This show was so great · 4:15am Oct 25th, 2019
Hello Everypony, ScarFox9700 here,
Have any of you ever heard of a show called "The Last Ship"? It aired on TNT from 2014-2018, or for 5 seasons. The show focused on the crew of the US Navy destroyer USS Nathan James DDG-151, led by Captain Tom Chandler, and their quest to find a cure for a virus called the Red Flu, which has wiped out 80% of the world's population. Later seasons have the crew try and maintain peace while the world continues to try and fall apart all around them, from attempted coups, to rouge officers with submarines, global famines, and crazy dictators. If you have heard of this show, then perhaps you, like me, were disappointed with how the Season 5 finale, the series finale, ended. I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I will say it fell short on so many levels.
(Warning: Bit of a rant ahead!) In my opinion, after Season 3, the show really seemed to take a bit of a nosedive in terms of writing and storytelling. Things weren't being properly explained, good characters were being killed off in lazy or unconvincing ways, and some circumstances seemed to line up a little too well for certain things to happen. I mean yes ratings were falling after Season 3, but that's no excuse to botch Season 4, and then go on to ruin Season 5. A number of fan-favorite characters died throughout the series, but in Seasons 1-3, those characters usually died in combat, or gave their lives saving someone else. Later on though, (most notably in Season 4, though also in the later episodes of Season 5) favorite characters were being stabbed in the neck with needles, stabbed in the chest with knives, or shot, and in scenes where they either should have come out on top, or could have survived. It made very little sense, and it was at times hard to watch. Why couldn't the show have looked back at the older seasons and reapplied similar formulas? "The Last Ship" was for a while TNT's most popular show, though over time, for a variety of reasons, (lazy writing, poor storytelling, very little promotion) views began to drop off. But it was only to get worse.
(Knowledge of Season 5 needed to understand what I'm trying to say next) Perhaps my biggest complaint in Season 5, (kinda spoilers ahead, but this was in the trailer, and other promotional material, so it's not a big secret) would be Tavo's (Iowa-Class) Battleship. It was there, it f@#ked shit up, but that's all we got to know about it. There were SO MANY unanswered questions about it, questions that were NEVER answered! Where did it come from? Who built it? Was it one of the 4 Iowa-Class Battleships that we know and love? Was it the unfinished USS Illinois or USS Kentucky that was sold to South America as a parts-hulk, and then later fell into the hands of the Grand-Colombians, and was later finished? It can't be the former, as the ship is still in it's WW2-configuration, and the 4 Iowas that we know and love were all upgraded. Just how dangerous is Tavo's Battleship? Is there anyone actually crewing it? If so, we never see them at all. What's the ship like on the inside? We never see inside. Is the ship a Supernatural Entity? It sure seems to have a knack for disappearing in impossible situations, (Like when it was chased into a dead-end harbor, and somehow vanished completely, despite the fact that there was no other way out for a 886 foot long ship!) not taking any damage, and not being able to be tracked by those in the US and Cuban Navies hunting for it. The ship also had it's own (kinda-spooking) theme music, and it seemed to have a mind of its own, so what on God's green Earth really was Tavo's Battleship?! Is it real? Is it not real? It blew things up with its guns, so obviously it is real at least in some form, but how did it keep disappearing, and not take any damage?! Who crewed the thing? What really was it?! Will the show's writers ever tell us?!
After all that, I'm sad that "The Last Ship" never got a Season 6 (at least not yet), or that any of the characters really got any closure. The Series Finale ended with them at sea, and that was it. The finale was too short for what it needed to be, and it could have been longer. Just saying.
(end rant)
But back to what my original point was supposed to be after I ranted for a bit, I've looked around FIMFiction, but I've never seen any "Last Ship" stories. I was kinda hoping to find at least one where the Nathan James and her crew wound up in Equestria, and had to save the world once again, hopefully with characters who died still being alive and well. Or maybe even a story where the Ponies went to Earth to help the world rebuild after the Red Flu epidemic, and help keep everything stable amid the chaos afterwards, but sadly no. I haven't found any stories like this. My question now is directed to all of you who have seen the show, liked it, know a lot about it, and have ideas for a story that relates to it. Do you all have any ideas for a story that could relate to "The Last Ship"? I have a few ideas, but I want to hear from others. Let me know in the comments down below your ideas for a "Last Ship" story.
