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KatWithHands
Nov 14, 2007


Premiere: Two-night event, December 14 & 15 @10/9c on SyFy.

The Expanse is a space opera set several hundred years in our future, after humanity has colonized the solar system. Part neo-noir mystery, part action adventure, and part political thriller, it is the basket in which SyFy is putting a lot of its eggs in a bid to bring back solid, engaging sci-fi series. The story revolves around two men, James Holden and Joe Miller, who are swept up in a mystery that spans the entire solar system and could end up changing how humanity sees the stars, for better or worse.

It’s based on the novel series by James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), and adapted for television by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men and Iron Man). SyFy is really throwing its weight around with the production and marketing. It’s been given a very high budget, and they’ve tapped some serious talent on both the cast and crew side of things. The direction and cinematography are beautiful, and the visual effects are absolutely stellar.


The People


Jim Holden (Steven Strait) - An Earther and one of our main heroes, Holden is the righteous man with the inescapable conscience who takes on the responsibility of the series’ plot.
Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) - A Belter and a brilliant engineer, Naomi is also Holden’s XO in their crew of four.
Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) - The crew’s crack pilot from the Mariner Valley, Alex is retired Martian Navy.
Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) - Another crew member from Earth, Amos is the mechanic and the muscle.


Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane) - A hard-boiled detective in space. Miller is a jaded, rough-edged Belter cop who is given the job of locating a missing woman, Julie Mao, and unraveling the mystery that follows her.


Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) - The Deputy Undersecretary for the United Nations, Avasarala is the leader of the UN (and subsequently, Earth) in all but name.


Julie Mao (Florence Faivre)- The crux of the series’ mystery, Julie Mao is the missing daughter of one of the system’s most powerful merchant families.

(More main characters will be added as they're introduced.)


The Politics
Even with an entire solar system in front of them, humanity still manages to fight over territory, leaving things in a constant state of political tension between the three main groups: Earth, gathered under the control of the UN and the cradle of civilization; Mars, technological and military powerhouse; and the Belters, unaffiliated settlers who colonized and work the asteroid belt for the planetary governments. Earth is the only planet where people can live on the surface, and in spite of the strain they've placed on the environment, they suffer from all the elitism that provides. Mars is fiercely independent from Earth, but the inhospitable conditions on the planet mean its only strength is in its powerful military and scientific community. The Belters are largely responsible for humanity’s outward stretch, adapting to low gravity and working the outer system for the other governments while being heavily reliant on them for supplies. But poo poo rolls downhill, and the Belters get two planets’ worth, leading to the Outer Planets Alliance resistance movement starting revolts on the sidelines while Mars and Earth butt heads.


Early Premiere Release
On November 23rd, the pilot episode, “Dulcinea,” was made available on pretty much every legal streaming service available, including the SyFy site. Hulu, Amazon Video, Playstation, Xbox, etc.

However, the videos on several of the platforms, including the SyFy YouTube and Facebook accounts, have since been made unavailable. As of this posting, it’s still available region-free on the Canadian affiliate Space Facebook account here. If you know of any other region-free sites for non-US viewers, please link them and I’ll add them to the OP.

The SyFy site is chock full of interesting featurettes and goodies, including the VR App (or, if you don’t have an iPhone or Android device, this 360˚ video), which lets you check out some of the sets so far. There should be some new additions leading up to the premiere, so keep an eye out.


Book Spoilers
If you want to chat about the novels, a lot of that is done in this Book Barn thread. Please keep any book-related spoilers or speculation in this thread tagged.

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gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love
This is going to be GoT hard to keep out spoilers.

I had reservations about it being a SyFy adaptation but from the pilot episode I am extremely hopefull. I love everything about it aside from the lack of boobs and profanity.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
This was pretty excellent and I am totally unfamiliar with the property. Looking forward to the next episode.

Also Shohreh Aghdashloo's earrings look painful as poo poo.

gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love

Rhyno posted:

This was pretty excellent and I am totally unfamiliar with the property. Looking forward to the next episode.

Also Shohreh Aghdashloo's earrings look painful as poo poo.

Yeah, WTF. I think it was to foreshadow the belter hanger from the hooks.

KatWithHands
Nov 14, 2007

Rhyno posted:

This was pretty excellent and I am totally unfamiliar with the property. Looking forward to the next episode.

Also Shohreh Aghdashloo's earrings look painful as poo poo.

I was just thinking the same about those earrings.

Also, if you're not up on the books, I'd highly recommend them! Very fun, tightly-written, and engaging. They seem to be following the series pretty closely, but the novels would give you more in-depth world building.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
God drat that was great. Jane makes a perfect Miller.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

God drat that was great. Jane makes a perfect Miller.

I love Thomas Jane. I've read a bunch of interviews where he prefers to work in TV and he's a huge scifi nut so I hope this has legs.

