specialty	Engineering, command
Occupation	Chief Engineer of the seaQuest DSV 4600.
Title	Lieutenant Commander
Spouse(s)	Benjamin Krieg (divorced)
Address	San Diego, California
Nationality	American

Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock was the Chief Engineer of the seaQuest DSV 4600 following her refit in 2018.

While at the naval academy, she, along with Benjamin Krieg, were top of their class, and were eventually wed. However, the marriage only lasted a year.

Being Chief Engineer, Hitchcock was also third in command aboard the seaQuest and was placed in command in several occasions, such as the Liberté space station incident where Commander Ford had been infected with an unknown virus and was unable to perform his duties.^[6]

On a mission to save a family from the clutches of an outlaw at the Broken Ridge mining facility, Hitchcock masqueraded as a singer in order to gain access to the mine and allow the family to board the seaQuest.^[7]

During an experiment that involved the flooding of the boat, Hitchcock, Ford, Lucas, Krieg, and Chief Crocker were attacked by environmental radicals who intended to use the ship's computer to disable various pollutant manufacturers around the globe. Hitchcock was held prisoner on the bridge along with Lucas where she began to gain their trust by telling them nothing but the truth (under the orders of Commander Ford), although, their leader ultimately believed she would lie to him. She fulfilled her orders by telling the leader that if he attempted to leave the seaQuest as it was sinking, the water pressure would crush his submersible. He didn't believe her and ultimately died.^[8]

She and Lucas later developed a prototype for a single-seat submersible that featured perfect laminar flow that replicated the tail of a fish in order to cut down on turbulence. Hitchcock had wanted to name it the Gazelle, though Lucas insisted on the Stinger. Ultimately, the name Stinger became official.^[9]

As the seaQuest`s tour of duty came to an end, both she and Commander Ford were offered command of the H.R. Clinton, though, the UEO offered her more money to take command than Ford. With the destruction of the seaQuest shortly afterwards, Hitchcock agreed to take command and did not come aboard the new seaQuest in 2021.^[10]

Background

Hitchcock was portrayed by actress Stacy Haiduk and appears only in the first season of the series. Haiduk, unhappy with her character's development in the first season, opted not to return to the series for the second season. Her character was replaced by Kathy Evison's character, Lonnie Henderson.

Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg

Ben Krieg
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	In the Company of Ice and Profit (09/27/1995)
Portrayed by	John D'Aquino
Information
Gender	Male
Date of birth	February 9, 1989
Specialty	Supplies
Occupation	Supply and morale officer
Title	Lieutenant
Spouse(s)	Katherine Hitchcock (divorced)
Nationality	American

Background

Krieg was portrayed by actor John D'Aquino and appears in the first season of the series as a main character, and a guest appearance in the third season. D'Aquino, along with Royce D. Applegate was fired at the end of the first season in order to give the next season a "Younger, sexier feel". His character was somewhat replaced by Michael DeLuise's character, Tony Piccolo.

Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill

Tim O'Neill
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	Weapons of War (06/09/1996)
Created by	Rockne S. O'Bannon
Portrayed by	Ted Raimi
Information
Gender	Male
Date of birth	May 25, 1992
Specialty	Communications, languages
Occupation	Communications officer of the seaQuest DSV 4600.
Title	Lieutenant JG
Religion	Catholic
Nationality	American

Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill was the communications officer of the seaQuest DSV 4600, originally serving under Captain Marilyn Stark. He remained aboard the boat after she had been relieved of duty and the seaQuest was refitted to serve as more of a research vessel.

O'Neill specialized in foreign languages, was fluent in at least a dozen and could adequately speak several others. He also shared some sort of unknown psychic link with Darwin which allowed him to sense when Darwin was ill.^[11]

A religious man since childhood, O'Neill was taught to believe that evolution topped out with mankind and had a difficult time believing in intelligent life on other planets, although, secretly wished that it existed.^[12]

He briefly pursued a relationship with Lieutenant Lonnie Henderson in 2021, although, he was uncomfortable with the notion of a shipboard romance and decided not to continue with it, although, the two remained friends.

Somewhat of a nervous individual, O'Neill was prone to occasional acts of heroism, such as fearlessly rushing to save Henderson from the clutches of an alien predator that had invaded seaQuest in 2022.^[13] He also questioned the direction his career was headed that year and tendered his resignation to Captain Bridger, though, Bridger assured him that the crew saw him as a valuable commodity, and decided to stay.

