I have been using SEQUEST in my science fiction class as a classic example of
the use and reworking of genre formulas. On one level, the characters and
 situations are familiar to anyone with a vocabulary in TV SF, that is anyone
 who has
seen the various generations of ST and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. We have
stock characters -- the demanding captain, the bland second-in-command, the boy
wonder, the tough-minded female doctor, the untrustworthy admiral, the character
 who has "intelligence" but is not human, the wheeler-deeler (added from
 CATCH-22 or MISTER ROBERTS). You have stock situations, such as opening with
 the
captain taking command of the ship (a device going back at least as far as Doc
Smith's LENSMAN books) or the situation where a cranky scientist calls into
 question the "humanity" of the non-human character (be it Spock, Data, or
 Darwin) or the unknown disease that comes from where no man has gone before.
 The previews at the end of the first episode ran through a whole succession of
 stock TV
SF plots, stripped down to its barest bones, meaning that in the foreseeable
 future we are going to be seeing plots we have seen before, only moved from
 deep
space to deep water. And from 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, we get the discovery
 of the lost city of Atlantis next week, which is here turned into the lost
library at Alexandria. Yet, despite all of its cliches, or perhaps because of
them, I like this series. The actors are turning stereotypes into something more
 than stereotypes through personal charm, and the plots, albeit recycled, have
been intelligently handled. I find myself looking forward to watching the serie
next week, even though it is taking me places I have been many times before.
And, so, we see a classic example of why it is not meaningful to describe and
dismiss popular culture as formulaic even when it clearly is. There is a power
in those formulas, a compression of basic cultural myths, which can be realized
when popular culture is doing what it does best. And there are few producers
who have recognized that power as ruthlessly and as effectively as Spielberg.
Anyway, that's my ten cents worth.
 
--Henry Jenkins