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I take it the show doesn't have any military experts? Not that there's anything seriously amiss about how military is presented in the show, but the rank insignia on the uniforms does bother. Or in the case of the UN Admiral, lack thereof. But what really gets me is the use of chevrons for the officers in the Martian Navy. It makes them look like enlisted personnel. Hell, at a glance one would think Donnager's captain was a sergeant and Lopez a corporal.

Why do you think they must use the same insignia used today? They are 2 centuries in the future and are from a different planet.
 
How awesome does the Rocinante look when we get to it at the end of Episode 4? Interesting to see they've brought Lopez onboard - if memory serves, he didn't make it off the Donny in the books (plus, pretty obvious the Donny's command deck is a redress of the Roci's Bridge, but it's all MCRN design).

Technically, you're correct. Lopez is only the intelligence officer, in the book. Lt. Kelly is the marine who escorts them off the ship. These 2 characters were combined in the show. However, Lt. Kelly does make it onto the Tachi in the book.
 
Alex didn't get his commission restored. They just treated him better as an honorably discharged veteran.

If his commission wasn't restored, why is he wearing a uniform?

I take it the show doesn't have any military experts? Not that there's anything seriously amiss about how military is presented in the show, but the rank insignia on the uniforms does bother. Or in the case of the UN Admiral, lack thereof. But what really gets me is the use of chevrons for the officers in the Martian Navy. It makes them look like enlisted personnel. Hell, at a glance one would think Donnager's captain was a sergeant and Lopez a corporal.

Why do you think they must use the same insignia used today? They are 2 centuries in the future and are from a different planet.

But they are using modern day Earth military insignia, except they're using enlisted insignia for officers.

And besides, since the Donnager is described as the "Martian flagship" I'll assume their captain is an actual O6 Captain by rank, which is universally on Earth represented with four stripes. Sure Mars is a different planet, but they originate from Earth. So, being on a different planet means changing stripes to chevrons, and knocking one off the insignia for Captain.

I see the Martian Navy also uses the civilian definition of the word "flagship" just like Starfleet does as opposed to the proper military definition. Though this problem existed in the book, too.
 
Episode 4 was great. The best yet by far. And it is so exciting to finally see a well done space battle on TV again, I'm so impressed by the visual effects and practical props. No wonder the show was nicknamed "The Expense"... :-)
 
And besides, since the Donnager is described as the "Martian flagship" I'll assume their captain is an actual O6 Captain by rank, which is universally on Earth represented with four stripes. Sure Mars is a different planet, but they originate from Earth. So, being on a different planet means changing stripes to chevrons, and knocking one off the insignia for Captain.

Well the JJ Star Trek films Captain is two stripes and a half stripe based on TOS's two stripes and a dashy stripe thing.
 
So, being on a different planet means changing stripes to chevrons, and knocking one off the insignia for Captain.

Sure seems that way. They are 200 years in the future, do we use the same insignia as 200 years ago?

Actually, yes. In fact some militaries have kept the same insignia for longer. In fact nations which originate from other nations typically keep that nation's insignia as well. For the Martians to decide to do their own thing is very strange indeed.

And besides, since the Donnager is described as the "Martian flagship" I'll assume their captain is an actual O6 Captain by rank, which is universally on Earth represented with four stripes. Sure Mars is a different planet, but they originate from Earth. So, being on a different planet means changing stripes to chevrons, and knocking one off the insignia for Captain.

Well the JJ Star Trek films Captain is two stripes and a half stripe based on TOS's two stripes and a dashy stripe thing.

Well, that's based on the TOS rank system, and as I recall, rank insignia was an afterthought on TOS. Hell, the uniforms from The Cage and WNMHGB don't even have rank insignia.
 
Well, that's based on the TOS rank system, and as I recall, rank insignia was an afterthought on TOS. Hell, the uniforms from The Cage and WNMHGB don't even have rank insignia.

I always just assumed the originally concieved rank structure was more like the army in TC and WNMHGB - so we had privates/crewmen (no stripe), lieutenants (one stripe), captain (two stripe).

I've been sat trying to figure out the layout of the Roci from the brief scenes we saw in Episode 4 - the length of the command deck seems too long for the depth of the ship when we take into account the dimensions of the airlock which is the only size indicator we have.
 
Loved eps 1 & 2. I agree with the criticism of the overuse of the mag boots, but, as we say in Jersey, waddaya gonna do. But it does bug me that they're inconsisntent with their portrayal of zero-g. For example, when they got the antenna fixed on the outside of the ship, the one guy slumped down against the hull in exhaustion. In another scene inside the ship, one guy on the upper level tossed something down to another guy on the lower level using a normal ballistic lob. It's probably be better if they'd just say there's artificial grav and stop trying. It takes me out of the story.
 
