The Expanse digital premiere is available NOW!

[tenmei]

I've just finished Leviathan Wakes recently and they do, admittedly, refer to Amos as having been in space and interacting with Belters for at least twenty years - which would put him early forties.

Wes Chatham is 37, so if we're saying Strait is about right for Holden, than Chatham isn't far off from Amos.

 

[Skywalker]

Ah, fair enough. I hadn't actually looked up Wes Chatham's age. He's a young-looking 37, then. Good for him.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm not sure I'd go that far. It is, however, another Firefly derivative, like so many other SyFy shows these days. In fact, I thought that about the novels too.

The similarities to Firefly are on the surface and mostly limited to Holden's crew. A large chunk of the novels involve characters who aren't in that crew: Miller, Bobbie, Avasarala and several others. IIRC Miller and Holden don't even cross paths for most of the first book.

 

[The Wormhole]

The similarities to Firefly are on the surface and mostly limited to Holden's crew.

There are also some similarities in the setting. EG, both are set in a heavily colonised solar system, though I'll concede The Expanse is more realistic about it. Then there's the Martian Navy warships, which the books actually describe as "flying office buildings."

IIRC Miller and Holden don't even cross paths for most of the first book.

I thought it was right around the half way point when they first meet.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm not sure I'd go that far. It is, however, another Firefly derivative, like so many other SyFy shows these days. In fact, I thought that about the novels too.

The similarities to Firefly are on the surface and mostly limited to Holden's crew. A large chunk of the novels involve characters who aren't in that crew: Miller, Bobbie, Avasarala and several others. IIRC Miller and Holden don't even cross paths for most of the first book.

Spoiler: leviathan wakes

Plus Serenity being a unarmed freightish ship while Rocinante is a torpedo frigate modified to pass as a freighter.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The similarities to Firefly are on the surface and mostly limited to Holden's crew.

There are also some similarities in the setting. EG, both are set in a heavily colonised solar system, though I'll concede The Expanse is more realistic about it. Then there's the Martian Navy warships, which the books actually describe as "flying office buildings."

A lot more. The colonies are mostly chunks of rocks in the Belt, rather than Earth like planets. Even the ones that aren't need all sorts of technology to remain habitable.

Don't recall that passage in the books.

IIRC Miller and Holden don't even cross paths for most of the first book.

I thought it was right around the half way point when they first meet.

Might be. It's been years since I read the first book. Still, the point remains, Holden's ship(s) are just one setting and many POV characters aren't crew members or even on board.

 

[Makarov]

I thought this first episode was awesome. I read the first two books along with one of the short stories, and hope to get back around to reading more of them. So I was worried they were going to screw it up, but so far I really really like it.

Thomas Jane is the perfect Miller, Holden is very close to how I imagined him, as is the actress playing Avasarala. Really strong start imo, way better than BSG's beginning.

 

[JoeZhang]

Large elements of firefly are so generic I'm not sure why it would the case that this copies that rather than both being part of a rather wider pool of similar stuff...

 

[The Wormhole]

Large elements of firefly are so generic I'm not sure why it would the case that this copies that rather than both being part of a rather wider pool of similar stuff...

Well, yes I agree. Practically everything copies Firefly these days, and truth be told it didn't even invent half the stuff people associate with it. But there we are.

 

[tenmei]

Naomi and Alex's names are only spoken once, I think. Amos just has his name on his uniform's nametag.

Just rewatched the premiere - and Amos IS referred to by name when he and Holden board the Scopuli.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Really glad to see positive reception to the premiere. I'd been telling folks this show was coming for a long while, hoping for the best, and I'm happy that faith in the development team didn't prove misplaced. Hopefully word continues to spread and the show can pull in a decent audience despite the tiny marketshare its network now commands.

 

[AvBaur]

I watched the first episode yesterday and, not having read the books, thought it was really dense and hard to follow. So far, I didn't connect to any of the characters and wasn't quite sure what was going on most of the time. BUT it did look seriously great (so much better than most of Syfy's other shows) and I like the world they're building, so I'm going to stick around for a couple more episodes.

 

[dub]

Was going to watch this on the Roku Syfy channel...except I guess there is no Syfy channel for Roku. Guess their strategy is different from cbs. I was going to try to pull it up on the Syfy website and beam it to the Roku, but the I just searched for "The Expanse" via Roku search (duh...why didn't I just do that straight away). I found out the preview is available through Amazon prime. The only odd thing is I had to "pay" $0 for it, then was emailed a confirmation of my "purchase." There's a head
scratcher.

As for the episode itself, I've not read the books. And what I've seen of it intrigues me enough to watch the next one. But I found some of the dialogue difficult to make out. Lots of low talking. I end up turning the volume up and down throughout...up during dialogue, down during loud sfx, and over and over. And some of the crazy effects shots at the beginning were a little overkill with the winding around and flythoughs. Too much of that and you lose the establishing intent and it just looks like cool effects for the sake of being cool rather than helping tell the story.

Overall, while I was often puzzled, I found the mystery and what little I did understand interesting enough to give it another go when episode two is released. And the acting was all rather decent which is refreshing.

 

[JD]

One thing I meant to ask when I watched the pilot is, what language was Miller speaking with the prostitute? In the book it was kind of a combination of English and at least one other language, but none of what they spoke in the show sounded like English.

