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'The Ark' writer Rebecca Rosenberg on perspective as only woman in SYFY series' 4-person writers' room
"I'm holding down the fort for us ladies."
Despite the fact that The Ark presents a very female-forward narrative, the show's writers' room — which took place exclusively over Zoom — only contained one female writer: Rebecca Rosenberg. The sole woman on the creative team addressed the situation during a guest appearance on the latest episode of the official SYFY after-show, declaring, "I'm holding down the fort for us ladies."
"I am the only woman in the room, but there were only four of us," Rosenberg added, alluding to John-Paul Nickel, Kendall Lampkin (the inspiration for Brice's mysterious illness), and co-creators/showrunners Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner. "So it was a pretty small room. Twenty-five percent [was female], there are worse rooms than that. So that's one side [of it]. But also, I would say this one of the best rooms to be in in that case because everyone was conscious of what the women characters should be like. It wasn't just on me to be the voice of the female characters."
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She continued: "Everyone in the room cared and we all knew that the lead of the show was a woman. We wanted her to be complicated and have an interesting backstory; be able to kick some ass and also be emotional. I think that's one of the most interesting things about Garnet. She starts so guarded at the beginning of the season and then we see those walls come down a little bit throughout as she starts to get to know people, especially in her story with Lane. I think that we did a really good job of serving all the female characters really well and I never felt like I was alone in caring about giving them voices. I thought everyone did a great job."
Watch SYFY's The Ark Episode 11 After-Show Below:
Glassner (Stargate SG-1) and Dean Devlin (Stargate, Independence Day) serve as executive producers on the show alongside Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson. Jonathan English and Steve Lee are producers.
The Ark Season 1 finale airs on SYFY next Wednesday — April 19 — at 10 p.m. ET. Catch up on the story thus far with Episodes 1-11 streaming on Peacock. The series was officially renewed for a second season earlier this week.
Looking for even more sci-fi content? Check out shows like Resident Alien, Space: 1999, Brave New World, Project Blue Book, Eureka, Heroes, Intergalactic, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and more streaming now on Peacock.
