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'The Ark' creators outlined entire 12-episode first season before they started writing new SYFY series
You can never be too prepared.
Still shocked by The Ark's revelation of who killed Jasper (Chris Leask) in the pilot episode of the new SYFY series?
Appearing on the latest installment of the official after-show for Episode 5, series co-creator Jonathan Glassner stated that he and fellow creator Dean Devlin knew the culprit would be Trent Baylor (Miles Barrow) from the very beginning. Why? "Because that gave us the best drama," he declared with a chuckle, going on to tease that "it sets up other stuff to come."
RELATED: How do you make a spaceship? We asked the designer of Ark One from SYFY’s new series ‘The Ark’
"This show is a big, giant jigsaw puzzle," he continued. "We basically boarded out the whole first 12 episodes, multiple storylines, before we even started writing. So we knew where we were going with everything. It sets up things, it gave us great tragedy with Alicia [Stacey Michelle Read] ... Things always change along the way, but we always knew we were gonna do the radiation meltdown and that Trent was gonna have to sacrifice himself for it. That was always the plan [but] some of the details of how it worked out change as we get the actual script."
In a separate interview, Barrow chalked up his onscreen actions to the fact that Trent has nothing left to lose:
"I've lost all my family. I've lost the one person that I was attached to and the reason I was on this ship [is that] I've lost her. I'm trying to remember what Susan [Lisa Brenner] was telling me. I'm trying to carry on with this mission, I'm trying to do all these things, and I'm all alone," he said. "It's just me. So I think within Episode 5, I want to take control of myself. I don't want to have be at the mercy of what Susan said, [what] I think my family would feel of me, [or] what I think I should be doing because of their viewpoints. I want to take control of something myself because I guess I feel guilty about Alicia. It's a shame that the control he wants to take is him killing himself, but I think in terms of the ending for that character and what he's been through, I think it's quite a justified and honorable thing to do."
Watch the full Episode 5 after-show below:
Glassner (whose resume includes Stargate SG-1) created the small screen project alongside genre royalty, Dean Devlin (writer of genre blockbusters like Independence Day and Godzilla). The co-showrunners serve as executive producers with Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson. Jonathan English and Steve Lee are producers.
The Ark airs on SYFY every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes are available to stream on Peacock the day after they premiere.
Looking for even more sci-fi content? Check out shows like Resident Alien, Brave New World, Project Blue Book, Eureka, Heroes, Intergalactic, and more streaming now on Peacock.
