The Ark | |
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Genre | |
Created by | Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner |
Starring |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Production locations | PFI Studios, Belgrade, Serbia |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | Syfy |
Release | February 1, 2023 present | –
The Ark is an American science fiction television series created by Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner, who also serve as showrunners for the series. It premiered on Syfy on February 1, 2023, with the first season consisting of twelve episodes. The series stars Christie Burke as Lt. Sharon Garnet who becomes the de facto captain of an interstellar spacecraft after a disaster. It also stars Reece Ritchie, Richard Fleeshman, Stacey Michelle Read, Ryan Adams, Pavle Jerinić, Shalini Peiris, Christina Wolfe, and Tiana Upcheva. In April 2023, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on July 17, 2024.[1]
A hundred years in the future, a spacecraft known as Ark One is shuttling a complement of would-be colonists away from a devastated Earth to a new home, Proxima b. The ship suffers a catastrophic event that kills almost all of the technical crew and all of the ship's senior officers. The survivors must work to reorganize themselves to maintain the ship and stay on course to reach their destination.[2]
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
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First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 12 | February 1, 2023 | April 19, 2023 | |
2 | TBA | July 17, 2024[5] | TBA |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Everyone Wanted to Be on This Ship" | Dean Devlin | Dean Devlin | February 1, 2023 | 578,000[6] |
2 | 2 | "Like It Touched the Sun" | Milan Todorović | Jonathan Glassner | February 8, 2023 | 408,000[7] |
3 | 3 | "Get Out and Push" | Milan Todorović | John-Paul Nickel | February 15, 2023 | 310,000[8] |
4 | 4 | "We Weren't Supposed to Be Awake" | Sandra Mitrović | Rebecca Rosenberg | February 22, 2023 | 350,000[9] |
5 | 5 | "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" | Sandra Mitrović | Kendall Lampkin | March 1, 2023 | 340,000[10] |
6 | 6 | "Two by Two" | Milan Todorović | Jonathan Glassner | March 8, 2023 | 361,000[11] |
7 | 7 | "A Slow Death Is Worse" | Milan Todorović | John-Paul Nickel | March 15, 2023 | 426,000[12] |
8 | 8 | "Every Single Person Matters" | Orsi Nagypal | Kendall Lampkin | March 22, 2023 | 403,000[13] |
9 | 9 | "The Painful Way" | Orsi Nagypal | John-Paul Nickel | March 29, 2023 | 339,000[14] |
10 | 10 | "Hoping for Forever" | Sandra Mitrović | Jonathan Glassner | April 5, 2023 | 357,000[15] |
11 | 11 | "The Last Thing You Ever Do" | Milan Todorović | Rebecca Rosenberg | April 12, 2023 | 437,000[16] |
12 | 12 | "Everybody Wins" | Jonathan Glassner | John-Paul Nickel | April 19, 2023 | 463,000[17] |
No. overall | No. in season | Title [5][18] | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [5][18] | U.S. viewers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
13 | 1 | "Failed Experiment" | TBA | TBA | July 17, 2024 | TBD |
14 | 2 | "Kill or Be Killed" | TBA | TBA | July 24, 2024 | TBD |
15 | 3 | "Anomaly" | TBA | TBA | July 31, 2024 | TBD |
16 | 4 | "The Other You" | TBA | TBA | August 7, 2024 | TBD |
17 | 5 | "Museum of Death" | TBA | TBA | August 14, 2024 | TBD |
The premise is very similar to the 1970s series The Starlost, in which a multi-generational starship called Earthship Ark was launched to allow the passengers to escape a dying Earth. More than 100 years into the voyage, an unexplained accident occurs, and the ship goes into emergency mode. The survivors have to figure out how to safely pilot the starship.
The Ark went straight-to-series in late January 2022 with a 12-episode order from SyFy.[19] Principal photography began at PFI Studios in Belgrade, Serbia in March of that year. Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner serve as showrunners and producers.[3][20]
In March 2022, it was announced that the regular cast of the series had been set, with Christie Burke starring as Lt. Sharon Garnet, along with Richard Fleeshman, Reece Ritchie, Stacey Read, and newcomer Ryan Adams.[3] In April 2022, it was announced that Lisa Brenner would be a recurring guest star, playing Commander Susan Ingram, with Christina Wolfe, Shalini Peiris, Miles Barrow, Pavle Jerinić, and Tiana Upcheva also recurring.[4]
On April 12, 2023, Syfy renewed the series for a second season.[1]
The series trailer was released in December 2022.[21] It premiered on Syfy on February 1, 2023,[22][23] with episodes to be streamed the next day on Peacock.[24]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating based on 14 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The core concept of The Ark ought to be alluring enough for the sci-fi faithful, but blasé writing and chintzy production values call into question whether this particular world is worth preserving."[25] Metacritic assigned a score of 50 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[26]