Following the end of the second season of "seaQuest DSV", Roy Scheider (Captain Bridger) had become very vocal and negative about the direction the show was heading; focusing more on heavy science fiction and fantasy-type plots, coupled with the fact that he believed that the show should maintain an arc, rather than just be individual episodes (similar to other sci-fi type shows such as "" and "Babylon 5"). Scheider had requested to be released from his NBC contract, however, the network only partially agreed, allowing him to downgrade from a regular cast member to a recurring guest character.