Loved eps 1 & 2. I agree with the criticism of the overuse of the mag boots, but, as we say in Jersey, waddaya gonna do. But it does bug me that they're inconsisntent with their portrayal of zero-g. For example, when they got the antenna fixed on the outside of the ship, the one guy slumped down against the hull in exhaustion. In another scene inside the ship, one guy on the upper level tossed something down to another guy on the lower level using a normal ballistic lob. It's probably be better if they'd just say there's artificial grav and stop trying. It takes me out of the story.

Except in universe it's set in. there's no artificial gravity - that's why the need crash couches and drugs injected in order to survive high-gee maneuvers and unless a ship is under thrust everyone's floating (as seen by Holden and Ade's zero-g sex in the first ep).
 
All I know is, most of the dominant characters seemed to be white -- both the cops on Ceres, their captain, most of the speaking roles among the Cerean populace, almost the entire crew of the Canterbury besides the English-accented black woman. There were a couple of actors who seemed ethnically ambiguous, but I couldn't be sure. Yes, there were a few people here and there of other ethnicities, but there were a lot more nonwhites among the nonspeaking extras than among the core cast.
You're including more people in the core cast than I would have. (Although I guess it may make a difference that I've read the books, so I know who bites it or disappears and won't show up again until season X. ;)) Of the six characters so far that I consider part of the core cast, half are non-white. And when Fred Johnson shows up later that'll make 4 out of 7.

Holden, Naomi, Amos, Alex, Miller, Avasarala

Which is still a far cry from proportionately representing the world as a whole, but I certainly wouldn't call it "mostly white".
 
I'm waiting to see who they cast as Bobbie.

From the wiki:
"She is a little over two meters tall and a muscular hundred kilos at one g. She is of Polynesian ancestry. She has been described as highly attractive."
 
All I know is, most of the dominant characters seemed to be white -- both the cops on Ceres, their captain, most of the speaking roles among the Cerean populace, almost the entire crew of the Canterbury besides the English-accented black woman. There were a couple of actors who seemed ethnically ambiguous, but I couldn't be sure. Yes, there were a few people here and there of other ethnicities, but there were a lot more nonwhites among the nonspeaking extras than among the core cast.
You're including more people in the core cast than I would have. (Although I guess it may make a difference that I've read the books, so I know who bites it or disappears and won't show up again until season X. ;)) Of the six characters so far that I consider part of the core cast, half are non-white. And when Fred Johnson shows up later that'll make 4 out of 7.

Holden, Naomi, Amos, Alex, Miller, Avasarala

Which is still a far cry from proportionately representing the world as a whole, but I certainly wouldn't call it "mostly white".
Based purely off of the casts lists I've seen, I think the actor playing Fred Johnson is just going to be recurring.
 
Loved eps 1 & 2. I agree with the criticism of the overuse of the mag boots, but, as we say in Jersey, waddaya gonna do. But it does bug me that they're inconsisntent with their portrayal of zero-g. For example, when they got the antenna fixed on the outside of the ship, the one guy slumped down against the hull in exhaustion. In another scene inside the ship, one guy on the upper level tossed something down to another guy on the lower level using a normal ballistic lob. It's probably be better if they'd just say there's artificial grav and stop trying. It takes me out of the story.

Except in universe it's set in. there's no artificial gravity - that's why the need crash couches and drugs injected in order to survive high-gee maneuvers and unless a ship is under thrust everyone's floating (as seen by Holden and Ade's zero-g sex in the first ep).

Yes, I know. I applaud them for trying to show zero-g. What I said was that they're doing so inconsistently, it would have made things simpler and less distracting if they had decided to go with artificial grav in the story instead.
 
Happily, this show and Childhood's End relegated Star Wars as the third best scifi space opera of the week. Babylon 5 was good. I was never a fan of Farscape, Firefly and NuBSG had many problems for me...but this..Just loving this show.

RAMA
 
Just watched the first episode. It was...interesting. I'll stay with it for a while and see how it goes.
 
Just read a bit more of the book yesterday. It was interesting how they had different events in the book and show leading up to the reveal that the gang on Ceres disappeared. Both worked well, so I don't think I really have a preference.
 
Yes, I know. I applaud them for trying to show zero-g. What I said was that they're doing so inconsistently, it would have made things simpler and less distracting if they had decided to go with artificial grav in the story instead.

But that is a silly attitude IMO. So if the sets aren't convincing, should they not have sets? If visual effects aren't flawless, should they not bother?

It ain't perfect for sure, but I really appreciate them trying to do a show without "magical" :) artificial gravity everywhere. I think it is worthy of praise. And I don't think it is distracting at all... They don't make a big deal out of it in many scenes, but they haven't forgotten.
 
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