THE LAST SHIP
The Last Ship weighs anchor for its fourth season
In the navy, you can sail the seven seas. In the navy, you can save us from disease.
The USS Nathan James will set sail with a new crew and a new mission in season four of The Last Ship, which was shot back-to-back with season five this spring. At the end of season three, Tom Chandler, played by Eric Dane, stepped aside as the ship’s captain, having saved a Red Flu-ravaged world from a Russian admiral, a band of mad Brits in a submarine and a genocidal Chinese president in the show’s first three seasons.
Taking over Chandler’s big chair for the second season running will be his former XO Mike Slattery, AKA Firefly’s Adam Baldwin. This year, though, Slattery won’t have time to try to save people from infection because now the virus has transferred to plants, and is endangering the growth of agricultural crops across the world.
“Just as we’re getting the virus stabilised within the human genome, our concern is the virus permeating through the soil and contaminating our food,” explains series regular Jocko Sims, who plays Lieutenant Carlton Burk. “Our mission is to try to find some seeds that might be immune to this particular thing so we can grow food around the world because now we’re going to be dealing with world hunger.”
As in season three, that mission will take the Nathan James to foreign shores, including the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Back on deck for another tour will be Sims’ co-stars Travis Van Winkle, Marissa Neitling, Bren Foster and Kevin Michael Martin.
Yet, with the risks they’ll face and the casualties the crew have suffered in previous seasons, there’s no guarantee that all of them will still be on board at the end. “We have a joke going on that if [showrunner] Steven Kane calls your phone during the season, don’t answer it,” Sims says.
One person who apparently does stay alive is new recruit Jodie Turner-Smith. She plays the
At some point we’ll be reunited with Chandler
recurring character Sergeant Azima Kandie, formerly of the Kenyan Navy, and has reportedly been promoted to a series regular for season five.
“She’s badass,” Sims states. “I think the fans are really, really going to rally behind her. It’s cool because she hadn’t had any weapons training before this and she plays one of the tactical people like myself. She made me step my game up a little bit.”
Also signing on for the fourth season as a cast member and a director of several episodes is RoboCop star Peter Weller. “he comes in and plays the scientist whom we’re going to have to rely on at times for help and he does a fantastic job,” says Sims.
By now it is also no secret that changes in the ship’s company don’t mean we’ve seen the last of Dane. According to the official synopsis, Chandler has moved to Greece, and because his old command will be heading to that part of the world, it seems inevitable that he will show up on its radar. It’s not clear, however, if he’ll be welcomed aboard.
“We will at some point, somehow be reunited with Captain Chandler,” Sims reveals. “But I will go as far as to say that things won’t be quite the same as they were before. We’re going to have to rebuild our trust.”
The Last Ship returns to TnT in the US on 20 august. The show airs on Sky 1 in the UK.