Posted in: SYFY, TV | Tagged: dean devlin, Jonathan Glassner, the ark

The Ark Showrunners Process Season 2: Garnet/Ian, Eva, Kelly & More

The Ark Showrunners Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner broke down Season 2 with us: Garnet/Ian, Kelly, the Eastern Federation, and much more!

The Ark creators Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner are creating some of the most compelling science fiction, which is understandable considering their work in one of the best modern franchises in Stargate. As season one was focused on the crew of the Ark One trying to build cohesion, overcome internal strife, and discover new threats on the way, season two ups the ante as we find out some of the lengths of human experimentation, intergalactic politics, and new uncertain threats. Season two also introduces more variables like clones and alternate versions of characters we once thought lost, like Christina Wolfe's Cat Brandice. Devlin and Glasser spoke to Bleeding Cool about some of the plotlines season two touches upon, like Garnet (Christie Burke) and Spencer/Ian (Reece Ritchie), the redemption of Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner), and the developments of the Eastern Federation.

The Ark Creators Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner on the Stories of Season 2

Bleeding Cool: You created some interesting storylines regarding cloning this season. What process determined how the actors played their clones and how they distinguished them from the main characters?

Glassner: It was Reece who had to do that. He plays Lane and Ian. He did it, and I got to give credit where it is due. All I said was to make sure they're completely different and I asked him to try to pick a different dialect of English to help differentiate them. He sent me a bunch of them he could do, and we picked the one he ended up with. That's where we ended up.

I wanted to expand upon episode ten because I felt it was one of the most powerful episodes of the season. It involved Garnet and Ian getting caught in their life simulation. With such a wide range of emotions from Christie and Reece playing that life together, I can only imagine the challenge both actors had to endure with the rapport Garnet and Lane had already built, and then Reese having to hit the reset button and almost having to play catch up as Ian on end. Can you tell me how that episode was planned out and if the actors had any difficulties?

Glassner: They are both incredibly talented actors, and we knew they could do it from the start. The one thing I think helped them a little was they got to shoot it in order, which is what you usually don't do on television; we made an exception because of the makeup effects we had to do. It was a gradual progression, and they didn't have to go, "No way. Where am I now," which is commonly the problem in that when you're doing something like that.

Samantha Glasser has been quite an interesting wildcard for 'The Ark' as Kelly Fowler. As far as finding the balance between humanity and the automation side of what she was programmed from the experimentation of her character. Was there any inspiration in her redemption story and how it's played out with her?

Devlin: I remember growing up, there was a Ralph Bakshi cartoon called 'Wizards' (1977). I don't know if you ever saw 'Wizards,' but it's fantastic. It features this killer robot who has a change of life and goes from being villainous to heroic. That's always been in my mind as this character developed, and she's a brutal murderer who was traumatized by her mother, had her body altered, and committed horrible crimes. You ask if a character like that can redeem herself.

The writers found an amazing story for her to open this window of empathy for her. Sam's performance is spectacular, and we couldn't have given her a harder part to play. She found such nuance in the character and yet never betrayed the trauma this character went through. Even in her happiest moments, you can still feel how damaged she is. That storyline was so much fun to explore and to watch it evolve.

Glassner: She's a humanized version of the question we're all living with right now, "If a self-driving car kills somebody, is the programmer at fault, or is the person who crossed in front of the car at fault?" If I kill somebody, is it the programmer's fault? It's that humanized.

Are there other ethical issues in technology that you have already touched upon, since we're talking about A.I., that you want to explore maybe next season or expand upon?

Glassner: Mind control is certainly one we could explore further. It sets up the episode you were talking about, which was a mind-control trip to malfunction. There are so many science fiction themes we have left to explore. We could go on for 18 years [laughs].

With season two out, were there any arcs, pardon the pun, storylines you were surprised that took off as it did?

Devlin: The whole Eastern Federation and the idea that's where Eva (Tiana Upcheva) had been before she had come to 'The Ark.' That's a tricky storyline to tell because, in essence, we're saying the people we've been rooting for, or at least the organization they work for, may not have necessarily been the good guys and that's a complex idea. There's this great moment where Ian, who's on neither side, says, "Both of you did some horrible things," and that's more realistic. The victor is always the hero, right? The loser is always the villain, but maybe, at least in our storyline, it's a little more complex.

The Ark, which also stars Richard Fleeshman, Stacey Read, Ryan Adams, Pavle Jerinic, Shalani Peiris, Paul Leonard Murray, Milos Cvetkovic, Jessica Yemi, Tamara Radovanovic, and Jadran Malkovich, is available on SYFY and streams on Peacock.

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