Dryb
Jul 30, 2007

What did I do?
Goddamn, that was really good. Now we have to wait 3 weeks for the 2nd episode.

darnon
Nov 8, 2009
Other than a few beanpoles to prove the point the casting for belters seems a little lazy. Amos and Holden are frequently some of the tallest dudes in a scene and in particular Naomi is half a head shorter than the two earthers.

sticklefifer
Nov 11, 2003

by VideoGames
I was looking forward to this, but I'm not quite sold after the pilot. A lot feels cribbed from BSG, much of the dialogue felt really stilted, and the story's tone feels all over the place. The zero-g sex was really goofy too.

I'll give it a shot because it looks pretty and I'm a sucker for sci-fi that takes place locally instead of fictional star systems, but the plot isn't doing it for me yet. There's no overall compelling hook so far, so it feels like it's relying entirely on its world-building.

Cheston
Jul 17, 2012

(he's got a good thing going)

sticklefifer posted:

There's no overall compelling hook so far, so it feels like it's relying entirely on its world-building.

The site says the series premieres on December 14th, so it seems this is effectively the first half of a double-length intro. If the second episode follows through I'm completely sold.

Tighclops
Jan 23, 2008

Unable to deal with it


Grimey Drawer
Finally, sci fi in space that doesn't make me feel dumber for having watched it.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



sticklefifer posted:

I was looking forward to this, but I'm not quite sold after the pilot. A lot feels cribbed from BSG, much of the dialogue felt really stilted, and the story's tone feels all over the place. The zero-g sex was really goofy too.

I'll give it a shot because it looks pretty and I'm a sucker for sci-fi that takes place locally instead of fictional star systems, but the plot isn't doing it for me yet. There's no overall compelling hook so far, so it feels like it's relying entirely on its world-building.

I'm not going to spoil anything, but since it appears they're staying fairly faithful to the books (although they did shuffle a certain character to be introduced early) I can only counsel patience.

It will become a wild ride.

gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love
Ade Tukunbo is now a white woman that dies carrying Holden's baby?

gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love

flosofl posted:

I'm not going to spoil anything, but since it appears they're staying fairly faithful to the books (although they did shuffle a certain character to be introduced early) I can only counsel patience.

It will become a wild ride.

Like next very episode. If I remember correctly, the poo poo hits the fan immidiately after the Cant is nuked.

johnsonrod
Oct 25, 2004

I thought the pilot was great. Much better than I was expecting.

sticklefifer posted:

A lot feels cribbed from BSG

I'm genuinely curious what you mean by this. Other than "it has spaceships in space", I couldn't think of one example.

KatWithHands
Nov 14, 2007
So I was reading through the James S. A. Corey twitter, and apparently that Black Keys song at the intro to the Cant was sung in the Belter Creole. I remember thinking during the first time I watched it that having that song play was pretty jarring (I figured it would be all original score), but I'm not familiar with the lyrics so I didn't think any further than that. That is some serious effort to put into a really subtle detail, holy poo poo. Really bodes well for the rest of the series.

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin
That was a drat good pilot. Really sold the "this is real space, it's hard to live in, it's not your walk-in-the-park Star Wars/Trek space for babies" vibe.

The overall quality gives me a lot of hope for the other SyFy adaptation I'm anticipating, The Magicians.

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets

Hedrigall posted:

That was a drat good pilot. Really sold the "this is real space, it's hard to live in, it's not your walk-in-the-park Star Wars/Trek space for babies" vibe.

The overall quality gives me a lot of hope for the other SyFy adaptation I'm anticipating, The Magicians.

Same, though The Magicians doesn't interest me much; I'm anticipating Letter 44. :munch:

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007

Witchfinder General

Yeah this was a great pilot can't wait to watch the rest of the series.

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

darnon posted:

Other than a few beanpoles to prove the point the casting for belters seems a little lazy. Amos and Holden are frequently some of the tallest dudes in a scene and in particular Naomi is half a head shorter than the two earthers.

On the other hand, Naomi looks perfect otherwise.

They've said there's no way they can make the Belters all tall and weird looking from zero-gee exposure as they are in the books, so they've expanded them out into a wider culture. Like, Belters are supposed to be something like seven-feet tall, stick thin and with weird shaped heads. No way you could do that on a TV budget.

Chard
Aug 24, 2010




This is real fuckin good.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Nice use of Jonathan Banks.

--edit: vvv Old weathered man being a captain. Like that was exclusive to BSG up until now. Plus he doesn't look like EJO and played a crazy person.

Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Nov 24, 2015

sticklefifer
Nov 11, 2003

by VideoGames

johnsonrod posted:

I'm genuinely curious what you mean by this. Other than "it has spaceships in space", I couldn't think of one example.
A few things jumped out at me pretty immediately. Jonathan Banks' bald old drunk XO was almost literally Tigh. Threat of airlocking someone to get them to cooperate, two crewmates in a secret relationship due to being officers on a ship, the ship is called a "rustbucket", and being stranded in space after watching everyone you know get nuked. I suppose the crew notes are moot points now with the ship exploding, but as a pilot it felt derivative to me.

sticklefifer fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Nov 24, 2015

novamute
Jul 5, 2006

o o o

flosofl posted:

I'm not going to spoil anything, but since it appears they're staying fairly faithful to the books (although they did shuffle a certain character to be introduced early) I can only counsel patience.

