Welcome Back The Ark admirers,
Science fiction has, in the past, been a perfect vehicle for educating viewers on moral issues. Those of us who find sci-fi movies and scripted science fiction series fascinating either see these morality episodes as useful, or as pandering. Maybe, science fiction is the new religious doctrine of our time? Thou shalt not kill each other to extinction.
Good science fiction is never about building utopias as much as about warning of the dystopias seeded in their attempt. Justice is of course, part of the moral equation with “honor”, “responsibility”, and “wisdom” being three other ingredients with other values that might be added to individual cognitive taste. “Freedom” is a value added element. At best it’s the freedom to choose futures wisely.
In this episode of The Ark, we learn that some of the survivors of an Earth that we ourselves destroyed, have apparently learned nothing. Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) is left to point out the follies of humanity with tragic results when a key member of the crew does not survive the encounter with the Eastern Federation.
Cycle of Violence:
In an episode written by James Delorean and directed by Hannah Espia we open where we left Ark-1 in We Don’t Kill Our Own when a new ship, the Eastern Federation EF-2 that appears next to Ark 1, is hell bent on getting their way. They want their shuttle and Bojan (Vas Batricevic), their soldier, back or there will be deadly consequences. Since Bojan is dead after he committed suicide in Museum of Death, Captain Garnet tries to explain that all she can do is give them back their shuttle. Eastern Federation Captain Zed Avega (Daniel Fathers) doesn’t believe Captain Garnet, demonstrating the hostility that the Eastern Federation seems to have toward the GSA. Garnet decides it’s time to flee sending Ark-1 into FTL without setting up a destination. This causes all kinds of problems. It’s going to take some time to sort them out says William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray).
Once safe in another region of space, they hope, the plan is to continue on their way. Garnet asks Security Chief Strickland (Pavle Jerinic) to bring Eva (Tiana Upcheva) to the Ready Room. After all that has transpired, Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie) has taken it upon himself to blame Eva for their predicament. Spencer is convinced that Eva must have sent a message to Avega’s ship. Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman) defends Eva. He’s a good boyfriend. Eva explains that she and her brother were stowaways on GSA ships because the Eastern Federation ships were taking too long to get space worthy. When charged by Lt Lane that they are law breakers, she states, “what kind of people send a new recruit on a suicide mission? Do you know what they were doing at the Lunar Colony? The GSA were developing a biological weapon to wipe out most of the world’s population.”
Eva is taken back to her quarters. Lane, Garnet and Brice return to the Command Center for an update on their FTL Drive. Surprisingly, the EF-2 shows up almost immediately and fires on them with an EM (Electromagnetic Pulse) knocking out their FTL drive rendering them incapable of escaping. How did the EF-2 find them? Lane has an epiphany; the other ship was tracking their own shuttle. Captain Avega hails them. He now wants Eva to verify their story. Captain Garnet asks, “How do we know that you won’t destroy us?” Avega replies, “Despite what you have been told we are not cold blooded killers like the GSA. I have no desire to push the human race closer to extinction.” He then demands that Eva return with the shuttle or he will destroy Ark 1. Does anyone else have a problem with this? I don’t want to kill you, but I’ll kill you if you don’t give me what I want? It turns out that Eva doesn’t want to go over to the Eastern Federation ship. Garnet has given her the right to make her own decision. I think Avega respects that.
Meanwhile, there are problems occurring with Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner). She is not recovering properly from her overuse of her implants during the It Can’t Be True episode when she saved members of Ark-1 from an evil plan of revenge by Lati (Coral Mizrachi) who manipulated Kelly’s enhanced abilities to try and kill Eva who Lati suspected was an Eastern Federation spy that caused the deaths of many GSA officers during the Lunar Colony incident revealed in previous episodes including Pretty Big Deal.
Dr. Kabir (Shalini Peiris) and Dr. Marsh (Jadran Malkovich) are worried Kelly may not survive. But that’s not all the two doctors need to be concerned about. The two doctors have developed a good working relationship, are unaware that poor Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) is having his own problems that are connected to Kelly’s Nanites.
Angus is hallucinating, seeing Kelly everywhere he goes on the Ark-1. I find it interesting that none of the crew bothers to let any Command people know that Angus is losing his mind, or at least seems to be the case.
A quick message to Lt. Lane or Doctors Marsh and Kabir might have helped the situation. Eventually, Angus makes his way to the Medical Bay where he kisses Kelly by biting her, releasing the Nanites he has in his system back to her.
It turns out that this was all that was needed. Kelly regains consciousness and the doctors confirm that she starts to heal again. Would you be willing to accept Nanites into your body to keep you healthy?
What is your opinion? Let WormholeRiders know your thoughts about this on X.
Lt. Lane finds his clone Ian (a dual role by Reece Ritchie) reading a book. He seems not at all bothered that the ship outside the massive window in front of him is preparing to destroy them. The Ark’s impending doom is “just another Tuesday” to him, he says.
It’s at this point with Ian filling in the blanks, that Lt. Lane realises that the people he thought were his natural parents were connected to a specific cloning program. Spencer had been the one chosen to be the child they decided to raise as their own.
Later on when Garnet is asking Kimi (Díana Bermudez) about what she remembers about the Eastern Federation and GSA after Ark1 had left Earth, Ian approaches to tell her that there was “evil on both sides”. Ian gets volunteered to be the neutral mediator to try and settle the dispute between EF-2 and Ark-1.
I wonder if Reece Ritchie, the actor who got to play both Lt. Spencer Lane and Ian got paid twice for playing two characters? That would be fair, wouldn’t it? I bet that Reece would agree!
