Open your streaming app of choice and there’s an endless supply of kids’ shows, mature content for grownups, and not much in between. When I was little I’d watch Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad. New Star Trek has a TV-MA rating. It seems like there should be room for something less than prestige TV and more than bubbly cartoons. Dean Devlin (the mind behind Stargate, The Librarians, and Leverage) has tremendous respect for weighty dramas. He just doesn’t care to make them.
His newest effort, The Ark (on the Syfy Network and streaming on Peacock), is set about 100 years in the future. Earth has become uninhabitable, and an attempt at saving humanity gave a large portion of the surviving population an incurable disease. So tech genius and billionaire William Trust (Paul Murray) developed The Ark Program, which puts people in cryogenic sleep before launching their spaceships toward what they hope is a life-sustaining planet.
Unfortunately, something happens to Ark 1 in the opening scene that wakes up everyone early and kills all the leadership. Now the survivors must find ways to stretch weeks of supplies out over years, organize a new command structure, and keep the ship going. A natural triumvirate forms between Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke), Spencer Lane (Reese Ritchie), and James Brice (Richard Fleeshman), but mutual distrust threatens to tear them apart.
Every installment sees them dealing with a new problem, resolving an old problem, and discovering something else for next time. It’s a simple formula, and nothing about The Ark is terribly complex or original. But as the minds behind the show have said, what’s the point of fighting for your survival if you aren’t having fun at the same time? After a clunky start, the show finds its groove, becoming unapologetically exciting and fun.
As sci-fi often does, The Ark wrestles with issues that are relevant to today. Fortunately, the plot also screams along too fast for heavy-handed moralizing. A recurring theme is the danger of putting too much faith in flawed people who might or might not have done great things. It’s a trap we all fall into, and The Ark speculates that humanity will never learn. The final episode reminds us of the eternal truth that we reap what we sow, and sometimes an act of kindness is rewarded.
The Ark isn’t afraid to show humanity at its best but balances it out with reminders that we all make mistakes and pay the consequences. In Psalm 146:3 the psalmist tells us, “Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.” William Trust had a plan, but the survivors on Ark 1 realize he’s an imperfect savior. And while some mistakes are more grievous than others, there’s always room for grace.
There’s language you won’t hear on network TV, some implied sex and sensuality, and mild violence, but nothing parents can’t navigate with older teens. (Syfy Original, Peacock)
About the Author
Trevor Denning is an alumni of Cornerstone University and lives, lifts weights, and spends too much time in his kitchen in Alma, Mich. His first short story collection is St. George Drive and Other Stories.