The Expanse is a new show on SyFy based on the series of space opera books written by James S.A. Corey. They have rapidly become
some of my favorite books, and happily, since 2011, the authors have released a new volume in the series
annually, with the sixth book
Babylon's Ashes set to come out in June 2016.
So I have been very excited about
the news of the adaptation of the books for television, which I have been following relatively closely. The first episode in the show is titled "Dulcinea" and has been available online at SyFy.com and other outlets since November 23rd. The official broadcast premiere of the show was Monday December 14.
Here is my review of the first four episodes of
The Expanse, with episode 5 "Back to the Butcher" scheduled to air at 10pm PST on SyFy tonight.
S1E01: Dulcinea.
The primary take-away I have from the very first episode of The Expanse was wow! But
the wow was the exclamation of glee at my first look at Steven Strait's taut muscled
body playing the lead character James Holden. The setting of the story is
tripartite: On Earth we see Chrisjen Avasarala (well-played by Shohreh Agdashloo) torturing a
very tall skinny guy who we are told is a Belter; On the Canterbury we see Holden having an improper sexual
relationship with the ship's navigator and unsuccessfully avoid being named the
new Executive Officer of the old space trawler; On Ceres we see Detective Joe
Miller (played laconically by Thomas
Jane) pick up the case of a missing heiress named Julie Mao. Overall, the
episode looks amazing and ends with a bang (literally) as the Canterbury is blown to
bits by nuclear missiles launched by a mysterious spaceship while Holden and
the rest of our main cast members Naomi Nagata (Domonique Tipper), Amos
Burton (Wes Chatham), Shed Harvey (Paolo Costanzo) and Alex Kamal
(Cas Anvar) watch mouths agape from the interior of a small shuttle.
GRADE: 8/10.
S1E02: The Big Empty.
The episode starts seconds after the last one ended, with the crew
reacting to the news that dozens of their friends, lovers and colleagues have
just been obliterated by the Canterbury’s
destruction. Holden immediately wants Alex to follow the mystery ship that
fired the missile but he is thwarted by Naomi turning the engines off (and is
seemingly undaunted by the very large gun Amos points at his head). The
surviving crew of the Cant has bigger
problems though because they are pummeled by the massive amount of debris and
space rubble their former ship has been converted into. Back on Ceres, Miller is learning that his
missing heiress was a lot more complex than just a spoiled little rich kid with
daddy issues. This is a very taut episode where we learn much more about the
main characters as they go to extraordinary measures to get themselves rescued
before they run out of air. Holden is a hothead but is also very brave. Naomi
is extremely resourceful, scary smart and an engineering wizard. Amos does
anything Naomi says but is also brave. Shed and Alex are both goofy, but Shed
saves Alex’s life by sharing his air with him. This episode ends with the crew
being “rescued” by the one ship they would have least liked to see: the Donnager, the massive and mighty
flagship of the Mars Congressional Republic Nacy (MCRN). However, before they
are boarded Holden creates some insurance by recording and broadcasting a
message with his suspicions that a Mars ship was responsible for luring him and
his crew to the Scopuli and probably
destroyed the Canterbury.
GRADE: 8/10.
S1E03: Remember The Cant.
The episode opens with multiple shots of screens depicting
Holden’s face with the audio coming from his recorded message that was
broadcast essentially accusing Mars of destroying the Canterbury. The surviving crewmembers are put into holding cells on
board the Donnager by some very
militaristic looking MCRN Marines. Everyone, that is, except Alex, who we find
out spent twenty years in the Martian Navy and is therefore treated differently
than his fellow crewmembers. This episode is where we learn even more about the
crewmembers and discover how much they don’t know about each other. Curiously
we are only shown Naomi’s and Holden’s interrogations and we see that the
Martians (especially the Donnager’s
Captain Yao) believe that Naomi is an OPA terrorist and are wondering why (and
how) the rest of the crew are going along with her plans when none of the rest
of them (Shed, Amos, and Holden) are Belters. We also learn that Holden was
given a dishonorable discharge from the Earth military for attempting to strike
a superior officer for asking him to fire on a ship smuggling Belters. Back on
Ceres we follow Miller’s partner Dmitri Havelock (Jay Hernandez) as he links up with a hooker, not for sex, but to
learn Belter hand signals. By the end of the episode it becomes clear to Holden’s
crew on the Donnager and Avarasala on
Earth that Mars actually did not kill the Cant
and it might have something to do with those mysteriously nonresponsive
ships that are approaching Mars’ largest warship without hesitation. However,
the Belters on Ceres are starting to riot as conditions are getting worse since
the ice the Canterbury was hauling
would have provided much needed water for the station and the chant “Remember
the Cant” becomes a rallying cry for
enraged (and violent Belters), one of whom shoots what looks like a meter long
stake through the unfortunate Havelock at the very end of the episode. Yipes!
GRADE: 9/10.
S1E04: CQB.
This episode
features one of the most graphic scenes in the elimination of (what we thought)
was a major character ever seen on television. I don’t want to spoil what
happens, but suffice it to say, Shed picked the short straw. And what is so
amazing is that this scene happens very early into the episode and just leads
to another near-death experience for
our Canterbury crew. Naomi, Amos and
Alex are left in an enclosed space with limited air while the mysterious ships
from the previous episode engage in a close quarter battle (hence the eponymous
episode title) with the Donnager.
“What kind of ship would take on a CQB with the Donnager?” asks Alex, unbelievingly. We don’t actually find out
because we never see the ships that attack the huge Martian warship but we do
know they get boarded by soldiers wearing quite advanced tech. Holden was in
the command center (on Star Trek it
would have been called the bridge) of the ship with Captain Yao when she
realizes he (and his crew) are the reason her ship is being attacked and sends
him away with Lopez (Greg Byrk) the
guy who was previously interrogating Holden and Naomi. Before that happens we
are introduced to Fred Johnson (Chad
Coleman) on a huge generation ship being commissioned by the Mormon Church
called the Nauvoo. The Mormons are
nervous about Johnson’s OPA ties but he threatens them with the collapse of the
entire project and they give in to him. Back at the Donnager the MCRN Donnager is
getting its butt kicked and Holden (with Lopez in tow) barely manages to find
Amos, Alex and Naomi in time before they run out of air. They all fight their
way through a hail of bullets to what looks like a speedy ship in the docking
bay of the huge Martian ship and literally blast their way out of the ship and
get away only seconds before the entire ship self-destructs (“The Captain has
initiated Condition Zero” Lopez tells Holden tersely). Meanwhile back at Ceres,
Miller has tracked down Julie Mao’s last hookup but the guy whom he thought it
was is in the morgue but he is carrying a lot of tech which spoofs the
identifying software. The episode ends with Havelock (the guy who was impaled
by a spike in the previous episode!) waking up groggily as someone tries to
rifle through his pockets. Whaaaaat?
GRADE 10/10.
