a lot

Well, as their next port of call is apparently with an OPA leader at a very sophisticated port facility mostly manned by OPA laborers I'm guessing they're about to look even more guilty.  

These guys are having really bad luck.

Yep, plus if any of the crew of the Donnager, especially the one Martian who knows that Holden and company didn't have anything to do with the Canterbury or the Donnager being debris right now and has evidence to back their innocence up survived then all they would have to do is flip and burn for Mars, land and hand over the evidence to the Martian Congress. Great for Holden and the gang, not so good for the story. Instead, to borrow an analysis from Firefely, they're humped. I did like that they showed them putting his body in a bodybag and cryo-freezing it so it could be returned to Mars at some point for a proper burial, it was a little detail from the book I was glad they kept.



As for Anderson Station that was the turning point for Johnson, after the cruiser that they were on fired torpedoes into the station and killed everyone it showed him outside on a gantry outside the airlock watching it come apart. That's when he had his epiphany that the government of Earth wasn't really interested in coming to a peaceful solution with Belters that got uppity, but wanted to show that any time that happened Earth would put it down. The ringleaders on Anderson wanted to surrender, but they also made an unforgivable mistake by going around the jamming and getting their side of the story out, Earth wasn't going to allow that to happen so they slagged the place. If they wouldn't have done that and just given their "unconditional surrender" message to the UN cruiser they just would have sent in the Marines and taken the place over, arrested as many of the Belters as they thought would make an example and business would have carried on as usual. But by broadcasting their situation to the system at large it was an embarrassment to Earth and they worried that other stations would say,"Hey that same shit is going on here, maybe we should revolt too" and the UN wasn't going to let that stand. That's pretty much Earth (and Mars') SOP outside of the inner planets, like Holden said "I didn't want to be the boot" when he was being interviewed on the Donager about why he got kicked out of the UN Navy for insubordination, he's not political at all but he saw how the UN had a shoot first policy on anyone they thought was going to be an issue to them. Mars is the same way to an extent, the captain of the Donager said that she'd been on a lot of "anti-piracy" missions and she's sure that some people they wasted weren't really bad guys, but you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet basically.



Oh and the Texan accent on Mars is pretty much mainly the Mariner Valley, that's where Alex is from; but there are linguistic shifts all over the place. There's probably some city around Syrtis Major where everyone has an English accent instead, basically the first colonists that got to an area were from different regions of Earth and the ones that came later adopted their way of speaking to blend in better. The Belt is more out there since you had smaller groups from all over the place mixing in together and trying to figure out what the hell the other guys were talking, Belt dialects are very diverse between stations and even in sections of stations. English is the officially official language of Earth, Mars and the Belt, but the accents and loanwords are all over the place...all over the place. The gestures that they use are more universal though, the reason the Belters use so many broad gestures makes sense though, if you're in a spacesuit you can't convey body language much at all, so by adopting arm and hand signs it makes communicating easier and carried over to become part of their normal way of speaking even if the Belter doing it never spent any time in a suit in their life.



As for their citizenship, that's a more tricky one. There isn't a Belt passport or citizenship, or any Belt chairs at the UN, all of the places they're born are owned by corporations. So technically they'd be the citizen of whatever planet's corporation that they'd be born on, but as a practical matter they have no status or representation that the "home" government doesn't want to give them. They do get taxed though, like when his captain gave Miller Julie's case she even pointed out since it was a side job that the bonus would be tax free. Most of the taxation in the Belt though is via duties, tariffs, etc. on and for goods. Some places like Ceres obviously have an income tax as the tax free comment to Miller pointed out, so since Ceres is managed by an Earth corp, he's paying a UN (and/or corporate) income tax on his normal pay. On some of the stations they not only pay taxes to the government but to the corporation that owns the place, I remember somewhere in the books them talking about a corporation raising the consumption tax on oxygen a few percentage points meaning the difference from getting by to having the chance of an OPA inspired riot breaking out. Even though someone working a gas freighter from Jupiter may not fill out a W2, he's definitely getting taxed (and heavily) every time the ship makes a port of call, on everything from a tax on his docking fee to taxes on everything he buys on shore leave.



