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Spoilers THE ARK (2023)

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THE ARK takes place 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive. The series stars Christie Burke, Richard Fleeshman, Reece Ritchie, Stacey Read, and Ryan Adams. Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate) and Jonathan Glassner (Stargate SG-1) are co-showrunners and executive producers alongside Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson of Electric Entertainment. Jonathan English of Balkanic Media and Steve Lee serve as producers.

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I really, really doubt that it'll survive its first season...
 
I thought it started off rough, but I got more into the first episode as it went on. In this era of prestige sci-fi television, where many streamers are putting out cinematic level programs, The Ark looks cheaper, a throwback to older sci-fi programming. It has a Aughts feel to it, and it felt like it would be on WB. While the production design isn't bad (I especially like the compression suits and the helmets are distinct), I thought the Ark-One ship was uninspired (SyFy did a better job with Nightflyers). As the episode progressed, I got more into the story and also into the characters. I am intrigued to see where the story goes.
 
I second the statement that it looks cheap. The characters, at this point at least, are very one note. I've become so spoiled with high quality visual FX, that I'm not sure I'll be able to stick with it. We'll have to see if the plot lines can hold onto my attention.
 
marillion said:
I second the statement that it looks cheap. The characters, at this point at least, are very one note. I've become so spoiled with high quality visual FX, that I'm not sure I'll be able to stick with it. We'll have to see if the plot lines can hold onto my attention.
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Filmed in Serbia.

Cheaper production rates, and they probably hire locally for the cast.
 
theenglish said:
Done by the same crew who made The Crows of Eyes, no doubt.
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It's good though.

Unknown no bodies with degrassi level acting chops.

If English is the second language of almost everyone present, it's not completely noticeable, although the characters are an international blend, and a fake French accent is way easier than a fake Canadian accent.
 
IDK for me it was hard to sit through because of all the desperate survival tropes they're throwing in. It's got all of them in kitchen sink fashion. And it's annoying because you know they're going to survive because there wouldn't be a show if they didn't.

And I'm sure it will all lead to an episode where they find this all wasn't an accident and some zealot sabotaged the ship because for whatever reason said zelot and the Zelot's group who managed put him on the ship don't believe Humanity deserves to a chance to survive...
 
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Noname Given said:
IDK for me it was hard to sit through because of all the desperate survival tropes they're throwing in. It's got all of them in kitchen sink fashion. And it's annoying because you know they're going to survive because there wouldn't be a show if they didn't.

And I'm sure it will all lead to an episode where they find this all wouldn't an accident and some zealot sabotaged the ship because for whatever reason said zelot and the Zelot's group who managed put him on the ship don't believe Humanity deserves to a chance to survive...
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And there was
MURDER! :eek: Though the victim was a bit of surprise. I thought he be around as the resident asshole
As noted fairly cheap production values and bland actors. I did chuckle at the character who had to announce she was Serbian. I guess that was part of the deal. Seem to be a lot of Brits in the cast. Which makes sense as the UK is the closest English speaking country
 
Stopped after 10 minutes..
I couldn't get past the horrid VFX .. Okay, I can pass the falling stuff, but the main ship looks worse than old Babylon 5 ships from 25 years ago.. Star Gate first season maybe.. Not even close to Atlantis ..

Might begrudge a retry if y'all say the writing is good..
 
Episode 1 felt a little cheap to me and the story and acting weren't cutting it, but about halfway through I became interested and wanted to know more after it ended.

You made it to episode 2.
 
My family loved the Outpost... which was also "cheap" and filmed the last seasons in later seasons

But it had Reece Ritchie, and good actors in it.
 
Just watched the first episode on Syfy's website (I only just now discovered that was possible). It was mediocre. Mainly a disaster/survival story with the usual mix of characters and conflicts, nothing too engaging.

The science is an utter mess. At the beginning, we see the crew hibernating in a rotating section of the ship that loses gravity when the rotation jams, but later we see them walking around normally in non-rotating sections, so what was even the point of the nod to centrifugal gravity? Also, apparently muscle atrophy from long-term hibernation can be canceled out by wearing a tight compression suit. Huh? And the ship is designed to seal off sections when the oxygen drops too low, but isn't designed to have helmets and emergency oxygen in every section. Oh, and they have the stars visibly moving past outside the windows even though they're traveling slower than light.

Not sure if I'll bother to watch any more. Maybe it'll get better. Dean Devlin wrote the pilot himself, and he's always been a mediocre writer. I prefer it when he sticks to producing.
 
I made it about 15 minutes. This is terrible. And not even in a fun way. There's way too much good stuff on TV to even bother with this steaming hot pile of garbage.
 
Okay, I've now caught up with all three episodes so far. It's not a great show, and some of the character conflicts and secrets and stuff feel pretty corny, but I like survival narratives about creative problem-solving. The best example of that in recent years is Netflix's Lost in Space reboot, and this is nowhere near that good, but it's watchable.

After the terrible science of the first couple of episodes, there's some surprisingly solid physics talk in episode 3, although some of the details are still quite bad, such as a comet having a tail in interstellar space with no sunlight to sublimate its volatiles or stellar wind to push them into a tail, and a ship trying to match velocities with the comet waiting until seconds before it passes to begin thrusting, rather than starting well in advance. It's a weird mix of knowledge and ignorance. I suppose the writers got some good advice from a technical consultant but chose to ignore parts of it.
 
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