The Expanse Season 4

[FireNexus]

Back from the dead starting some time in the next 12 hours, baby! Jeff Bezos may be a modern day robber baron psychopath bent on gobbling up every last bit of global economic activity like a parasitic fungus before sending his spores out to colonize the solar system, but at least he has the same favorite TV show as me!

Seriously, the reviews are strong and the trailers look bananas. I’m ready!

[Nari]

Same here. After watching the first 3 season I got the audiobooks; they’re also pretty good and certainly filled in some gaps for me in terms of what was going on at some points.

[Vendetta]

Binged the series throughout the day, and I can comfortably say that the adaptation has been getting better every season. I was worried that Cibola Burn was a bit too tight and focused on Ilus, because in the book there isn't a perspective off of it, but expanding the story to show what other characters were up to* allowed them to
Spoiler

set up Nemesis Games so that it's a matter of tension for the next season not a matter of shock when it all goes off.

Whilst also expanding that perspective to show that the politics and conflicts of the solar system are still going strong.

They've also used it as an opportunity for a redo for some plot elements. I like the TV version of Ashford and Drummer's arc a lot more than the book, where Ashford is just a bit of a generic asshole (Abbadon's Gate is, I think the least memorable of the books and the third TV season improved it quite a lot). In the TV series he's been one of my favourite supporting characters.





* Also makes it easier to retain actors if you keep giving them work.

[FireNexus]

I finished the season and it’s damn near perfect. The fan community is having mixed reactions to it, but I think the shifting of the tension for the forward-looking elements was really smart.

[Batman]

Just finished watching it, and other than ending on a cliffhanger I liked it. the 'weeks to get there' initially irritated me but once I ran the numbers (best as I could) for a 'how about we not force the crew to be drugged up and in acceleration couches all the time' approach it worked out.
The outside visuals of the Rocinante once landed not so much. Unless they have 'bigger on the inside' technology the ship that gangway was connected to cannot hold all the inside we saw before

[Adam Reynolds]

The outside visuals of the Rocinante once landed not so much. Unless they have 'bigger on the inside' technology the ship that gangway was connected to cannot hold all the inside we saw before

The Roci is approximately the same size as the Millennium Falcon, which I found surprising. The secret is the skyscraper design. Also that they cheat and don't use anything resembling real fuel tanks.

[FireNexus]

Yeah, the Roci’s engine can’t possibly work without huge reaction mass tanks unless it somehow manages to speed its reaction mass up to nearly the speed of light. There’s no way that a regular old fusion engine could sustain those levels of thrust indefinitely.

My headcanon is that the way that Solomon Epstein managed to unexpectedly skyrocket his engine’s efficiency is that he found a setup by sheer chance which broke baryon number symmetry, resulting in some small fraction of the fuel being converted to antimatter in the reaction. That would explain the way unreasonable efficiency and the fact that the reactors tend to go exploded in a way fusion reactors tend not to be physically able to.

It would also give a reason he stumbled into something so huge without realizing it. He broke the known laws of physics and didn’t expect to.

[Knife]

Was really good. Really liked Amos part in this season, though usually like his part. He is broken and knows it, but lumbers on anyway. I liked at the end the two competing head Millers. I really liked the Bobby subplot, though seemed like a set up for season 5. Was surprised by Ashford's and Drummer's parts, really learned to like Ashford. Like the actor, thought he did a good job in season 3 with Ashford, just thought the character was a bit of an ass, but he grew on me this season. I'd love to see Drummer as a Captain now, hunting down 'evil' Belter's. lol.

[Vendetta]

It's going to be really interesting to see what they do with Drummer in season 5/6 because part of her arc in the series was combined with Micio Pa from the books and they're on different sides of the coming conflict.

[chimericoncogene]

I never liked Cibola Burn that much (my favorites by far were books 2 and 5 - still waiting on book 8 ), but Season 4 was awesome - it actually redeemed Book 4 in my eyes. I was never really able to picture the action, or the tunnels, or the artifacts in Book 4, while the TV show did a pretty good job on that front. I can't wait for season 5, although I always thought that pure surprise was the way to go about doing the unveil.

I'm still exceedingly annoyed that the show doesn't seem to make clear that all spacecraft are skycrapers, not belly-landers. Other than Rocinante, they keep showing all the other spacecraft in horizontal on screen when they should be showing them in vertical. The signage and external insignia is correct, but the camera shots don't track it, and the skyscraper configuration is thus missed by a lot of casual viewers less well-versed in science. That darned Youtube channel spacedock keeps showing them in horizontal, for one! SPACESHIPS GO UP, NOT SIDEWAYS!

[chimericoncogene]

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/e ... avirus/amp

Nemesis Games might just come out early!
My second favorite book after Caliban's War!
KABOOM!

[WhiteLion]

I enjoyed the first series, in particular ships and weapons, the fights are extremely dynamic and engaging.
I also liked the social aspect, in some places it reminds me of a Bonelli comic book publisher: Nathan Never. Truly a well made and enjoyable series

[Silver Jedi]

I'm still exceedingly annoyed that the show doesn't seem to make clear that all spacecraft are skycrapers, not belly-landers. Other than Rocinante, they keep showing all the other spacecraft in horizontal on screen when they should be showing them in vertical.

Which is actually kind of ironic, because the Roci is a belly-lander, in the books. They specifically mention that everything is sideways when they're landed on Illus.

[chimericoncogene]

Which is actually kind of ironic, because the Roci is a belly-lander, in the books. They specifically mention that everything is sideways when they're landed on Illus.

