"I find Dr. Westphalen wonderful;" says Stephanie Beacham about the character she plays on seaQuest DSV, "because I think she's an excellent role model for the '90s. I feel very, very privileged to have passed from being such a representative of the '80s," in her role as the mercenary, scheming and oh-so-rich Sable Colby on The Colbys and Dynasty, "with huge amounts of coordinated jewelry. 'Let's take the jet rather than the helicopter because it might mess up my hair.' I loved doing that, I felt at the spearhead of the selfish '80s.

"But I think my children are refreshed by the fact that I am now playing someone nearer to my own heart, and who cares, in terms of the planet, the future and the way women ought to be - because my other characters have been dependent on men. If Sable Colby didn't get a good settlement from her husband, she would be out on her uppers, whereas Westphalen is a self-made woman."

And so is Beacham, for that matter. The auburn-haired actress with the great bone structure didn't originally expect her life to take the direction it has. "I thought I was going to teach mime, dance and movement to deaf children, because I am very deaf myself. I have no hearing in my right ear, and have only 40 percent altogether. I was in Paris studying mime when I got kicked out of my au pair job. Not surprising - I was an appalling au pair.

"I went to visit a friend who was in Liverpool at a brand-new theater. That was very exciting. I looked around me and thought, 'So this is acting, so this is theater - this is what I want.' I knew a speech from Shakespeare, did it, and got in. And then I went to the Royal Academy after that. I fell into acting absolutely by accident." But she stayed in it because of her abilities. If the British movie business had been more robust in the early '70s, when she first made her mark (her movie debut was 1968's The Games), it seems very likely she would have been one of the country's leading actresses. But it wasn't; she did a few major films, then increasingly minor ones, finally moving into TV. It was from British television that she was plucked to play Charlton Heston's wicked wife Sable in The Colbys from 1985-87. She has been in the U.S. ever since.

Although Faye Dunaway was expected to be cast as the purring Mrs. Colby, contract negotiations "went wrong," and Beacham, who had just had a major TV success in England, was brought in as Sable - and that led in a direct, if unusual, way to her being cast in seaQuest DSV. Initially, she admits, "Nobody here wanted to employ me, because they said I was too expensive and too glamorous. But there was a secretary at Amblin who had been a secretary on The Colbys, Elaine Strom. She was working for Greg Feinberg, a producer here. She saw this room with women coming in and out - with men coming in and out at first, because initially Dr. Westphalen was written as a man and thought, 'This is ridiculous. This is Stephanie's role.'" But the powers at Amblin dismissed the idea; Beacham, they felt, was much too elegant to spend her days in a lab coat poking at slimy sea creatures.

"Elaine knew I cleaned up very well, but that I'm basically a down-to-Earth person; I just happen to be able to act in pretty dresses. She spoke to my assistant Janet, who said, 'Stephanie has made a new tape of the work she did this year. And here's a copy.' Elaine Strom put it in Greg's VCR, made them watch it, and they said, 'Good Lord almighty.' I was in the next day, and signed up the next week. It's nice to have people who know you."

She has a clear view of Dr. Westphalen, including a backstory, which is only slowly beginning to emerge on the series. "You would have to have a very special sort of dedication to want to be very isolated for maybe 10 months of the year as a submarine's chief scientist. She obviously has passion: The major thrust of her life is her work; she obviously isn't someone who has to hit the malls. She's someone who lives in her brain, and I would think that she would find [interpersonal] communications sometimes quite difficult on a mundane level."

Beacham feels that Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider) and Westphalen share a special rapport. "He is a man of science before he's a man of war; his priorities are the same as hers: Cure it, mend it, don't kill it. And he listens to her.

"The other person she has an attachment to is Lucas [Jonathan Brandis], for many different reasons. Lucas brings out her maternal instincts because he is, after all, only a boy. But she appreciates him because he is a genius." Westphalen may also feel maternal toward Lucas because she's semi-estranged from her own daughter, "who's also a scientist. We've had mention of her; she's a biophysicist, and went through a rebellion, shaving half her hair off and dying the other half orange. Westphalen has had a coup!e of failed marriages; she just threw her hands up and decided, 'I think that I analyze fish better than I do men, and I think I should stick to polyps rather than - "She breaks off with a low chuckle, "No, I won't say that one."

Beacham supposes that Westphalen has a very specific project in mind; searching the sea for new medicines. "She probably has a project going that hasn't yet been examined in the scripts. She would come up quite hard against some of the major chemical companies, because there would be some very good healing properties, very cheaply harvested in the sea. I don't want to toe the party line by saying this is not science fiction, but I have another term for it, which is 'science future.' That means we can use our imaginations to a certain extent, having gotten the knowledge of what's in the works at the moment. We're going to be able to find the healing properties in the sea, and we'll be able to give the audience the understanding of why the oceans must not be dumped in, why it's important. This is not a preachy show; it should be exciting and lively, but I do think it gives us an opportunity to show people what is on our planet, and the possible future of our planet and its resources."

