Author Topic: 'The Expanse' on SyFy - First trailer for new space opera show  (Read 127030 times)

Offline sanman

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Now that's what I call RUD at its most dramatic:


Offline Lars-J

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RUD in its most literal form, for sure!  ;D

Offline Blackstar

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"But the show still presents a fundamental dilemma that space enthusiasts have never fully addressed: what if utopia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?"




http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3225/1

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
by Dwayne Day
Monday, April 24, 2017

It isn’t always easy to trace the origin of an idea that inspires a movement. For decades, science fiction stories featured space colonies before the 1970s, when people like Gerard K. O’Neill began to write and talk about space settlement as a feasible idea. But so far, that idea has mostly existed in science fiction, not reality. The SyFy Channel’s The Expanse, which recently completed its second season, has probably done more than any recent form of entertainment to keep alive the concept of space settlement.

The Expanse is based upon the best-selling series of novels by James S.A. Corey (actually a pen name for writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) and is set a few hundred years in the future in a settled solar system where people on Earth, Mars, and in the asteroid belt all maneuver for advantage. It is the closest depiction of what space settlement advocates must see when they dream—and yet it is not a very nice dream. Instead, it is a political drama where Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt all fight each other. Space settlement is not depicted as a wonderful, liberating and uplifting experience. The residents of the asteroid belt complain about being oppressed by Earth and harassed by Mars. In the second season we were shown more of Mars and its predicament, mostly through the eyes of a Martian Marine. The Martians settled the red planet for the same reason that present day advocates of space settlement say humans should go there: to get independence from Earthly troubles. But the Martians are struggling to make it more livable, and resent that they keep putting more resources into defending Mars than terraforming it. The Martians regard Earth with disdain, an overcrowded, polluted planet filled with slackers. But we see that Earth can still hold an allure for Martians—when they put aside their hate, they can still recognize beauty.

What the show highlights, perhaps unintentionally, is the challenging question of why humanity should spread out beyond Earth at all. That question has always lurked in the background of America’s human space program, and the lack of an answer that convinces more than a tiny group of people is a good reason why, 56 years after Yuri Gagarin’s flight, we still are stuck in low Earth orbit.



« Last Edit: 04/24/2017 09:32 pm by Blackstar »

Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Warning - At least one possible spoiler in this post




~*~*~*~




Actually, I think that The Expanse illustrates the need for becoming an interplanetary species very clearly. Population pressures have made Earth a net importer of foodstuffs and later events prove that it is a very fragile basket in which to place all of humanity's eggs.

What The Expanse illustrates very well is that interplanetary expansion is not a quick, easy panacea. There will be political and social problems arising. This is especially the case if the current 'Zero-point-one Percent' culture of certain individuals amassing nearly-unimaginable wealth and power and having a near-sociopathic fixation on amassing yet more, irrespective of the cost to others, remains a dominant driving force in politics and the economy.

As Joe Miller pointed out, if humanity does not change in its basic motivations of avarice and selfishness, "the stars are better off without us".
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

~*~*~*~

The Space Shuttle Program - 1981-2011

The time for words has passed; The time has come to put up or shut up!
DON'T PROPAGANDISE, FLY!!!

Offline sanman

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Yeah, I hear you - and I hate to be a party-pooper, but there are some things from The Expanse that I don't think would happen in real life.

We'd be using robots/machines a hell of a lot more than people in outer space. Alright, I can accept that Earth might degenerate into a giant Machiavellian dictatorship with little regard for human dignity, but that still wouldn't make sending humans to space to toil under slave labor conditions more economical or effective. Humans would be among the least reliable component in space, especially in large numbers. Robots with AI would be far more suitable as the expendable menial drones to get the dirty/dangerous chores done. So I have a hard time buying the whole Belters thing, even as entertaining as the concept is.

I could buy the idea of humans going to Mars and politically diverging from Earthers in priorities, such as the dream terraforming Mars into another Earth. Perhaps Martians could even come to see themselves as an ethnic group, united around this cause of rehabilitating their planet. But of course the power-balance in that relationship would be lopsidedly tilted towards Earth. Martians would live a precarious existence, at least until they could sufficiently develop the power of robotics to adequately buffer their existence. Until such time, Martians would likely be groveling or being very diplomatic with Earthers, until such time as they could truly outgrow their dependency on them.

What surprises me in The Expanse is that Earth is so polluted in spite of the fact that mankind has harnessed fusion energy as a virtually limitless source of power. In such a world, it should be relatively easy to incinerate all trash/pollution/etc, and keep Mother Earth clean. But I guess the pollustion adds to the cynical dystopian atmosphere of the story.

Offline Blackstar

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Online MickQ

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Any release date yet for Season 3 ?