A lot more of how the Earth/UN political system actually works is in the second book, and it's a one world government socialist's wet dream, if you ever read the Honor Harrington books the best way to describe it is basically they're like the Peeps on steroids. The vast majority doesn't pay any attention to politics because why bother when they're content to sit on government welfare and watch TV.



 

"Did you tell anyone our names?"



"Of course not, why?"



"Well you may have a hard time layin' low..." as he points to the screen with a sign with a big Holden face spraypainted on it.



That made me laugh a lot too. In fact I probably messed up the actual dialog but that was the jist, because I was laughing so hard. Need to rewatch the episode anyhow so I'll call that my excuse.



 

I'm going to have to get the books, because frankly I'm more interested in what is going on with Mars terraforming than anything.

Not a whole lot of info on Mars terraforming in the books either, I've read the first 3 and there isn't a whole lot more info on Mars at all until book 2 and even that is mainly Martian characters explaining how things work on Mars compared to on Earth. We're almost in the point on the show where things go strange anyhow, so even without that sort of thing you will be entertained.



They're really good books though, so yeah I'd recommend reading them anyhow.  



 

The books plot is much bigger than Earth/Mars/Belt.

Oh yes, yes indeed.



I can't wait until the show gets to Eros, I predict a lot of "WTF just happened!?!?" posts.



 

I really enjoyed the books, but just can't seem to get into the show.

I'll probably keep watching it for a bit, but the enthusiasm just isn't there like it is with the books.

I'm kind of the opposite.  I read Leviathan Wakes and wasn't at all impressed.  It was okay, but nowhere near the instant classic that people were calling it.  The show, on the other hand, is some of the best and most realistic SF I've seen on TV, at least so far.

Anyone know what kind of rifles the Martian were using (I mean obviously they were dressed up, but I'm wondering if they were built on real bullpups of some type)?

According to IMFDB (and I think it's cool as hell that they already have an Expanse page there) it's a dressed up airsoft gun, the APS UAR.

















 

Ah, well no wonder I didn't recognize it.

What did the Tyco Station Leader guy take off the dead Martian?

The Data Disc with Donnager logs/flight data the Capt gave to Lopez.

Darn, didn't the main character know that Lt. Lopez had that on him? Not good. Question is did the Colonel take it, because he's behind the attacks or did he take it to use as a bargaining chip to get on the UN Security Council?

Question is this, if the Colonel built those attack ships at the Tyco Station using Mormon funds wouldn't someone had noticed?  Seems like either the UN's spy or the Martian crews that daily arrive at the station would have noticed that Tyco's ship yard was building attack craft.  

I have a feeling the UN is behind all these attacks, but I don't know why yet. The OPA are just too obvious of suspects.

This series is starting off very oddly. We're six episodes into a 10 episode season, and it seems like we're barely out of the first third of the book. I think the show is pretty well done so far, but I'm just not sure how the missing bits of the story are going to get crammed into the next five episodes.





They just now mentioned the Eros station, and that plot-line is the foundation of the books.





m

 

Really enjoying this show

The show is badd-ass. I like it.



All episodes here.



https://www.solarmovie.ph/tv/the-expanse-2015/season-1/

People were ridiculed for suggesting we could ever travel to the moon. Doubters have always been around.
Yet the discovery of quantum physics shows how little we really know about anything.

Just finished episode 4. Best thing since Firefly imo.

They've added a lot of things that weren't in the first book, a lot of the backstory and Miller's investigation being much more complex than it was in the book. There is a character that's been on the show since the first episode that didn't show up in the books until the 2nd one, and set up something that wasn't even talked about until the 3rd one already.  So seeing as how they're expanding on the book I don't think there will be any actual cramming of the rest of book 1 into the show, instead with the pace they're setting I'm guessing that the end of Episode 10 will take place on Eros and be a cliffhanger. People who have read the books can probably guess what that will be.



