Syfy’s The Ark Showrunner Reveals Most Challenging Scene

Season 1 of the new Syfy series, The Ark, comes to an end this week and its showrunner, Dean Devlin has opened up about making the sci-fi series. Reportedly, they had a number of challenges while making the show, including the moment the “whole set collapsed” around the cast. Read on to find out more about the challenging making of the series, which has already been confirmed for season 2.

Showrunner Dean Devlin and the challenges of making The Ark

Viewers are already impressed by the interstellar film set of the Syfy series, The Ark. However, it turns out it wasn’t easy to make the show. In fact, according to showrunner Dean Devlin, several challenges were experienced on the set. Devlin recently spoke to the Express about the show, which is set to premiere on Sky in the UK shortly. Meanwhile, US viewers will see the final episode of season 1 this week.

It turns out the most challenging scene of the series is when the “whole set collapsed” around the cast.

About The Ark on Syfy

The sci-fi series, The Ark, is set on board a massive, space-faring vessel and follows the story of a group of humans, tasked to ensure humanity’s survival. In the first episode, disaster strikes and the surviving crew, led by new captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) have to put aside their differences in order to stay on course. While the series revealed a disaster, it turns out filming that episode was almost a disaster in real life, too.

According to Dean Devlin, showrunner for The Ark, “We had to deal with weightlessness, we had to deal with whole sets collapsing in on each other,” adding:

It was technically very difficult to do, and I think it was the very first thing we shot with all the actors.

Devlin explained that the cast had only started learning their own motives and backstories when they were thrown into the action.

“They still didn’t know each other yet, they were just jumping into the characters,” he said, adding, “I kept pulling actors aside and whispering into their ears about their secrets.”

Dean continued, saying there was a lot going on at the start of the shoot, so that was the hardest for him. Luckily, the cast quickly found a way to get along, although their camaraderie on the set brought problems of its own.

Cast opens up about filming the Syfy series

Christie Burke, who plays Sharon Garnet in The Ark, was asked about the most challenging moment for her. She explained that her most difficult moments were the recharging room scenes. She said, “We would look at each other and we couldn’t stop laughing.” Burke added, saying:

My character’s so serious! Then I’d look over at Richard and he would crack a joke.

So my answer is any scene with Richard. But I don’t think any scene was that challenging. There were definitely problems we faced, like slowly dying in a helmet.

However, Christie added that it was more issues of not being able to stop laughing, which on their tight schedule, it was like, “We don’t have time for this!”

Meanwhile, Richard Fleeshman, who plays Lt. James Brice, said he also felt the strain of working on such a close-quarters set. “It got incredibly intense,” he said, adding, “Because you’ve got this enclosed space, which is very real.”

Richard explained that they were all wearing spacesuits, especially in the early episodes, while it was 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Serbian summer outside. However, he did add “Thankfully we had good air conditioning.”

And it was just quite discombobulating. It started to get more and more real because you don’t have that release of looking up and having that massive space.

So we did start to get slightly hysterical on those longer bridge days.

Despite the odds, Devlin and the crew of The Ark have secured a second season on Syfy.

Meanwhile, in the US, The Ark season 1 concludes on April 19 on Syfy and is available to stream on Peacock. In the UK, the series premieres on Tuesday, April 26 on Sky: Sci-Fi. Readers can watch the trailer for the series here: