“Dr. Z” Zellar was one of the character figures produced by Playmates Toys in 1993 portraying 8 human characters and 1 animal character from Season One of this fascinating science fiction TV Series. The figure is in mint condition on its individual hanging display card. It has never been removed with its card.
Intriguingly, in light of current warnings of environmental threats, the story-line begins in the year 2018, after mankind has exhausted almost all natural resources, except for the ones on the ocean floor. Many new colonies have been established there and it's the mission of the seaQuest and its crew to protect them from hostile nonaligned nations and to aid in mediating disputes as well as engage in undersea research.
Dr. Robert Ballard (retired United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks) served as the technical consultant on the science fiction series seaQuest DSV during its first season. During the closing credits, he would speak about the scientific elements that were present in any given episode and place them in a contemporary context.
The series follows the adventures of the high-tech submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, a deep submergence vehicle operated by the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO), a global coalition of up-world countries and undersea confederations, similar to the United Nations. The UEO was created following a major showdown of nations and confederations at the Livingston Trench in the North Atlantic Ocean that occurred circa 2017 as depicted in the pilot episode, "To Be Or Not to Be", and it remained a recurring element for the duration of the series. The seaQuest was designed by retired naval captain Nathan Bridger and built by NORPAC (a military organization mentioned in the pilot) and given as a loan to the UEO after its creation.
The science fiction television series was created by Rockne S. O'Bannon and during its first season mixed high drama with realistic scientific fiction. It starred Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, designer and commander of the naval submarine seaQuest DSV 4600. Jonathan Brandis also starred as Lucas Wolenczak, a teenaged computer genius placed aboard seaQuest by his father. Also present was a dolphin character called Darwin who, due to technological advances, was able to communicate with the crew. Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project and served as one of the show's executive producers during the first season.
The animal character action figure is the dolphin, Darwin (in the show Frank Welker was the voice of Darwin).
The 8 human characters action figures depict 6 crew members and 2 villains. The crew members were in a number of episodes, the villains were each featured in their own episode. These characters and the actors' names are :
The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has around 14 points of articulation. The backs of the hanging cards provide information on the show, the characters, and their accessories.