As the poet Robert Burns once wrote, „The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” and that’s true for the survivors on the colony ship of SYFY’s hit sci-fi series „The Ark,” as they find doom. Proxima b is their endgame exoplanet in the April 2023 finale of the debut season.
Now onward and outward with these intrepid wayward Earthlings as Lt. Garnett and his intrepid Ark One crew seek hospitable new surroundings, while their massive ship Aquarius sails through the galaxy with dreams of a happy ending for the Trappist system. written in stars.
Here’s the official synopsis: „The Ark takes place 100 years in the future, when planetary colonization missions have begun to help preserve the survival of the human race. In season two, the intrepid crew of Ark One reach their destination and find it uninhabitable, and they find a new home for themselves and all ships that follow. Survive long enough to find out.”
„The Ark” by Dean Devlin („Stargate,” „Independence Day”) along with co-showrunner Jonathan Klausner („Stargate SG-1”) is a nostalgic throwback to the brighter days of vintage sci-fi TV shows. „Battlestar Galactica,” „Andromeda” and „Farscape” thrived.
Season 2 stars Christy Burke (Lt. Sharon Garnett), Richard Fleishman (Lt. James Price), Reese Ritchie (Lt. Spencer Lane), Ryan Adams (Angus Medford), Stacy Michelle Reid (Alicia Nevins), Shalini Peiris (Dr. Sanjeevni Kabir), Pavel Jenrenik (Felix Strickland), Christina Wolff (Dr. Kate Brandis), and Diana Upseva (Eva Markovic).
„In season one, the fun of the concept was that it was a group of non-leaders thrust into leadership positions,” Devlin tells Space.com. „Everybody has to become the best version of themselves, and how many can do that and how many can’t. In a way, as creators of the show, Jonathan and I watched our kids grow in season one. So season two was like, 'Okay, they’ve evolved, and how do they handle this?’ .’ It really allowed the audience to go in surprising directions, and we had a lot of fun creating it.”
For Klausner, building forward momentum and driving the story in organic ways is key to the success of any series, especially in these precarious times.
„It’s always a question of how do you take these characters further and what else to reveal about them,” Klausner adds. „We’re going to learn a lot of interesting, deep dark secrets that we haven’t learned yet, and how they’re going to respond to that.”
Christy Burke plays Lt. Sharon Garnett, a man reluctantly thrust into command of Ark One after the disastrous first season kills hundreds. These new episodes allowed her to reach more character complexities, with over a dozen episodes under her belt.
„I feel very supported in a way, not only from the cast, but also from the crew,” Burke says. „We did this together, so there’s a shorthand. I felt like Garnett, too. In season one I was trying to prove something, and now in season two I’m the best for the job. There was a 'proof is the pudding’ kind of thing that dug deep into Garnett and was excited to see her in different situations.”
The Trappist system, located 40 light-years from Earth, is the new Season 2 target that exploded Proxima B in the Season 1 finale. It is a solar system with six or seven habitable worlds, three of which could support life according to the most recent discoveries.
„My dream is sites like Space.com, because we’ll read an article about a planet that they now think is a place where we live or are habitable,” notes Glassner. „We’d start writing, we’d start filming, and then a week would go by and the space telescope would find that one wasn’t habitable, but the next one might be. We’d have to give it up. We couldn’t continue on the coast at that point.
„Today, with the James Webb Space Telescope, they’re discovering things every day that contradict what they thought or what we’re thinking now, and in ten weeks we won’t be thinking about it. I’ve given up on keeping up with it, but every time I see a new discovery, It proves that we meant it when we wrote it.”
Crucial to Devlin and Klausner in crafting „The Ark” as an engaging family-style entertainment, they wanted whatever science was infused into the show to have a reasonable anchor in reality.
„So a fan might say, 'Well, is Trappist really a place where we can have a habitable planet?’ They can look at it and do their own investigation,” Devlin explains. „Our show is not a show about science. It’s not about how accurate this engine is or gravity. Our show is really about the characters and we have fun with some sci-fi concepts. To make a show about the human spirit, if we can do things based on ideas that can be researched, we can do that in the show. We feel like we’ve actually planted our feet somewhere, even if it’s not exactly depicted.
Season 2 brings back the same optimistic attitude that viewers enjoyed during last year’s Outing and Klausner wants the series to be a beacon of sunnier sci-fi.
„I think there’s a lot of sad stuff going on in the times we live in right now. So it’s important for some television to be pure entertainment. Some of my favorite shows are these dark, really meaningful shows. They can win Emmys, but it’s not like I come out of those shows happy and smiling and talking about the show. , as I think people will from „The Ark,” and I think it’s really needed right now.”
Grounding the show in sustained optimism and deflecting the bleak elements found in most dystopian stories give „The Arc” a bright, upbeat tone.
„We stand on the shoulders of giants,” says Devlin. „The show is a love letter to the shows that Jonathan and I grew up watching and the sci-fi that inspired us. It’s not necessarily the same today. Things are so violent, so dark, and for a more mainstream audience, it’s not easy trying to pay homage to the shows we fell in love with, but what we want to do.” It provides very clear guidance.
„The Ark’s 12-episode season 2 premieres on SYFY on July 17, 2024 at 10pm ET. Episodes stream the following day on Peacock.