Attention Sci-Fi Nerds: The Expanse series is coming to TV!

In reply to codrus:

Doh, I meant Ganymede, don't know why I thought Europa... brain was saying Jovian water moon used for primary food source. So in my mind that equates out to Europa, I guess Ganymede also has a saltwater ocean though. It's just the lesser known one.

Sci-Fi only appears to have ep 9 through 13 up on their site.

BSG... well BSG took a quick lets get finished path to finish in the original series. I don't feel like the remake was any better. As soon as they hit the theology discussion I pretty much knew where it was going and stopped watching.

Now if we want good writing in sci-fi lets talk about Babylon 5. That was a great show well mapped out with a purpose. Season 5 had it's flaws which showed in Straczynski's writing after PTEN dissolved.

And yes Detective Miller still has a role to play.

Well, I made a bit of a liar out of myself and blew through the first two books in a couple of days. Quite interesting the differences between them. Many of them I'm left at a bit of a loss as to why (most notably the whole thing with how the Scopuli's distress signal was handled, how/why/from Fred got the sample, and Bobbie not knowing/remembering about the 'monster' from the get-go. Others- like Avasarala being in it almost from the beginning- made a good bit of sense. I like having seen the show before reading the books, it makes it a bit easier playing everything out in my head.

Would love to roll right into the third book, but it's checked out. However, the library does have the e-book version that can be downloaded, but I need to dig up my actual library card number for that.

The0retical wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: Careful with them if you binge read them. You'll come away with the impression the future sucks and we're all doomed. I said to myself a few times "god how much more could that suck?" then the author found a way.

Earth's doing pretty well for having 12 BILLION people on it

Aaand, just figured out how to use the library's eBook checkout system on my phone. Yay for being able to read the next book- oh crap for how bad this could be for my productivity down the line when I can download almost any book they have to my phone at a moment's notice...

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Haven't made it to Nemesis Games yet then?

Bump to say, season 3 just hit Amazon a few days ago, and despite having zero time to watch TV I have already binged the whole thing. It was amazeballs. Somehow each season has been better than the last. I'm so glad that Amazon rescued this show.

codrus said:

As far as comparisons to BSG go, IMHO the writing in The Expanse is far, far better. The first season of BSG was decent, but when they went to new Caprica it got off the rails, and I quit watching after Starbuck vanished into the gas giant. BSG didn't have a coherent plan of where it was supposed to go and ultimately wound up not making any sense, I was very disappointed with it.

Thank you!! BSG went completely off the rails after season 1, and even at its best the writing was never as good as the Expanse. It quickly devolved into a soap opera with really repetitive plot lines and magical rather than scifi plots. One of the lines in the Expanse season 3 (no spoilers I promise) was, "It's not magic, it's just physics," when studying something they didn't understand yet.

In reply to dculberson :

Agreed.  I binged the whole season in one day - something I had never done before. 

Now I need to get the books.  Apparently book #8 will be released in March.

I tend to agree about BSG as well. I think it fell victim to the same problem Lost had: It seemed to lack a lead writer who drove a central plot line with a defined end point.  The Expanse benefits from being adapted from a book series.  I'm sure the script writers need to make changes for TV, but they don't have to be too concerned about the continuing plot line. 

wait.... there's a book series? Must. Have.

I knew I couldn't be the only one here enjoying this show. 

I caught the first 2 seasons last year on Netflix, and had been waiting extremely impatiently to catch the third. 

In my opinion, some of the best space special effects ever. But there's a book series? I'm gonna need to get on that. 

I'm watching season 3.  This is the only sci-fi show I've really gotten into.  

Despite people calling it 'hard' sci-fi, I disagree.  I do enjoy it though.

I love how crafty the props guys are.  The Roci is controlled using a 3D Connexion spacemouse.  I have the exact same model to my left on my desk.  And it would be the perfect control device (I have spent much time getting it to work with descent previously).  The storage 'pod' for the children is a Yakima roof box with a plastic window put in it.

dculberson said:

Bump to say, season 3 just hit Amazon a few days ago, and despite having zero time to watch TV I have already binged the whole thing. It was amazeballs. Somehow each season has been better than the last. I'm so glad that Amazon rescued this show.

This and PBS Kids are really the only reason I keep Prime around. Season 3 is fantastic so far I've been watching two a three a night for the last couple of days.

Glad everyone likes it.

I kinda laughed at how long they strung out that bit with the slingshoting kid (in the Y Que.) That was literally a less than 12 page prologue of Abaddon's Gate. They did a beautiful job with translating into a visual however.

bobzilla said:

wait.... there's a book series? Must. Have.

 

The Expanse is the series.