Yeah. But I guess someone wanted not to confuse the audience, and decided that turning the sets around would be too much of a hassle. I'm actually fine with both depictions (landing vertically gives the Roci the whole Robert Heinlein 50s treatment, while belly landing improves surface access but brings in design and ergonomic problems).

But they really need to get the point across for the larger ships with better cuts - from where I stand (skimming a bit of FF.net and whatnot), I think large chunks of the casual viewership is still completely unaware that they're looking at the ships the wrong way around - and that's the group we want to indoctrinate into the church of Hard Sci-Fi educate about physics.

[Knife]

I honestly don't know what you guys are talking about? Is it the camera angle in the ship-porn shots? I feel like they went through great pains to show the audience the direction of artificial gravity and internal layout configuration. Anymore would be just tech wank in the show.

When underway, they walk around normally, when not in active flight (acceleration) they used the mag boot thingies. When maneuvering, they are in chairs for 'Hard Gee Maneuvers'. They go out of their way to show deceleration burns when they arrive at and/or are close to arriving at locations. What dialogue or imagery is not showing these things you want?

[bilateralrope]

Better question: What would you add to explain it to people who haven't figured it out ?

[Knife]

Indeed. I never read the books, and love the series. I got it almost immediately, if not by the attack on the Cantaberry.

[bilateralrope]

I got it pretty quickly. However I do remember that that the scene of the ring threshold passing through the ship at the end of season three got me thinking "huh? Oh wait, that's right" because it slipped my mind when I wasn't thinking about it.

The point of my question is that, if someone didn't get it, I'm not sure how to inform them in a way that doesn't come off as, at best, annoying.

[Silver Jedi]

TBH I never liked the Roci interior set because I feel like it gives the wrong impression of the layout of the ship. the "main" deck with the pilot's station above part of it is laid out and shot in a way that feels morel like a horizontal ship like the Millennium Falcon or Serenity.

[Batman]

Silver Jedi is not wrong. The 'exterior' shots are consistently consistent (yes, I know, bad english) with drive gravity ships, but the 'interior' shots often indicate longitudinal deck arrangements because while the 'ships' where largely cylindrical as befits a rocketship setup, the 'decks' where often larger than should be possible with a perpendicular to the longitudinal axis layout. At least that's how I remember it.

[chimericoncogene]

Season 1 occasionally has the rocketships shown flying up or floating up, from the bottom of the screen to the top. However, from S2 onward, for the sake of fitting starships onto horizontal TV screens, they have the spacecraft float or fly from screeb left to right.

The decks show it pretty well, from what I can tell, it's the exterior shots that mislead. The models have the names and stuff right side up; it's a shot planning thing.

It's a bit nitpicky and I know TV storyboarders have constraints, it would just have been nice to hammer home to viewers that rockets fly up not sideways. They do it right 30pc of the time or so, and try to keep viewers immersed in space by reorienting the ships, but it's not consistent enough, IMO, to convince casual viewers.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/exp ... 0611151334

30 deg from horizontal. This sort of thing. I'd have preferrred a vertical orientation or 60 deg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hYv_UlPzou4/maxresdefault.jpg

Many youtubers keep using the wrong orientation.

[bilateralrope]

Fitting the ships onto horizontal screens seems a good reason for a TV show to put the ships in that orientation. Do you know of anyone who was actually confused by it ?

[Knife]

Yeah, that's what I though, camera angle. Yeah, I just don't get this particular complaint.

[chimericoncogene]

Fitting the ships onto horizontal screens seems a good reason for a TV show to put the ships in that orientation. Do you know of anyone who was actually confused by it ?

Yeah, it's not an unreasonable thing to do, I understand the logic behind it, and I never felt it was unreasonable. I just found it irritating. I'm sorry if I came across too strong, but I just recoil every time I see pictures laid out like that. Gut reaction-ish. I'm probably too earthbound and prefer to see everything with a consistent direction of "up" instead of floating around.

It's hardly a showstopper, and I don't know anyone specifically who missed the detail (a lot of deviantart seems to get it, they mostly have the letters the right way up, so does spacedock; their diagrams are mostly right way up but their video title cards are not), but the fact that spacedock keeps using the horizontal orientation for the turntable view in their videos was a little irritating for me. It's like putting a nuclear submarine on the vertical for ease of display on an iphone, or a skyscraper on the horizontal. Yes, in space, all orientations are valid on the float, but if you want to get the point across to the audience, some visual direction may be better. The decals are mostly up to the task, but I'd have made them more prominent.

[chimericoncogene]

Yeah, that's what I though, camera angle. Yeah, I just don't get this particular complaint.

It's a bit nickpicky and based on my visceral gut reaction, yeah (sorry), and perhaps I came off too strong. I love the TV show and I think they mostly did a bang-up job, especially S4 (which was pretty good even though book 4 is not my favorite).

But kids (especially young children 3-10) mostly follow the camera angle to understand how things move and are laid out. I'm of the opinion that kids and very casual viewers would be served well by having the ships go up the screen more often when depicted under thrust, similarly to how liftoff rockets are mostly shown on TV.

A lot of people, especially children and non-English first-language speakers overseas, just catch snippets of TV and action without really listening to the dialog or thinking things through - my parents, both highly educated professionals who have to write reports in english, both told me they had no idea what Star Wars was actually about even after watching it with me thirty times when I was a kid - until I got old to blabber on about canon. Heck, I had only a barebones idea of what Star Wars was about when I was six or seven, and I always skipped between the space war scenes. Idiotproofing scientific concepts is kinda what we should be going for, and that means conveying them visually and viscerally.