Eric Dane moves from surgeon to sailor

From surgeon to sailor – but still, one bets, steamy.

After a long run on Grey's Anatomy as Mark "Dr. McSteamy" Sloan, Eric Dane now moves from medicine to sci-fi adventure. He'll star this summer in TNT's adaptation of the novel The Last Ship as the captain of a naval destroyer that is one of the last bastions for humanity, having been out at sea when a killer virus swept through the world's population.

There's a big action/explosion element from The Last Ship, as you might expect from a project from Transformers' Michael Bay. But there's also more to the show than that, says Dane.

"We've somehow found a way to handle the scope of this, with the action, but make it character driven and intelligent as well. It's smart popcorn. It's air-popped."

Dane says that he enjoyed being on Grey's Anatomy, and that the job was great for him. But, he adds, "this character is a little bit more suited to me for who I am...I'm having a really great time."