The Expanse - best hard sci fi show in years!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its not come to the UK yet,but its the return of Sy-Fy to big budget space based shows. Managed to catch a few episodes,and its awesome. Its a bit like Babylon 5 with a bit of Bladerunner thrown in and its based on a series of novels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ex...(novel_series)

They really have made great attention to detail and made it as hard sci-fi as possible for a series,

Sy-Fy UK has not picked it yet for some weird reason,but probably a DVD purchase for me at some point.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

First episode released on YouTube for free.

[Ttaskmaster]

Will keep an eye out...

[Biscuit]

They are putting whole episodes up on youtube? Awesome!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

They are putting whole episodes up on youtube? Awesome!

Only the one it appears.

[shaithis]

I'm up to episode 10 and it has been really good. Some good actors popping up, which always helps.

You get a good sense for the scale of the story, which has the legs to be quite large.

[Flibb]

Will have a look at this later, its my kind of thing

[Galant]

Will it last? There seems to be a trend in axing decent sci-fi after the first season.

Also how is it content-wise in terms of the usual - sex, language etc? Not a fan of the trend toward the 'darker/more explicit' stuff of late.

[Flibb]

Watched some of it last night, quickly realised I had read some o the books. Seems OK, then again I wasn't that bothered about the books, found them a bit formulaic. Will persevere for a few episodes.

[cptwhite_uk]

It strikes a good balance. Nothing is off limits, there's a tame zero-g sex scene in the opening episode (literally 10 seconds?). Not that much swearing, but then there's some gory scenes as well. It's not every episode but it is there (the scene is episode 4 is brilliant, you'll know what I mean if you watch it )

Can I just say that so far it's my favourite sci-fi series since the BSG reboot.

[Ttaskmaster]

Can I just say that so far it's my favourite sci-fi series since the BSG reboot.

I started liking BSG, but then it went weird and mythological on me, so I just struggled to the end and never looked back, except to drool over either a Raptor and/or Boomer.
Still need to play that Diaspora Freespace2 mod...

Will it last? There seems to be a trend in axing decent sci-fi after the first season.

A couple of those I was most interested in got syndicated/bought out by the US and either remade in a crappy form, or got retconned.
The good news is that a third season of Starhunter got greenlit and is in pre-production, so there is hope for some programmes...

Based on 2 episodes, watched while actually kinda sleepy and only paying about 80% attention, This Expanse thing warrants a good try at least.
It is darker than some programmes, perhaps a bit more than Firefly, but certainly doesn't look like it'll be proper nasty either. Any bad language, gore or nudity will probably be minimal and/or fairly appropriate to the scene. I'd guess it's perhaps a 12-15 on the BBFC?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's been renewed for a second season before the first one aired.

[flearider]

how do you get bab 5 and blade runner ??? i'd go more with a farscape and lexx
but yeah good start first season is always a bit up and down .. you can see whats going to happen in season 2 !!
entity uses bloke with scanner eye to comunicate and try to take over verse .. hero gets everyone together to fight it ..

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

how do you get bab 5 and blade runner ??? i'd go more with a farscape and lexx
but yeah good start first season is always a bit up and down .. you can see whats going to happen in season 2 !!
entity uses bloke with scanner eye to comunicate and try to take over verse .. hero gets everyone together to fight it ..

Babylon 5 was as close to hard sci-fi as we got in a series for years. Foundation Imaging were not only used for the CGI in the series but also contributed to the technical aspects.

All races adhere to their technical tiers. All the human ships were modelled to move according to Newtonian physics and were limited the relatively low technical tier of humanity especially due to energy production. None of the earth ships had artificial gravity outside of rotation or acceleration (apart from the very end),and most of the earth ships had no gravity. Hence the use of velcro,etc in the Hyperion class to tie things down.You can see it in the films where they try to show the weightlessness in the Hyperion class. The Star Fury was considered a design good enough to build by NASA themselves.

Human ships as a result are limited in accelleration meaning they are slow and not maneuverable and rely on heavier armor,and fighters for defence. The original design for the Omega class was meant to have a gimbled engine section to counteract the intertia of the rotating subsection.

Babylon 5 is an O'Neill cylinder which is another nod to Babylon 5 trying to have roots in hard sci-fi. The series was constrained by the budget it had and the CGI of the time.

The Expanse universe for the most part is also founded in hard sci fi for its technology.

Then there is the conflict between the outer colonies and earth too. In many ways The Expanse is similar in both it hard sci-fi roots and the fact it also portrays humanity and its colonies not being a big happy family.

