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What Jonathan Glassner Learned on SG-1 That He's Bringing to SYFY's The Ark Season 2
‘It’s always about the characters,” says The Ark co-creator (and SG-1 veteran!) Jonathan Glassner.
The Season 2 countdown is almost over for The Ark, with the hit SYFY original series set to return this week with brand-new episodes. Expect things to get hectic right from the start on Wednesday, July 17, when the season premiere picks up right where an epic cliffhanger left the crew hanging by a disastrous thread in the dramatic, stranded-in-space Season 1 finale.
Co-created by Stargate movie mastermind Dean Devlin alongside Jonathan Glassner, who (with co-creator Brad Wright) shepherded TV spinoff Stargate SG-1 through its first eight seasons, The Ark tracks humanity’s last remnants aboard the Ark One savior spacecraft in a last-ditch attempt to strike out through space and colonize a new home planet to replace a dying Earth. The show’s first season ended in a swirl of fiery chaos, as the crippled Ark One languished in orbit while an entire planet — one meant to be a human colony — went up in full-scale flames just below.
Now that Season 2 is nearly here, just how do you build on that kind of high-stakes momentum? Once your sci-fi series turns out to be a hit, how do you approach a whole new batch of episodes — especially after a Season 1 finale that ratcheted the tension to all-new heights? We chatted with Glassner to get all the answers.
For more on The Ark:
Everything to Know About The Ark Season 2 on SYFY
The Ark Season 2 Key Art Promises a "Brighter Future" as SYFY Hit Returns (EXCLUSIVE)
What to Remember from The Ark’s First Season Before the Big Season 2 Premiere
The Sci-fi Lessons of Stargate SG-1 that The Ark Creators Took to Heart
Looking beyond even the Stargate franchise, it’s safe to say that The Ark’s creators have long known a thing or two about shaping science fiction. Alongside director Roland Emmerich (who's currently busying himself with Peacock's Roman epic, Those About to Die), Devlin co-wrote movie blockbusters like Independence Day and 1998’s Godzilla; while Star Trek writing alum Glassner has shared writing and production duty on past small-screen SYFY projects including The Outer Limits and The Invisible Man.
As their new sci-fi collaboration enters its sophomore season, Glassner says there’s nearly no limit to the lessons The Ark can inherit from a long-running science fiction series like Stargate SG-1 (which ran for 10 seasons from 1997-2007). But, he adds, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re writing for science fiction or, let’s say, for another genre like police procedurals (Glassner himself enjoyed an extended mid-2000s stint as a director and writer for the popular CSI crime franchise). In the end, Glassner explains, it’s all about creating characters that viewers can relate to and deeply invest in — and that’s what he feels that he and Devlin have cooked up as Season 2 of The Ark gets set to spring some fresh surprises on fans.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin on that!” Glassner recently shared with SYFY WIRE when asked how his Stargate SG-1 experience has helped hone his eye for shaping stories that span entire seasons. “There are so many things. But for me, it's always about the characters ... Whether it’s science fiction or any other type of television, if you’ve created characters that people want to invite into their living room every week and care about what’s going to happen to them — and hate some of them, and love some of them, and so on — then I think you succeed.”
In step with that ethos, The Ark and its flagship spacecraft are well populated with distinctive and memorable characters, whether it’s ad hoc captain Sharon Garnet (the Twilight Saga's Christie Burke) or the dashing, daring Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman) — a seemingly easygoing guy who, in Season 1, was sitting on a potentially lethal secret.
That’s before you even get into the complex characters introduced deeper into Season 1 of the series, from rogue vessel leader Evelyn Maddox (Jelena Stupljanin) — whose plans just might include exterminating the Ark One and its crew — or her devious, shady daughter Kelly (played by Glassner’s real-life daughter Samantha Glassner), whose deep mommy issues dangle over her split affections between the show’s competing factions.
“No matter how cool the visual effects are and how cool the sets are, and the plot,” Glassner said. “If people aren’t interested in those characters, they’re not gonna watch it.”
If that’s the real secret to creating successful sci-fi, then The Ark should be an easy watch as the series powers up for its long-awaited second season.
Catch the Season 2 premiere of The Ark Wednesday, July 17 at 10/9c on SYFY — and check out Peacock to stream all Season 1 episodes now.