 

[The one that is]

I was quite shocked how good it was; it might be the new B5.

 

[Nerys Myk]

One thing I meant to ask when I watched the pilot is, what language was Miller speaking with the prostitute? In the book it was kind of a combination of English and at least one other language, but none of what they spoke in the show sounded like English.

More than one.

 

[Mr Light]

Ignorant non-book reader here: It didn't really hook me. If I hadn't been hearing glowing praise about the novels for over a year I wouldn't bother past the first episode. But I'll keep going.

It just screamed generic gritty sci-fi to me. Also, the pilot episode was basically Total Recall on Cerus and Alien on the cargo ship. I read a little on wiki to find out what the series is about, because the pilot episode did not really establish a premise very well. All we know is rich girl missing and ship blew up.

The production values were gorgeous though. It all looked completely real. Movie level CGI and set design.

 

[IndyMac]

Spoiler: my thoughts

Anyhoo, not bad. For the most part a faithful adaptation. I get they're introducing Avasarala early, and as predicted she's no where near as profane as she is in the books. Making Holden the Canterbury's acting XO seems an odd change given it'll likely have no impact on the direction the story ultimately ends up.

My main problem at the moment is that it pretty much relies on having knowledge of the books to make sense of. If you have read the books, you'll absolutely jizz your pants over the show. If you haven't read the books, you'll probably feel a bit lost.

Spoiler: Your Thoughts

I'm not sure why you think it relies on knowledge of the books to make sense of - the extensive voice over at the beginning explains the basic set-up of the Belters antagonism, and the 'rolling script' gives the set-up of the universe. I think that it's pretty accesible to those who haven't read the book - no less than something like GoT, for example.

Re: Holden being Second Officer of the Cant and not the XO out of the gate. Am assuming this is down to Strait only being 29 which would make the experience he's supposed to have had prior to the series a little hard to swallow - it seemed a little far fetched in the novel to have had several years of military service, then a handful of tours on the Cant and being XO. I guess him only being 2O makes it a little more palatable.

Spoiler: I wonder if Spoiler Coding this is really necessary?

I think it has more to do with the fact the episode has a lot of info dump, if you're new to the universe and setting it might seem overwhelming. Maybe that's just me. I don't know. It'll be interesting to see when this show airs just how many who haven't read the books it attracts and how many stick with it.

As for Holden's life experience being "far fetched" the books never really made it clear how old he is supposed to be. Indeed, fantasy casting on other websites back before the show was announced always chose actors in their 30s or 40s to play him, so I guess others got the impression he was meant to be older too.

Actually, an issue I've had with the casting announcements is that a lot of the actors are younger than the characters seemed in the novels. Granted, the show is not required to be a slavish representation of the novels, changes are expected as is the norm for an adaptation. Still, this is something that gets to me all the same.

Spoiler: More Thoughts

- I always thought Holden was supposed to be early 30s. So Strait looks the right age to me.

- In the book, Holden is the XO on the Canterbury. I don't see the point in changing this since the Canterbury immediately gets destroyed. Seems like they just wasted time on those scenes that they could have used to further plots that actually mattered. That was like 15% of the episode they dedicated to the other XO losing it, Holden getting promoted and then Holden complaining about how he doesn't want to be XO. Holden is supposed to see himself as Don Quixote (hence the ship name) and is repeatedly described as "righteous", instead the show goes out of its way to portray him as unmotivated and apathetic.

- Again, what was the point of whitewashing Ade, a character the book literally describes as a black Nigerian. They couldn't find a black actress good enough for one episode before the character dies?

- Miller and Naomi are both tall Belters in the books, but I think they have been "normalized" to make the show easier to produce. It adds a lot of time and money if some of the main characters are CGI. They even explain in the episode that (in the show at least) there are different types of treatments Belter children could get to cope with low G and not all of them make you tall and thin.

- I don't understand the maintenance guy bribing Miller. In the book, it's made very clear that not respecting the life support systems is considered a legal justification for murder. It's supposed to be the one thing no one tolerates. The intro text even says "In the belt, water and air are more precious than gold". It's like a cop accepting a bribe from someone who rapes his wife. It just doesn't seem plausible.

 

[JD]

Thanks for the link Santa Kang.

Spoiler: Since you guys coded this, I guess I should too

I'm pretty sure the bit about the treatments for Belter children was in the book.
I was confused by Holden not being XO too. Like you said, it just seemed like an unnecessary change, that I really can't see impacting the overall story.
I didn't realize that was supposed to be the same character that Holden was sleeping with in the book.

 

[IndyMac]

Thanks for the link Santa Kang.

Spoiler: Since you guys coded this, I guess I should too

I'm pretty sure the bit about the treatments for Belter children was in the book.
I was confused by Holden not being XO too. Like you said, it just seemed like an unnecessary change, that I really can't see impacting the overall story.
I didn't realize that was supposed to be the same character that Holden was sleeping with in the book.

Spoiler: Better to be over-zealous with the spoiler tags

Yeah, it's mentioned in the book the Belters get treatment as children for the low G. My point was that the show added that there were different treatments you could get to explain why Miller doesn't look like a Belter. The real reason is of course that it makes the show easier to produce, which doesn't bother me as his height isn't relevant to the story.