Spoilers The Expanse Season 5

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by KennyB, Jun 8, 2020.

  1. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This is 100% true. It's much more obvious in the novels, because Earth is trashed to mass extinction levels, and it's pointed out much more explicitly that the Belt is not self-sufficient and that all humans will ultimately die without access to Earth.

    To a large extent, Ineros is motivated by the same understanding that Mars has - with the habitable worlds through the ring gates, the Belt about to become 100% irrelevant. No one will even want to buy their shit any longer because they'll just go to a virgin planet and mine it there. It's a desperate plan to knock back planet-bound humanity while there's still somewhat of a chance and to stop the flow of settlers to new worlds.

    It's not really a good plan. But that doesn't matter, because a man with a good plan has been manipulating him.
     
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  2. Tallguy

    Tallguy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Yeah, of all the missteps the show has made this is up there. They manufactured a conflict between Chrisjen and Arjun that was out of character for both. But especially for Arjun. In the books (and the earlier appearances in the show) Arjun knows exactly who Chrisjen is and he adores all of her. I didn't need them to be on the outs to feel his loss. And neither did she.

    If he had been written more consistently and not been recast to be 15 years younger the recast would have been OK.

    Come to that, I've started telling people who are having a hard time getting past the first few episodes "Look, the plot is supposed to be split up and seemingly unrelated. But the characters start acting like their book-selves in about three episodes and then it gets great."
     
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  3. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Recasting a main or supporting is always tricky. I generally prefer that they not, but it can work in certain circumstances (see: War Machine)

    In the case of Arjun; yeah, that was unfortunate and compounded by the fact that I recognise Brian George from his other roles and quite like him, making the switch initially confusing. I gather that what happened was that he had prior commitments and since it's really just a bit part it's not worth holding up the entire production until he's available again, so I understand the reasoning. Still jarring, but not much could have reasonably been done about it.

    As for Alex...he's far too established a character for recasting to work. For better or worse Anvar made that character his own and his chemistry with the cast can't really be seamlessly reproduced, no matter how well they recast.
    Also I kind of like the poetry of this approach. In a single stroke (no pun intended...I think...) they both give Alex the noble and heroic death he deserves, and give Anvar the ignoble drop-kick to the pavement he deserves.
     
  4. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The first couple of episodes with the recast Arjun I was sure he was some personal aide who was unusually familiar I had never seen before. It didn't help that the actor had no chemistry with Shoresh - their relationship came across as 100% platonic. I mean, old married couples typically don't have "heat" - but there should have been something there, and it was nil.
     
  5. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    That's probably still coming. I'm not a book-reader, but I saw a post on Twitter where someone was arguing that the devastation on Earth hadn't been fully made clear in the show, and cited a scene from the books, which Ty pointed out wasn't from this book, but the next one. We were already seeing cities being abandoned by the authorities that were relatively untouched by the actual disaster. It's like what Prax said about Ganymede in season two, the damage was already fatal, it just hadn't fully expressed itself yet.

    Seeing the deal Marco made, he is quite possibly the stupidest person in the Belt, and that's saying something, considering Drummer's crew saw Marco had been systematically killing everyone their captain/wife had ever cared about, and decided they'd probably be fine working for him. Giving the Laconians the means to dominate humanity across the galaxy on a hand-shake agreement that they won't is painfully myopic. The very fact that they want the alien structures all to themselves is evidence of ill-intent.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2021
  6. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    I suppose they could have Deepfaked Brian George's face but the recasting is something a casual view would neither notice nor care about. It would likely also mean paying Brian George for permission to use his image. I'm not sure the voices of the two actors are similar but overdubbing would be trivial. Really, to me it's not a big deal to substitute a minor character.
     
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  7. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, that's not really a viable solution. He's nowhere near important to the show enough to go to those lengths and that expense, especially when the result is going to almost certainly be weird and off-putting.
     
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  8. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Why didn't Brian George come back?
     
  9. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Prior commitments IIRC. It happens.
     
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  10. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    He is the quintessential husband and dad so is in great demand.
     
  11. KennyB

    KennyB I have spoken............ Moderator

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    He's a VERY busy guy. About 30 credits just in the past 3 years. He had to know that the role on The Expanse only had a few episodes of life left in it, whereas his new projects weren't going to kill him off.
     
  12. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    I doubt the prospect of his character being killed off or only being in it for a few episodes would have put him off. He's a working character actor after all, bit parts are his bread and butter. What matters is that he makes a good impression with the casting directors so they might ask him back again for the next show. I think this time around it just so happened he was already booked when The Expanse were shooting and they weren't able to rearrange their schedules so they opted for recast.
     
  13. KennyB

    KennyB I have spoken............ Moderator

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    As stated he's in demand for both VOICE and FILM. I think the problem was the Expanse filming in Toronto and the majority of his other work being in LA. I'm sure he was professional about it. If you are going to have a problem, having TOO much work is a good one to have.
     
  14. TimeIsAPredator

    TimeIsAPredator Commodore Commodore

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    We will also probably never see Anderson Dawes again now that Jared Harris has gotten crazy famous
     
  15. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Its a shame, since he put in such a good performance, but Dawes was a relatively minor element of the next book anyway.

    I do wonder if we'll see Prax again, since he has bit part in the next book.
     
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  16. KennyB

    KennyB I have spoken............ Moderator

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    Dawes is in a lot of the scenes in Babylon's Ashes....especially the situation Filip gets himself into. Harris was already a sought after actor when he appeared in previous seasons, I was actually shocked to see him in the first two seasons.
     
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  17. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Harris recently had a dinner with Stephen Strait and has been tweeting regarding Season 5. Not to mention that this season he was consciously name-dropped by Chrisjen. I think there's a chance, though they may have to have him appear only on vidscreen or something to get a cameo in, and cut his plotline short.
     
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  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    The Expanse is a bigger show now than it was when it debuted (I was always shocked that they managed to pull an actor like Harris back then) so I don't think it's unfeasible at all for Harris to return as Dawes next season.
     
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  19. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    I think it's possible they could be getting Harris back for the final season. For one thing, they killed off Fred a book early so there's at least a little of Fred's story that can be given to Anderson. I mean with Fred gone, who else could Avasarala deal with when it comes to non-Free Navy OPA?
    It'll probably come down to budget and availability, but nothing new there.
     
  20. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    I expect Jared Harris is pretty much done with his role as Hari Seldon in the first season of Foundation apart from occasional time vault appearances.