The Ark

 So, time for a recent sci-fi series I found on SyFy, about colonists out there in space to save Earth, nothing spectacular new on that front.

 

 

Time to sit back then, and see if this series is any good!

 

When a proximity alert goes off, lieutenant Sharon Garnet is awakened from cryosleep.  Soon discovers a hull breach has taken place, and starts the procedure to awaken the rest of the crew.  However, the deck with the full command staff has been destroyed, and ow she, and lieutenants Lane and Brice the only remaining ranked officers.  In the messhall, they explain the situation and how low ranking department workers now have to step up as heads, while Agnus, an agricultural genius, begins building a bay for growing vegetables as both water and food rations are low, having awakened a year before planned.

 

Soon though, their inexperience causes the death of some crewmembers, as for example engineer Dades was replaced by a man called Perry, as everyone wanted to be on the Arc to escape the dying Earth.  He is locked away, but later found murdered.  As the crew tries to find out all the things that happened, and what caused the impact damage, they find a strange substance that has eaten through the hull, and almost causes Brice to lose his hand as it eats through his EV suit.  However, there is good news as well as Markovic gets the water recycling unit running after mining a passing comet, even though this causes the engine to shut down.

In order to get going again, they decide to try a slingshot around a nearby sun, and then deploy the solar sails.  This will put them back on track while they work on rebooting the engines, as Strickland, in charge of security, continues his investigation.   This leads to Trent, and he is uncovered as a murderer, but he redeems himself by sacrificing his life for the ship, going into the engine room during a radiation leak.  But he confides something in Lane before he volunteered. 

The water from the comet contains an unknown molecule, causing the crew to halucinate, making it harder for docter Kabir to find a cure.  But as they overcome the issue, they manage to create a device that not only locates the strange substance that caused the damage, but also the uranium32 for their fuel.  They trace a planetoid rife with it, but upon arrival it isn't the exoplanet full of the stuff, but Ark-3 behind it.  Boarding the vessel they only find 2 survivors, one dying shortly afterwards on dr Kabir's operation table from his injuries.  Ark-3 was seemingly attacked by a weapon of the same substance, and when Avi and Agnus reboot Ark-3's camera footage, they discover it was attacked by Ark-15, one of the vessels of Maddox, who bought out William Trust, the original designer of the Ark's.  Trust also caused Klampkins decease on humans though, by releasing chemicals in the atmosphere in a failed effort to save earth, an condition lieutenant Bryce suffers from and explaining his gung-ho behaviour.

Trust and his wife are actually stowed away on Ark-1, known only to Lane, but when Ark-3 goes in lockdown he awakens him to get the access codes and save the people trapped on the other Ark.  Trust explains his plans, and learns from his wife how he came to be on Ark-1 instead of Ark-5 as planned.  Ark-15 however catches up with them, and the lone survivor of Ark-3, Kelly, is actually a crewmember of that vessel.  She was on the other Ark to search for a DNA repository containing various species from Earth, as Avi deducts one of those might be the key to the cure for Klampkins.

Together with doctor Kabir she starts working on a cure, as the rest tries to stall for time with Ark-15 and prevent them from destroying their vessel.  Ark-15, led by Maddox herself, holds several of them hostage, and it turns out Maddox has Klampkins herself.   Bryce is cured from the illness, although he has to have himself bitten by the spiders in order to have the poison, which is the cure, go into his system effectively.  As a rescue mission for the captured crew is undertaken, they realise they now have a strong bartering chip.  They establish an uneasy truce with Maddox, curing her as well and, and agree to share their destination, Proxima B.  Trust develloped a way to have the planet, which doesn't have rotation, to do so, but although he first tries to kill Ark-15, Ark-1 prevents this.

However, starting to rotate the planet causes a disaster, as it's oceans aren't filled with water but liquid methane, igniting the planet side that comes into contact with the sun and causing it to explode.  Ark-1 is gravely damaged, but Ark-15 comes to their aid, as Maddox contacts Garnet saying "she still owed one" and sends their shuttle over with repair crews and supplies.

And so the season ends, with the two Ark's now near a destroyed planet.  While this would have been an open but do-able ending, it has in the meantime been confirmed a second season is in the works, so we can see how this rather enjoyable future will play out further.  

 

It ain't a classic, but it is definitely worth the watch.