The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date
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@klaus said in The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date:
@george-k said in The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date:
The third act
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Books 7, 8, and 9.
The way I see it, the first act was the discovery of the protomolecule, Mao's treachery, and the establishment of the ring gates - season1.
Second act is what happens after the ring gates open, beginning with the story on Ilus, the bombardment of Earth by Inaros, and finally the fight to defeat him. Also, the increasing irrelevance of Mars and the Belt.
Third act is what I outlined above.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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But, yeah, I was kind of disappointed as well. I found the assault on Medina unnecessarily confusing, and with the Belter dialog even more than usual.
Loose ends:
Well, as I said, Laconia is the MAJOR player in the final three books, and Holden ends up being captured and held prisoner there. Cara and Xan are part of Duarte's experiments with the protomolecule and they also play a major role in the story.
I was surprised to see Holden get leadership of the trade union, and then, his stepping aside puts Drummer there - as in the books.
Again there's so much foreshadowing of the rest of the story, the shipyard in orbit around Laconia uses protomolecule tech and it's integral in Laconian ship design.
I also got the feeling that it was really rushed. Shame they were only given 6 episodes.
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@george-k said in The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date:
Off the top of my head, I can't remember all the references in the assault team, but here are the ones that popped out at me:
A lot of well known names
A Beatle, a Monkee, Astronauts, Federal Judge (imposed bussing in Boston), House Speaker, Kunta, Strangelove General, Terminator hero, Mary Poppins family, Fox News host, JFK director
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I absolutely loved this show, but the final episode was pretty lackluster. Hopefully they’ll make some more.
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@doctor-phibes said in The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date:
the final episode was pretty lackluster. Hopefully they’ll make some more.
https://ew.com/tv/the-expanse-series-finale-burning-questions-showrunner-interview-naren-shankar/
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@doctor-phibes said in The geekiest "Expanse" thread to date:
the final episode was pretty lackluster. Hopefully they’ll make some more.
https://ew.com/tv/the-expanse-series-finale-burning-questions-showrunner-interview-naren-shankar/
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https://ew.com/tv/the-expanse-series-finale-burning-questions-showrunner-interview-naren-shankar/
While the sixth — and, for now, final — season of The Expanse mostly mirrored the action of the sixth book, Babylon's Ashes, it also dropped clues and references as to some big players (like Admiral Winston Durate, and precocious siblings Xan and Cara) that inhabit books seven through nine, which take place after a 30-year time jump.
Does that mean there could be more life for the show, which was already saved once by Amazon Prime Video after SyFy bowed out after season 3? EW spoke to showrunner Naren Shankar to get some answers to our burning questions about the series finale and possible future of The Expanse.
The ending that we had in the last scene of episode 6, that's a natural place to bring the narrative to a close. And if you watch the end credits really closely, we even put a little something in there. If you notice, the Ring entities are sort of coming to life at the very end.
The story of Kara and Xan becomes super important in the later books. What made you want to incorporate their back story via the Strange Dogs novella here?
Again, it gave us a window into Laconia and an eye on the protomolecule while simultaneously helping us answer some of the outstanding questions at the end of season 5. And it does have that added advantage that it does hint towards the future because the last image of that episode, in essence, is the two kids running off into the woods, both of them destined to be changed by the protomolecule, although we don't know that at the end of the episode.
And then there is Duarte looking up at the orbital platforms, which are coming to life to build the battleships that he's going to need. It's spooky and weird and creepy, and it shows that the protomolecule is still out there doing things. And that gives you as an audience member, the sense that, well, maybe there's more out there, that there's three more books.
I love the POV shot of Xan's once he's been changed and the repair drones have sort of brought him back, and you see that weird, purple vision of his.
It's Miller's vision. We need to establish that visual language in the show when you see Miller, how the protomolecule projection of Miller views Holden. So, suddenly the audience knows that. I mean, there are all these little bits and pieces in there. If you look at the shape of the Strange Dog really closely, the forehead is sort of the same shape as the repair drone that Miller projected his consciousness in. And so, what the implication is, is that's a native life form on Laconia that was sort of co-opted and hijacked by those repair drones and then turned into some combination of the two.
Speaking of people that become super important in the later books, you mentioned Duarte looking up at those orbital platforms. Tell me about how prominent you wanted him be in this story. Again, it looks like you're laying some stepping stones out there.
Well, yeah. I mean, we are. It's pretty clear. And it's tricky. There's a lot of juggling that goes into these things, and this is kind of a fine line to walk because you don't want to feel like the whole thing is a setup. You don't want to feel like we're just leaving stuff out there and have no intention of resolving it, but it also gave you a little bit of insight into the why of what is Laconia.
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Alpha Squad:
B. Draper — Bobbie Draper, our Martian marine who really needs no introduction. She’s one of the main characters of The Expanse and leads Alpha Squad of the ground force.
G. Ackbar — Admiral Gial Ackbar, from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It’s a trap!
D. Quaid — Douglas Quaid from Total Recall. The 1990 film cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role and was set on Mars.
D. Bowman — David Bowman, the main character of the classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey
C. Shepherd — Commander Shepherd, the hero of the original Mass Effect video game trilogy.
A. Burton — Amos Burton. Again, this is an actual character in The Expanse.
D. Idaho — Duncan Idaho, the swordmaster from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. (Played by Jason Momoa in Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 film adaptation.)
A. Rogan — Alex Rogan from the 1984 film The Last Starfighter.
J. Nesmith — Jason Nesmith, the actor/starship commander in the film Galaxy Quest. (Played by Tim Allen in the movie).
E. Buck — Edward Buck, the gunnery sergeant played by Nathan Fillion in the Halo video games.Bravo Squad:
E. Ripley — Ellen Ripley, Sigourney Weaver’s iconic character from the Alien franchise.
D. Hicks — Another Aliens character, Corporal Dwayne Hicks (played by Michael Biehn in the second movie).
J. Cooper — Joseph Cooper from Interstellar.
J. Anderton — John Anderton from Minority Report.
J. Vasquez — Jenette Vasquez, another member of the commando squad from Aliens.
W. Hudson — William Hudson, also from Aliens. We did mention those movies were a big influence, right?
R. Deckard — Rick Deckard, the detective played by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner.
J. O’Neil — Colonel Jack O’Neil from Stargate. Den of Geek notes that this spelling of O’Neil is specific to the original 1994 Stargate film; the SG-1 television show spelled it with two L’s.Charlie Squad:
L. Starr — Lucky Starr from Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr book series.
L. Banks — Louise Banks from Arrival.
K. Flynn — Kevin Flynn from Tron.
R. Neary — Roy Neary from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
J. Rico — Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers.
K. Thrace — Kara Thrace aka Starbuck from the 2000s-era Battlestar Galactica remake.
S. Connor — Sarah Connor, one of the protagonists of the Terminator franchise.
R. Stone — Ryan Stone, Sandra Bullock’s character in the 2013 film Gravity.
W. Riker — William Riker, the first officer on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. -
