http://youtu.be/4gZ6bpIjeLs


Executive produced by Michael Bay, TNT’s upcoming The Last Ship tells the story of the crew of a Navy ship who return from a four-month, radio silent mission to discover a horrific contagion has swept the world and threatens the entire human race.

Discussing the series today at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, executive producer Hank Steinberg (Kings, The Nine) was asked what the show would be week to week and he explained, “Each episode will have its own beginning, middle and end and have some adventure, action-oriented suspense thriller aspect to it,” adding that could be on or off the ship. However, he added, “It also has a serialized, arcing nature to it because they have a mission. They have to find a vaccine to save the world.”


While there have been plenty of stories about viral outbreaks, Steinberg said with The Last Ship, “You’re really in the unique point of view of these people who’ve been outside the hot zones and have been isolated. They’re really isolated. You’re seeing it all through their eyes. They’re discovering [what happened]. Each new place, they don’t know what they’re going to find. “

The Last Ship is based on the 1988 book of the same name by William Brinkley, which was firmly rooted in the cold war, and Steinberg said that while they had to contemporize the story, “We were all attracted to the idea of society has broken down, the majority of the world is gone, suffering, and there’s this lone ship of survivors led by a captain who has to keep alive his humanity. They have a code that is related to a civilization but what happens when there’s no civilization? And how does he maintain his code, the thing that they all took an oath to uphold and to protect each other, when there’s no infrastructure around them? Really, where does his authority lie if there’s no government? It’s really through his own strength and moral authority, and that is the continuing theme of the show is how does he keep the crew going on the mission. What happens when someone says, 'You know what, I’ve had it. I want to get off this ship. I’m done with this. I’ll follow you up to a point, but, you know, I don’t like this anymore'? How can he keep them?"

Eric Dane and Rhona Mitra in The Last Ship.
Eric Dane and Rhona Mitra in The Last Ship.

Last Ship is pretty big in scale and reflects some of the action aesthetics of its executive producer, Michael Bay. Eric Dane (X-Men: The Last Stand, Grey's Anatomy), who stars as the ship’s Captain, Tom Chandler, acknowledged, “Character study and action drama aren’t necessarily synonymous,” but said that their goal was to, “Handle the [large] scope but make it character driven and intelligent as well. It’s smart popcorn. Its air popped.”

Said executive producer Steven Kane, "Michael Bay has a way of making things larger than life, making them spectacular, and that was I believe, if I can speak for TNT, one of the reasons they wanted to do this 'this is not your normal TV show' kind of thing, and Michael Bay is the perfect partner for that. He inspired Hank and me, and [Bay's producing partner] Brad [Fuller] was very crucial to this in terms of saying, 'Tell the store you want to tell. Let’s make it big, but let’s not just make it big just because we can throw money at something or have visual effects.' We really want it to tell a story on television with modern technology and and post production abilities that you don’t see every day, and the story kind of dictated to us how it should be. So we got the U.S. Navy on board, and they gave us a ship, and we had a $3 billion set suddenly. And we made it work within those parameters, and then we said, 'Okay. Now we have all these great bells and whistles, but let’s not forget that it’s about the characters.'"

Rhona Mitra (Doomsday, Strike Back), who plays Dr. Rachel Scott, whose studies could be vital to battling the virus, said The Last Ship opened a window into a life most don't experience, saying it offered, "The privilege of entering into this world and seeing these men and women go about the business of something so astronomically huge and to see how human beings actually react to that and how they work together."

The Last Ship premieres this summer on TNT.