William Trust, who had been locked up until recently, is not happy that Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read), who he nick-named “Genius Girl” as he derisively calls her, has joined him in Engineering.
His ego still has Trust held hostage to his own delusions and he is not willing to give them up. Garnet has joined him and asks Trust if he can build that makeshift weapon he had suggested a while ago so they can defend themselves. Trust replies, “I thought you’d never ask.” Eva is brought back to the Command Center so that she can give Avega her decision. Eva says that she would rather stay on the Ark. Avega will not take no for an answer. There is a lot of hate toward the GSA, I think. So he orders his ship to fire. Garnet also orders Trust to fire. The Ark’s EMP knocks out the EF-2’s weapons. The benefit of an EMP weapon is that it doesn’t leave a mess like current weapons would.
Captain Avega, after some bluffing by Garnet, agrees to peace talks, but only if they agree to swap an equal number of crew to provide safety for both sides. If anything happens to Avega and his number one, their people will be killed. These people turn out to be Strickland and Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovanovic). Garnet, Brice, Lane, Alicia, Eva, Trust and Strickland meet again. They learn that the GSA planned to wipe out billions of people to save themselves; the rich and the powerful, of course. At that point, Lt. Lane discovers that his dad wasn’t the hero he thought he was. We learn that dear ole’ Dad was creating a bio-weapon to kill billions! That is a massive emotional blow for Lane. No one wants to hear that their father is a mass murderer.
With Captain Avega on board Ark-2, joined by his second in command, Lt. Ristic (Luka Jovanovic Dzivdzanovski), it is decided that Ian will act as the neutral mediator. The peace talks are not going well. After much arguing, they take a break. Captain Garnet asks Avega what he and his crew are planning to do in the long term.
Captain Avega knows about the planet called Trappist-1D where Ark-1 is headed to as well. He tells Captain Garnet they will be going there too. Garnet tells him that there are already GSA people there setting up a colony. Avega will have no choice, he says, other than to fight for what belongs to the Eastern Federation if forced.
Tragically, it looks like they will continue their war. So much for trying to avoid the extinction of humanity. Captain Avega gets ready to leave. As he does, Captain Garnet grabs his hands and puts them around her neck. “Start with me. Kill me.” she says shocking even Lt. Lane.
Garnet explains how the violence will escalate it they don’t come to an agreement. What is the solution then? The EF ship must disarm. “If we disarm, how do we know that the GSA won’t fire on us once we reach Trappist-1D?” asks Avega. Garnet suggests that they follow Ark 1 there. They can stay at a safe distance while she meets with the GSA leadership. Avega’s own Lieutenant Ristic disagrees with all of this. Rustic is not willing to take any path other than going to war, resorting to violence as we soon find out.
With negotiations over between Garnet and Avega, they begin walking back to the drop off point so they can return to their shuttle.
That’s when Lt. Ristic attacks his own Captain to stop any peace deal between the GSA and the Eastern Federation. Ristic is so obsessed over the situation that he shoves a blade deep into the back of Captain Avega.
Lt. Lane, who is standing nearby, leaps to Garnet’s and Avega’s defence.
Lane throws several defensive blows and overcomes Ristic but the “Cycle of Violence” ends with catastrophic results. Sadly, Lane has been mortally wounded.
Taken to the Ark-1 Medical Bay, doctors Kabir and Marsh confirm that the prognosis is not good. Both men are dying from internal injuries. To add to the trauma, Captain Garnet own hands are covered in blood, from trying to stop the bleeding of Lt. Lane whom she has become emotionally close. Viewers will recall that since both are clones forbidden a Juno Project match to procreate the human species, this drew them together.
Captain Garnet then receives a communications hail from Lt. Maija Lync (Olivera Perunicic), the EF-2 ships Second in Command who is under orders to execute Strickland and Griff who are now hostages pending the return of Captain Avega.
Lt. Lync states clearly she is ready to have Strickland and Griff executed. Garnet manages to negotiate an hour’s reprieve and rushes off to the Medical Bay.
Captain Garnet is desperate to save the two men. There must be a way she reasons. Garnet practically begs the two doctors. Ian, who has been nearby suggests that Lt. Lane’s liver be transferred to Avega to save his life. This will also avert further conflict between Ark-1 and EF-2.
The proposed medical procedure will save the EF captain Avega, but Lt. Lane will die in the process. Ian states that Lane was trying to save Avega’s life and this is what he would have wanted.
With the weight of the galaxy seemingly on Garnet’s shoulders, she agrees. Lt. Brice, meanwhile is trying to negotiate with Lt. Lync to save the lives of Strickland and Griff.
Luckily, Eva hurries into the Command Center room and talks to Lt. Lync. We then learn that they are old friends who explicitly trust each other. It is only this relationship between the two women that ultimately saves Strickland and Griff as well as averting the impending conflict should the hostages be killed.
The final scene is with Captain Garnet who decides that she will go see dead Lt. Spencer Lane to say a final goodbye. His father may not have been a hero, but Lt. Spencer Lane certainly is.
Captain Garnet and Ian share a moment together to contemplate their devastating mutual loss.
I will be back to review episode eleven “It Will Be Over Soon”. I hope that The Ark will not be over soon and will instead be renewed for a third season. In the meantime, join TeamWHR for an X party when episode ten “It Should Have Been You” is broadcast and let SYFY know you want a season three too!
Thanks to Kenn for staging images for my review and analysis of this episode of The Ark, the featured videos, and, many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!
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Regards,