It will become a wild ride.

So far they have been lockstep in with the book other than that one character, yeah. I was pretty impressed when it straight up opened with the prologue of the book. If they stay pretty faithful to the book this series will probably benefit a lot from having read The Expanse books since they spend so much time on character building and giving a sense of their society.

Der Luftwaffle
Dec 29, 2008
A scene early on made me do a double take, I looked it up and yep, they were at Kinton - a chain of ramen joints in Toronto with really distinctive walls. I can't fault them though, it still looked good.

Bert Roberge
Nov 28, 2003

Crazy spoiler for later in the series Holden eventually gets a decent cup of coffee.

emanresu tnuocca
Sep 2, 2011

by Athanatos

sticklefifer posted:

A lot feels cribbed from BSG,

BSG (remake) is basically a fairy tale in space, a retelling of Exodus with a bunch of pseudo-religious new-age elements thrown in; the expanse is really anything but that, it's a story far more grounded in plausible scenarios and political intrigue, perhaps there weresome similarities in the first episode (though personally, I didn't notice that many) but I assure you that the narratives are pretty much as different as it gets when it comes to stories set in space.

And really the most important difference is that the Expanse isn't the sort of 'make poo poo up as we go along' bullshit like BSG was, the expanse has stories, there are seasonal arcs, there's an overarching narrative, there are humane character arcs for almost every central character and their relationships also don't quite feel stupid, there are also no spiritual or quasi-religious elements in there, at all.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



sticklefifer posted:

A few things jumped out at me pretty immediately. Jonathan Banks' bald old drunk XO was almost literally Tigh. Threat of airlocking someone to get them to cooperate, two crewmates in a secret relationship due to being officers on a ship, the ship is called a "rustbucket", and being stranded in space after watching everyone you know get nuked. I suppose the crew notes are moot points now with the ship exploding, but as a pilot it felt derivative to me.

I'm imagining you taking a hit of your inhaler after every sentence.

"Furthermore, the shade of off-white used in the fonts on the computer are TOTALLY the same color as those used for the HUDS in Battlestar!"

Baloogan
Dec 5, 2004
Fun Shoe

emanresu tnuocca posted:

there are also no spiritual or quasi-religious elements in there, at all.


you seem to have forgotten the 3rd book entirely.

emanresu tnuocca
Sep 2, 2011

by Athanatos

Baloogan posted:

you seem to have forgotten the 3rd book entirely.

Hmmm... it's a possibility, Though I don't recall there ever being a 'Was it god? Was she an angel? Is fate real?' kinda heavy-handed bullshit of the sort that dominated the latter seasons of BSG.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



Baloogan posted:

you seem to have forgotten the 3rd book entirely.

Yeah, it's there. But it would be a HUGE stretch to think it's even remotely like the impact religion had in BSG. As a poster mentioned above, BSG cribs directly from Exodus, so the religion angle sort of makes sense.

In the Expanse it's pretty much limited to specific viewpoint characters and at no time is there the sense of religion having any kind of pervasive hold on the thinking of the different cultures.

am0kgonzo
Jun 18, 2010
This was really impressive, imo.

Not sure about the dude playing Amos, though.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



am0kgonzo posted:

This was really impressive, imo.

Not sure about the dude playing Amos, though.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I expected Amos to be a bit more... substantial looking. I kind of had it my head that he could have fit right in a Viking raiding party.

Eau de MacGowan
May 12, 2009

BRASIL HEXA
2026 tá logo aí
So i guess Jonathan Banks isn't coming back then?

gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love

emanresu tnuocca posted:

there are also no spiritual or quasi-religious elements in there, at all.
Uh until season/book 3. But at least they return to form for the rest.

gohmak
Feb 12, 2004
cookies need love

am0kgonzo posted:

This was really impressive, imo.

Not sure about the dude playing Amos, though.

I was really hoping for a Baldimorese accent. I really don't get the 'badass earther than can get drunk at a belter brothel and walk out alive and well hosed' vibe.

Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment
Wonder who they'll cast as Bobbie the martian marine.

Mild potential character spoilers up in there.

Miller has a space fedora. :magical:

sticklefifer
Nov 11, 2003

by VideoGames

flosofl posted:

I'm imagining you taking a hit of your inhaler after every sentence.

"Furthermore, the shade of off-white used in the fonts on the computer are TOTALLY the same color as those used for the HUDS in Battlestar!"

Johnsonrod asked me, I answered, fucko. Those were things that jumped out at me while watching, not a list of problems I'm ranting about. I felt it was a weak pilot.

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etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Klaus88 posted:

Wonder who they'll cast as Bobbie the martian marine.

Mild potential character spoilers up in there.

Miller has a space fedora. :magical:

It keeps the rain off my head


Really loving how Jessica Jones is neo noir while this show is basically space noir.

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