Offline deruch

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Any release date yet for Season 3 ?

I don't know about the TV show, but book #7 in the series, Persepolis Rising, was released earlier this month.

Shouldn't reality posts be in "Advanced concepts"?  --Nomadd

Offline Crispy

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Any release date yet for Season 3 ?

S2 wrapped filming September 2016, premiered February 2017
S3 wrapped filming December 2017, so expect it around May-ish?

Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Season 3 should have the biggest space-battle yet, if they're following the books' events closely. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

~*~*~*~

The Space Shuttle Program - 1981-2011

The time for words has passed; The time has come to put up or shut up!
DON'T PROPAGANDISE, FLY!!!

Offline Pipcard

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I just watched the first episode and it looks exciting so far.

Offline Norm38

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I haven't watched this in a while.  What point in the books is the TV series currently at?  I have Babylon's Ashes on my shelf but haven't read it yet.

Offline Lars-J

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I haven't watched this in a while.  What point in the books is the TV series currently at?  I have Babylon's Ashes on my shelf but haven't read it yet.

The show is still in book 2.

Offline Pipcard

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Actually, I think that The Expanse illustrates the need for becoming an interplanetary species very clearly. Population pressures have made Earth a net importer of foodstuffs and later events prove that it is a very fragile basket in which to place all of humanity's eggs.

What The Expanse illustrates very well is that interplanetary expansion is not a quick, easy panacea. There will be political and social problems arising. This is especially the case if the current 'Zero-point-one Percent' culture of certain individuals amassing nearly-unimaginable wealth and power and having a near-sociopathic fixation on amassing yet more, irrespective of the cost to others, remains a dominant driving force in politics and the economy.

As Joe Miller pointed out, if humanity does not change in its basic motivations of avarice and selfishness, "the stars are better off without us".
Thank you for saying this, because I worry about someone seeing that line by itself without context - like say, in a promo banner - and mistaking The Expanse as an "anti-space" space show.
« Last Edit: 02/08/2018 05:48 am by Pipcard »

Offline Lars-J

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In case anyone missed the announcement... Here is a quick Season 3 teaser, and the season begins on April 11. :)


Offline Lars-J

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A few days late... Here is the full season 3 trailer:   8)


Offline GWH

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Alternate link if you live in a regional black out:


...30 days and counting  ;D

Offline flyright

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Season 3 of "The Expanse," starting tonight (April 11) at 9 p.m. EDT on SyFy.

https://www.space.com/40259-expanse-season-3-what-to-expect.html

Offline JQP

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Quote
"But the show still presents a fundamental dilemma that space enthusiasts have never fully addressed: what if utopia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?"

It'd be nice if the dilemma was more plausible as presented. E.g., the whole "low g people" thing seems forced. Spin your habs to simulate 1g, you belter idiots.

The low-g problems depicted in the Belters should be restricted to people who insist on living on low-g bodies like planets or moons, not people living in space habs. I think living in such environments will not be attractive to substantial human populations until genetic engineering is a mature technology; in the meantime, humanity will stick to space habitats and exoplanets with gravity very close to Earth's.

Quote
What the show highlights, perhaps unintentionally, is the challenging question of why humanity should spread out beyond Earth at all. That question has always lurked in the background of America’s human space program, and the lack of an answer that convinces more than a tiny group of people is a good reason why, 56 years after Yuri Gagarin’s flight, we still are stuck in low Earth orbit.

The show highlights the eternal problem of sci-fi; how to do drama (to make the sci-fi interesting enough to read) without melodrama. The Expanse is mostly interesting for failing at this task, but still managing to draw an audience to hard sci-fi.

Quote
As Joe Miller pointed out, if humanity does not change in its basic motivations of avarice and selfishness, "the stars are better off without us".

Let's hope we can persuade most of these misanthropes to stay on Earth.

Quote
Perhaps Martians could even come to see themselves as an ethnic group, united around this cause of rehabilitating their planet.

It's more like an inevitability. Read up on Social Identity Theory.

Edit: I also would've liked the breakthrough propulsion tech to have been explained. As it is in the show, it seems a lot like a phlebotinum drive, but I can't see any good reason to drag that particular kind of unobtainium into a solar-system-scale setting.
« Last Edit: 04/12/2018 01:21 pm by JQP »

Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Quote
As Joe Miller pointed out, if humanity does not change in its basic motivations of avarice and selfishness, "the stars are better off without us".

Let's hope we can persuade most of these misanthropes to stay on Earth.

Unlikely; it's much more likely that they'll be the ones putting up the money to escape the consequences of their greed to the Terran ecosystem.
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

~*~*~*~

The Space Shuttle Program - 1981-2011

The time for words has passed; The time has come to put up or shut up!
DON'T PROPAGANDISE, FLY!!!

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