I think Leviathan Wakes (book 1) is still available for free off Google's Play Books. That's how I got into it.

ProDarwin said:

I love how crafty the props guys are.  The Roci is controlled using a 3D Connexion spacemouse.  I have the exact same model to my left on my desk.  And it would be the perfect control device (I have spent much time getting it to work with descent previously).  The storage 'pod' for the children is a Yakima roof box with a plastic window put in it.

I was amused by the Kriss Vector sub-machine guns used by the OPA.  Yeah, it's a futuristic gun today, but you would think it will be pretty out-dated in what... 400 years?

Just stopping in to agree that the show is excellent.

I was very worried it was going to go the same route Dark Matter did.

dculberson said:

codrus said:

As far as comparisons to BSG go, IMHO the writing in The Expanse is far, far better. The first season of BSG was decent, but when they went to new Caprica it got off the rails, and I quit watching after Starbuck vanished into the gas giant. BSG didn't have a coherent plan of where it was supposed to go and ultimately wound up not making any sense, I was very disappointed with it.

Thank you!! BSG went completely off the rails after season 1, and even at its best the writing was never as good as the Expanse. It quickly devolved into a soap opera with really repetitive plot lines and magical rather than scifi plots. One of the lines in the Expanse season 3 (no spoilers I promise) was, "It's not magic, it's just physics," when studying something they didn't understand yet.

I really genuinely enjoyed the BSG mini series and thought the first season was great!

After that it really felt like something that was written to be "profound" and lacked a whole bunch of substance. Imho the writers fell in love with series/characters/themselves to the point that they were blind to the problems the story had.

I plan on watching the 3rd season of The Expanse soon, my dad has been bugging me to read the books too

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

I liked Dark Matter. 

The0retical said:

dculberson said:

Bump to say, season 3 just hit Amazon a few days ago, and despite having zero time to watch TV I have already binged the whole thing. It was amazeballs. Somehow each season has been better than the last. I'm so glad that Amazon rescued this show.

....

I kinda laughed at how long they strung out that bit with the slingshoting kid (in the Y Que.) That was literally a less than 12 page prologue of Abaddon's Gate. They did a beautiful job with translating into a visual however.

The way it translated to the screen was beautiful! My jaw literally dropped when he liquified, and I thought that having Manéo's transit last the whole episode drove home the point of just how long it was taking everybody to get out to the ring.

sobe_death said:

The0retical said:

dculberson said:

Bump to say, season 3 just hit Amazon a few days ago, and despite having zero time to watch TV I have already binged the whole thing. It was amazeballs. Somehow each season has been better than the last. I'm so glad that Amazon rescued this show.

....

I kinda laughed at how long they strung out that bit with the slingshoting kid (in the Y Que.) That was literally a less than 12 page prologue of Abaddon's Gate. They did a beautiful job with translating into a visual however.

The way it translated to the screen was beautiful! My jaw literally dropped when he liquified, and I thought that having Manéo's transit last the whole episode drove home the point of just how long it was taking everybody to get out to the ring.

I suspect that's why they did it that way. Watching him drink the bottled urine mentioned in the book was a nice touch. Overall the screen writers have done one of the best jobs translating the books into an easily approachable and digestible TV show that I've seen in a long time.

The books and relationships are complicated. Not quite Dune complicated but complicated enough that it would be easy to lose track if it wasn't managed the way they have.

I think I watched the first couple episodes of season 1 and wasn't really drawn in, so just never went back and watched more. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

The Expanse is my favorite show for sure. It is the ONLY show in years that I have watched the original broadcast, commercials and all.

Dark matter was awesome! It may not reach Firefly level of cult fandom but was a well done series. It led me in mourning to find Travellers. 

Back to the Expanse, I really hope Amazon won't drive to much change. The science of the show is solid within the fictional framework of their universe. Season 2 was the best for me. 

They manage to create a series that can seemlessly go from a action packed episode to a good horror episode to a tense suspense thriller to a political drama.

Damn. I was hoping this was news about season 4...

T.J. said:

I think I watched the first couple episodes of season 1 and wasn't really drawn in, so just never went back and watched more. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

Yes I think to get past the first five episodes you have to really dedicate some attention to watching. It doesn't give you all the story in an easy way. You have to focus. But it isn't like Lost where they fell into hiding stuff just to create mystery or frustration. Judge the show  after Back to the Butcher.

Jay_W said:

Damn. I was hoping this was news about season 4...

I found this while surfing YouTube tonight.

Jay_W said:

Damn. I was hoping this was news about season 4...

They are trying to get it out by the end of 2019.

https://deadline.com/2019/02/expanse-season-4-premiere-date-1202556783/