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