Line #4 Series/ArkII


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ark2.jpg]]
2
3	->For millions of years, Earth was fertile and rich; then pollution and waste began to take their toll. Civilization fell into ruin. This is the world of the Twenty-Fifth Century; only a handful of scientists remain, men who have vowed to rebuild what has been destroyed. This is their achievement: ARK II, a mobile storehouse of scientific knowledge, manned by a highly trained crew of young people. Their mission: To bring the hope of a new future to mankind.
4	-->-- ''OpeningNarration''
5
6	''Ark II'' was a television program produced by Creator/{{Filmation}} as part of their Saturday Morning live-action children's block on the Creator/{{CBS}} network in TheSeventies, along with ''Series/Shazam1974'' and ''Series/TheSecretsOfIsis''. It follows the adventures of a group of {{Science Hero}}es who travel through [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] landscapes in a highly advanced mobile laboratory, trying to rebuild human society after [[GreenAesop pollution has decimated the world]]. Fifteen episodes were produced in 1976, though it continued to run in syndication until 1979.
7
8	Notable for featuring Jonathan [[Series/LostInSpace "O the Pain!"]] Harris in a couple of episodes, as well as an appearance by a tweenage Helen Hunt.
9
10	!!"These are the Tropes of the 25th Century:"
11
12	* ActualPacifist: As is true of all the heroes in Filmation's live-action shows, none of the main characters here carry weapons, and they never engage in fisticuffs nor any form of violence, not even in self-defense; the only thing they have with which to defend themselves is an extremely bright, hand-held light.
13	* AdventureTowns: Well, "towns" might be too strong a word for the little hamlets and hovels that exist in the show, but that's the general intent.
14	* AfterTheEnd: In a variation, The End is caused by resource mismanagement and pollution rather than War, as befitting the environmental awareness movement of TheSeventies.
15	* AIIsACrapshoot: The MasterComputer in "Omega". Subverted with Alpha I in "The Robot"; Jonah thinks the robot has gone haywire, but it hasn't.
16	* AlcoholIsGasoline: One episode has the Ark team encounter starving farmers, who seem capable of producing sufficient grains, namely wheat and corn. However, the local magnate, Lord Lesley, has his thugs terrorize the farmers, and seize their grain stores to synthesize the grain alcohol that powers their vehicles.
17	* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Fagon and his Flies capture the Ark II in "The Drought".
18	* BiblicalMotifs: All four of the main characters (and not a few of the guest characters) have Biblical names. Oh yeah, and there's an "ark" in there somewhere as well.
19	* CaptainsLog: Jonah sets the scene.
20	* CargoCult: In "The Drought", a group worships a small capsule as a rain god. Ironically, the capsule actually contains a device which can bring rain, but the group doesn't know this.
21	* CivilizedAnimal: Adam the chimpanzee not only speaks, but can drive and utilize the Ark II's high-tech gizmos.
22	* ClarkesThirdLaw: The Ark II crew use this to their advantage in "The Slaves". It pops up in other episodes too, often with the crew and their devices being mistaken for gods or, more commonly, devils.
23	* CoolCar: The Ark Roamer. The Ark II itself could be called a Cool RV.
24	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes / IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Fagon, the AntiVillain of "The Flies", threatens a rival gang with a canister of poison gas; the rival responds by using Fagon's child gang as human shields. True to the trope (not to mention the show's [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism idealistic tone]]), Fagon can't go through with it.
25	* ExtyYearsFromPublication: The show takes place in 2476, exactly five hundred years from the year when it was produced and first aired.
26	* GreenAesop: The point of the show overall, though not necessarily the focus of the episodes individually.
27	* HumanPopsicle / FishOutOfTemporalWater: Arnie Pool and Norman Funk, cryogenically frozen in the 1980s, in "The Cryogenic Man". They also turn out to be {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s.
28	* JetPack: the Jet Jumper, which was a genuine, working jet pack flown by a stuntman. You can tell it was real by how huge and bulky it was, compared to more typically-streamlined Hollywood portrayals.
29	* LargeHam: Anyone who has seen an episode of ''Series/LostInSpace'' will know what to expect whenever Jonathan Harris appears on screen. [[HamAndCheese Not that this is a bad thing, mind you.]]
30	* LotteryOfDoom: "The Lottery", fittingly enough.
31	* LuddWasRight: The attitude of the village leader in "The Tank". "All machines are forbidden here... because they're evil." Understandable; he blames machines for the pollution which has devastated the world.
32	* TheMedic: Ruth's primary job in the group.
33	* MilesGloriosus: Don Quixote, natch, in the episode of the same name.
34	* OpeningNarration: provided again by Lou Scheimer.
35	* ScienceHero: All the main cast. Even [[CivilizedAnimal the chimp]].
36	* ShortRunner: Ran a single season.
37	* ShoutOut: Fagon's child gang The Flies, an obvious reference to ''Literature/OliverTwist'' and ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''.
38	* SpaceClothes: The Ark II uniforms are white Spandex, contrasting with the peasant rags worn by everyone else.
39	* StockFootage: Most of the vehicle shots. This trope is a given for Filmation, but it might be more noticeable in this show than others due to the AdventureTowns set-up; it's obvious that the Ark II, Ark Roamer and Jet Jumper always seem to be moving through the exact same scenery regardless of where the episode takes place[[labelnote:*]]it helps that they only ever identify geographical areas by number, never by name[[/labelnote]]. The Ark II, in particular, has an odd habit of driving through wooded Southern California hills in one shot, before suddenly appearing out in the Arizona salt flats the next, then teleporting right back to the [=SoCal=] hills again.
40	* TeenGenius: Samuel is the youngest of the group.

Context Series / ArkII