From the original blurb at Here TV
Commander
Burt Habley, a gay Navy veteran (Adrian Paul) is in a very difficult
position. He is being investigated for claiming that the sub under
his command was attacked, while navigating North Korean waters. He
ordered his ship to fire on the other ship but there was a fire which
caused the death of his long time companion and second in command.
Mathew St. Patrick plays Commander Steven Barker, who teams up with Commander Habley on this covert mission. Catherine Dent portrays Lt. Claire Triofoli, the sister of Habley's partner. Matt Battaglia plays Eddie "Dizzy" Malone, Chief of the Boat.
The emphasis in the script is on Commander Habley's fight to prove his actions were correct.
Review: "Tides of War"
This is a very nice piece of work. I admit to being partial to a good story and, in my opinion, this is a good one.
Burt Habley is a Submarine Commander in a
long term relationship with his Exec Officer, Tom Palatonio. The
opening scenes of the film show the two of them playing in the pool. This
is the first time in a long time I've seen two gay characters shown as
a loving couple. Hurrah
for "Here TV", "Regent" and the actors!
On the job, the sub, the Santa Maria is patrolling
in waters close to 
North Korea and though both Commander Habley and his
Exec see an unidentifiable sub, there isn't any objective proof of it's
existance. The sub attacks and the ensuing fire kills Palatonio. (The
fact that he failed to put on fire gear is relevent, but not mentioned.)
Back at Pearl Harbor, Habley stands by silently as his lover is buried, the flag given to his estranged sister, Lieutenant Claire Trifoli. He attampts to speak to her but is rebuffed. The investigation continues and Vice Admiral Sommerville suggests he needs to take a rest.
Habley and his CPO, Chief
Dizzy Malone, leave the base with Malone trying to reassure his friend and CO
that things will work out. Habley doesn't think so. His chances of
getting another boat aren't good and after twentyone years, he's lost his boat
and his lover.
At home, beside the pool where they
were playing, Burt finally allows himself to grieve.
An attack on Navy jets forces Admiral Sommerville to make use of Habley's personal knowledge of the undersea area around the North Korean Coastline. But he has a joker in the deck. Lt. Commander Steven Barker is ready for a ship of his own but Sommerville wants him to talk Habley into accepting command so they can use his skills to place a new, top secret tap on the North Korean communications. Captain Galasso, heading the top secret project is not happy when Sommerville also assigns a female lieutenant (and Tom Palatonio's sister) to bring her new project on board.
Barker meets Habley on the golf course and
makes the offer. At dinner that evening with Malone and his wife,
Habley admits that it's what Tom would have wanted.
So we have Habley in command with an Exec who has orders to relieve him if he shows signs of "instability". The special ops team with it's own agenda and a female officer-a first for the submarine service-who has given every indication that she hates Habley for her brother's death.
Fascinating...
The Commadore (There's never more than one
Captain on a ship!!!) is being a male, sexist pig and won't listen when
Trifoli tells him she's getting readings showing water displacement of 800 tons. He's
much more interested in demanding that Barker take over the ship. 
Barker
isn't comfortable taking command in an area where Habley clearly knows more
about the terran, but
Galasso follows him to the com and makes sure Habley is escorted back to his
cabin and locked in.
Trifoli is beginning to put two and two together and after a second try at getting Galasso to listen, she pulls a fast one and gets the information to Habley.
The mystery sub attacks and Barker overrides
Galasso's order bringing Habley back to his command. Habley has Clare's
gadget
brought
up as well. Fast action saves the ship and gets the
data the Admiral needs to scope out the new type of North Korean submarines.
Habley and his crew get a unit citation, he retires and when Clare arrives at her brother's grave, she gives him her brother's letters. After watching him in command and reading her brother's letters, she is now able to accept their relationship and they walk off to have coffee and talk about Tom.
But... and there is always a but, there were
a couple of details that really bothered me. As some of you know,
I was a Marine in the long ago. As such, I notice things like ranks.
Note, I am NOT holding AP responsible. I'm fairly sure he simply took the word of whoever did the costuming that it was right. The officer ranks were badly botched. LT Commanders wear gold oak leaves. Full commanders-Habley, wear silver and shoulder boards -with 3 bars-are never worn at the same time as the collar insignia.
Other than that...
AP has never played it safe and this again proves his versatility.
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