Ten years after the Hyperion Incident and the seaQuest`s return to Earth, O'Neill decided to remain aboard the boat under the command of Captain Hudson. O'Neill ran afoul of Hudson on several occasions, such as not responding to orders quickly enough during an emergency situation^[14] and questioning Hudson's orders to fire on Captain Bridger's fleet.^[15] O'Neill nearly ended his career by stealing a seaLaunch to rendezvous with his on-line girlfriend while in the middle of an unstable political area. However, his girlfriend, Heiko Kimura, turned out to be a defector from the Chaodai. He once again disobeyed orders by refusing to deliver Kimura into their hands, however, his actions ultimately saved both Kimura and the seaQuest, prompting Lucas Wolenczak to suggest that he may be in line for a promotion.

Background

O'Neill was portrayed by actor Ted Raimi and was one of three actors to remain with the series for entire duration. The Character of O'Niell was originally supposed to be a character named Garry Stephen Bachmann from Ottawa, Canada. This was then changed to be a woman named MacKenna O'Neill, then the character was changed back to a male and renamed "Mack O'Neill".^[16] This name was used right up until filming was to begin, name tags designed for his uniforms that read "M. O'Neill" are known to exist before it was ultimately changed to "Tim."^[17] This is also why his name was Mac in the comic and Stephen Bachmann in the non canon novels.

Chief Manilow Crocker

Manilow Crocker
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	Higher Power (05/22/1994)
Created by	Rockne S. O'Bannon
Portrayed by	Royce D. Applegate
Information
Gender	Male
Specialty	Security, Command
Occupation	Chief of Security for the seaQuest DSV 4600.
Title	Senior Chief Petty Officer
Spouse(s)	Helen Crocker (divorced)
Address	Texas
Nationality	American

Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz

Miguel Ortiz
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Last appearance	Splashdown (05/21/1995)
Portrayed by	Marco Sanchez
Information
Gender	Male
Date of birth	March 3, 1992
Date of death	2022
Specialty	Sensory operations
Occupation	Sensor Chief of the seaQuest DSV 4600.
Title	Chief Petty Officer, Senior Chief Petty Officer
Nationality	Cuban

Miguel Ortiz was a member of seaQuest's original crew under Captain Stark. After she was relieved of duty, he stayed on, serving again under Nathan Bridger's command.

As the Sensor Chief, Ortiz was responsible for controlling the boat's WSKRs (Wireless Sea Knowledge Retrieval Satellites) and was also involved in various away missions. He could understand Spanish and had a knowledge of Greek mythology, particularly that of Atlantis.

Like Dr. Smith, it is assumed that Ortiz was killed in action while the crew was trapped on Hyperion.

Background

Marco Sanchez portrayed Ortiz during the first and second season of the show. He requested to remain for the third season, but was ultimately let go after NBC decided to lower the cast number. The character that ultimately became Ortiz underwent 2 radical changes before becoming what it did. First he was a man named Drew and then was changed to being the son of a rich Vietnamese family named Ngyuen Ky before settling on making him Cuban, the name originally being Mundo Ortiz.^[18]

Darwin

Darwin
First appearance	To Be or Not to Be (09/12/1993)
Information
Species	Bottlenose Dolphin
Gender	Male
Date of birth	2007
Specialty	Data retrieval, tracking

References

v • d • e seaQuest DSV Actors Roy Scheider · Jonathan Brandis · Stephanie Beacham · Michael Ironside · Don Franklin · Ted Raimi · Stacy Haiduk · John D'Aquino · Royce D. Applegate · Marco Sanchez · Rosalind Allen · Edward Kerr · Michael DeLuise · Kathy Evison · Peter DeLuise · Elise Neal Characters Captain Nathan Bridger · Dr. Kristin Westphalen · Commander Jonathan Ford · Lucas Wolenczak · Lt. Commander Katherine Hitchcock · Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill · Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz · Dr. Wendy Smith · Lieutenant James Brody · Warrant Officer Anthony Piccolo · Captain Oliver Hudson Recurring characters List of recurring characters on seaQuest DSV Technology and government seaQuest DSV 4600 · United Earth Oceans Organization Episodes "Games" · "Nothing But the Truth" · "Higher Power" · "Daggers" · "Vapors" · "Dead End" · "Dream Weaver" · "Splashdown" · "Brave New World" · "In the Company of Ice and Profit" · "Equilibrium"