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The Expanse
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| Destructor1701 | Date: Thursday, 26.11.2015, 18:44 | Message # 1 |
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I just finished watching (for the second time today) the pilot episode of The Expanse, a SyFy original TV show based on the series of speculative-future, hard(ish)-SF books by James S.A. Corey collectively known by the same title.
Season 1 will deal with events from books 1 and 2, by the looks of things: "Leviathan Wakes" and "Caliban's War".
What did I think?
OMG you guise! I LOVED it. :D
Check out the awesome main title sequence:
And the trailer:
And here's a prequel story by the author of the books.
I've been reading a lot of hard-SF books lately - Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and associated books, most notably. I saw the above trailer last year, and got super-excited, so I immediately bought and read Leviathan Wakes.
Given that I went in with the trailer images in my head, it's hardly surprising that the pilot episode "Ducilinea" nailed my expectations in the looks department - but I have been thrilled by the cast's realisation of the characters, and the competence and confidence of the writing. The universe felt thoroughly established from moment one.
The part that buzzed me the most - and I suspect is highly important to the denizens of this particular forum - is how much attention and detail was lavished on the depiction of Variable Gravity and Momentum. It's by no means perfect, but the amount of effort and artistry expended to depict everything between high-G and no-G is magnificent. There's a space manoeuvre in there that in other shows would be a line of dialogue, but in this is one of the most epic and thrilling space sequences I've ever seen on TV. Just amazing.
The pilot is available to stream online in the US and Canada now:
YouTube link
Canadian link
The rest of us have to... "get creative".
The next episode is out on December 15th, the night after the TV premiere of the pilot. It sucks to have to wait so long, because this first one was utterly sublime, in my view.
What did you guys think?
Edited by Destructor1701 - Thursday, 26.11.2015, 19:26 |
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| DoctorOfSpace | Date: Friday, 27.11.2015, 01:43 | Message # 2 |
 Galaxy Architect
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| Seems pretty decent, will follow it and see where it goes.
Intel Core i7-5820K 4.2GHz 6-Core Processor
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| Watsisname | Date: Friday, 27.11.2015, 03:29 | Message # 3 |
 Galaxy Architect
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| Likewise. I remember seeing the trailer at the theatre and thinking it looked promising. Also, Jonathan Banks. 
Pilot episode was okay. Good visuals, especially with the variable gravity. Good cast, decent writing. Not entirely sold on it yet, but definitely going to keep watching and see what happens.
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| parameciumkid | Date: Friday, 27.11.2015, 04:36 | Message # 4 |
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| I've just watched the pilot too. It could be totes awesome. Then again, perhaps not. We shall see 
Intel HD Graphics 4000 ;P
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| Destructor1701 | Date: Saturday, 28.11.2015, 22:11 | Message # 5 |
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| Having read the book (just the first one - no spoilers, please), I know where they're going with this - and with the setup this good, I have a feeling they're going to nail it.
I know, I'm setting myself up for a fall...
Anyway, I believe season 2 is already in pre-production. so they're optimistic.
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| expando | Date: Wednesday, 27.01.2016, 19:50 | Message # 6 |
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| It is not bad, they obviously had a science advisor to ensure the physics are right so spacecraft aren't flying around space like aircraft.
Expanse seems to have two concurrent story lines, one a group of space mechanics are flying around in a ship trying to evade capture and two the story of a cop on Ceres investigating a number of crimes. Then there are a number of Earth bureaucratic scenes with a lady who seems to be involved in both of the stories.
It is a bit tiresome, I watched up to episode 7 and I think the progress is too slow.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true - by the wise as false - and by the rulers as useful."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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| Destructor1701 | Date: Thursday, 28.01.2016, 01:47 | Message # 7 |
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| Watch episode 8, trust me. 9 and 10 air next week, and that's season 1 wrapped!
EDIT: I should have mentioned that the show has been renewed for season 2.
Edited by Destructor1701 - Thursday, 28.01.2016, 01:49 |
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| expando | Date: Thursday, 28.01.2016, 09:35 | Message # 8 |
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Space Pilot
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| Thanks Destructor1701, I will check out the remaining eps.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true - by the wise as false - and by the rulers as useful."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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| Destructor1701 | Date: Friday, 29.01.2016, 04:10 | Message # 9 |
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| Many of the cast and crew are active over on Reddit.
I got into a PM conversation with the VFX Supervisor, Bob Munroe.
Long story short, he's implementing a couple of my suggestions in season 2. I'm utterly blown away by that. All hail the communicative power of the internet!
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Friday, 29.01.2016, 15:18 | Message # 10 |
 Author of Space Engine
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| Quote Destructor1701 (  ) Long story short, he's implementing a couple of my suggestions in season 2. I'm utterly blown away by that. All hail the communicative power of the internet!
Wow really? Suggest him to use SE to make space views of planets Saturn is looking great there, but Earth and Moon are looking like in 90's shows... I'm still waiting for Mars scenes, Jupiter and it's moons, and other planets. Even Ceres was not shown from space if I recall correctly, despite on 60% of action is happen there.
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| Proteus | Date: Tuesday, 02.02.2016, 13:02 | Message # 11 |
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Explorer
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| I've finished watching all the currently released episodes of this show and enjoying it quite a lot. I'm particularly intrigued at its approach to the ship construction and method of gravity, and actually makes Space Engineer's idea of how bridges in SE would be actually quite cool and more visually realized to me! All I can think about now is being able to sit in the cockpit seat like Alex Kamal, and control such a type of ship with screens like he uses (the "submarine" style of interior actually becoming more appealing to me than the Star Trek style method of bridge). It just seems more real and well rounded.
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