The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, August 15, 2014 18 By Cassie Dresch TV Media T here are few places where you can essentially be cut off from the world. Space is, of course, one of those places, but what about the other final frontier? The oceans cover about 71 percent of our planet, and the Pacific Ocean, the largest one of five on Earth, spans about 63 million square miles — about 17 United States of Americas or roughly 109 Alaskas. So if you're out at sea and far enough away from the coast, chances are you're pretty cut off from every- thing. So, if a biological disaster were to strike the globe — say, a pandemic or maybe even a zombie apocalypse — and while you were in the middle of the ocean, would you be pro- tected from infection? Would you be able to outlive the rest of the world? "The Last Ship" has tackled this idea, and with a week to go before the season finale, it's been a crazy, intense ride. Catch a new episode of "The Last Ship" airing Sunday, Aug. 17, on TNT. The premise is simple enough. There's a new, highly infectious disease killing people faster than scientists can study it. The world's population has been decimated, governments are shut down, countries have gone up in flames (figuratively and literally). The curveball in this series comes in the form of the USS Nathan James, a fictional U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer that's been out at sea on radio silence with its 217 crew mem- bers for months on end. They're the only ones who haven't been affected by the deadly virus, and now they have to face a world in which they are some of the only survivors. After their four- month trip in the Arctic, their new objective is to protect the one scientist on board who may hold the key to beating the dis- ease. Based on the 1988 novel of the same name by author Wil- liam Brinkley, "The Last Ship" takes the post-apocalyptic sur- vival genre and gives it the TV treatment with a bang, literally. Renowned director and produc- er Michael Bay ("Transformers," 2007) straps on his executive producer hat for this show, and it definitely follows the Michael Bay brand he's known for — tons of action, quick pacing and a bunch of explosions. On top of that, Bay has also been very involved in the intri- cacies of the show. Showrunner Hank Steinberg said in an inter- view with "The Hollywood Re- porter" that not only was Bay helpful in connecting the show with the Navy, he played an in- tegral part in creating the pilot episode. "He read all the drafts of the scripts, weighed in on casting and was integral in recruiting John Mostow to direct the pilot and getting Eric Dane to agree to do the pilot," Steinberg said. "He brought in his visual effects supervisor to make sure that the visual effects were as first rate as what's in his movies." As Steinberg mentioned, Eric Dane was brought on board with the project and it's paid off in spades as the season has played out. Dane, who is best known for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan on ABC's hit hospital dra- ma "Grey's Anatomy," plays ship commander Tom Chandler, an authoritative man whose di- rective has changed with the new global catastrophe: protect the onboard scientist at all costs. Rhona Mitra ("Boston Le- gal") takes on the scientist role in this series. Her character, Dr. Rachel Scott, is a strong-willed paleomicrobiologist who be- lieves she knows the cure for the disease that will save hu- manity from utter annihilation. Of course, it's not as easy as it seems for the fearless scientist to find a cure for a new strain of fatal disease, and when you're supposed to keep it all a secret, it's that much more difficult to do your job. It's always an adventure when you play a member of the Navy, especially since it's a high- ly respected and very demand- ing job in real life. Baldwin said at the San Diego Comic-Con in July that it was important to the cast to portray their characters properly to do the Navy justice. "We want to honor those that serve," Baldwin said at "The Last Ship's" Comic-Con debut. "Everyone involved has seen that that's what our goal is." As the finale approaches and everyone is thinking ahead to what's on deck for season 2, Steinberg made it clear that au- diences shouldn't get too far ahead of themselves because the season 1 finale is huge. "Season 1 ends with a com- plete cliffhanger turn that up- ends the whole series," he said at Comic-Con. "It drives the se- ries to a whole new direction." With season 1 winding down and season 2 on the horizon, catch a new episode of the well- received post-apocalyptic dra- ma "The Last Ship" airing Sun- day, Aug. 17, on TNT. Adam Baldwin stars in "The Last Ship" Last of their kind TNT's hit series 'The Last Ship' sails towards the season fi nale Featurestory