@ Star Trek Voyager > FACES

It appears you are correct.

It appears と It seems の違いについては以下のitalkiのページで議論されている (Facebookのウィンドウが開くので注意）
http://www.italki.com/question/68513

上記の回答にあるBBCのページには
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv353.shtml

Look, seem and appear are all copular verbs and can be used in a similar way to indicate the impression you get from something or somebody.

BBCのページの続きには以下の項目などがある

look / seem - as if / like
seem / appear to + infinitive
appear / seem - differences in meaning
non-copular use of appear and look

上記のうち

appear / seem - differences in meaning
にて

You can use seem to talk about more objective facts or impressions and about more subjective and emotional impressions. We do not usually use appear to refer to emotions and subjective impressions.

感情や主観的なものを表す場合にseemを使って、そうでない場合はappearを使う場合もあるようだ。

copularというのは何かというと
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/copular

a copular verb
連結詞的動詞