Mark Harris becomes a close colleague of Dr. Elizabeth Merrill, played by Belinda Montgomery. She identifies him as a water-breathing human with webbed hands and feet, with superior swimming speed and the ability to withstand immense deep-sea pressures. The Man From Atlantis is also able to talk underwater. He joins Dr. Merrill at the Foundation for Oceanic Research.

C.W. Crawford, played by Alan Fudge, is Dr. Merrill’s and Mark’s boss, he manages the administrative side of operations, supporting Mark Harris and Dr. Elizabeth Merrill. Besides that, he was also close to both Mark and Dr. Merril. Especially in the first bunch of episodes Mark, Dr. Merrill and a and a small team consisting of Jean Marie Hon as Jane, Richard Laurance Williams as Jomo, J. Víctor López as Chuey go on adventures with the Cetacean, a highly sophisticated submersible submarine serving as the primary transport and base for the Foundation for Oceanic Research. In 3 telemovies C.W. Crawford had a colleague he was close with, and was a member of the team, Dr. Miller Simon, played by Kenneth Tigar. I was sorry to see him go after the 4^th movie, because he definitely did bring something extra to his character and to the show with wit and humor.

Mark and the Foundation of Oceanic Research did have an arch enemy, so to say, Mr. Schubert, played by Victor Buono. He was a wealthy, excentric and mostly theatrical villain. He always had something up his sleeve, hungry for more power, more money. He was aided by Brent, played by Robert Lussier, a nerd, a technician who always got the blame for everything that went wrong with Mr. Schubert schemes. At first, I wasn’t really fond of Mr. Schubert as the antagonist, but he did make me laugh every episode, the humor, the clumsiness, the banter between him and Brent. Unfortunately, after episode 11 we did not see Mr. Schubert return.

Guest stars:

Again, with these old shows, it is always a sport to recognize guest stars whom you know from other TV series and movies. Also in Man From Atlantis I spotted many actors I’d seen in other, usually newer, TV series and or movies: Laurence Pressman; Annette Charles; James B. Sikking; Fred Beir; Darleen Carr; Bob Minor; Sydney Lassick; Ted Neeley; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Harvey Jason; Gary Owens; Hanns Manship; Noble Willingham; Arlene Martel; Rene Auberjonois; Whitney Rydbeck; John Shea; Ahna Capri; Lewis Arquette; David Gautreaux; Lisa Eilbacher; Michele Carey; Ted Cassidy; Laurette Spang; Michael Strong; Neville Brand; Bill Barty; Anthony James and Sharon Farrell.

Overview season:

As said, I immediately started to watch this after I finished Hulk and even though it is nothing more than a mediocre show most of the time, I enjoyed it and I think I enjoyed it more than I did the Hulk! Why? Well, first of all, beforehand you know it is just 17 episodes; the storytelling is not much better or sometimes even less interesting but the setting, especially in the beginning, is much more SCI-FI. I mean, being on the Cetacean, trying to solve problems the antagonist Mr. Schobert is causing. The cast is a little bigger also, a good main cast with Patrick Duffy, Belinda Montgomery and Alan Fudge. Supporting castmembers who were regularly there, which made it more interesting than Bixby’s character, always alone, almost no interaction with other recurring characters.

Halfway through the season, not sure which episode, the format began to change a bit, the stories started to evolve more around Mark Harris and mostly on land instead of in the ocean. I recognized this change from SeaQuest DSV’s second season too and this didn’t make it better, as was the case here. It became a more standard show most of the time, than SCI-FI. So, for me the pilot episode is the best it had to offer. The 4^th movie got a 7/10 from me and the first actual episode, “Melt Down” got a 7+/10 from me but after that the episodes became increasingly mediocre unfortunately. What I also disliked was that Belinda Montgomery’s character suddenly was missing from the last two episodes! That bumped me out because I thought she made a positive impression on me all through the season. In episode 16, “Siren”, we get to see a scene where C.W. is supposedly on the phone with her, she’s in Washington and is not yet able to get back soon. In reality she wanted out because she was dissatisfied with the reduction of her role and successfully had her contract terminated. Reason: As the series progressed, the focus shifted from serious science fiction to more adventurous, "sillier" scripts, reducing her character to standing on the bridge of the Cetacean and providing exposition.

Well, I tend to agree with her reasoning, it started out kind of interesting but at one point it was the Patrick Duffy show, less ensemble and more on land than at the sea. Second season of SeaQuest DSV did this also, which makes it the weakest season to me. Her absence is immediately felt, she made the show more watchable, but like with Wilma Deering in season two of Buck Rogers, Dr. Elizabeth Merrill’s role indeed became more trivial with each episode.

Final Word:

On the whole I did enjoy Man From Atlantis for the most part. For one because it is only 17 episodes, not even a full season, it’s not like you must plough through 4 or 5 seasons. The cast is good and the initial setting was exciting. I thought the underwater scenes looked really decent; I liked the submarine vessel. It is not a show I will regularly rewatch, not sure if I ever will but it will take 7-10 years at least. The show is from the 70’s, if you watch the show with 70’s glasses on, you still can enjoy this! Finally, In the pilot episode another submarine vessel is mentioned…the SeaQuest!

Screencaps taken from: IMDb