As for the relationships between Westphalen and the other seaQuest crew members, and between Stephanie Beacham and the cast: "Westphalen completely disapproves of Krieg. He is the slime that should be removed from the bottom of the boat. Can you see that? That from any point-of-view. she deeply disapproves of that sort of opportunism. John D'Aquino himself seems absolutely enchanting, and is doing a terribly good job."

A mention of Royce D. Applegate, who plays Chief Crocker, head of Security, leads Beacham to exclaim, "Oh, what a delight! He's an actor of integrity; he knows his character inside and out, and he knows the sea. He is a good, solid actor, an enjoyable acting partner - he's a nice person to be on the set with.

"I come to work with some very jolly people. Roy Scheider has been a friend from the very beginning. For example, I didn't want to go to be interviewed by the network; I thought I had worked for NBC quite a lot, and didn't need to do that. But it became evident that this system was one that was well-oiled and would be used again, so I had to go to the network - and Roy came with me, and read for the network. This is not something you find every leading man doing." She hopes that the writers might explore a budding romance between Westphalen and Bridger - and word is that her hopes might be fulfilled.

"Jonathan Brandis," she goes on, "is remarkably talented; he's going to be the Ron Howard of the future; there's not a single aspect of this industry he's not interested in. His intuitive responses to every single situation are excellent; if I make any suggestion for our scenes, he listens properly, attentively, digests it, and we carry on from there. I'm full of respect for that boy. I'm well aware that his future is strong.

"Have you met our little Marco [Sanchez] yet? The Val Kilmer/Jim Morrison of our group. I think it's just a tragedy that we've cut his hair off, because he's a longhair by night. He's enchanting, optimistic, an energetic actor.

"And then you come to our little Teddy [Raimi]. He is - 'Why, Miss Jones, how different you look without your glasses!' He is the male version of that Miss Jones character. He's going to be Cary Grant when he is 40 years old and stops believing that he's a geek. In the meantime, he is one of the most educated and informed and non-ego-bound actors that I've ever encountered."

Asked about Stacy Haiduk, Beacham apparently pauses in thought. "She's an absolutely delightful girl. Stacy and I share a common problem of de-feminization on this show. I find it easier to get into the passion of my work; sometimes Stacy finds it difficult to get into the passion of hers. She's the ship's engineer. When we jumped on board, I dashed to the Scripps Institute [a marine research lab] and met wonderfully dedicated and dotty women, I don't know that Stacy has been able to find her inspiration.

"We're longing to have a scene together as characters. The two never speak to each other, and we would be the best of friends. She has a very important job on board ship, in a very male world; so do I. We should be best friends, and we're longing for that to be realized on screen. This doesn't sound like criticism of Stacy, does it?"

As for Don Franklin, Beacham points out that he has "had the dull part. 'I don't think we can do that, captain.' Well, I tell you, old Don can burst into an aria from any opera you wish to mention. And he's a wonderful dancer, which means that he's very flexible in movement, which means that he will be excellent at the fights, I think they're beginning to see that Don is someone they can use a lot. Apart from the fact that he has a propensity for giggling - which I share."

Franklin revealed in a StarlogPlatinum Edition #2 interview that one of the things that leads to him and Beacham falling into fits of giggles is the show's necessary, but sometimes perplexing, technobabble. "You mean the stuff my nightmares are made of? I don't think it moves the audience other than to their channel changers." She admits that while it can be necessary, "if you're going to have a sentence that lies there like lead and is informative about nothing other than that you are a very boring person, then I have a problem with it, yes! I don't have a problem learning long lines, but I do have a problem making an emotional through-line, because I know unless you have an emotional through-line, you're not driving the story forward."

On the other hand, seaQuest can be educational for the actors, "One of the best things for me is that this woman is a PhD in genetics, and before I started this show DNA to me was 'dinner not arranged.' I love the fact that I'm a biological oceanographer. They told me at first I was a physical oceanographer. I'm not. Roy's a physical oceanographer, I'm a biological oceanographer because otherwise I wouldn't need an MD, and couldn't be the ship's doctor. " Phew! I've got a bit of catching up to do, hon! I've been wearing a lot of jewelry and worrying about my hemlines for years. To get up to pace with the future of science and medicine is causing Stephanie to scratch her head. I'm having a very good time."

