Welcome Back The Ark Science Fiction Lovers,
As we posted on X on May 28, we of The Ark Residents here at TeamWHR are ecstatic that The Ark is returning to SYFY on July 17, 2024 one week before San Diego Comic-Con!
Admirers will recall that The Ark is set approximately one hundred years in the future, subsequent to humankind destroying the Earth with pollution, overcrowding featuring rival political groups who come together to launch a series “Ark” to save humans from the terrible fate they brought upon themselves.
The second season brings back our favorite main series stars Christie Burke as Lt. Sharon Garnet, who becomes the de facto captain of a spacecraft known as Ark-1 after the disasters that have befallen our heroes. Burke is joined by Reece Ritchie as LT. Spencer Lane, Richard Fleeshman as Lt. James Brice, Stacey Read as Alicia Nevins, Ryan Adams as Angus Medford, Pavle Jerinić as Felix Strickland, Shalini Peiris as Dr. Sanjivni Kabir, Christina Wolfe as Dr. Cat Brandice, Tiana Upcheva as Eva Markovic, Paul Leonard Murray as Ark ships creator William Trust, Jelena Stupljanin as Evelyn Maddox and Samantha Glassner as Kelly Fowler.
Much like the human beings depicted in “When Worlds Collide” (1951) who, with all best intentions, band together to save a small percentage of the Earth’s population.
Naturally, conflicts break out between the survivors both on Ark-1 and Ark-15 interstellar vehicles carrying humanity’s last hope for survival when William Trust, the creator of the Ark technology and his wife stashed themselves on Ark-1. Along with a band of recalcitrant space travelers, the experiences in season one nearly results in a complete disaster.
Per SYFY Public Relations; “the first season of “The Ark” reached 6.5 million viewers across all platforms. Across all platforms in L+3, the February 1 series premiere was the best in total viewers (1.1 million) since “Resident Alien” (a science fiction comedy)) and top in the 18-49 demo since October 2021 “Day of the Dead” which was not renewed”
The Ark remains the last pure scripted science fiction “Space Opera” series on the SYFY line up in specific, and network television in general. Now with season two just up ahead in our galaxy, admirers were provided a sneak peak trailer of what to expect in the upcoming second season on SYFY. We include the second season’s official trailer below for your enjoyment. The Ark was renewed for a second season prior to the first season finale, which, as mentioned above will premiere in the United States July 17th on SYFY.
The Ark was created by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate) and Jonathan Glassner (Stargate SG-1) as executive producers and co-showrunners whom we interviewed at WonderCon in 2023.
The Ark series debuted on SYFY on February 1, 2023, concluding season one with a fabulous finale on April 19, 2023 with “Everybody Wins” leading to the season two opener “Failed Experiment”.
Everybody Wins:
In the season one finale, Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) had assumed the role she was meant for, that of the captain with things seemingly moving in the right direction after a deal was brokered with Evelyn Maddox (Jelena Stupljanin) of Ark 15.
Viewers will recall that in “Everybody Wins” Evelyn was determined to be fully responsible for all of the deaths on Ark-3 that was found by Ark-1 as well as many deaths and injuries suffered on Ark-1 during their efforts to survive in deep space.
Viewers learned that Evelyn Maddox was a vicious villainous megalomaniac. However, with everyone’s life at risk, she turns out to be a person of her word. Despite the mutual agreement to share the planet they arrived at known as Proxima B, Ark creator William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray) own devious plans go awry. The planet exploded, leaving Ark-1 badly once again in distress. Ark-1’s hope was Evelyn Maddox, who sends help to Ark-1 subsequent to Ark-1 curing her of a deadly disease illness, thereby saving her own ship.
The most satisfying conclusion of the episode comes early on, as Dr. Kabir (Shalini Peiris) and Alicia (Stacey Read) determine what went wrong in their attempt to cure Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman). Kabir and Alicia discover that the deadly spider venom degraded when exposed to Ark-1’s artificial air, and that the spiders must bite James directly to mix their venom in with the cure’s other ingredients. James, scared of spiders, hates the idea but reluctantly agrees. The spider bites are worth it when Dr. Kabir confirms that the intended cure worked.
Refusing to leave Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie) behind on Ark-15 and armed with the news of the successful cure, Sharon negotiates with Evelyn Maddox. Though neither side fully trusts the other, Maddox agrees to trade Spencer for the cure. Maddox and Spencer travel to Ark-1 via their shuttle, but Sharon nearly calls off the deal when Kelly (Samantha Glassner) is discovered hidden aboard the shuttle. Maddox explains that her daughter wanted to be with her in case the cure did not work. Sharon agrees on the condition that Kelly is handcuffed despite her justified mistrust of both of them. Captain Sharon reinstates Lt. Spencer Lane to his position on the bridge, as she and Lt. James Brice welcome him back aboard the bridge. Lt. Sharon decides to release Cat (Christina Wolfe) from house arrest after she shows remorse for her part in the mutiny. Additionally, Cat had provided assistance in dealing with the Ark-15 situation.
Lt. Brice and Eva (Tiana Upcheva) romance blossoms when they share a passionate kiss in a rare private moment. After all they’ve endured over the first season, it was nice to see these two lovers find happiness.
Unfortunately, treacherous William Trust is still holding an expected grudge against Kelly’s accidental murder of his wife Helena Trust (Mercedes De La Cruz). It turns out that Trusts has altered the computer programming to get their destination planet to rotate. Thankfully Sharon realizes that Trust has altered it so that Ark-15 would be destroyed in the process.
Sharon orders William Trust to fix the situation and continues to argue with William Trust as they work to resolve the crisis. Soon after, now captain Sharon bonds with Evelyn Maddox over their mutual dislike of William Trust. The finale does not end with a final battle between the two and it’s unclear if Evelyn Maddox is actually trustworthy. Thankfully the newfound alliance between Ark-1 and Ark-15 still makes for an acceptable solution to the conflicts experienced in season one.
In the end, the alliance between Ark-1 and Ark-15 comes at an opportune moment because an unforeseen miscalculation sets the planet on fire damaging a portion of Ark-1 in the ensuing explosion observed at the end of “Everybody Wins.”
Captain Sharon is unable to confirm whether the rest of the ship survived, but Maddox agrees to have the remaining members of now uninhabitable Ark-1 move onto Ark-15.
Although the newfound truce between Ark-1 and Ark15 crew members situation will likely cause new tensions between the two Arks, the shake-up will provide an intriguing start of season two.
The real question for season two of The Ark is have any other of the “Arks” survived and will our heroes encounter them? Tune in on July 17, 2024 when we will live tweet, or as it is now known, live post on X during the first episode of season two named “Failed Experiment”.
See you then!
We will be back in the near future with more of The Ark as well as our favorite television series and movie analysis. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or family and leave your comments! We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on Twitter, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Thank you. 
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR
