El Barco is a Spanish mystery TV series created by Álex Pina and Iván Escobar.
The first season consisting of 13 episodes aired for the first time between January 17, 2011 and April 25, 2011, featuring Juanjo Artero, Mario Casas, Irene Montalà and Blanca Suarez, along with the rest of the cast who was present in the entire programme.
The first season starts with North Star sailing on what will be the biggest adventure of the students' lives, when a mysterious storm caused by the implementation of a particle accelerator in the middle of the night begins.
Captain Ricardo Montero and First Officer, Julian de la Cuadra, will now be responsible for the lives of the school-ship and have to make difficult decisions in extreme situations like giant fish, bird strikes, riots on board, and poisonous mists, among others.
They decide to end their relationships to be together, but that seems impossible when Gamboa threatens to kill Ainhoa's father and sister, so she tells Ulysses she does not want anything to do with him.
Estela falls in love with Ramiro, and when he does not return the feelings, her eyes move on to the captain, but he is already interested in the doctor, who lets her down.
Season 2 continues with the Captain Montero deciding to help the astronauts who are about to land, while an approaching hurricane of unprecedented strength endangers the ship and all aboard.
Later, the North Star discovers 4 sole survivors on a life raft from the Queen America cruise ship: Victor, Tom, Dulce, and Leonor, who are actually there to steal the airplane black box that Ulysses and de la Cuadra found at sea.
Another episode has Piti & Bubble finding a duck on the ship (naming it Manolito) leading to the conclusion that land may be nearby.
Sol, another female student, starts to appear toward the end of the season, instilling common sense into Piti about Vilma's true feelings for him.
At the end of the second season, de la Cuadra and Bubble are kidnapped, being held in a concrete room by masked people in white jumpsuits but are ultimately returned to the North Star, just as mysteriously as when they first disappeared.
Dr. Wilson discovers a Christmas miracle, as de la Cuadra is cured of his cancer, leaving many questions unanswered.
This series began on October 18, 2012, after a long wait of nine months, and features Juanjo Artero, Irene Montala, Mario Casas and Blanca Suárez, along with the rest of the cast.
Series 3 includes multiple additions to the cast, among them Jan Cornet as Max, Alberto Jo Lee and Cho Sung, Héctor Alterio as Ventura and Gabriel Delgado.
In the third season, the search for land continues, and now more than ever, Bubble finds Manolito, who has returned to the North Star, and after examining its trajectory, he discovers that the ship always goes to the same place.
Ainhoa tells her father that Ulysses has disappeared a couple of days ago and the crew has found a man who happens to be Cho Sung, a Korean from the Russian ship.
Shortly after the North Star finds a blip on the radar, which the crew eventually discovers to be a hotel that has remained above the water after the cataclysm.
A few remain on the ship, which sails back to the hotel for the other survivors as promised, but just before returning, Ulysses requests assistance through the radio and a shot is heard at the end of his message.
The captain decides to return to the island to reunite with the crew, hoping that the French ship, the one from the Alexandria Project, has arrived before them and will guide them to land.
Bubbles reconnects with Marimar, is obligated to impersonate Roberto, by Gamboa, to save the crew because they have destroyed the red folder.
In the cabin the French crew leave, because they have been ordered by Alexander since Bubbles, impersonating Roberto, gives them the information from the red folder.
Ulysses, on the other hand, encounters Gamboa, and decides to leave his gun on the ground to go by boat to reach the North Star.
Then voiceovers from Ainhoa and Ulysses begin to tell the ending: "Because no atomic bomb, particle accelerator (can destroy love).