Season 2 has already been greenlit, scripts written and I'd guess is in pre-production already. So I'm thinking Season 1 will be half of the first book, Season 2 will be the rest of it and will probably end with the "What the hell is going on here?" first chapter of book 2 as the finale. Could be wrong on that one, but I'm pretty sure they won't get through all of Book 1 before the end of Season 1. And I'm fine with that. All of the new stuff they're adding to the show is adding to the story and making it even better, so it's not like they're throwing random stuff in there just for the sake of doing it. One of the first things I noticed when I watched the first episode for the first time was it says in the credits "Based on the Series by S.A. Correy" not "Based on Leviathan Wakes by S.A. Correy" so I think they had a plan all along to move plot elements from whichever book into whichever episodes/seasons that makes the overall story flow better.



Since SyFy execs gave the green light to do Season 2 six months before the first episode even aired on the network, one of them said after he saw it for the first time that this was going to be "The next Battlestar Galactica" and they've been putting a lot of resources into it, so I'm pretty confident that they see it going on for the long haul.



 

Good to hear season 2 is on the way. I'm lovin' it.

Chad Coleman is not doing a convincing job of playing Fred Johnson. Ya know who would have made an awesome Fred? This guy.

I always pictured Colin Salmon






 
 
 

My favorite side moment so far...



Best,
JBR

Yeah that was awesome.





And a good way of showing that everyone that goes out into space for extended periods of time winds up with some...quirks. The XO collected guns, enjoyed walking on potting soil and shooting up viewscreens, so the Captain's "space madness" was a lot more kitschy and endearing.



And yeah I will be seriously pissed if at some point we don't get to hear what Alex plays over his headphones when he's flying. My money's still on a Country-Bolliwood-Rockabilly fusion of some sort.





 

I've been watching it, very good story and FX. The political back story is pretty much an allegory to what is going on in the world today.

Tagged and in.. Loved the first 3 books and just watched the first 6 episodes today.  Forgot about the series and just bought book 4.  Can't wait to get the kindle recharged

The MCRN has the best ship names. Motherfucking Scipio Africanus.

Hell yeah they do.



Like I said if I lived in The Expanse-verse I'd be a Martian.



Especially since "Donkey Balls!" is acceptable code verbiage.



 

Amos is kind of a crazy person.

Link is private

#donkeyballs

Excellently written episode.

Has anyone watched the show using their Phillips Hue smart lights and the SyFy App?  Sounds like it would be pretty cool.

I really like this show although I'm still trying to get used to Jane's hairstyle...

Some critic called it a "space Game of Thrones" which is stupid.  This is more like Battlestar Galactica got it on with Blade Runner and Outland and this is the lovechild.

Watched the first two episodes last night after seeing this thread.  I am liking it, I'll work on finishing up the other episodes that are on demand and set up a season pass for the future.

I have been craving some good SciFi since finishing up another run through of BSG.

You won't be disappointed at all. This shows badass.

SyFy Channel Episodes Link



Try that one, it's all the episodes on SyFy's page.



 

I love Jane's hair, when he flops it over and tilts his head and squints he looks like the greasiest scumbag ever, then he just tucks it under his hat and straightens up a little and he's ready for a job interview and formal occasions.  That hair should be in the credits as a separate character.

The Expanse
Starring

Steven Strait as Holden

Tom Jane as Miller

Tom Jane's weird hair as Shitbag Miller...




And that was a 2 man customs patrol boat, imagine what a badass that Donnager guy must have been.

Everyone's headed to Eros...

I have a feeling the UN black ops team headed there is gonna get sideways with the mickeys.

Amos is quite possibly the sanest person on the Roci, which is somewhat of a downright disturbing thought.



Alex was one of my favorite characters in the book, and I like him even better on the show. But I swear to God if we don't get to hear his headphone music before the season is over I may riot.



