LT COMMANDER HITCHCOCK

SEAQUEST DSV (PLAYMATES)

“Name: Katherine Hitchcock

Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Assignment: Chief Engineer, seaQuest DSV 4600

UEO Military ID#: PM921-1345-DB6

Security Access: A1B

Date of Birth: June 17, 1990

Character Profile: Highly focused, extremely bright. A formidable, independent thinker. Assertive and tenacious when she knows she’s right. One of the most talented and dependable members of seaQuest crew.

Personal History: Born and raised in Cody, Wyoming. Graduated top of Naval Academy class in 2011. Marriage to Naval cadet Benjamin Krieg (current seaQuest Morale and Supply Officer) ended in divorce. Led seaQuest scientific refit team in 2017. Has ably assumed command of the ship during absence of Captain Bridger and Commander Ford.

Mission Specialty: Responsible for complete knowledge, maintenance and operation of all physical systems aboard the ship, including primary operation of ship’s HyperReality Probe.”

Remember in my prior SeaQuest reviews where touched on sizable losses of cast members as the show progressed?  Well, today really leans into that one.  Stacy Haiduk’s Lt. Commander Hitchcock is fairly major part of the show’s first season, but when the show planned to move its production to Florida and Haiduk didn’t want to follow, Hitchcock was dropped at the end of the first season.  While there were effectively replacements for her (with Lt. Henderson being at times feeling like a thinly veiled knock-off), she took with her an energy of seriousness, and the show was definitely hindered by the loss of such an important character as it moved forward.  But, hey, at least she got an action figure, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lt Commander Hitchcock is part of the one and only series of Playmates’ SeaQuest DSV tie-in line.  Her presence on the show made her a natural choice for the line, though it was always unfortunate that there was no Krieg figure to go with her.  She was the line’s only female figure, though a Dr. Westphalen was supposedly prototyped, with plans that she might be in a hypothetical second series.  The figure stands just under 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation.  Apart from her neck joint being slightly restricted by the hair, she has pretty much the same articulation as everyone else in the line, which is to say it’s pretty good.  Her sculpt is unique to her, and obviously a bit more of a departure than some of the others.  It remains consistent stylistically, though, and she fits right in with the rest of the crew.  Her head sculpt is a pretty respectable likeness of Haiduk in the role; like others in the set, her hair seems to trend closer to the early season 1 look, when it was more tight and controlled than later in the run.  Hitchcock’s paint work is solid, if slightly basic work, but there’s plenty going on, especially with the different insignia and markings on her uniform.  Like O’Neill, she gets a splash of red, as opposed to the white everyone else has, which makes for some nice variation.  Hitchcock includes the same stun gun and PAL as the other crew members, as well as a display stand, but the coolest stuff is definitely the HyperReality Probe and its associated gear.  Hitchcock was the one who always piloted the probe, so it’s an awesome and very character specific inclusion.  If you want to get technical, she should have a glove for each hand, but even just the one demonstrates the idea.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back during my college days, when my parents found me the O’Neill figure I reviewed two weeks ago, he was accompanied by the information that the store where they’d found him also had the rest of the crew.  As such, I made my own personal trip out there, which resulted in, amongst others, me getting the Hitchcock figure seen in this review.  Like O’Neill, she sat on my college dorm room desk for a while, which is a neat memory I have of these guys.  She’s another cool figure, and benefits from what is probably the coolest accessory selection from the line.