There may be a robust personal thread linking Dean Devlin to each the unique Star Trek and his latest Syfy series The Ark – his late mother, actress Pilar Seuratwho guest-starred within the 1967 episode “Star Trek” on NBC.
“She was in Episode “Wolf within the fold”. and plays a psychic princess [Sybo] on this planet, who’s killed by Scotty [James Doohan] when he’s possessed by Jack the Ripper’s soul,” Devlin, 60, told The Post. “She actually got here home with a stunt phaser – it was rubber and a bit battered, it was a phaser they were throwing on a regular basis – and that is what began my whole [sci-fi] addiction.”
Devlin (“Independence Day”, “Stargate”, “Leverage”) and co-showrunner Jonathan Glassner he also used the “Star Trek” template for “The Ark”, which premieres on February 1 at 10 p.m. The 12-episode series, set 100 years in the long run, revolves across the crew of Ark 1, a large spaceship. An inventive spaceship sent on a five-year mission with a crew in cryogenic sleeper pods to colonize the planet and save the inhabitants of a ravaged Earth from extinction.
![Photo by Pilar Seurat from 1967](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/pilar-seurat.jpeg?w=1024)
“On Star Trek, they may talk concerning the Vietnam War, about race relations… but they did it in a science fiction context so individuals who couldn’t have that discussion in real life suddenly could have it [about the series]Devlin said. “What I like about this idea is that it’s our whole world in a microcosm: we just went through an enormous pandemic and a life threatening situation and we saw different ways people reacted to it… and having those people on this limited space where every decision is life and death, we are able to really discuss rather a lot of things out of context which can be hard to discuss in context.”
![Ryan Adams as Angus Medford in a scene from the film](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/the-ark-syfy-1.jpg?w=1024)
Within the series premiere, a catastrophic accident 4 years after the launch of the Ark 1 mission kills all of the ship’s senior officers and puts the lives of everyone on board in jeopardy – pushing Garnet’s junior officers (Christie Burke), Bice (Richard Fleeshman) and Lane (Reece Ritchie) into unexpected leadership roles because the damaged ship races towards its destination amid onboard conflict, guesswork… and murder.
Co-stars include Stacy Reade as smart super nerd Alicia Nevins and Ryan Adams as wretched recruit Angus Medford (with bad hair and glasses), the 2 play heavily into the Season 1 storyline.
![Photo of Lieutenant Lane (Reece Ritchie) aboard the spaceship. He is wearing a white space suit and a white space helmet.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/the-ark-syfy-5.jpg?w=1024)
“It’s really concerning the triumph of the human spirit … ultimately overcoming tremendous adversity,” Devlin said. “And that is really the theme of the show: to observe these individuals who are usually not able to be leaders and should not be for a very long time, who need to rise to the occasion without their promised mentor.”
The Ark was shot in Serbia, which was not unfamiliar territory for Devlin and Glassner.
“We did one other show there called ‘The Outpost’ and like that show, this show was where we had very big ambitions and little or no money – so normally what you do limits your vision,” Devlin said. “Jonathan and I didn’t wish to do it, so we went [to Serbia] we were in a position to fit so way more on the screen.
“And a number of other side advantages happened,” he said. “While we were there, we could throw [the show] throughout Europe, people from Germany, Spain, England… much harder to do within the USA. The other thing that helped us is that every one the actors we brought in stayed together on this weird place, so their off-screen lives were very just like on-screen, and so they bonded rather a lot.
![picture](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/dean-devlin.jpg?w=753)
There have been other benefits to shooting in Serbia, Devlin said.
“The interesting fact is that before it was Serbia, when it was part of Yugoslavia, the dictator there, Titowas a large movie fanatic,” he said. “The truth is, he financed several movies within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties … and founded a premiere film school in Eastern Europe, so the extent of craftsmanship of our crew was unlike anywhere I’ve ever been.”
The stellar manufacturing facilities also helped establish Ark 1’s intergalactic atmosphere, Devlin said.
“The ship itself is a personality within the show,” he said. “It’s totally difficult because on the one hand you need to feel that these individuals are trapped together on this very dangerous ship, but at the identical time … we didn’t want this to occur “Das Bootto feel claustrophobic.
“So we tried to design some spaces that were very large and a few spaces with nature to offer them latest energy … and because the actors noted, this was one of the few cases where the sets were built with ceilings a lot of them really it felt like being on a spaceship.”