I really liked this last episode, showing where Holden came from on Montana and how he was raised makes some of the stuff he does make a little bit more sense. Plus it just looked really cool visually. What amused me is he thought Don Quixote was a comedy about a heroic knight, and he wanted to grow up to be that...and he did, but he grew up to be Don Quixote himself which is less about being heroic and more about being in way over his head and tilting at windmills all day long. It adds some depth there to his character, honestly in the books he was possibly the least favorite "main character" of mine because he did things but you only got half a handle on why he did them so he seemed sort of inscrutable and borderline neurotic when it came to his decision making; the show gives more insight into how he got the way he is.



And I agree, the writing on the show is excellent, and they're now putting way more things in than what was in the books; not the main plotline that's the same, but tons of the details are completely different, but better. It's almost the opposite of Starship troopers, great book but a good movie that has nothing to do with the book whereas The Expanse are damn good books, but a great TV show.



 

Yep, Eros is where Shit Gets Real.








That cracked me the hell up and sums it up perfectly.



Scipio Africanus was the frigate that launched the boarding skiff, not the skiff itself. It was also the same Martian ship that fragged the rock hauler in the previous episode after the rock hauler pitched all the rocks at it in an impromptu "brilliant pebbles" kinetic attack, although it wasn't very brilliant it was more like dumb as a rock.



As for Donnager I'm guessing he was a 10 foot tall Martian in a kilt that shot fireballs out his arse or something, he'd have to be to get the flagship of the Martian fleet named after him.  



 

That made my day.



 

War is in the human dna. Perhaps you should read more history. When has intelligence averted bloodshed?  Evil is all around and we all do it or think it. Only constraints, training and societal limits reduce the exercise of evil.

I recently saw a YouTube video of Elon Musk talking about Mars Colonization and he said something that I thought was very likely to turn out to be true and  that is that Mars would export Intellectual Property (IP).  With arguably some of the world's best and brightest going to Mars to terraform it and make for a new perfect society I could definitely see them creating some of the most advanced technologies especially if not bogged down with the current regulatory and tax codes issues.  In the show what ultimately won Mar's independence from the UN is their creation of an improve ship propulsion system and offering that to the UN in exchange for independence.  We also see that Martian ships are pretty high tech and that seems to be what they're known for best. My guess is that the focus of Martian education is very math and science heavy since there is such demand for both by their society.  I'm thinking you wouldn't get a lot of liberal arts majors coming out of Martian educational institutes. So, I could see a lot of "Designed On Mars, Made in China" labels in the future.

And the reach use of drones on Ceres but not so much on earth

I really want to fuck in zero g





Ok so I have been watching the show live, and I have one question. If the speeds they are supposedly going is accurate, how do they protect from space trash at those speeds?

Very careful course calculations and very powerful radar/lidar (or in the show Naomi called it "ladar") to try to spot things in time to get out of the way. They have really good charts of the Belt so basically know where everything big enough to be a sudden death impact is going to be when they get there, but the little shit is a problem especially when ships blow up or asteroids collide. With the technology they have it is impossible (unless you have a Martian stealth ship, at least) for anything to "hide" in space if someone is pointing sensors in its direction and if the operator wants to find it, it comes down to how sensitive the sensors are as to how much detail and at what range it gets to before they can figure out what "it" is.



Also the ships are fairly well armored against getting hit with debris moving at speed. The Knight was right in the expanding debris field from the Cant, which was a multi-million ton ice hauler, which was a pretty close (in space terms) range detonation and while it got fucked up it did survive. As distances increase from where something like that happens, chances of getting hit by it decrease. With the shenanigans going on where the show is right now with the inner planets fragging Belter ships that even look at them funny I'm sure there are a hell of a lot of "hazard to navigation" warnings being sent out with spherical projections on new debris fields too.



 

There isn't any. They have space-criminals out picking it up on weekends.  

"It's pronounced An-oo-bis, the Egyptian god of the dead...or Anu-bis works too I guess..."





Good episode tonight, looks like they're going to end the season where I expected once they slowed the pace down. Next week is gonna be...really vomit-y.