Babylon 5 itself had very long arks and The Expanse has these too.

Then the Bladerunner themes,are more in the fact you find that the colonies are a multi-cultural mishmash which have their own dialogies and dialect of sorts. If you watch Bladerunner you see this with Harrison Ford's partner and how he speaks,how he dresses and the eclectic mishmah of the city he is in. The colonies are very much this in The Expanse.

Then also one of the most standout features of Bladerunner - new built on old. Instead of the pristine future in previous sci-fi films you can see how the new is intermixed with the old. You can kind of see this in Ceres where the belters and rest of the folk are on the lower levels which are overcrowded,worn out and old,with the rich occupying the new looking and clean higher levels of the station.

Even the whole fact,that in Bladerunner the future looks lived in and old,just like you see with the stations in The Expanse. A reversal in Bladerunner is that the Earth is seen as used and trashed and barely livable in due to pollution and the outer colonies are looked as an idyllic place for the wealthy to escape to. In The Expanse the opposite is true. Earth is the paradise the people in space wish they could have or emulate as their lives are anything but idyllic and they can barely survive.

Plus the other aspect Bladerunner brought in - megacorporations with huge amounts of power who try to play God. The Tyrell corporation was an example of this as they were tryting to build "better" than humanity. You will see this in The Expanse too.

[Spreadie]

It strikes a good balance. Nothing is off limits, there's a tame zero-g sex scene in the opening episode (literally 10 seconds?). Not that much swearing, but then there's some gory scenes as well. It's not every episode but it is there (the scene is episode 4 is brilliant, you'll know what I mean if you watch it )

Can I just say that so far it's my favourite sci-fi series since the BSG reboot.

The first ten episodes have been really good, although I feel like we've barely scratched the surface, which bodes well for longevity.

[flearider]

Babylon 5 was as close to hard sci-fi as we got in a series for years. Foundation Imaging were not only used for the CGI in the series but also contributed to the technical aspects.

All races adhere to their technical tiers. All the human ships were modelled to move according to Newtonian physics and were limited the relatively low technical tier of humanity especially due to energy production. None of the earth ships had artificial gravity outside of rotation or acceleration (apart from the very end),and most of the earth ships had no gravity. Hence the use of velcro,etc in the Hyperion class to tie things down.You can see it in the films where they try to show the weightlessness in the Hyperion class. The Star Fury was considered a design good enough to build by NASA themselves.

Human ships as a result are limited in accelleration meaning they are slow and not maneuverable and rely on heavier armor,and fighters for defence. The original design for the Omega class was meant to have a gimbled engine section to counteract the intertia of the rotating subsection.

Babylon 5 is an O'Neill cylinder which is another nod to Babylon 5 trying to have roots in hard sci-fi. The series was constrained by the budget it had and the CGI of the time.

The Expanse universe for the most part is also founded in hard sci fi for its technology.

Then there is the conflict between the outer colonies and earth too. In many ways The Expanse is similar in both it hard sci-fi roots and the fact it also portrays humanity and its colonies not being a big happy family.

Babylon 5 itself had very long arks and The Expanse has these too.

Then the Bladerunner themes,are more in the fact you find that the colonies are a multi-cultural mishmash which have their own dialogies and dialect of sorts. If you watch Bladerunner you see this with Harrison Ford's partner and how he speaks,how he dresses and the eclectic mishmah of the city he is in. The colonies are very much this in The Expanse.

Then also one of the most standout features of Bladerunner - new built on old. Instead of the pristine future in previous sci-fi films you can see how the new is intermixed with the old. You can kind of see this in Ceres where the belters and rest of the folk are on the lower levels which are overcrowded,worn out and old,with the rich occupying the new looking and clean higher levels of the station.

Even the whole fact,that in Bladerunner the future looks lived in and old,just like you see with the stations in The Expanse. A reversal in Bladerunner is that the Earth is seen as used and trashed and barely livable in due to pollution and the outer colonies are looked as an idyllic place for the wealthy to escape to. In The Expanse the opposite is true. Earth is the paradise the people in space wish they could have or emulate as their lives are anything but idyllic and they can barely survive.

Plus the other aspect Bladerunner brought in - megacorporations with huge amounts of power who try to play God. The Tyrell corporation was an example of this as they were tryting to build "better" than humanity. You will see this in The Expanse too.

wow .. how to take a tv show apart ..lol but i can see your point .. i was just looking at the dark theme running thru it and the few that will save it