The series can be frustrating, though. Franklin said that he, Beacham and Scheider were looking for a name for the almost-acting that the show often requires, and Beacham has found one: "Alienation crapadoodle. How to really make an audience not care. I am so frustrated by the lack of passion. Westphalen is passionate - about a little bit of seaweed. It's not that she needs a sex life - although I do think she could do with a little bit of, um, could have a cigarette on that note - she has a brilliant sense of humor, she's completely eccentric, and could we please begin to see some of this, and not have all this fact-speak?"

What she likes best about seaQuest itself remains its "possibilities. I think everyone would agree that it hasn't fulfilled its possibilities yet. I don't think I'm being disloyal to a program that I completely adore. There are amazing sets, but the seaQuest is a background to what we are doing. Sometimes it has weighed us down, because there are certain sets that are very difficult to film in, which makes our days very long. There are certain things that would be adjusted should we move to a second season, should we fulfill the possibilities of this wonderful show."

Beacham's first venture into televised science fiction wasn't seaQuest DSV, as Star Trek: The Next Generation fans know. She was the Countess to the Holodeck's Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis) in "Ship in a Bottle," one of the syndicated series' most highly-regarded episodes. The role, Beacham remarks, "was tailor-made for me, wasn't it? It was delicious to play someone who thought herself so worldly and who was really so naive. Of course it was delightful to have such an old-fashioned encounter with the Captain. It was so intriguing, with the Holodeck idea, especially at the end, where we were trapped and didn't know it. Whoopi [Goldberg] was one of those who made it such an acceptable guest spot, and it was delightful to work with Patrick Stewart; I knew him already, but hadn't worked with him before. Altogether, it was one of the most entertaining guest spots one could do."

Even earlier, still back in England, she had appeared in The Nightcomers, director Michael Winner's strange prequel to Henry James' famous novella "Turn of the Screw" (itself filmed several times, most successfully as The Innocents). In this 1971 production, Beacham starred opposite Marlon Brando, often regarded as the best movie actor ever. "We did improvisations that were not in the final cut that would make your hair curl," Beacham smiles. "He remains a very close friend to this day, and I treasure our friendship. He has an originality in his thought processes that - as I said, I treasure him."

As for the director of The Nightcomers, "Oh, I adore Michael Winner! He's the rudest man on Earth, and you may say that I said it. I have no fear that he has not read that before, yet there is a side to Michael that is actually extremely sensitive. He's a friend - and a terribly bad director, but a great producer, which is what he should be doing."

She appeared opposite genre legend Peter Cushing (Starlog #100) in two films, Dracula A.D. 1972 and And Now the Screaming Starts the following year. About Cushing, Beacham practically coos. "Ohhhhhh, what a delightful man," she says, echoing the comments of virtually everyone who has ever had a word to say about Cushing. She was originally cast as his daughter in the Hammer Dracula film, but his beloved wife Helen died, "and he went from a 17 1/2-inch collar to a 14 1/2-inch collar in a month. And we changed my role to that of his granddaughter because the change was so extreme. He's a meticulous gentleman; I learned a great deal from Peter," Beacham says in a tender, almost melancholy voice, "in that you can be a very gentle person, and if your work has the quality and the thought to it, you will be followed. He doesn't dominate a set, but because of his kindness and his meticulousness, things will be there when he needs them. He's like some wonderful nurturing gardener, making sure his plants come up straight. A complete delight, a complete delight."

Although she worked with her close friend Judy Geeson on it, Beacham is quite aware that Horror Planet (a.k.a. lnseminoid) isn't exactly a career highlight. "Oh, that was a stunner," she says wryly. "I can remember very clearly that whole situation. I was sitting at my kitchen table with two scripts and a pile of bills. The theater play was wonderful; the film script was trash. I looked at the two scripts. I looked at my pile of bills. I picked up the telephone, and said, 'I would love to be in Inseminoid. There is nothing I would like more.' All the integrity in the world would not keep my children fed, would not keep gas in the car." And so she filmed this awful 1980 Alien imitation.

She has been the lead at times, and a supporting character at others, and Stephanie Beacham is a realist about fame. "Just to be recognized because you're on television is something that could befall a monkey. It doesn't actually mean a thing. To be recognized and appreciated for work that you felt was good - then that's wonderful.' Among the work she's proudest of was her British TV series Tenko, about women in a World War II Japanese prisoner-of-war camp; it has been shown on PBS in America. And, she says, it's wonderful to be in the U.S.

"I am amazed on a daily basis as I wake up: I see the ocean, and I see palm trees, and I think I'm fortunate enough to be earning a living in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen," she says. "This little girl from Barnett just can't believe her luck. This is a blessed and spoiled life, and I am truly grateful that America has been amused enough to want to see me."